[linux-audio-user] The dreaded .ape

[tim at orford.org (Tim Orford)]

On Wed, Oct 15, 2003 at 08:21:38PM -0400, S. Massy wrote:
> Anyone knows whether there is any way to decode .ape files in Linux? I believe
> there is an xmms plugin lying around somewhere: any other decoder one might
> use?

i was quite surprised to see that the command-line ape decoder seems to
run fine under wine. Mac.exe appears to be selfcontained. I had to
copy this from an MS machine as the Ape installer didnt work.

i'm using this relatively untested script.
Maybe others will find it useful....?


-----------------start:ape2flac.sh------------------

#!/bin/sh
#
# wrapper script for converting multiple ape files to flac.
#
# author: Tim Orford. date: 031015. license: GPL.
#
# notes:
# -any ape meta tags will be lost!
# -filenames with spaces are converted to use underscores instead.
# -you need to copy Mac.exe to the current directory.
#
# todo:
# -i dont know how you pass arguments to wine when they contain spaces.
# -dont know how wine handles paths. Copy Mac.exe to the current
# directory.

#config:
monkeypath="MAC.exe";

# -z == null
if [ -z "$1" ]; then
	echo "usage: ape2flac.sh <filename(s)>"
	exit;
fi;

echo "encoding "$#" files to flac...";

declare -i idx;
idx=1;

#echo "$idx: filename: $filename";

for filename in "$@";
do
	echo "";
	echo $'\033['"01;33m"$idx: $filename$'\033['"0m";

	#remove spaces in filenames:
	newname=${filename// /_};
	if [ $newname != $filename ]; then mv "$filename" $newname; fi;
	filename=$newname;

	#decode ape to wav:
	wine -- $monkeypath "$filename" tmp.wav -d

	#re-encode to flac:
	if flac --best --no-delete-input-file -V "tmp.wav"\
			 -o ${filename%.*}.flac > temp.log 2>&1; then
		echo "flac OK" > /dev/null;	#hack
	else
		echo "ERROR: flac failed. Pls see flac.log";
	fi

	# check the log file and look for "Verify OK":
	# -actually we could just check the last line.
	IFS="
"
	for line in `cat temp.log`;
	do
		#echo line=$line;
		if echo "$line"  | grep "Verify OK" >/dev/null; then
			echo "   Verified Ok";
		fi
	done
	cat temp.log >> flac.log;
	rm temp.log;

	idx=$idx+1;
	filename=${!idx};

	#remove temp 
	if [ -f "tmp.wav" ]; then rm tmp.wav; fi;

done;

echo "";
echo "ape sucks! flac rocks! :-)"

-----------------end:ape2flac.sh------------------

cheers
-- 
Tim Orford