With some delay finally a revised version is ready to be tested. As the amount of new options might not yet be reached, this version still remains in alpha state although I would say beta stage is reached. Feedback is always welcome, even if no bugs are found.

Refer to the HISTORY for all new options and bugfixes, headlines are:

Option: --inputdir allows to rip from a directory instead a disc (wav oder flac) and might be combined with relatead options.
Options: --accuracy and --verify will allow to check the rip qualities. Not sure yet if this is the right approach and if the software selection makes sense, hope to get some feedback too.

January 29th, 2012

Some useres reported problems when starting ripit after an system update, e.g. error messages like:

Unicode::UCD: failed to find UnicodeData.txt in
/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.12.3/x86_64-linux-thread-multi
/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.12.3
[snip]
/usr/bin/ripit line 7133
Compilation failed in require at /usr/bin/ripit line 7133.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/bin/ripit line 7133.

The solution (thanks Norbert!) is to install the perl-doc package.

Developement of the next version will start soon while release date is still unknown.
Apr 28, 2011

Version 3.9.0 released January 29th 2012 brings some new features:

Added more encoders: wavpack (encoder 6) and ffmpeg (encoder 7) to be used for exotic formats like "Apple lossless" (whatever that is). Note that usage of ffmpeg might not be straight forward.
To add coverart use option --coverpath to define the path to the picture to be added to the tags and --coverart to set the list of encoders (formats) to which coverart shall be added (if the cover is present). Option --copycover can be used to copy the cover from the original path to each directory of encoded files. Note that ripit does not download coverart by itself, one needs to provide them manually.
Option --precmd might be handy to download coverart, it actually executes whatever command providing all metadata of the disc to be ripped. This will happen right before ripping starts. The same arguments can be used as for option --dirtemplate.
Option --trackoffset adds a constant value to the track counter (used in tracktemplate). This might be helpful if more than one disc of a multidisc release shall be ripped into the same directory.
Options --vatag and --vastring enables detection of VA style metadata and splits the track title into track-artist and track-title (tags only).
Option --mp3tags may be used to add special tags to mp3 files not supported by the encoder or other unofficial tags (e. g. a compilation frame not yet known in id3v2.4).
Option --cdcue creates cue-files (cue-sheets) and merges all tracks into a single file.
Option --isrc will read out the "International Standard Recording Code" of each track, mainly to submit it to the MusicBrainz DB. For this one needs to send the login information through options --mbname and --mbpass.

Check the manpage for further information and the HISTORY for some bug fixes.

The development of version 3.9.0 was interrupted by several projects, among others eBayAgent.pl. From now on, it should be easier to get new CDs to test Ripit 3.9.0. (May 2010)

News of 3.8.3 are: --mb allows access to the MusicBrainz DB not using the cddb-protocoll (like in older versions) but using the perl module WebService::MusicBrainz. One needs the DiscID calculation tool, either the DiscID-command or in addition the perl module MusicBrainz::DiscID (recommended).

Ripit now supports the formats mp4als (lossless m4a) and Musepack (encoder 4 and 5) and executes just before ending a command: --execmd. This option accepts as arguments the same variables as --dirtemplate and --tracktemplate, including the new one: $trackno giving the number of tracks of the CD.

Other new options are --overwrite to overwrite an existing directory instead of adding a counter to the directory name; --quitnodb to end the process if no DB entry was found; --span to rip only portions of each track (only supported by cdparanoia und cdda2wav); --book merges all tracks into a single track (when using faac) with suffix m4b and creates a chapter.txt file; --inf creates similar to the cd.toc file for cdrdao inf-files to burn the wav-files in DAO-mode with CD-text using wodim (or cdrecord).

As usual use option --save once after an update to renew an existing configuration in $HOME/.ripit. Check the config file for new options and switch them on if desired.

After some 5 years of adding features and some 10'000 lines of code I announce my retirement... I.e. I will continue to maintain ripit but not develop anymore. Patches are welcome and shall be updated ASAP.

Oh, there is one feature I miss: Wouldn't it be nice to automatically save data content of a multi-session disc (videos and/or pictures) as files? Patches are welcome.