trackerhelper 0.3.1

Utilities for music discography folders (stats, BBCode, normalize).

trackerhelper

English documentation. For Russian, see README.ru.md.

Utilities for music discography folders (for example, Albums/* and Singles/*):

• dr.ps1 automates foobar2000 Dynamic Range (DR) scans and saves logs per release.
• trackerhelper is a CLI that scans releases, summarizes durations, and generates BBCode templates. It can match *_dr.txt logs and optionally upload cover.jpg to FastPic.

Project docs:

• docs/ARCHITECTURE.md
• docs/DATA_FLOW.md
• docs/CONTRIBUTING.md

Code layout (developer notes):

• trackerhelper/commands/ CLI command wiring
• trackerhelper/core/ core logic and dataclasses
• trackerhelper/io/ filesystem + external tool helpers
• trackerhelper/formatting/ BBCode and output formatting

Requirements

dr.ps1 (Windows)

WARNING: You must enable automatic DR log saving in foobar2000, otherwise dr.ps1 will not see the log file.

• Windows 10/11
• PowerShell 5+ (or PowerShell 7+)
• foobar2000 installed (standard or portable)
• DR Meter component installed
• Automatic DR log writing enabled

If DR Meter saves logs to a global folder, dr.ps1 will not see them because it expects the log inside the release folder (or staging copy when the source is read-only).

trackerhelper (Windows / Linux / macOS)

• Python 3.10+
• ffprobe from ffmpeg available in PATH
• requests (used for FastPic uploads in release, installed with the package)

Check:

ffprobe -version

Recommended folder structure

Example:

DiscographyRoot/
  Albums/
    Album Name - 2019/
      01 - Track.flac
      02 - Track.flac
    Another Album - 2021/
      ...
  Singles/
    Single Name - 2020/
      ...

Notes:

• Group is the first path segment (for example Albums or Singles). Other groups are supported and printed separately.
• A release is any folder with at least one supported audio file.
• Year in the release folder name can be Title - 2024 and is used for BBCode output.

Install

pip install trackerhelper

Developer install from repo:

git clone https://github.com/pryid/trackerhelper
cd trackerhelper
pip install -e .

On Windows, if PowerShell blocks scripts, you can allow them for the current user:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser

Usage

More examples: examples/README.md.

1) DR logs via foobar2000 (dr.ps1)

Basic run

.\dr.ps1 -Root "D:\Music\Artist"

By default the script:

• looks for releases in Root\Albums\* and Root\Singles\* if those groups exist,
• otherwise treats Root\* as releases,
• copies each release into a local staging folder only when the source is read-only (for example SMB),
• runs foobar2000 context menu command Measure Dynamic Range,
• waits for a foo_dr*.txt|log file inside the release folder (or staging if read-only),
• copies the log into the reports folder.

Where reports are saved

If -OutDir is not set, reports go to:

• %USERPROFILE%\Music\DR

File name: <release_name>_dr.txt (release name comes from the folder name; invalid characters are replaced with _).

If foobar2000 is portable or not in the default location

.\dr.ps1 -Root "D:\Music\Artist" -FoobarPath "D:\Apps\foobar2000\foobar2000.exe"

Common parameters

• -Root (required) release root folder
• -FoobarPath path to foobar2000.exe if auto-detect fails
• -CommandName exact context menu command name (default: "Measure Dynamic Range")
• -Groups release groups (default: Albums, Singles)
• -Ext audio extensions list
• -TimeoutSec max wait per release (default: 1800 seconds)
• -LogNameRegex log filename regex (default: ^foo_dr.*\.(txt|log)$)
• -OutDir output folder for final *_dr.txt
• -StageRoot staging folder location (used only for read-only sources)
• -KeepStage keep staging folder (useful for debugging)
• -ShowFoobar show foobar window (default is minimized)

Example for read-only source (SMB)

.\dr.ps1 -Root "\\NAS\Music\Artist" -OutDir "D:\Reports\DR"

2) Duration stats and BBCode (trackerhelper)

Basic stats (grouped output)

trackerhelper stats "/path/to/DiscographyRoot"

Output per release includes:

• duration
• track count (only files where duration was read)
• bit depth and sample rate (if ffprobe returns values)

The end prints Total: ....

Include tracks directly under root

By default the root is not treated as a release. To include it:

trackerhelper stats "/path/to/DiscographyRoot" --include-root

Add extra extensions (repeatable)

trackerhelper stats "/path/to/DiscographyRoot" --ext .ape --ext .tak

Normalize release folder names

Dry run by default:

trackerhelper normalize "/path/to/DiscographyRoot"

Apply changes:

trackerhelper normalize "/path/to/DiscographyRoot" --apply

Formats:

• single release: Artist - Album (Year)
• multiple releases: Year - Artist - Album

Note: normalize uses audio tags for album and artist, and the year from the folder name. If tags or year are missing, the folder is skipped.

Generate a BBCode discography template

trackerhelper release "/path/to/DiscographyRoot"

By default BBCode labels are Russian. Use English output:

trackerhelper release "/path/to/DiscographyRoot" --bbcode-lang en

or:

trackerhelper release "/path/to/DiscographyRoot" --bbcode-en

Disable FastPic cover upload:

trackerhelper release "/path/to/DiscographyRoot" --no-cover

Output file is written to the current working directory as:

• <root_folder_name>.txt

The template keeps placeholders like ROOT_COVER_URL, GENRE, Service, YEAR. Russian output uses ЛЕЙБЛ for the label placeholder, English output uses LABEL.

Add DR reports to BBCode

If you already have *_dr.txt (for example from dr.ps1), pass the log directory:

trackerhelper release "/path/to/DiscographyRoot" --dr "C:\Users\<you>\Music\DR"

The tool tries to match DR logs by folder name (several name patterns plus whitespace/dash normalization). If no report is found, BBCode keeps info.

FastPic cover upload (optional)

If the release folder contains cover.jpg (case-insensitive), release uploads the cover to FastPic and inserts the direct link. If not found or upload fails, it keeps COVER_URL.

3) Formatting-only mode (--test)

trackerhelper stats "/any/path" --test
trackerhelper release "/any/path" --test

4) Detect duplicate releases by audio fingerprints (trackerhelper dedupe)

trackerhelper dedupe --roots Albums Singles

Options:

• --move-to DIR move duplicate releases to a folder
• --delete delete duplicate releases (dangerous)

--test uses synthetic data from trackerhelper/core/synthetic_dataset.py and lets you check formatting without real files or ffprobe.

Troubleshooting

dr.ps1: log does not appear

Most common reasons:

• automatic log writing is not enabled in DR Meter;
• DR Meter saves logs outside the release folder.

For diagnostics:

.\dr.ps1 -Root "D:\Music\Artist" -LogNameRegex ".*\.(txt|log)$" -KeepStage

Check what files are created inside the release folder (or the staging folder if the source is read-only).

dr.ps1: "cannot find foobar2000.exe"

Provide the path manually:

.\dr.ps1 -Root "D:\Music\Artist" -FoobarPath "D:\Apps\foobar2000\foobar2000.exe"

trackerhelper: Error: ffprobe not found

Install ffmpeg and add it to PATH so ffprobe is available.

trackerhelper: bit depth / sample rate = unknown or mixed

This is normal:

• some formats do not provide these fields or ffprobe does not return them;
• a release may contain mixed parameters so it shows mixed.