dinorefurb-disc-archiver

Every copy command shows this notice and refuses to run until you accept it (--accept-personal-use on the command line, a tick box in the window). Every output folder gets a PERSONAL-ARCHIVE-ONLY.txt with the same text.

What it does

It reads a disc with an established dumping program, then writes the copy in the formats you choose, from the most complete to the ones people most often have. It reads each format back and compares it with the dump, so a restoration can test its fingerprinting and asset import against every form a player's copy may come in, and know that each of them holds the same disc.

Reading the disc (--backend):

auto (the default) works down that list:

1. redumper, if it is installed, in the download's tools/ folder, or already downloaded;
2. otherwise the pinned redumper release, downloaded from GitHub. The window asks first; the command downloads unless given --no-download;
3. if the download is declined or fails, cdrdao, if it is installed;
4. otherwise the data track copy, which reads no audio. The log says so, and a disc profile that expects audio tracks reports the mismatch.

Asking for --backend redumper downloads it the same way, but fails rather than falling back. The backend's own files (redumper's .scram, .subcode, .toc and .log, for example) are kept unchanged in the archival folder.

Drives redumper does not list

redumper keeps a database of drives and how each returns a raw sector: the order of its data, C2 and subchannel blocks. A drive missing from it is read in the generic order, and a drive that returns its blocks in another order then reads as damaged in every sector: C2 errors throughout, an invalid subchannel everywhere, and a dump that takes hours. The archiver passes redumper --auto-detect, which reads one sector in each order and keeps the first whose subchannel checks out. redumper detects the order of every drive it reads in the generic way, which takes in the drives its database lists with the generic drive type (detection confirms or replaces their listed order), and leaves other drive types alone.

--backend-arg=--drive-sector-order=<order> sets the order by hand, and the archiver then leaves detection off. The manifest's source.driveConfiguration records the configuration redumper read with and where the order came from.

A dump whose subchannel is invalid in more than 90% of its sectors is refused: the order was misread, so the dump cannot be used. The error names the orders to try. Dump again into a new output folder, since redumper will not overwrite the refused dump. A correctly read disc fails the check in a fraction of a percent of its sectors, even when scratched. An order without a subchannel (DATA_C2) is not checked.

Data errors

redumper does not write the image of a dump whose data track has sectors the drive flagged with C2 errors: its log ends with "data errors detected, unable to continue". The archiver then reads, from redumper's own files, which sectors those are, whether each one's data is damaged (its EDC), and which file of the disc's ISO 9660 volume holds it, if any. It counts only sectors inside the data tracks of the disc TOC: that redumper logged, since C2 errors in audio tracks do not stop redumper; when the log lists no TOC, every flagged sector counts. It reads the volume's directory itself, so a volume whose primary volume descriptor copies differ, which pycdlib refuses, is still read.

With at most 2,000 bad sectors it runs redumper refine once, at speed 8 with 3 rereads per sector (--backend-arg=--speed= or --retries= override them), with the sector order the dump used, and reads the sectors again. A slow reread clears dust and marginal reads; a sector that fails three slow reads fails the same way on more. With more bad sectors it does not reread: about ten minutes of rereads at most is the limit before dumping again is the better use of time.

Then redumper split writes the image, with --force-split while bad sectors remain. redumper regenerates those sectors from the data it read, which is how Redump's dumps of such discs hold them, so a disc whose bad sectors are deliberate can still match its Redump entry. redumper's hash and info steps, which follow split in its disc sequence, are not run, so the info fields of source.discAnalysis are null for such a dump. The manifest's source.dataErrors records what happened (see The output folder):

Downloading redumper

The release to download is pinned in src/dinorefurb_disc_archiver/redumper.json: a tag and the SHA-256 of each platform's zip. A download is used only when its SHA-256 matches the pin; any other download is refused. It is unpacked, unmodified, into your own data folder under its tag, so a new pin downloads its own copy, and the copies of earlier tags there are removed once it is in place:

DISC_ARCHIVER_HOME moves that folder. disc-archiver install-redumper downloads it ahead of time, and disc-archiver tools says whether it is there. Downloading redumper is the archiver's only use of the network.

Writing the copy (--format, repeat for several):

Every cue sheet the archiver writes (bincue-split, bincue and the iso-* sheets) is UTF-8 with CRLF at the end of every line, the last included, as Redump's cue sheets are. The same disc gives the same cue bytes on Windows, macOS and Linux, so a bincue-split sheet can match a Redump DAT's cue entry wherever it was written. redumper's own .cue in archival is left as redumper wrote it, which is CRLF on Windows and LF elsewhere.

--format all writes every format that can be made. --format recommended, the default, writes what the disc profile recommends, and combines with other formats: --format recommended --format iso writes both. --format reference makes a golden-reference copy: bincue-split, the layout a Redump DAT lists, so check --dat compares the copy later without converting it, and files. On rip it reads the disc with redumper only. With --backend auto it does not fall back to cdrdao or the data track copy, which keep no subchannel or protection data: if redumper is neither installed nor downloadable, or --no-download declines it, the rip stops before reading the disc. --backend cdrdao or data-copy with reference is a usage error (exit code 2). An ISO given to convert has no raw sectors, so bincue-split is reported as not written.

