## Homepage of

# cdrskin

## Limited cdrecord compatibility wrapper for libburn

## Purpose:

- Burns preformatted data to CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, DVD+RW

## Hardware requirements:

A CD/DVD recorder suitable for libburnia.pykix.org (SCSI or IDE/ATAPI writers compliant to standard MMC-3 or higher).

## Software requirements :

Linux kernel 2.4 or higher
  With kernel 2.4 the drive has to be under ide-scsi emulation.
  With kernel 2.6 the drive should not be under ide-scsi.
libpthread
  is supposed to be a standard system component.

## GPL software included:

libburn-0.3.2
  (by Derek Foreman, Ben Jansens, and team of libburnia.pykix.org)
  transfers data to CD

This program system has been tested on Intel/AMD Linux systems only.
Ports to other usable systems are appreciated. Reports are welcome.

## Special features:

- Source code is independent of cdrecord

## Commands:

The goal is to provide some of cdrecord's options in a compatible way. This has been achieved quite sufficiently for the needs of backup tool scdbackup and for data CD projects of K3b (see examples). Suitability for audio CD frontends has been improved much and is now being evaluated.
Most DVD types are written in pseudo -tao modes which are very different from the write mode DAO used by cdrecord(-ProDVD). With DVD-R[W] cdrskin can use this write mode, too.
Further enhancements depend on people who can describe and discuss their wishes as well as on the development of libburn.
Get an overview of drives and their addresses:
  $`cdrskin -scanbus`
  $`cdrskin dev=ATA -scanbus`
  $`cdrskin --devices`
Get info about a particular drive or loaded media:
  $`cdrskin dev=0,1,0 -checkdrive`
  $`cdrskin dev=ATA:1,0,0 -v -atip`
  $`cdrskin dev=/dev/hdc -toc`
Make used CD-RW or used unformatted DVD-RW writable again:
  $`cdrskin -v dev=/dev/sg1 blank=fast -eject`
  $`cdrskin -v dev=/dev/dvd blank=all -eject`
Format DVD-RW to avoid need for blanking before re-use:
  $`cdrskin -v dev=/dev/sr0 blank=format_overwrite`
De-format DVD-RW to make it capable of multi-session again:
  $`cdrskin -v dev=/dev/sr0 blank=deformat_sequential`
Write ISO-9660 filesystem image as only one to blank or formatted media:
  $`cdrskin -v dev=/dev/hdc speed=12 fs=8m \`
  `-sao -eject padsize=300k my_image.iso`
Write compressed afio archive on-the-fly:
  $`find . | afio -oZ - | \`
  `cdrskin -v dev=0,1,0 fs=32m speed=8 \`
  `-tao padsize=300k -`
Write several sessions to the same CD or DVD-R[W]:
  $`cdrskin dev=/dev/hdc -v padsize=300k -multi -tao 1.iso`
  $`cdrskin dev=/dev/hdc -v padsize=300k -multi -tao 2.iso`
  $`cdrskin dev=/dev/hdc -v padsize=300k -multi -tao 3.iso`
  $`cdrskin dev=/dev/hdc -v padsize=300k -tao 4.iso`
Get CD or DVD-R[W] multi-session info for option -C of program mkisofs:
  $`c_values=$(cdrskin dev=/dev/sr0 -msinfo 2>/dev/null)`
  $`mkisofs ... -C "$c_values" ...`
Write audio tracks to CD:
  $`cdrskin -v dev=ATA:1,0,0 speed=48 -sao \`
  `track1.wav track2.au -audio -swab track3.raw`
Get overview of the cdrecord compatible options:
  $`cdrskin -help`
Get overview of the non-cdrecord options:
  $`cdrskin --help`
Read the detailed manual page:
  $`man cdrskin`

Read about the standard for which cdrskin is striving:
  $`man cdrecord`
  Do not bother Joerg Schilling with any cdrskin problems. (Be cursed if you install cdrskin as "cdrecord" without clearly forwarding this "don't bother Joerg" demand.)

