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SoX(3)				Sound eXchange				SoX(3)

NAME
       libsox -	SoX, an	audio file-format and effect library

SYNOPSIS
       #include	<sox.h>

       int sox_format_init(void);

       void sox_format_quit(void);

       sox_format_t sox_open_read(const	char *path, const sox_signalinfo_t *info, const	char *filetype);

       sox_format_t sox_open_write(sox_bool (*overwrite_permitted)(const char *filename), const	char *path, const sox_signalinfo_t *info, const	char *filetype,	const char *comment, sox_size_t	length,	const sox_instrinfo_t *instr, const sox_loopinfo_t *loops);

       sox_size_t sox_read(sox_format_t	ft, sox_ssample_t *buf,	sox_size_t len);

       sox_size_t sox_write(sox_format_t ft, sox_ssample_t *buf, sox_size_t len);

       int sox_close(sox_format_t ft);

       int sox_seek(sox_format_t ft, sox_size_t	offset,	int whence);

       sox_effect_handler_t const *sox_find_effect(char	const *name);

       sox_effect_t *sox_create_effect(sox_effect_handler_t const *eh);

       int sox_effect_options(sox_effect_t *effp, int argc, char * const argv[]);

       sox_effects_chain_t *sox_create_effects_chain(sox_encodinginfo_t	const *in_enc, sox_encodinginfo_t const	*out_enc);

       void sox_delete_effects_chain(sox_effects_chain_t *ecp);

       int sox_add_effect(sox_effects_chaint_t *chain, sox_effect_t*effp, sox_signalinfo_t *in,	sox_signalinfo_t const *out);

       cc file.c -o file -lsox

DESCRIPTION
       libsox  is  a  library  of sound	sample file format readers/writers and
       sound effects processors. It is mainly developed	for use	by SoX but  is
       useful for any sound application.

       sox_format_init	function performs some required	initialization related
       to all file format handlers.  If	compiled with dynamic library  support
       then  this  will	 detect	 and  initialize all external libraries.  This
       should be called	before any other file operations are performed.

       sox_format_quit function	performs some required cleanup related to  all
       file format handlers.

       sox_open_input  function	 opens	the file for reading whose name	is the
       string pointed to by path and associates	an sox_format_t	 with  it.  If
       info is non-NULL	then it	will be	used to	specify	the data format	of the
       input file. This	is normally only needed	 for  headerless  audio	 files
       since  the  information	is not stored in the file. If filetype is non-
       NULL then it will be used to specify the	file  type.  If	 this  is  not
       specified  then	the file type is attempted to be derived by looking at
       the file	header and/or the filename extension. A	special	 name  of  "-"
       can be used to read data	from stdin.

       sox_open_output	function  opens	the file for writing whose name	is the
       string pointed to by path and associates	an sox_format_t	 with  it.  If
       info is non-NULL	then it	will be	used to	specify	the data format	of the
       output file. Since most file formats can	write data in  different  data
       formats,	 this  generally  has to be specified. The info	structure from
       the input format	handler	can be specified to copy data over in the same
       format.	If  comment is non-NULL, it will be written in the file	header
       for formats that	support	comments. If filetype is non-NULL then it will
       be  used	 to  specify  the file type. If	this is	not specified then the
       file type is attempted to be derived by looking at the filename	exten-
       sion. A special name of "-" can be used to write	data to	stdout.

       The function sox_read reads len samples in to buf using the format han-
       dler specified by ft. All data read is converted	to 32-bit signed  sam-
       ples  before  being  placed in to buf. The value	of len is specified in
       total samples. If its value is not evenly divisable by  the  number  of
       channels, undefined behavior will occur.

       The  function  sox_write	 writes	 len samples from buf using the	format
       handler specified by ft.	Data in	buf must be 32-bit signed samples  and
       will  be	converted during the write process. The	value of len is	speci-
       fied in total samples. If its value is not evenly divisable by the num-
       ber of channels,	undefined behavior will	occur.

       The  sox_close function dissociates the named sox_format_t from its un-
       derlying	file or	set of functions. If the format	handler	was being used
       for output, any buffered	data is	written	first.

       The  function sox_find_effect finds effect name,	returning a pointer to
       its sox_effect_handler_t	if it exists, and NULL otherwise.

       The function sox_create_effect instantiates an effect  into  a  sox_ef-
       fect_t given a sox_effect_handler_t *. Any missing methods are automat-
       ically set to the corresponding nothing method.

       The function sox_effect_options allows passing options into the	effect
       to  control its behavior.  It will return SOX_EOF if there were any in-
       valid options passed in.	 On success, the effp-_in_signal will optional
       contain	the  rate  and	channel	 count it requires input data from and
       effp-_out_signal	will optionally	contain	the rate and channel count  it
       outputs in.  When present, this information should be used to make sure
       appropriate effects are placed in  the  effects	chain  to  handle  any
       needed conversions.

