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flvmeta(1)							      flvmeta(1)

NAME
     flvmeta - manipulate or extract metadata in Adobe Flash Video files

SYNOPSIS
     flvmeta INPUT_FILE
     flvmeta INPUT_FILE OUTPUT_FILE
     flvmeta -D|--dump [options] INPUT_FILE
     flvmeta -F|--full-dump [options] INPUT_FILE
     flvmeta -C|--check [options] INPUT_FILE
     flvmeta -U|--update [options] INPUT_FILE [OUTPUT_FILE]

DESCRIPTION
     flvmeta  is  a  command-line  utility aimed at manipulating Adobe(tm) Flash
     Video files (FLV), through several commands, only one of which can be  used
     for each invocation of the program.

     It  possesses  the ability to compute and inject a variety of values in the
     onMetaData event tag, including keyframe indices used by most video players
     to allow random-access seeking, notably for HTTP pseudo-streamed files  via
     a	server-side  module, by having the client send the file offset looked up
     for the nearest desired keyframe.
     Tools such as flvmeta must be used in the case the initial encoding process
     is unable to inject those metadata.

     It can also optionnally inject the onLastSecond event, used to  signal  the
     end  of  playback, for example to revert the player software to a `stopped'
     state.

     flvmeta also has the ability to dump metadata and full file information  to
     standard  output,	in  a  variety of textual output formats, including XML,
     YAML, and JSON.

     Finally, the program can analyze FLV files to detect potential problems and
     errors, and generate a textual report as a raw format, as JSON, or as  XML.
     It has the ability to detect more than a hundred problems, going from harm-
     less to potentially unplayable, using a few real world encountered issues.

     flvmeta  can  operate  on arbitrarily large files, and can handle FLV files
     using extended (32-bit) timestamps.  It can guess	video  frame  dimensions
     for all known video codecs supported by the official FLV specification.

     Its  memory  usage remains minimal, as it uses a two-pass reading algorithm
     which permits the computation of all necessary tags  without  loading  any-
     thing more than the file's tags headers in memory.

COMMANDS
     Only one command can be specified for an invocation of flvmeta.  The chosen
     command determines the mode of execution of the program.

     By  default, if no command is specified, flvmeta will implicitly choose the
     command to use according to the presence of INPUT_FILE and OUTPUT_FILE.

     If only INPUT_FILE is present, the --dump command will be executed.

     If both INPUT_FILE and OUTPUT_FILE are present, the --update  command  will
     be executed.

     Here is a list of the supported commands:

   -D, --dump
     Dump  a  textual  representation  of  the first onMetaData tag found in IN-
     PUT_FILE to standard output.  The default format is XML,  unless  specified
     otherwise.
     It  is  also possible to specify another event via the --event option, such
     as onLastSecond.

   -F, --full-dump
     Dump a textual representation of the whole contents of INPUT_FILE to  stan-
     dard output.  The default format is XML, unless specified otherwise.

   -C, --check
     Print  a  report to standard output listing warnings and errors detected in
     INPUT_FILE, as well as potential incompatibilities, and  information  about
     the codecs used in the file.  The exit code will be set to a non-zero value
     if there is at least one error in the file.

     The  output format can either be plain text, XML using the --xml option, or
     JSON using the --json option.  It can also be disabled altogether using the
     --quiet option if you are only interested in the exit status.

     Messages are divided into four specific levels of increasing importance:

     * info: informational messages that do not pertain to the file validity

     * warning: messages that inform of oddities to  the  flv  format  but  that
       might not hamper file reading or playability, this is the default level

     * error: messages that inform of errors that might render the file impossi-
       ble to play or stream correctly

     * fatal:  messages that inform of errors that make further file reading im-
       possible therefore ending parsing completely

     The --level option allows flvmeta to limit the display  of  messages  to  a
     minimum  level  among  those, for example if the user is only interested in
     error messages and above.

     Each message or message template presented to the user is identified  by  a
     specific code of the following format:

     [level][topic][id]

     * level  is an upper-case letter that can be either I, W, E, F according to
       the aforementioned message levels

     * topic is a two-digit integer representing the general topic of  the  mes-
       sage

     * id  is  a  unique three-digit identifier for the message, or message tem-
       plate if parameterized

     Messages can be related to the following topics :

     * 10 general flv file format

     * 11 file header

     * 12 previous tag size

     * 20 tag format

     * 30 tag types

     * 40 timestamps

     * 50 audio data

     * 51 audio codecs

     * 60 video data

     * 61 video codecs

     * 70 metadata

     * 80 AMF data

     * 81 keyframes

     * 82 cue points

     For example, represents a Warning in topic 51 with the id 050, which repre-
     sents a warning message related to audio codecs, in  that	case  to  signal
     that an audio tag has an unknown codec.

   -U, --update
     Update  the  given  input	file by inserting a computed onMetaData tag.  If
     OUTPUT_FILE is specified, it will be created or overwritten instead and the
     input file will not be modified.  If the original file is to be updated,  a
     temporary	file  will be created in the default temp directory of the plat-
     form, and it will be copied over the original file at the end of the opera-
     tion.  This is due to the fact that the output file is  written  while  the
     original file is being read due to the two-pass method.

