ID3(1)

📦
version 1.1.2 · 2 versions
, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 ID3 — the ID3 tag editor, bestie edition 💖

okay so. this is id3, a manual page from the General Commands Manual section, and it's literally the moment your mp3s get their little name tags 🏷️✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

id3 — an ID3 tag editor 💅

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

id3 [-tTaAycg newdata] file...
id3 -l file...
id3 -d file...
id3 -L

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

The id3 tool is an ID3 v1.1 tag editor. no cap. 🫶

ID3 tags are traditionally put at the end of compressed streamed audio files to denote information about the audio contents. (yes bestie, the tag lives at the BACK of the file, it's giving "walking in late to the group chat" energy 😭)

Here's the tea on what you can store in there:

  • Up to thirty characters of Title, Artist, and Album information
  • a 28-character comment
  • a four-digit year
  • a track number up to 255
  • and an enumerated genre 👑

The id3 tool accepts the following command-line options:

✨ OPTIONS ✨

  • -t title — Sets the title tag to the first 30 characters of the title argument. ✂️
  • -T track — Sets the track tag to a number between 0 and 255. 🔢
  • -a artist — Sets the artist tag to the first 30 characters of the artist argument.
  • -A album — Sets the album tag to the first 30 characters of the album argument.
  • -y year — Sets the year tag to the first 4 characters of the year argument. 📅
  • -c comment — Sets the comment tag to the first 28 characters of the comment argument. 💬
  • -g genre — Sets the genre number tag using a genre number or a predefined genre label. 🎵
  • -l — List/view the ID3 tag. 👀
  • -L — List all genre tags. 📋
  • -R — Use rfc822-style output for tag printout.
  • --d — Delete the ID3 tag. 💀 (yes, that's really two dashes and one d, we don't make the rules)

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

Not taken into consideration. bestie it simply does not care about your env vars 🙈

⭐ EXIT STATUS ⭐

The id3 utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

💜 SEE ALSO 💜

🔥 STANDARDS 🔥

The ID3 version 1 (and 1.1) format has never really been standardized. 😭 The id3 tool follows what is pretty much a commonly-agreed-on file format. iykyk — it's vibes-based, but the vibes are consistent 💅

💀 BUGS 💀

The ID3 format has some shortcomings. listen closely bestie, this part matters:

  • There is a 1 in 16777216 chance of your mp3 having a certain bit-pattern, causing id3 to write over the last 128 bytes of your mp3 upon tag creation. 🫠
that is your audio, bestie. gone. back it up, fr fr.
  • If you add a track number to an ID3 v1.0 tag, the last two characters of the comment string will be truncated. ✂️
  • Any bugs found in the id3 tool should be forwarded to the author.

👑 AUTHOR 👑

The id3 tool was originally developed by Robert Woodcock ⟨rcw@debian.org⟩. Some patches were developed by Stefan Ott ⟨stefan@ott.net⟩. In 2016, development was taken over by Peter Pentchev ⟨roam@ringlet.net⟩. iconic lineage honestly 🎀

that's the whole page bestie, you ate it 💅✨ this one's from the Debian crew, dated August 14, 2016 — go forth and tag your mp3s responsibly 🦋🌸

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