Programs are found on PATH, or through DISC_ARCHIVER_REDUMPER, DISC_ARCHIVER_CDRDAO, DISC_ARCHIVER_TOC2CUE, DISC_ARCHIVER_CHDMAN and DISC_ARCHIVER_FFMPEG. A format whose program is missing is skipped and reported; the others are still written.

A track's control field, where ccd, mds and nrg keep FLAGS, carries 4CH, DCP and PRE on an audio track and DCP on a data track. Each format's notes and notCompared name what its copy does not carry (see the verification of the output folder).

Install

Download (no Python needed)

Download the zip for your computer from the toolkit's releases and unpack it anywhere:

Each holds the window and the command, ready to run:

disc-archiver-<version>-windows-x64/
  Disc Archiver.exe          the window: double-click it
  disc-archiver.exe          the command, for a terminal
  tools/                     put chdman or ffmpeg here if you want those formats
  README.txt
  PERSONAL-ARCHIVE-ONLY.txt

On macOS the window is Disc Archiver.app, and on Linux disc-archiver-gui. The builds are not code-signed yet: on Windows choose More info and Run anyway if SmartScreen stops it; on macOS right-click the app and choose Open, or allow it under System Settings > Privacy & Security.

redumper is downloaded the first time you copy a disc (see Downloading redumper). Programs placed in tools/ (or tools/<name>/bin/) beside the executables are found first, so a redumper you downloaded yourself, chdman or ffmpeg can be dropped in there too.

With Python

For development, scripts and people who already have Python 3.12 or later. The window needs Tk, which the python.org installers for Windows and macOS include (on Debian and Ubuntu, install python3-tk).

pipx install dinorefurb-disc-archiver     # or: uv tool install dinorefurb-disc-archiver

This installs the same disc-archiver command and disc-archiver-gui window. redumper is downloaded on first use in the same way, or install it yourself and put it on PATH (or set DISC_ARCHIVER_REDUMPER).

Use it

The window

Double-click Disc Archiver (or run disc-archiver-gui). To start with a restoration's disc profile selected:

"Disc Archiver.exe" --profile path\to\disc-profile.json     # the download, on Windows
disc-archiver-gui --profile path/to/disc-profile.json         # installed with Python

Tick the notice, choose the drive (or an image you already made), the game's profile and the folder, and press Make the copy. The formats the profile recommends are ticked already. Make a reference copy ticks the reference formats instead and, for a drive, chooses redumper; both stay chosen when the profile or the source changes, until you choose another backend or Use the recommended formats. Redump DAT, under the folder, takes a DAT you downloaded, as --dat does.

The command

Everything the window does, the command does too, for scripts and for people who prefer a terminal. In the download it is disc-archiver.exe (Windows) or ./disc-archiver; installed with Python it is disc-archiver.

disc-archiver --help                                     # commands; disc-archiver <command> --help for options
disc-archiver tools                                      # backends, programs and drives found
disc-archiver install-redumper                           # download the pinned redumper now
disc-archiver rip --drive E: --output "D:\Discs\My Game" --name "My Game" \
    --profile disc-profile.json --accept-personal-use
disc-archiver rip --drive /dev/sr0 --output ~/discs/game --format all --accept-personal-use
disc-archiver rip --drive E: --output "D:\Discs\My Game" --format reference --accept-personal-use
disc-archiver convert --input "My Game.cue" --output ~/discs/game --format iso --format files \
    --accept-personal-use                                # formats from a copy you already have
disc-archiver rip --drive E: --backend cdrdao --read-offset 6 --output out --accept-personal-use
disc-archiver check --input "My Game.cue" --profile disc-profile.json
disc-archiver check --input "Other copy.cue" --manifest "D:\Discs\My Game\rip-manifest.json"
disc-archiver check --input "My Game.cue" --dat redump-pc.zip     # against a Redump DAT
disc-archiver formats                                    # every format, most complete first
disc-archiver notice                                     # the personal-use notice

convert and check read .cue (one or several BIN files, ISO-plus-WAVE sheets), .iso, .ccd, .chd (through chdman), .mds with its .mdf, and .nrg. An Alcohol 120% image is read from a version 1 descriptor with 2,352-byte sectors or 2,448-byte sectors with subchannel. A Nero image is read in version 1 or 2, disc-at-once or track-at-once, with raw sectors (with or without subchannel) or MODE1 2,048-byte user data. Stored subchannel is skipped, and every copy made from such an image says so in its notes and notCompared. Both must hold one session of a CD; anything else is refused with the reason (ADR 0047). rip passes --backend-arg values on to the backend program, for example --backend-arg=--retries=20 for redumper, and --no-download keeps it from downloading redumper. rip --read-offset <samples> corrects a cdrdao dump's audio by the drive's read offset; it needs --backend cdrdao and is refused with any other backend, since redumper corrects the offset itself. check prints the copy's fingerprint as JSON, with the profile's checks and, given --manifest, the comparison described in Checking a copy against a manifest. Progress goes to standard error and the summary to standard output.

