MKVPROPEDIT(1)                   User Commands                  MKVPROPEDIT(1)



NAME
       mkvpropedit - Modify properties of existing Matroska(TM) files without
       a complete remux

SYNOPSIS
       mkvpropedit [options] {source-filename} {actions}

DESCRIPTION
       This program analyses an existing Matroska(TM) file and modifies some
       of its properties. Then it writes those modifications to the existing
       file. Among the properties that can be changed are the segment
       information elements (e.g. the title) and the track headers (e.g. the
       language code, 'default track' flag or the name).

       Options:

       -l, --list-property-names
           Lists all known and editable property names, their type (string,
           integer, boolean etc) and a short description. The program exits
           afterwards. Therefore the source-filename parameter does not have
           to be supplied.

       -p, --parse-mode mode
           Sets the parse mode. The parameter 'mode' can either be 'fast'
           (which is also the default) or 'full'. The 'fast' mode does not
           parse the whole file but uses the meta seek elements for locating
           the required elements of a source file. In 99% of all cases this is
           enough. But for files that do not contain meta seek elements or
           which are damaged the user might have to set the 'full' parse mode.
           A full scan of a file can take a couple of minutes while a fast
           scan only takes seconds.

       Actions:

       -e, --edit selector
           Sets the Matroska(TM) file section (segment information or a
           certain track's headers) that all following add, set and delete
           actions operate on. This option can be used multiple times in order
           to make modifications to more than one element.

           See the section about edit selectors for a full description of the
           syntax.

       -a, --add name=value
           Adds a property name with the value value. The property will be
           added even if such a property exists already. Note that most
           properties are unique and cannot occur more than once.

       -s, --set name=value
           Sets all occurrences of the property name to the value value. If no
           such property exists then it will be added.

       -d, --delete name
           Deletes all occurrences of the property name. Note that some
           properties are required and cannot be deleted.

       Other options:

       --command-line-charset character-set
           Sets the character set to convert strings given on the command line
           from. It defaults to the character set given by system's current
           locale.

       --output-charset character-set
           Sets the character set to which strings are converted that are to
           be output. It defaults to the character set given by system's
           current locale.

       -r, --redirect-output file-name
           Writes all messages to the file file-name instead of to the
           console. While this can be done easily with output redirection
           there are cases in which this option is needed: when the terminal
           reinterprets the output before writing it to a file. The character
           set set with --output-charset is honored.

       --ui-language code
           Forces the translations for the language code to be used (e.g.
           'de_DE' for the German translations). It is preferable to use the
           environment variables LANG, LC_MESSAGES and LC_ALL though. Entering
           'list' as the code will cause mkvextract(1) to output a list of
           available translations.

       -v, --verbose
           Be verbose and show all the important Matroska(TM) elements as
           they're read.

       -h, --help
           Show usage information and exit.

       -V, --version
           Show version information and exit.

       @options-file
           Reads additional command line arguments from the file options-file.
           Lines whose first non-whitespace character is a hash mark ('#') are
           treated as comments and ignored. White spaces at the start and end
           of a line will be stripped. Each line must contain exactly one
           option. There is no meta character escaping.

           The command line 'mkvpropedit source.mkv --edit track:a2 --set
           name=Comments' could be converted into the following option file:

               # Modify source.mkv
               source.mkv
               # Edit the second audio track
               --edit
               track:a2
               # and set the title to 'Comments'
               --set
               title=Comments


EDIT SELECTORS
       The --edit option sets the Matroska(TM) file section (segment
       information or a certain track's headers) that all following add, set
       and delete actions operate on. This stays valid until the next --edit
       option is found. The argument to this option is called the edit
       selector.

   Segment information
       The segment information can be selected with one of these three words:
       'info', 'segment_info' or 'segmentinfo'. It contains properties like
       the segment title or the segment UID.

   Track headers
       Track headers can be selected with a slightly more complex selector.
       All variations start with 'track:'. The track header properties include
       elements like the language code, 'default track' flag or the track's
       name.

       track:n
           If the parameter n is a number then the nth track will be selected.
           The track order is the same that mkvmerge(1)'s --identify option
           outputs.

       track:tn
           If the parameter starts with a single character t followed by a n
           then the nth track of a specific track type will be selected. The
           track type parameter t must be one of these four characters: 'a'
           for an audio track, 'b' for a button track, 's' for a subtitle
           track and 'v' for a video track. The track order is the same that
           mkvmerge(1)'s --identify option outputs.

       track:=uid
           If the parameter starts with a '=' followed by a number uid then
           the track whose track UID element equals this uid. Track UIDs can
           be obtained with mkvinfo(1).

       track:@number
           If the parameter starts with a '@' followed by a number number then
           the track whose track number element equals this number. Track
           number can be obtained with mkvinfo(1).

   Notes
       Due to the nature of the track edit selectors it is possible that
       several selectors actually match the same track headers. In such cases
       all actions for those edit selectors will be combined and executed in
       the order in which they're given on the command line.

EXAMPLES
       The following example edits a file called 'movie.mkv'. It sets the
       segment title and modifies the language code of an audio and a subtitle
       track. Note that this example can be shortened by leaving out the first
       --edit option because editing the segment information element is the
       default for all options found before the first --edit option anyway.

           $ mkvpropedit movie.mkv --edit info --set "title=The movie" --edit track:a1 --set language=fre --edit track:a2 --set language=ita


       The second example removes the 'default track flag' from the first
       subtitle track and sets it for the second one. Note that
       mkvpropedit(1), unlike mkvmerge(1), does not set the 'default track
       flag' of other tracks to '0' if it is set to '1' for a different track
       automatically.

           $ mkvpropedit movie.mkv --edit tracks:s1 --set flag-default=0 --edit tracks:s2 --set flag-default=1


EXIT CODES
       mkvpropedit(1) exits with one of three exit codes:

       o    0 -- This exit codes means that the modification has completed
           successfully.

       o    1 -- In this case mkvpropedit(1) has output at least one warning,
           but the modification did continue. A warning is prefixed with the
           text 'Warning:'. Depending on the issues involved the resulting
           files might be ok or not. The user is urged to check both the
           warning and the resulting files.

       o    2 -- This exit code is used after an error occurred.
           mkvpropedit(1) aborts right after outputting the error message.
           Error messages range from wrong command line arguments over
           read/write errors to broken files.

SEE ALSO
       mkvmerge(1), mkvinfo(1), mkvextract(1), mmg(1)

WWW
       The latest version can always be found at the MKVToolNix homepage[1].

AUTHOR
       Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
           Developer

NOTES
        1. the MKVToolNix homepage
           http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/



MkvToolNix 4.0.0                  2010-06-05                    MKVPROPEDIT(1)