     The  computed metadata contains among other data full keyframe information,
     in order to allow HTTP pseudo-streaming and random-access	seeking  in  the
     file.

     By default, an onLastSecond tag will be inserted, unless the --no-last-sec-
     ond option is specified.

     Normally  overwritten by the update process, the existing metadata found in
     the input file can be preserved by the --preserve option.

     It is also possible to insert custom string values with the  --add  option,
     which can be specified multiple times.

     By  default,  the	update operation is performed without output, unless the
     --verbose option is specified, or the --print-metadata is used to print the
     newly written metadata to the standard output.

OPTIONS
   DUMP
     -d FORMAT, --dump-format=FORMAT
	    specify dump format where FORMAT is `xml' (default), `json',  `raw',
	    or `yaml'.	Also applicable for the --full-dump command.

     -j, --json
	    equivalent to --dump-format=json

     -r, --raw
	    equivalent to --dump-format=raw

     -x, --xml
	    equivalent to --dump-format=xml

     -y, --yaml
	    equivalent to --dump-format=yaml

     -e EVENT, --event=EVENT
	    specify the event to dump instead of onMetaData, for example onLast-
	    Second

   CHECK
     -l LEVEL, --level=LEVEL
	    print  only messages where level is at least LEVEL.  The levels are,
	    by ascending importance, `info', `warning'	(default),  `error',  or
	    `fatal'.

     -q, --quiet
	    do not print messages, only return the status code

     -x, --xml
	    generate  an  XML  report instead of the default `compiler-friendly'
	    text

     -j, --json
	    generate a JSON report instead of  the  default  `compiler-friendly'
	    text

   UPDATE
     -m, --print-metadata
	    print  metadata to stdout after update using the format specified by
	    the --format option

     -a NAME=VALUE, --add=NAME=VALUE
	    add a metadata string value to the output file.  The name/value pair
	    will be appended at the end of the onMetaData tag.

     -s, --no-lastsecond
	    do not create the onLastSecond tag

     -p, --preserve
	    preserve input file existing onMetadata tags

     -f, --fix
	    fix invalid tags from the input file

     -i, --ignore
	    ignore invalid tags from the input file (the default behaviour is to
	    stop the update process with an error)

     -t, --reset-timestamps
	    reset timestamps so OUTPUT_FILE starts at zero.  This has been added
	    because some FLV files are produced by cutting bigger files, and the
	    software doing the cutting does not resets	the  timestamps  as  re-
	    quired by the standard, which can cause playback issues.

     -k, -all-keyframes
	    index all keyframe tags, including duplicate timestamps

   GENERAL
     -v, --verbose
	    display informative messages

     -V, --version
	    print version information and exit

     -h, --help
	    display help on the program usage and exit

FORMATS
     The various XML formats used by flvmeta are precisely described by the fol-
     lowing XSD schemas:

     * http://schemas.flvmeta.org/flv.xsd: describes the general organization of
       FLV files

     * http://schemas.flvmeta.org/Amf0.xsd:  describes	an XML representation of
       the Adobe(TM) AMF0 serialization format

     * http://schemas.flvmeta.org/report.xsd: describes the XML output format of
       the --check --xml command

EXAMPLES
     flvmeta example.flv

     Prints the onMetadata tag contents of example.flv as XML output.

     flvmeta example.flv out.flv

     Creates a file named out.flv containing updated metadata and an  onLastSec-
     ond tag from the exemple.flv file.

     flvmeta --check --xml --level=error example.flv

     Checks  the validity of the example.flv file and prints the error report to
     stdout in XML format, displaying only errors and fatal errors.

     flvmeta --full-dump --yaml example.flv

     Prints the full contents of example.flv as YAML format to stdout.

     flvmeta --update --no-last-second --show-metadata --json example.flv

     Performs an in-place update of example.flv by inserting computed onMetadata
     without an onLastSecond tag, and prints the newly inserted metadata on std-
     out as JSON.

EXIT STATUS
     * 0 flvmeta exited without error

     * 1 an error occurred when trying to open an input file

     * 2 the input file was not recognized as an FLV file

     * 3 an end-of-file condition was encountered unexpectedly

     * 4 a memory allocation error occurred during the run of the program

     * 5 an empty tag was encountered in an input file

     * 6 an error occurred when trying to open an output file

     * 7 an invalid tag was encountered in an input file

     * 8 an error was encountered while writing an output file

     * 9 the --check command reported an invalid file (one or more errors)

BUGS
     flvmeta does not support encrypted FLV files yet.

AUTHOR
     Marc Noirot <marc.noirot@gmail.com>

COPYRIGHT
     Copyright 2007-2016 Marc Noirot

     This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is  NO
     warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

CONTACT
     Please report bugs to <flvmeta-discussion@googlegroups.com>

flvmeta user manual		  January 2014			      flvmeta(1)

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<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=flvmeta&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+Ports+15.1.quarterly>

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