Exit codes: 0 done and verified, 1 failed, 2 usage error or notice not accepted, 3 a profile check failed, a written format differs from its source, a copy given to check is not identified as its manifest's disc, the Redump comparison is mismatched, or a rip's data errors are insideFiles, tooMany or unlocated (see Data errors).

Comparing with a Redump DAT

--dat <file> on rip, convert and check compares the copy with a DAT you downloaded yourself from redump.org: the .dat file, or the .zip the site serves holding one .dat. The archiver never downloads a DAT. rip and convert also write bincue-split, the layout Redump lists, and compare its files; check compares the .cue it is given and the track files it names. check refuses other inputs, and a cue sheet of another layout (several tracks in one file, an ISO or WAVE file, a pregap no file holds), whose files could not match the DAT's. The comparison and its outcome are in the manifest's redump (in check's output, its redump).

Each track file is matched with a DAT file by size, CRC32, MD5 and SHA-1, all four agreeing; file names are reported separately. The outcome is:

For notListed and mismatched, candidates lists up to 5 games of the DAT nearest to the copy by track size; it is [] for the other outcomes. Track files are paired by position: the copy's Nth track with the game's Nth file other than a cue sheet, in the DAT's order, which is track order in Redump's DATs. A game is listed when at least one pair has the same size. Games are ranked by how many pairs agree in size, then by how many agree in size and all three hashes, then by name. Each candidate gives the game, its trackCount, whether that equals the copy's (trackCountMatches), and for each of the copy's tracks its path, the paired file's datName (null when the game has fewer files), sizeMatches and hashMatches. The run prints them on one line after the outcome.

When a game of the DAT has as many tracks as the copy, every audio track has the size of its counterpart and no data track does, differences says so and names the game, even when it ranks below the five listed in candidates. That is what a pressing the DAT does not list looks like, with another build of the data track: a misread changes a track's bytes, not its size. The DAT cannot prove it, so the hint names the next steps instead of a verdict.

When the DAT does not list the disc

To judge a copy the DAT reports as notListed (or mismatched with tracks that differ):

1. Download the system's DAT from redump.org/downloads. The archiver never downloads it.
2. Run disc-archiver check --input <dump>.cue --dat <the DAT> on the split dump in archival/, or rip and convert with --dat.
3. Read candidates. Several entries for the same title and disc number are common, usually for different pressings or versions. If every audio track of a candidate has the copy's size while the data track's size differs, the copy is most likely a pressing the DAT does not list. Audio tracks of two pressings can have equal sizes and different hashes. A bad read does not change sizes, so it does not produce this pattern.
4. Compare the write offset. A dump's source.discAnalysis.writeOffset that agrees with the one on the candidates' Redump pages supports the same mastering family.
5. Read the protection signs in source.discAnalysis: a protectionSchemes entry, offsetShifts whose offsets differ by exactly 588 samples (one sector, so the sector headers are one sector off in those ranges), and msfErrors and eccErrors confined to those ranges. With zero SCSI and C2 errors in the dump (media errors: in archival/<name>.log), these are properties of the pressing, written on purpose, not read errors. redumper's protection: none covers only the schemes its protection step checks.
6. Compare the disc's ring codes, barcode and version with the candidates' Redump pages. A difference there confirms another pressing; submitting the dump to Redump is how it gets listed.
7. Dump again on another drive into a new output folder. The same hashes from a second drive rule out a bad read.

A DAT is read only when it is UTF-8 Logiqx XML of at most 128 MiB, every file lists a decimal size and well-formed CRC32, MD5 and SHA-1, and it uses no entities. The DTD a document type declaration names is never loaded. A DAT that breaks one of these rules is refused before the disc is read.

On Windows, if redumper cannot open the drive, start the window or the terminal as administrator. On Linux, add yourself to the group that owns the drive (often cdrom). The archiver's error says so when redumper's log shows it could not open the drive, and only then.

Building the download

cd packages/disc-archiver
python -m pip install . -r packaging/requirements.txt
python packaging/build_bundle.py --out dist      # --no-gui-smoke without a display

It builds for the platform it runs on with PyInstaller and starts both executables before zipping them. --with-redumper also carries the pinned redumper in tools/redumper/ with its GPL-3.0 licence, checked the same way as a download, for a zip that works offline. CI builds all three platforms on every pull request and attaches them to each release.

