NAME
mkvpropedit - Modify properties of existing Matroska(TM) files without
a complete remux
SYNOPSIS
mkvpropedit [options] {source-filename} {actions}
DESCRIPTION
This program analyses an existing Matroska(TM) file and modifies some
of its properties. Then it writes those modifications to the existing
file. Among the properties that can be changed are the segment
information elements (e.g. the title) and the track headers (e.g. the
language code, 'default track' flag or the name).
Options:
-l, --list-property-names
Lists all known and editable property names, their type (string,
integer, boolean etc) and a short description. The program exits
afterwards. Therefore the source-filename parameter does not have
to be supplied.
-p, --parse-mode mode
Sets the parse mode. The parameter 'mode' can either be 'fast'
(which is also the default) or 'full'. The 'fast' mode does not
parse the whole file but uses the meta seek elements for locating
the required elements of a source file. In 99% of all cases this is
enough. But for files that do not contain meta seek elements or
which are damaged the user might have to set the 'full' parse mode.
A full scan of a file can take a couple of minutes while a fast
scan only takes seconds.
Actions:
-e, --edit selector
Sets the Matroska(TM) file section (segment information or a
certain track's headers) that all following add, set and delete
actions operate on. This option can be used multiple times in order
to make modifications to more than one element.
See the section about edit selectors for a full description of the
syntax.
-a, --add name=value
Adds a property name with the value value. The property will be
added even if such a property exists already. Note that most
properties are unique and cannot occur more than once.
-s, --set name=value
Sets all occurrences of the property name to the value value. If no
such property exists then it will be added.
-d, --delete name
Deletes all occurrences of the property name. Note that some
properties are required and cannot be deleted.
Other options:
--command-line-charset character-set
Sets the character set to convert strings given on the command line
from. It defaults to the character set given by system's current
locale.
--output-charset character-set
Sets the character set to which strings are converted that are to
be output. It defaults to the character set given by system's
current locale.
-r, --redirect-output file-name
Writes all messages to the file file-name instead of to the
console. While this can be done easily with output redirection
there are cases in which this option is needed: when the terminal
reinterprets the output before writing it to a file. The character
set set with --output-charset is honored.
--ui-language code
Forces the translations for the language code to be used (e.g.
'de_DE' for the German translations). It is preferable to use the
environment variables LANG, LC_MESSAGES and LC_ALL though. Entering
'list' as the code will cause mkvextract(1) to output a list of
available translations.
-v, --verbose
Be verbose and show all the important Matroska(TM) elements as
they're read.
-h, --help
Show usage information and exit.
-V, --version
Show version information and exit.
@options-file
Reads additional command line arguments from the file options-file.
Lines whose first non-whitespace character is a hash mark ('#') are
treated as comments and ignored. White spaces at the start and end
of a line will be stripped. Each line must contain exactly one
option. There is no meta character escaping.
The command line 'mkvpropedit source.mkv --edit track:a2 --set
name=Comments' could be converted into the following option file:
# Modify source.mkv
source.mkv
# Edit the second audio track
--edit
track:a2
# and set the title to 'Comments'
--set
title=Comments
EDIT SELECTORS
The --edit option sets the Matroska(TM) file section (segment
information or a certain track's headers) that all following add, set
and delete actions operate on. This stays valid until the next --edit
option is found. The argument to this option is called the edit
selector.
Segment information
The segment information can be selected with one of these three words:
'info', 'segment_info' or 'segmentinfo'. It contains properties like
the segment title or the segment UID.
Track headers
Track headers can be selected with a slightly more complex selector.
All variations start with 'track:'. The track header properties include
elements like the language code, 'default track' flag or the track's
name.
track:n
If the parameter n is a number then the nth track will be selected.
The track order is the same that mkvmerge(1)'s --identify option
outputs.
track:tn
If the parameter starts with a single character t followed by a n
then the nth track of a specific track type will be selected. The
track type parameter t must be one of these four characters: 'a'
for an audio track, 'b' for a button track, 's' for a subtitle
track and 'v' for a video track. The track order is the same that
mkvmerge(1)'s --identify option outputs.
track:=uid
If the parameter starts with a '=' followed by a number uid then
the track whose track UID element equals this uid. Track UIDs can
be obtained with mkvinfo(1).
track:@number
If the parameter starts with a '@' followed by a number number then
the track whose track number element equals this number. Track
number can be obtained with mkvinfo(1).
Notes
Due to the nature of the track edit selectors it is possible that
several selectors actually match the same track headers. In such cases
all actions for those edit selectors will be combined and executed in
the order in which they're given on the command line.
EXAMPLES
The following example edits a file called 'movie.mkv'. It sets the
segment title and modifies the language code of an audio and a subtitle
track. Note that this example can be shortened by leaving out the first
--edit option because editing the segment information element is the
default for all options found before the first --edit option anyway.
$ mkvpropedit movie.mkv --edit info --set "title=The movie" --edit track:a1 --set language=fre --edit track:a2 --set language=ita
The second example removes the 'default track flag' from the first
subtitle track and sets it for the second one. Note that
mkvpropedit(1), unlike mkvmerge(1), does not set the 'default track
flag' of other tracks to '0' if it is set to '1' for a different track
automatically.
$ mkvpropedit movie.mkv --edit tracks:s1 --set flag-default=0 --edit tracks:s2 --set flag-default=1
EXIT CODES
mkvpropedit(1) exits with one of three exit codes:
· 0 -- This exit codes means that the modification has completed
successfully.
· 1 -- In this case mkvpropedit(1) has output at least one warning,
but the modification did continue. A warning is prefixed with the
text 'Warning:'. Depending on the issues involved the resulting
files might be ok or not. The user is urged to check both the
warning and the resulting files.
· 2 -- This exit code is used after an error occurred.
mkvpropedit(1) aborts right after outputting the error message.
Error messages range from wrong command line arguments over
read/write errors to broken files.
SEE ALSO
mkvmerge(1), mkvinfo(1), mkvextract(1), mmg(1)
WWW
The latest version can always be found at the MKVToolNix homepage[1].
AUTHOR
Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
Developer
NOTES
1. the MKVToolNix homepage
http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/