       Passing	in options is currently	only supported when they are passed in
       before the effect is ever started.  The behavior	is  undefined  if  its
       called once the effect is started.

       sox_create_effects_chain	will instantiate an effects chain that effects
       can be added to.	 in_enc	and out_enc are	the signal encoding of the in-
       put  and	 output	of the chain respectively.  The	pointers to in_enc and
       out_enc are stored internally and so their memory should	not be	freed.
       Also, it	is OK if their values change over time to reflect new input or
       output encodings	as they	are referenced only as effects start up	or are
       restarted.

       sox_delete_effects_chain	will release any resources reserved during the
       creation	of the chain.  This will also call sox_delete_effects  if  any
       effects are still in the	chain.

       sox_add_effect  adds  an	 effect	 to the	chain.	in specifies the input
       signal info for this effect.  out is a suggestion as to what the	output
       signal  should  be but depending	on the effects given options and on in
       the effect can choose to	do  differently.   Whatever  output  rate  and
       channels	 the  effect does produce are written back to in.  It is meant
       that in be stored and passed to each new	call to	sox_add_effect so that
       changes will be propagated to each new effect.

       SoX  includes  skeleton	C  files  to assist you	in writing new formats
       (skelform.c) and	effects	(skeleff.c). Note that new formats  can	 often
       just deal with the header and then use raw.c's routines for reading and
       writing.

       example0.c and example1.c are a good starting point to see how to write
       applications using libsox.  sox.c itself	is also	a good reference.

RETURN VALUE
       Upon successful completion sox_open_input and sox_open_output return an
       sox_format_t (which is a	pointer).  Otherwise, NULL is returned.	 TODO:
       Need a way to return reason for failures. Currently, relies on sox_warn
       to print	information.

       sox_read	and sox_write return the number	of samples  successfully  read
       or  written. If an error	occurs,	or the end-of-file is reached, the re-
       turn value is a short item count	or SOX_EOF. TODO:  sox_read  does  not
       distiguish  between  end-of-file	and error. Need	an feof() and ferror()
       concept to determine which occured.

       Upon successful completion sox_close returns 0. Otherwise,  SOX_EOF  is
       returned. In either case, any further access (including another call to
       sox_close()) to the handler results in undefined	behavior. TODO:	Need a
       way  to	return	reason	for failures. Currently, relies	on sox_warn to
       print information.

       Upon successful completion sox_seek returns 0.  Otherwise,  SOX_EOF  is
       returned. TODO Need to set a global error and implement sox_tell.

ERRORS
       TODO

INTERNALS
       SoX's  formats  and  effects  operate with an internal sample format of
       signed 32-bit integer.  The data	processing routines  are  called  with
       buffers of these	samples, and buffer sizes which	refer to the number of
       samples processed, not the number of bytes.  File readers translate the
       input  samples  to signed 32-bit	integers and return the	number of sam-
       ples read.  For example,	data in	linear signed  byte  format  is	 left-
       shifted 24 bits.

       Representing samples as integers	can cause problems when	processing the
       audio.  For example, if an effect to mix	down left and  right  channels
       into one	monophonic channel were	to use the line
	  *obuf++ = (*ibuf++ + *ibuf++)/2;
       distortion  might occur since the intermediate addition can overflow 32
       bits.  The line
	  *obuf++ = *ibuf++/2 +	*ibuf++/2;
       would get round the overflow problem (at	the expense of the least  sig-
       nificant	bit).

       Stereo  data  is	stored with the	left and right speaker data in succes-
       sive samples.  Quadraphonic data	is stored in this order:  left	front,
       right front, left rear, right rear.

FORMATS
       A  format is responsible	for translating	between	sound sample files and
       an internal buffer.  The	internal buffer	is store in signed longs  with
       a fixed sampling	rate.  The format operates from	two data structures: a
       format structure, and a private structure.

       The format structure contains a list of control parameters for the sam-
       ple:  sampling rate, data size (8, 16, or 32 bits), encoding (unsigned,
       signed, floating	point, etc.), number of	sound channels.	 It also  con-
       tains  other  state  information:  whether  the sample file needs to be
       byte-swapped, whether sox_seek()	will work, its suffix, its file	stream
       pointer,	its format pointer, and	the private structure for the format .