The output folder

My Game/
  PERSONAL-ARCHIVE-ONLY.txt
  rip-manifest.json
  archival/      the backend's dump, as it wrote it (rip only)
    offset-corrected/   the cdrdao dump with its audio corrected (rip with --read-offset only)
  bincue/        My Game.cue, My Game.bin, PERSONAL-ARCHIVE-ONLY.txt
  iso/           My Game.iso, PERSONAL-ARCHIVE-ONLY.txt
  files/         My Game/ (the disc's files), PERSONAL-ARCHIVE-ONLY.txt
  game-dir/      CD/ (the disc's files and trackNN.cdda), PERSONAL-ARCHIVE-ONLY.txt

rip-manifest.json records:

• disc: the layout, the volume identifier (each byte read as the Latin-1 character of the same value without the trailing spaces and NULs, as the .NET OriginalContentSource.Label reads it, or null when it is all padding), the sessions (sessions: each one's number, firstTrack, lastTrack, leadOut, the LBA just past its last track, and for a later session gap and gapSource, the sectors between the previous session's lead-out and its first track's INDEX 00 and where they were read; see Sessions), each track's session, start (the LBA of its INDEX 00 on the disc, past the gaps between sessions), pregap and length, the hashes of the data track's user data from INDEX 01, and the hashes of each audio track's raw 2,352-byte sectors from INDEX 01 to the next track's INDEX 00, or to its session's lead-out for the last track of a session, with no header. Each audio entry gives that range as first and stop, disc LBAs with track 1's INDEX 01 at 0, and audioRange says it in words. It is the range the toolkit's CueBinSheet.TrackExtent gives and CddaWave and CddaTrackFingerprints read, and the bytes of the track's .cdda file in game-dir. Every content hash is given as SHA-256 (sha256, nonDataSha256) and as XXH3-128 (xxh3, nonDataXxh3), the hash the documentation standard uses: 32 lower-case hex digits in canonical byte order, as xxhsum -H2 prints it. These hashes are the same whichever format holds the disc, so they are what restorations' fingerprints and the formats are compared by. CD-ROM XA masters leave empty form 2 sectors on MODE2 data tracks as padding and postgaps: mode 2 sectors whose two subheader copies agree and set the form 2 bit, with all 2,324 data bytes zero (the EDC is not checked). Wherever such a sector sits on the track, it adds 2,048 zero bytes to the data hash, the block a MODE1 image of the disc and an ISO hold there and the bytes the toolkit's OriginalContentSource.OpenVolume reads for it. data.emptyForm2Sectors lists those sectors as [first, stop) ranges counted from INDEX 01 ([] when there are none), since no ISO keeps the fact that they were form 2. A form 2 sector with any nonzero data byte, and a mode 2 sector of either form whose two subheader copies differ, holds no user data. A file whose extent covers an empty form 2 sector is not read: the files and game-dir formats, or a profile that lists expected paths (whose check reads the files), stops the run with its sector number before any format is written. A raw data track can run on past the ISO 9660 volume its primary volume descriptor declares, and some discs hold sectors there with no user data: no sync pattern, another mode, a form 2 sector that carries data, or subheader copies that differ. data.nonDataSectors lists those sectors as [first, stop) ranges counted from INDEX 01, and data.nonDataSha256 and data.nonDataXxh3 hash their raw 2,352 bytes in order ([] and null when there are none). They add nothing to data.sha256. Inside the declared volume, or on a track with no volume descriptor (or one whose logical block size is not 2,048 bytes), a sector without user data stops the run with its sector number. When files or game-dir is requested and a file's extent reaches one of the listed sectors, the run stops with its sector number before any format is written. The declared size is an address, resolved as Data tracks after audio describes; a track whose file system cannot be located admits no sector past its volume. The addresses stored in the sector headers are not checked.

• disc.audio: for each audio track, besides sha256:

  • fingerprint: what the toolkit's .NET CddaTrackFingerprint holds, with the same field names, so a restoration can copy it into its own records: track, samples (from INDEX 01 to the next track's INDEX 00), toleranceSamples, anchorOffset, anchorSamples, and anchorXxh3 and centralXxh3, the XXH3-128 of the anchor's samples and of the track's samples from toleranceSamples to samples - toleranceSamples. A sample is 4 bytes, one 16-bit stereo pair, as drive offsets are counted. The anchor is 5,880 samples (ten sectors) or the track's samples less twice the tolerance, if fewer, placed at the first of nine places, the middle of the track first, where its samples do not repeat within twice the tolerance. The .NET fingerprint takes tracks 2 to 99, so an audio CD's first track cannot be carried over.
  • fingerprintProblem: null when the fingerprint was recorded. Otherwise fingerprint is null and this gives a reason and a detail: ambiguous (the anchor repeats within twice the tolerance at every place tried, as in silence or a short loop), short (the track is too short for an anchor inside the tolerance), unread (samples the dump did not read lie inside the central samples) or unreadable (the samples around the anchor are not held as raw samples).
  • unreadSamples: [first, stop) sample ranges, counted from INDEX 01 and negative inside the pregap, that the dump holds as zero fill because no read reached them (see Read offsets). [] when every sample was read.

