Linux Filesystem; MP3 to OGG

[nemorathwald]

I'm copying my MP3 collection from my Windows computer to my Linux computer. I'd like to have it all in OGG Vorbis format. For a while I had a program on Windows that changed them from one to the other, but it was shareware and expired. I tried installing a free open source program on Linux to do this but it's one of those programs that doesn't appear in the Applications menu. So it's apparently intended for use from the command line.

Of course that would involve finding the executable in the filesystem first, I guess. In a command line interface you are walking through a subterranean network of perfectly dark tunnels. Instead of a flashlight or lantern, you are provided with an infinite supply of camera flashbulbs called the ls command. I prefer searching the filesystem through the graphical browser. I figure at least I can find the darn executable, then I can go into the shell and start up the program.

I have been informed that programs are found in the usr/bin directory, but all the executables there are named cryptically. As I go through clicking every one, nine tenths of them do nothing. Anyway, let me know any advice you might have, from any approach you desire.

Comments

[wolfger.livejournal.com]

Most executables will be found in /bin or /usr/bin. Some packages prefer to be in /opt...
Slocate is your friend. The command "slocate ogg" will show you a detailed listing of every full pathname that contains "ogg". This is bad if you have a hundred songs in a directory named ogg, but excellent if you don't, and you want to find all executables with ogg in the name. Word of warning, though: slocate relies on a database of filesystem info. If you want slocate to find something recent, you need to run "slocate -u" to create a full database. Alternately, you can run "slocate -U " to make a database of just a particular directory (like slocate -U /usr/bin).
I like to run slocate -u as a cron job that runs periodically while I'm sleeping, because it does take some time to complete if you have a lot of files.
If you tell me the name of the app you are trying to run, I can make some educated guesses as to what the executable might be.

[brendand.livejournal.com]

Try reinstalling the share-ware? :)

[natashasikorsky.livejournal.com]

Why do you want them in OGG format? Converting from mp3 to OGG will involve another compression, degrading the sound. You might want to rip new tracks from CD in OGG format, if you really like the format, but why would you want to change existing mp3s to oggs?

FWIW, if you think the program has "ogg" in its filename or path, the following incantation will find all files with "ogg" in the name or path without having to build a locate database...

find / -name "*ogg*" -print

But if it's a program than handles multiple file type conversions it probably doesn't have ogg in its name.

This may take a while to run, which is why you create a locate database if you will be doing this often.

Amy

[natashasikorsky.livejournal.com]

Here's another idea. If you think a man page containing the word "vorbis" was installed with this program, try this:

First, make sure you're running the korn shell...

/bin/ksh

Copy the following into the korn shell command line. If you're curious what this does I can explain.

for dir in `echo $MANPATH | tr : ' '` ; do grep -i vorbis $dir/*/* ; done

If nothing happens it probably didn't find the word "vorbis" in any man pages. If that's the case, to make sure the search worked, look for something much more likely to be there, like the word "description".

for dir in `echo $MANPATH | tr : ' '` ; do grep -i description $dir/*/* ; done

If that prints lots of results then the search probably worked. If not, then it probably didn't work.

Then exit the korn shell:

exit

Make sure the stuff in italics gets entered on a single command line. Ignore the post I deleted. It contained an error.

Oh, yeah, one last thing. It's dangerous to "copy the following into the korn shell command line" if you don't know what "the following" does. You can trust me, though. Really :-)

[temujin9.livejournal.com]

The commands you're looking for are apropos, which searches the descriptions of programs in the manual database for the word you give it, locate, which searches the file index for a file of the name you provide, and man, to figure out how to use the program once you've found it.

[wormquartet.livejournal.com]

Your fear of the command line startles and confuses me, particularly given your love of Linux. I guess I'm an oldschooler - I gots to have my ASCII interface.

-=ShoEboX=-

[overthesun.livejournal.com]

O.k., Matt. You and me are living at very similar levesl of understanding of Linux, so I think I can help in a couple of ways. First, go open up Synaptic, and find the package you installed. Right click on it, and choose properties. Select the Installed Files tab. That is the list of all the files that package created. Look for any Readme's for FAQ files. Read those. they should walk you through using that item from the command line. If not, look for anything installed in a Bin folder. Let me know if any of that helped. . . .

And that is a perfect example of the blind leading the blind, for anyone interested.

[natashasikorsky.livejournal.com]

If abcde doesn't do what you're looking for, you'll find a discussion of transcoding MP3 to OGG here (http://www.vorbis.com/faq/#transcode), including a link to some transcoders. Be aware of the dependencies for those scripts. In fact, abcde is itself just a script, and installing it may or may not have installed the actual executables it relies on (e.g. oggenc).

[(Anonymous)]

I have been informed that programs are found in the usr/bin directory, but all the executables there are named cryptically. As I go through clicking every one, nine tenths of them do nothing. Anyway, let me know any advice you might have, from any

No! You don't want to be doing this. Very bad!