       The  private  area  is just a preallocated data array for the format to
       use however it wishes.  It should have a	 defined  data	structure  and
       cast  the  array	to that	structure.  See	voc.c for the use of a private
       data area.  Voc.c has to	track the number of samples it writes and when
       finishing,  seek	 back  to  the beginning of the	file and write it out.
       The private area	is not very large.  The	``echo'' effect	 has  to  mal-
       loc() a much larger area	for its	delay line buffers.

       A format	has 6 routines:

       startread	   Set	up  the	 format	 parameters, or	read in	a data
			   header, or do what needs to be done.

       read		   Given a buffer and a	length:	read up	to  that  many
			   samples,  transform them into signed	long integers,
			   and copy them into the buffer.  Return  the	number
			   of samples actually read.

       stopread		   Do what needs to be done.

       startwrite	   Set	up  the	format parameters, or write out	a data
			   header, or do what needs to be done.

       write		   Given a buffer and a	length:	copy that many samples
			   out	of  the	buffer,	convert	them from signed longs
			   to the appropriate data,  and  write	 them  to  the
			   file.  If it	can't write out	all the	samples, fail.

       stopwrite	   Fix	up  any	 file  header,	or do what needs to be
			   done.

EFFECTS
       Each effect runs	with one input and one output stream.  An effect's im-
       plementation  comprises	six functions that may be called to the	follow
       flow diagram:
       LOOP (invocations with different	parameters)
	 getopts
	 LOOP (invocations with	the same parameters)
	   LOOP	(channels)
	     start
	   LOOP	(whilst	there is input audio to	process)
	     LOOP (channels)
	       flow
	   LOOP	(whilst	there is output	audio to generate)
	     LOOP (channels)
	       drain
	   LOOP	(channels)
	     stop
	 kill
       Notes: For some effects,	some of	the functions may not  be  needed  and
       can  be	NULL.	An effect that is marked `MCHAN' does not use the LOOP
       (channels) lines	and must therefore perform multiple channel processing
       inside  the  affected functions.	 Multiple effect instances may be pro-
       cessed (according to the	above flow diagram) in parallel.

       getopts		   is called with a character string argument list for
			   the effect.

       start		   is  called with the signal parameters for the input
			   and output streams.

       flow		   is called with input	and output data	 buffers,  and
			   (by	reference)  the	 input	and output data	buffer
			   sizes.  It processes	the input buffer into the out-
			   put buffer, and sets	the size variables to the num-
			   bers	of samples actually processed.	It is under no
			   obligation  to  read	from the input buffer or write
			   to the output buffer	during the same	call.  If  the
			   call	returns	SOX_EOF	then this should be used as an
			   indication that this	effect will no longer read any
			   data	 and  can  be  used  to	 switch	 to drain mode
			   sooner.

       drain		   is called after there are no	more input  data  sam-
			   ples.   If  the effect wishes to generate more data
			   samples it copies the generated data	into  a	 given
			   buffer and returns the number of samples generated.
			   If it fills the buffer, it will  be	called	again,
			   etc.	 The echo effect uses this to fade away.

       stop		   is  called when there are no	more input samples and
			   no more output samples to process.  It is typically
			   used	 to release or close resources (e.g. allocated
			   memory or temporary	files)	that  were  set-up  in
			   start.  See echo.c for an example.

       kill		   is  called  to allow	resources allocated by getopts
			   to be released.  See	pad.c for an example.

LINKING
       The method of linking against libsox depends on how SoX	was  built  on
       your  system.  For  a  static build, just link against the libraries as
       normal. For a dynamic build, you	should use libtool to  link  with  the
       correct	linker	flags.	See the	libtool	manual for details; basically,
       you use it as:
	  libtool --mode=link gcc -o prog /path/to/libsox.la

BUGS
       This manual page	is both	incomplete and out of date.

SEE ALSO
       sox(1), soxformat(7)

       example*.c in the SoX source distribution.

LICENSE
       Copyright 1998-2011 by Chris Bagwell and	SoX Contributors.
       Copyright 1991 Lance Norskog and	Sundry Contributors.

       This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
       under  the  terms of the	GNU Lesser General Public License as published
       by the Free Software Foundation;	either version 2.1, or	(at  your  op-
       tion) any later version.

       This  library  is  distributed  in the hope that	it will	be useful, but
       WITHOUT ANY  WARRANTY;  without	even  the  implied  warranty  of  MER-
       CHANTABILITY  or	 FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See	the GNU	Lesser
       General Public License for more details.

AUTHORS
       Chris Bagwell (cbagwell@users.sourceforge.net).	Other authors and con-
       tributors are listed in the ChangeLog file that is distributed with the
       source code.

libsox			       February	19, 2011			SoX(3)

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | ERRORS | INTERNALS | FORMATS | EFFECTS | LINKING | BUGS | SEE ALSO | LICENSE | AUTHORS

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