• source: where the disc came from. For a drive, the backend and dump, the cue sheet the formats were written from. readOffsetCorrected says whether the audio was corrected by the drive's read offset and readOffset gives the offset applied. For redumper both come from its log: the offset its configuration: line shows, or false and null when redumper warned that its database has no offset for the drive and no --backend-arg=--drive-read-offset=<offset> was given, since it then reads with offset 0. Both are null when the log does not say. cdrdao is corrected with --read-offset, recording the value given, and false and null without it. Both are null for an image (whose offset the archiver cannot know) or the data track copy (which reads no audio). driveConfiguration is the drive configuration redumper read with, from its log, and null for any other source or when the log does not show it:

  • vendor, product and revision: the drive's inquiry. revision is null when the drive reports none.
  • inRedumperDatabase: false when redumper warned that its database does not list the drive, or lists it without its firmware revision. Either way redumper starts from the generic configuration.
  • type, readOffset, c2Shift, pregapStart and readMethod: redumper's configuration: line.
  • sectorOrder: the order of the data, C2 and subchannel blocks the dump read with.
  • sectorOrderSource: database (redumper's entry for the drive), auto-detected (found by --auto-detect, see Drives redumper does not list), override (given with --backend-arg=--drive-sector-order=<order>) or default (the generic order, for a drive the database lacks when detection found none).

  dataErrors is null unless redumper stopped on data errors and the archiver wrote the image anyway (see Data errors). It holds:

  • sectorsBefore: the data sectors with C2 errors in the dump.
  • refined: whether redumper refine read them again.
  • sectors: the bad sectors left, and edcFailing: how many of those have data whose EDC does not match.
  • ranges: the sectors left, as first and last LBA and the count of bad sectors between them; sectors less than 16 apart share a range.
  • files: each file of the primary ISO 9660 tree that holds a bad sector, as its path and the count of sectors; empty when none does, null when the volume could not be read. A directory whose records hold a bad sector is listed too, with a path ending in /, since the damage can hide the files it lists.
  • outcome: cleared, outsideFiles, insideFiles, tooMany or unlocated.

  discAnalysis is what redumper's steps after the dump logged about the disc, read from the log of its last run that dumped from the drive to the end of the log, so the refine and split runs added after data errors count too. Where a step ran more than once, its last run counts. It is null for any other source and when the log shows no dump. A field is null when the step that logs it did not run or did not log it. The archiver prints a line when it holds a protection, a SecuROM scheme or offset shifts. The fields:

  • protections: what redumper's protection step found, [] when it logged protection: none. redumper checks for SafeDisc and a few console schemes there; none does not rule out a protection it does not check for.
  • writeOffset: the disc write offset in samples, from the split step.
  • offsetShifts: the split step's offset configuration of a data disc, each run of sectors as its first lba (counted by position in the dump), the count of sectors and the write offset in samples, leaving out the one-sector false sync frames that split drops. Listed only when the runs have more than one offset; [] when they share one, null for a disc without a data track.
  • universalHashSha1: the split step's Universal Hash (SHA-1), null when redumper skipped it.
  • subchannelShift: the shift in sectors of redumper's shifting subchannel data warning, null when it logged none.
  • dataTracks: each data track of the info step, as its file, its invalidSyncSectors (sectors without the data sync pattern, which redumper checks no further), invalidModeSectors (a mode above 2), generatedSectors (user data entirely 0x55 bytes), msfErrors, eccErrors and edcErrors (sectors whose header address, ECC or EDC is wrong) and nonCompliantEccErrors (mode 2 form 1 sectors whose ECC covers the header, which redumper counts apart from eccErrors), each a count and ranges of first and last LBA, zero when redumper logged none, xaSubheaderMismatches, the count of mode 2 sectors whose two subheader copies differ, and redumpInfoErrors, redumper's count of sectors with a wrong ECC or EDC or differing mode 2 subheader copies, each sector counted once. LBAs count sectors by their position in the dump. Null when the info step did not run, as after data errors.
  • protectionSchemes: each SecuROM block of the info step, as system, file and scheme (1 to 4, or unknown). Null when the info step did not run.
  • warnings: every warning of the protection, refine, split, hash and info steps, without the warning: prefix, each once, in the order logged. Warnings about the drive and from the dump itself are left out.

• profile.checks: each expectation of the profile and what the disc showed.

• outputs: each format's files, with size, CRC32, MD5, SHA-1 and SHA-256 (the hashes disc databases such as Redump list, which --dat compares) and XXH3-128 (xxh3), what the format leaves out or generates (notes), for game-dir the listing of its files, and its verification. Each disc image format is read back and compared by its layout and content hashes, and by the catalog number, ISRC codes, FLAGS, indexes after INDEX 01 and CD-Text it holds, each of which is compared when the source or the copy has it (a copy that drops, changes or adds one differs). The cue sheets of bincue-split, bincue and the iso-* formats hold all of them; the sheet of iso-flac and iso-ogg is read without decoding its audio files. What the source has and the copy does not carry is listed under notCompared, naming the item and the format, so the copy is partial:

  • matched: everything the source holds was compared and agreed.
  • partial: everything compared agreed, and notCompared lists what the format does not hold or could not be compared: audio left out of an ISO, lossy Ogg audio, sound in a pregap that ISO-plus-audio formats drop, which sectors were empty form 2 sectors (an ISO holds them as zero blocks, and its notes name them), sessions a CHD does not hold, and the catalog number, ISRC codes, FLAGS, indexes or CD-Text of the formats above that do not carry them (an iso lists the catalog number, the CD-Text and its data track's own items).
  • mismatched: differences says what differs.

