OPERON(1)

🎵 OPERON(1) — operon, bestie 💖

okay so. hi. you're here because you want a command line music tagger and honestly? iconic choice. operon is the girl who fixes your messy tags while you're busy being a main character. let's get into it 💅

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

operon [--version] [--help] [-v | --verbose] <command> [<argument>...]
operon help <command>

that's the whole vibe. command first, arguments after, slay.

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

these ones go before your command, they're the global girlies ✨

• -h, --help — shows you the help and dips out. no notes 💖
• --version — prints the program version, so you know exactly which era you're in 👑
• -v, --verbose — verbose mode. she's talking. a lot. we love her for it 🗣️

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🌈 COMMAND-OVERVIEW 🌈

here's the whole roster, organized by mood 💫

💜 Edit Tags

• add — Add a tag value
• remove — Remove a tag value
• set — Set a tag and remove existing values
• clear — Remove tags
• copy — Copy tags from one file to another
• edit — Edit tags in a text editor
• fill — Fill tags based on the file path

🦋 Show file metadata

• list — List tags
• info — List file information
• print — Print tags based on the given pattern

🌸 Edit Embedded Images

• image-extract — Extract embedded images
• image-set — Set embedded image
• image-clear — Remove embedded images

⭐ Miscellaneous

• tags — List all common tags
• help — Display help information

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💅 EDIT TAGS 💅

🍓 add

adds a brand new tag <tag> with the value <value> to all the files you point at. every single one. she's thorough like that ✨

operon add [-h] <tag> <value> <file>...

• -h, --help — Display help and exit

Example:

operon add artist 'The Beatles' song1.ogg song2.ogg

look at her go 🫶

🍓 remove

removes all values from the tag <tag> that match either <value> or the regular expression <pattern>, from all files. yes, regex. she's that girl 😌

operon remove [-h] [--dry-run] <tag> (-e <pattern> | <value>) <file>...

• -h, --help — Display help and exit
• --dry-run — Print the results without changing any files
• -e,--regexp <regexp> — Remove all tag values that match the given regular expression

Example:

operon remove artist 'The Beatles' song.ogg

🍓 set

replaces all values of the tag <tag> with <value> in all files. out with the old, in with the new, periodt 💅

operon set [-h] [--dry-run] <tag> <value> <file>...

• -h, --help — Display help and exit
• --dry-run — Print the results without changing any files

Example:

operon set artist 'The Beatles' song.ogg

🍓 clear

removes all tags that match <tag> or the regular expression <pattern> from all files. and if you pass --all? every known tag gets removed. full reset energy 💀

operon clear [-h] [--dry-run] (-a | -e <pattern> | <tag>) <file>...

• -h, --help — Display help and exit
• --dry-run — Print the results without changing any files
• -a, --all — Remove all tags
• -e,--regexp <regexp> — Remove all tags that match the given regular expression

Example:

operon clear -a song.ogg

operon clear -e 'musicbrainz_.*' song.ogg

operon clear date song.ogg

three whole moods, pick your fighter 🌈

🍓 copy

copies all tags from the file <source> to <dest>. here's the tea though — all tags already in <dest> will be preserved (she's not a monster). and listen: in case the destination format doesn't support setting a tag from source, no tags will be copied. none. zero. the whole operation just doesn't happen 😭

if you want to ignore the tags that aren't supported by the destination format, pass --ignore-errors. that's the lowkey fix ✨

operon copy [-h] [--dry-run] [--ignore-errors] <source> <dest>

• -h, --help — Display help and exit
• --dry-run — Print the results without changing any files
• --ignore-errors — Skip tags which the target file does not support

Example:

operon copy song.flac song.ogg

🍓 edit

shows all your tags in a text editor and then applies whatever changes you made to the text back onto the tags. yes it's giving "editing a text file but it's secretly your music library" ✨

operon will use the editor specified in the VISUAL or EDITOR environment variables, and if those are not set she falls back to 'nano'. she has a default, she's prepared 💖

operon edit [-h] [--dry-run] <file>...

