pytaglib 0.3.2

TagLib bindings for python 2.x/3.x, written using cython

Overview

pytaglib is a package of Python (2.x/3.x) bindings for TagLib. To my knowledge this so far is the only full-featured audio metadata library that supports python3.x.

Also, the package gives you complete freedom over the tag names – you are not limited to common tags like ARTIST, ALBUM etc.; instead you may use any string as key as long as the underlying metadata format supports it (most of them do, including mp3, ogg, and FLAC). Moreover, you can even use multiple values of the same tag, to e.g. store two artists, several genres, and so on.

Requirements

To compile the bindings you need need the Cython compiler for your version of python. Note that some distributions do not yet ship Cython compiled for python3, but you can easily get it by typing:

sudo easy_install3 cython

into a console.

pytaglib uses TagLib features that have been added only in version 1.8-BETA, so you need at least that version along with development headers. The recent releases of most linux flavours nowadays ship taglib-1.8, including:

• Ubuntu 12.10

• Debian “experimental” branch

• Linux Mint 14

• Up-To-Date Arch Linux

• Gentoo Linux (unstable)

• Fedora 17

The upcoming release 1.9 of taglib is recommended, since it fixes some bugs that may affect pytaglib in less common circumstances.

Installation

As long as pytaglib is not contained in the major distribution’s package repositories, you have to install it manually by one of the following methods.

The easiest way is to use pip or easy_install:

sudo pip pytaglib

or:

sudo easy_install pytaglib

On most systems, this will install the python2 version; use something like:

sudo easy_install3 pytaglib

to build the package for python3 (the exact command depends on your distribution).

Alternatively, you can download the source tarball and compile manually:

python3 setup.py build
python3 setup.py test  # optional
sudo python3 setup.py install

Replace 3 by whatever Python version you use.

Basic Usage

The use of the library is pretty straightforward:

1. Load the library: import taglib

2. Open a file: f = taglib.File("/path/to/file.mp3")

3. Read tags from the dict f.tags, mapping uppercase tag names to lists of tag values (note that even single values are stored as list in order to be consistent).

4. Some other information about the file is available as well: f.length, f.sampleRate, f.channels, f.bitrate, and f.readOnly.

5. Alter the tags by manipulating the dictionary f.tags. You should always use uppercase tag names and the values must be strings.

6. Save everything: retval = f.save().

7. If some tags could not be saved because they are not supported by the underlying format, those will be contained in the value returned from f.save().

The following snippet should show the most relevant features. For a complete reference confer the online help via help(taglib.File).

$ python
Python 3.3.0 (default, Sep 29 2012, 15:50:43)
[GCC 4.7.1 20120721 (prerelease)] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import taglib
>>> f = taglib.File("x.flac")
>>> f
File('x.flac')
>>> f.tags
{'ARTIST': ['piman', 'jzig'], 'ALBUM': ['Quod Libet Test Data'], 'TITLE': ['Silence'], 'GENRE': ['Silence'], 'TRACKNUMBER': ['02/10'], 'DATE': ['2004']}
>>> f.tags["ALBUM"] = ["Always use lists even for single values"]
>>> del f.tags["GENRE"]
>>> f.tags["ARTIST"].remove("jzig")
>>> retval = f.save()
>>> retval
{}
>>>

pyprinttags

This package also installs the small script pyprinttags. It takes one or more files as command-line parameters and will display all known metadata of that files on the terminal. If unsupported tags (a.k.a. non-textual information) are found, they can optionally be removed from the file.