• unavailable: formats that could not be made from this source, and why. A plain ISO has no raw sectors, so no BIN/CUE, CloneCD, CHD, MDS or NRG can be made from it. An NRG file holds a catalog number of 13 digits and ISRC codes of 12 letters and digits; a source with other values has no NRG form. A data track with sectors that hold no user data has no ISO form, so the ISO formats are unavailable for it; BIN/CUE, CloneCD and CHD keep those sectors and compare them byte for byte.

• redump: null without --dat. Otherwise the DAT's file name (dat), the outcome (status, see Comparing with a Redump DAT), the game the track files match best (game, null when none), each file of the bincue-split copy with its kind (cueSheet or track), whether it matched and the DAT's name for it (datName), the files whose name differs from the DAT's (nameDifferences), what differed (differences), and for notListed and mismatched the games nearest by track size (candidates, see When the DAT does not list the disc).

The formats the archiver writes are compared with the source sample for sample: each is written from the same samples, and none of them moves the audio.

The GAME_DIR layout

The documentation standard lays out a build's files in GAME_DIR/<build ID>/, with the files a game reads from its disc under CD (CD2 and so on for a later disc). game-dir writes that CD directory for one disc, ready to copy into GAME_DIR/<build ID>/:

• CD/<path> for each file of the first data track. Names come from the disc's primary ISO 9660 volume, as a build entry names a file read from its CD (the standard's ENTRY-TYPES-11), not from Joliet: the version suffix is dropped, so SETUP.EXE;1 becomes CD/SETUP.EXE, as is a dot that ends a name with no extension. A name that would then be the same as another file's or a directory's beside it is kept in full (INSTALL.;1 beside the directory INSTALL). Each file gets the date the volume records.
• CD/trackNN.cdda for each audio track, with its two-digit number from the table of contents: the track's raw 2,352-byte sectors from INDEX 01 to the next track's INDEX 00, or to the lead-out for the last track, with no header. This is the range of the manifest's audio hashes, and the range CueBinSheet.TrackExtent gives in LegacyFormats. The pregap is left out.

The output's listing in the manifest gives each file as a build entry's manifest lists it, to copy into the restoration's build entry:

[
  { "path": "CD:SETUP.EXE", "size": 48128, "xxh3": "..." },
  { "path": "CD:track02", "format": "cdda", "size": 31752000, "xxh3": "..." }
]

Each xxh3 is what xxhsum -H2 prints for the file. The run reads every written file back and compares its path, size, SHA-256 and XXH3-128 with the source's files and audio hashes, and the listing with the written files. Sound in a pregap, which the layout does not hold, is listed as not compared. A disc file or directory at the root named like a track file (TRACK02.CDDA) makes the format unavailable, since the two would share a name.

Read offsets

A drive reads audio a fixed number of samples early or late: its read offset. The archiver counts it as redumper and AccurateRip's drive list do, so the same value means the same thing in both: a drive with an offset of +N returns at each position the sample N samples earlier on the disc. redumper corrects it. cdrdao does not, and neither do many player rips (ImgBurn, Alcohol, older cdrdao, EAC set up without the offset), so their audio sits N samples later than in a corrected dump and its sha256 differs in every track. The disc's data track is addressed by its sector headers and is not moved.

rip --backend cdrdao --read-offset <N> corrects the dump. The archiver keeps cdrdao's files in archival unchanged and writes archival/offset-corrected/, the same sheet and image with each corrected sample taken N samples later in the dump; the formats are written from it. Each run of consecutive audio tracks of one session, pregaps included, is one stream on the disc, so samples move across the boundaries between those tracks. At the end of a run for a positive offset, or its start for a negative one, the corrected samples lie where the drive did not read (the lead-out, the gap before the next session, or the data track before the run). Those are written as zeros and listed in the track's unreadSamples, and the log names them. A check never counts them as matching content. Find the offset for your drive in AccurateRip's drive offset list. Without --read-offset, the log says the cdrdao audio is uncorrected. Values beyond 5,880 samples are refused, and so is a dump that is not one file of raw sectors.

Checking a copy against a manifest

disc-archiver check --input <copy> --manifest rip-manifest.json says whether a copy, from this archiver or any other tool, holds the manifest's disc. The data track's user data must match the manifest's exactly. The track list must have the same number of tracks with audio in the same places. Each audio track of the manifest gets a status in the manifest.audio list of the JSON report:

manifest.identified is true, and the exit code 0, when the data track and the track list match and every audio track is matched or matched-shifted. Otherwise the exit code is 3.

The tolerance is 3,528 samples (six sectors, 80 ms) in either direction. Drive read offsets in AccurateRip's list run from about -1,500 to +1,700 samples, so it covers an uncorrected rip from any of those drives against a corrected dump, and two uncorrected rips from drives at opposite ends of that range (about 3,200 samples apart). The .NET fingerprint accepts up to 5,880. The check follows CddaTrackFingerprints.VerifyAsync step for step: the length, then the anchor at every shift within the tolerance, then the central samples at the one shift found.