• -h, --help — Display help and exit
• --dry-run — Print the results without changing any files

Example:

VISUAL=vi operon edit song.flac

🍓 fill

fills tags based on file paths and a given pattern. detective mode 🔍

operon fill [-h] [--dry-run] <pattern> <file>...

• -h, --help — show this help message and exit
• --dry-run — show changes, don't apply them

Example:

operon fill --dry-run "<tracknumber>. <title>" "01. Was Ist
Ist.flac"

(yeah the filename wraps like that in the original, no we're not fixing it, it's canon 💀)

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👑 SHOW FILE METADATA 👑

🧚 list

lists all tags, values, and a description of each tag, in a table. organized. aesthetic. obsessed 🎀

operon list [-h] [-a] [-t] [-c <c1>,<c2>...] <file>

• -h, --help — Display help and exit
• -a, --all — Also list programmatic tags
• -t, --terse — Output is terse and suitable for script processing
• -c, --columns <name>,... — Defines which columns should be printed and in which order

Example:

operon list -a song.flac

operon list -t -c tag,value song.ogg

🧚 info

lists non-tag metadata like length, size and format. the stats, the lore, the numbers 📊

operon info [-h] [-t] [-c <c1>,<c2>...] <file>

• -h, --help — Display help and exit
• -t, --terse — Output is terse and suitable for script processing
• -c, --columns <name>,... — Defines which columns should be printed and in which order

Example:

operon info a.ogg

🧚 print

prints information per file built from tag values. the pattern can be customized by passing a pattern string — and psst, see quodlibet(1) for the pattern format 👀

operon print [-h] [-p <pattern>] <file>...

• -h, --help — Display help and exit
• -p,--pattern <pattern> — Use a custom pattern

Example:

operon print -p "<album> - <artist>" a.ogg

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🖼️ EDIT EMBEDDED IMAGES 🖼️

💖 image-extract

extracts all embedded images to the current working directory, or to the destination directory you specify. album art liberation ✨

operon image-extract [-h] [--dry-run] [--primary] [-d <destination>]
<file>...

• -h, --help — Display help and exit
• --dry-run — Print the found images and resulting file paths but don't save them
• --primary — Only extract the primary images for each file
• -d,--destination <destination> — Save all images to the specified destination

Example:

operon image-extract asong.mp3 anotherone.ogg

💖 image-set

sets the provided image as the primary embedded image and removes all other embedded images. one cover to rule them all 👑

operon image-set <image-file> <file>...

• -h, --help — Display help and exit

Example:

operon image-set cover.jpg song.mp3

💖 image-clear

removes all embedded images from all the specified files. gone. dust. bye 👋

operon image-clear <file>...

• -h, --help — Display help and exit

Example:

operon image-clear song.mp3

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🌟 MISCELLANEOUS 🌟

🌸 tags

lists all common tags. the full menu, the whole alphabet, the tag bible 📖

operon tags [-h] [-a] [-t] [-c <c1>,<c2>...]

• -h, --help — Display help and exit
• -a, --all — Also list programmatic tags
• -t, --terse — Output is terse and suitable for script processing
• -c, --columns <name>,... — Defines which columns should be printed and in which order

Example:

operon tags -a

operon tags -t -c tag

🌸 help

the girl you call when you're lost. no shame in it, bestie 🫶

operon help [<command>]

Example:

operon help list

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🔗 SEE ALSO 🔗

• regex(7)
• exfalso(1)
• quodlibet(1)

go read them, they're family 💜

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⚠️ heads up: copy really does bail entirely if the destination format can't handle a tag from the source — unless you pass --ignore-errors. and always --dry-run first if you're nervous. she won't judge, she'll just print 💅

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okay that's the whole page!! this is operon, part of the quodlibet/exfalso universe 🌈💖 thanks for coming to my ted talk, go tag something pretty ✨ periodt 🎀🦋🌸