## Known deficiencies:

- Appending sessions to unclosed media is restricted to write mode TAO.
- cdrskin -scanbus or --devices hangs for quite a while if there is a CD drive which does not work properly (e.g. because it has individual problems with DMA). So if the superuser gets no result with cdrskin --devices then one should disable DMA with the problematic CD drives (like: `hdparm -d0 /dev/hdd` ) and try again.
  In severe cases it might be necessary to guess the device name /dev/sgN resp. /dev/hdX of the non-ill burner if it cannot be found otherwise among its ill peers. Alternatively one can guess the address of the ill device, remove rw-permissions and retry the bus scan as non-superuser.

Download as source code (see README):
  cdrskin-0.3.2.pl01.tar.gz (570 KB).
  The "stable" cdrskin tarballs are source code identical with "stable" libburn releases or with "stabilized" libburn SVN snapshots. They get produced via a different procedure, though.
  cdrskin is part of libburn - full libburn is provided with cdrskin releases.
Download as single x86 binaries (untar and move to /usr/bin/cdrskin):
  cdrskin_0.3.2.pl01-x86-suse9_0.tar.gz, (80 KB),
    runs on SuSE 9.0 (2.4.21) , RIP-14.4 (2.6.14) , Gentoo (2.6.15 x86_64 Athlon).
  cdrskin_0.3.2.pl01-x86-suse9_0-static.tar.gz, (285 KB), -static compiled,
    runs on SuSE 7.2 (2.4.4), and on the systems above.

Documentation:
  README an introduction
  cdrskin --help non-cdrecord options
  cdrskin -help cdrecord compatible options
  man cdrskin the manual page

Contact:
  Thomas Schmitt, scdbackup@gmx.net
  libburn development mailing list, libburn-hackers@pykix.org

License:
  GPL, an Open Source approved license

Enhancements towards previous stable version cdrskin-0.3.0:

- Burnfree enabled by default
- Multi-session burning to DVD-R and sequential (i.e. unformatted) DVD-RW
- Option -toc with sequential DVD-R[W]
- Options -msinfo and msifile= with appendable DVD-R[W]
- Single session DAO write mode with DVD-R[W]

Bug fixes towards cdrskin-0.3.2.pl00:

- Multi-track runs with fifo could stall in rare cases

### Development snapshot, version 0.3.3 :

  Enhancements towards stable version 0.3.2:
  - New option --tell_media_space tells the maximum size for the next burn
  README 0.3.3
  cdrskin_0.3.3 --help
  cdrskin_0.3.3 -help
  man cdrskin (as of 0.3.3)
Maintainers of cdrskin unstable packages please use SVN of libburnia.pykix.org
  Download: `svn co http://libburnia-svn.pykix.org/libburn/trunk libburn_pykix`
  Build: `cd libburn_pykix ; ./bootstrap ; ./configure ; make`
  Build of SVN versions needs autotools of at least version 1.7 installed. But after the run of `./bootstrap`, only vanilla tools like make and gcc are needed.
The following downloads are intended for adventurous end users or admins with full system souvereignty.
  Source (./bootstrap is already applied, build tested, for more see upcoming README ):
  cdrskin-0.3.3.tar.gz (570 KB).
  Binary (untar and move to /usr/bin/cdrskin):
  cdrskin_0.3.3-x86-suse9_0.tar.gz, (80 KB).
  cdrskin_0.3.3-x86-suse9_0-static.tar.gz, (280 KB)

Many thanks to Joerg Schilling for cdrecord,
and to Derek Foreman and Ben Jansens for creating libburn.
Historic versions based on Derek's and Ben's icculus.org/burn :
cdrskin-0.1.2.0.2.ts.tar.gz
cdrskin-0.1.3.0.2.ts.tar.gz
Very special thanks to Andy Polyakov whose dvd+rw-tools provide libburn with invaluable examples on how to deal with DVD media.