Sessions

A CD-Extra (Enhanced CD) disc holds its audio in a first session and its data track in a second. Between two sessions lie the first one's lead-out and the next one's lead-in, which hold no track sectors: 6,750 sectors of lead-out after the first session, 2,250 after a later one, and 4,500 of lead-in. These are the standard multisession sizes, which chdman and libmirage lay sessions out with. The next session's first track starts there, usually with a 150-sector pregap, so a CD-Extra disc's data track has its INDEX 01 11,400 sectors past the first session's lead-out. redumper treats the sizes as minimums (CD_LEADOUT_MIN_SIZE, CD_LEADIN_MIN_SIZE), and a disc can have a longer gap. The archiver takes each gap from the source where the source gives it, and refuses one shorter than the standard. The manifest's track starts and leadOut values count the gaps, and each later session's entry gives its gap in sectors and gapSource: toc when a table of contents gave it, headers when the header of the session's first data sector did, headers-after-assumed when that header did but an earlier session's gap is assumed, and assumed when the source gives neither and the standard gap stands in. A headers-after-assumed gap is the verified address of the session's first track less the previous session's lead-out, which counts the assumed gap, so when that gap was really longer, this one holds the difference too. Verification compares each gap as part of the track layout and ignores gapSource, which says only where the gap was read.

Reading:

• A cue sheet gives sessions with REM SESSION nn before the first track of each session, as redumper, DiscImageCreator and chdman write them. They must be numbered from 01 in order, and each session must have a track. A sheet without them describes one session. A sheet gives no gap between sessions. When a raw data track opens a later session, the address in the header of its INDEX 01 sector gives the gap (headers). The header of the track's last sector must give the address that many sectors on, or the sheet is refused, so one damaged header does not move the session. A later session that opens with audio, or with a data track stored as 2,048-byte user data, has no such address, so it gets the standard gap, marked assumed, and a header gap in any session after it is marked headers-after-assumed. A CloneCD image gives every session's address in its table of contents, so it has no assumed gaps.
• DiscImageCreator also writes REM LEAD-OUT 01:30:00, REM LEAD-IN 01:00:00 and REM PREGAP 00:02:00 around a session change. It writes these three values on every disc, whatever its gap, so they are not read as the gap. The first two must give the sizes above, or the sheet is refused: one-file sheets from IsoBuster and DiscImageCreator give the lead-out's position there, which the archiver does not read. REM PREGAP is the pregap of the session's first track, which its file does not hold unless the track's INDEX 00 says so.
• A CloneCD image gives each track's session and disc address in its [Entry] sections, and each session's lead-out in its A2 entry. The image holds each session's sectors back to back. A later session's gap runs from the previous session's lead-out to its first track's INDEX 00 (toc). That track's INDEX 0 in its [TRACK] section gives its pregap, and the image size says whether the image holds it. A session's first track has a pregap of at least 150 sectors, so a first track without INDEX 0 that starts at most 150 sectors past the standard gap has the standard gap and a pregap of the sectors between, stored or not as the image size says. That is how DiscImageCreator writes a CD-Extra. A first track without INDEX 0 that starts further out has a pregap only of the sectors the image holds ahead of its INDEX 01. When the image holds none, the sectors could be an unstored pregap or a longer gap, and the image is refused; adding the track's INDEX 0 to its [TRACK] section decides it.
• A CHD is read through chdman extractcd, which gives sessions only for a CHD written by a chdman newer than MAME 0.289.

Writing:

• bincue-split writes REM SESSION nn before the FILE line of each session's first track, as redumper does, so a Redump-style dump is written back byte for byte. bincue writes it before the TRACK line inside its one file, as chdman does. A disc of one session gets no REM SESSION line. A sheet cannot hold a gap other than the standard one. When the session opens with a raw data track whose headers give its address, the copy's notes say so and reading the copy back takes the gap from the sector headers again. Otherwise the notes say that a reader lays the session out with the standard gap, and the verification lists the gap and the track starts that follow under notCompared, so the copy is partial. The iso-* sheets, whose data track is an ISO file, get the second note.
• ccd writes a [Session N] section per session, and each session's A0, A1 and A2 entries and track entries with its session number and disc addresses. The [TRACK] index addresses and the generated subchannel's Q times count the gaps, whatever their length; the image holds no sectors for them. A later session's first track gets its INDEX 0 when the image holds its pregap, and when the gap before it is longer than the standard one or its pregap is longer than 150 sectors, so a reader can tell the pregap from the gap; that INDEX 0 sits at INDEX 1 when the track has no pregap. Otherwise the track is written as DiscImageCreator writes it, without INDEX 0. When two pregaps of tracks that open later sessions, one stored and one not, would leave the image size unable to say which the image holds, ccd is unavailable. The table of contents has no mode 5 (B0, C0) entries.
• chd gives chdman the bincue sheet. chdman releases up to MAME 0.289 read its sessions but do not store them in the CHD, so reading it back gives one session with the tracks back to back. The CHD then gets a note saying so, its verification lists the sessions and the track starts under notCompared, and it is partial; every sector is still compared. A CHD from a later chdman keeps them and is compared in full, apart from a gap longer than the standard one: chdman lays sessions out with the standard gaps, so such a CHD gets a note, its verification lists the gap and the track starts that follow under notCompared, and it is partial.
• mds and nrg are unavailable for a disc of more than one session.
• A data pregap that the source did not store (DiscImageCreator's REM PREGAP, or a cue PREGAP on a data track) is written as a cue PREGAP; CloneCD leaves it out of the image for the first track of a later session and is unavailable for any other track.

Data tracks after audio

The volume on a CD-Extra disc's data track is usually mastered with addresses counted from the start of the disc, while a volume on a disc's first track counts from the track. The archiver reads the primary volume descriptor at sector 16 of the track and tries each place the addresses can count from:

• the track's first sector;
• the track's LBA as the source lays the disc out. When the source gives sessions, this is where the track sits on the disc, and it is the place that fits.
• for raw sectors of a track in the first session, the LBA the header of sector 16 gives. A source without sessions lays every track out back to back without the lead-out and lead-in between sessions, so on a CD-Extra dump read that way this is the place that fits. A track in a later session sits where its sessions put it, so its sector headers are not asked.

A place fits when the root directory extent the descriptor gives lands inside the track and the volume, past the volume descriptors, on a directory whose . record gives that same extent. Every address the file system gives, its file extents and declared volume size included, is read against the one place that fits. When none fits, or more than one does, the archiver does not choose: files is unavailable with the reason, a profile's expectedPaths stop the run, and the fingerprint admits no sector past the volume. An ISO-plus-cue copy of a CD-Extra disc keeps no sector headers, so its files can be located only when its sheet gives the sessions with REM SESSION lines or otherwise places the track where it sits on the disc.

A volume may record its primary volume descriptor more than once. Some copy-protected discs mark the second copy in its application use field, which the file system never reads, so a copy that differs from the one at sector 16 only there is read as the first one. The bytes after that field are reserved, and pycdlib reads a copy that differs only in them, or in the file structure version, as it is. A copy whose other fields differ leaves which one describes the file system unknown: files and game-dir are unavailable with the reason, and the other formats are still written. The same holds for a volume whose descriptors or directories cannot be read at all.

Disc profiles

A restoration describes its disc in a profile file (schema) and keeps it in its own repository. The file is UTF-8, with or without one leading byte order mark (which Windows PowerShell 5.1 writes for -Encoding utf8); a file starting with a UTF-16 or UTF-32 byte order mark or with more than one UTF-8 mark, or bytes that are not UTF-8, are refused with the cause named:

{
  "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kibertoad/refurbished-dinosaurs-toolkit/main/schemas/disc-profile.schema.json",
  "profile": 1,
  "title": "Example Game, English retail CD-ROM",
  "restoration": "example-game-restored",
  "layout": "mixed-mode",
  "volumeIdentifier": "EXAMPLE",
  "audioTracks": 11,
  "expectedPaths": ["DATA"],
  "recommendedFormats": ["bincue"],
  "notes": "Shown in the window under the profile."
}

layout is data-only (one ISO 9660 track) or mixed-mode (a data track followed by CD audio). recommendedFormats are the formats the restoration's importer reads, and are ticked by default. Any expectation the profile leaves out is not checked. The built-in profiles are any, data-only and mixed-mode; without a recommendation a data-only disc gets iso and anything else gets bincue, which keeps the audio. A copy with no raw sectors falls back to iso.

Python

from pathlib import Path

from dinorefurb_disc_archiver import derive, fingerprint, load_profile, open_source

with open_source(Path("game.cue"), Path("work"), print) as disc:
    print(fingerprint(disc))
    derive(disc, Path("out"), "game", ["bincue", "iso"], load_profile("mixed-mode"), print, {})

The supported imports are the names in dinorefurb_disc_archiver.__all__.

Limits

• A cue sheet's first track must start at INDEX 01 00:00:00; POSTGAP, MODE2/2336, CDG and MOTOROLA files are refused.
• Sessions are laid out with the standard lead-out and lead-in sizes. A cue sheet or CloneCD image that gives other sizes, or a lead-out's position, is refused, as is a cue sheet whose later session's data track has sector headers that place it elsewhere (see Sessions).
• Cue sheets are limited to 1 MiB and 99 tracks, .mds descriptors and the descriptor blocks of an .nrg to 1 MiB and 99 tracks, profiles to 64 KiB, file systems to 200,000 files.
• Alcohol 120% and Nero images are read and written only with one session. MDS version 2 and MDX descriptors, which can be encrypted, DVD images, split .mdf files, Nero MODE2 user data without sector headers and Nero blocks other than CUEX, CUES, DAOX, DAOI, ETN2, ETNF, SINF, MTYP, CDTX, DINF, TOCT and END! are refused. The written .mds and .nrg files follow libmirage's and Aaru's readings of the formats and are checked by the archiver's own readers, not by Alcohol 120%, DAEMON Tools or Nero.
• data-copy stops at the first sector that still fails after five reads. Nothing stands in for an unread sector.
• The CloneCD subchannel is generated, not read: it carries no copy-protection marks. Use the redumper dump in archival when they matter.
• Drives are listed on Windows and Linux. On macOS, give --drive as redumper names it.