Example for a setup of device permissions. To be done by the superuser:
(CD devices which offer no r-permission are invisible to normal users.)
(CD devices which offer no w-permission are not useable.)
  # `cdrskin --devices`
  `...`
  `0 dev='/dev/sg0' rwrwr- : 'TEAC' 'CD-ROM CD-532S'`
  `1 dev='/dev/hdc' rwrw-- : 'LITE-ON' 'LTR-48125S'`
  # `chmod a+rw /dev/sg0 /dev/hdc`

Example how to setup K3b to use cdrskin for burning data CD projects.
(K3b is a GUI frontend which uses cdrecord for CD burning.)

Example for a test session with a cdrecord based scdbackup installation:
  $ `cdrskin -scanbus`
  `...`
  `2,0,0 0) 'TEAC' 'CD-ROM CD-532S' '?' Removable CD-ROM`
  $ `cdrskin -scanbus dev=ATA`
  `...`
  `1,0,0 1) 'LITE-ON' 'LTR-48125S' '?' Removable CD-ROM`
  $ `export SCDBACKUP_SCSI_ADR="ATA:1,0,0"`
  $ `export SCDBACKUP_CDRECORD="cdrskin -v -v"`
  $ `scdbackup_home`

Example for a permanent configuration of cdrskin based scdbackup
  $ `cd scdbackup-0.8.6/inst`
  $ `export SCDBACKUP_USE_CDRSKIN=1`
  $ `./CONFIGURE_CD`
  `...`
  `cdrskin 0.3.2 : limited cdrecord compatibility wrapper for libburn`

If your system is stricken with some ill CD device then this can stall and you will have to press `Ctrl+C` to abort. In this case, you may execute `export SCDBACKUP_NO_SCANBUS=1` and try again.

  `------------------- SCSI devices. To be used like 0,0,0`
  `2,0,0 0) 'TEAC' 'CD-ROM CD-532S' '?' Removable CD-ROM`
  `------------------- end of SCSI device list`
  `------------------- ATA devices. To be used like ATA:0,0,0`
  `1,0,0 1) 'LITE-ON' 'LTR-48125S' '?' Removable CD-ROM`
  `...`
  `* Your cdrecord offers -driveropts=burnfree with your recorder.`
  `...`
  `scdbackup for CD 0.8.6 : First stage of installation done.`
  `...`
  `Now give it a try. Run : scdbackup_home`
  $ `unset SCDBACKUP_USE_CDRSKIN`

To get back to using cdrecord :
  $ `cd scdbackup-0.8.6/inst`
  $ `export SCDBACKUP_USE_CDRSKIN=0`
  $ `./CONFIGURE_CD`
  `...`
  $ `unset SCDBACKUP_USE_CDRSKIN`

### About the relationship of cdrecord and cdrskin

First of all: this relationship is single sided, as cdrskin has to be aware of cdrecord but not vice versa.
I am a long time user of cdrecord and it works fine for me. Especially i do appreciate its write mode -tao which allows to pipe arbitrary data on CD and CD-RW via stdin. cdrecord is reliable, versatile and well maintained. So for me - there would be not problem with it.
But the author of cdrecord and the Linux kernel people foster a very hostile relationship. Ok, that's their business, not mine (or ours if you are with me). One has to be aware, though, that this relationship might lead to a situation where cdrecord is no longer available for certain Linux kernels.
To have my own project prepared for such a time, i began to implement its cdrecord gestures on top of libburn. From now on i invite other interested users of cdrecord to teach cdrskin the gestures necessary for their cdrecord applications. Contact me. Let's see what we can achieve.
libburn and cdrskin are now mature enough to substitute cdrecord in its major use cases of CD burning. It is possible to foist cdrskin on various software packages if it gets falsely named "cdrecord". I do not encourage this approach, but of course such a replacement opportunity is the goal of a cdrecord compatibility wrapper.
It is very important to me that this project is not perceived as hostile towards Joerg Schilling and his ongoing work. I owe him much. For cdrecord, for mkisofs, for star. Chapeau.

Enjoying free Open Source hosting by www.webframe.org
and by sourceforge.net

Links to my other published software projects :
  scdbackup, multi volume CD backup
    (a second source of above)
  Some Tools for Image Collectors
    (a second source of above)
  pppoem, a DSL throughput monitor (mainly for Linux kernel 2.4)

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