applications should use taglib instead of id3lib

[Fabian Zeindl]

Binary package hint: libid3-3.8.3

There are many problems with applications which use id3lib, because it wasn't updated in 5 years and can only write ID3 2.3 tags.
Most ubuntu-supported applications such as Sound-Juicer or AmaroK read and write ID3 2.4 only which leads to confusing behaviour.
The best would be to convince application authors to switch to TagLib which is much better maintained at the moment.

Related bugs:
Bug 120538
Bug 64905
Bug 178113

[wvengen (wvengen)]

Thanks for your bug report, this is indeed the source these id3-related problems.

It seems that indeed id3lib has problems with maintainership (see also http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_name=000901c772de%24f20b9520%2401010101%40rock&forum_name=id3lib-devel ). It may be possible to create a quick fix for the 2.4 version problem in libid3, but no maintainers means trouble in the future. I see the following solutions:
(A) revive libid3
(B) convince upstream projects to use another library
(C) create a glue library that gives a libid3 API to access another library like TagLib.

I think (A) is not really feasible out of the blue. (B) would be worth a try, but 20 packages (apt-cache rdepends) are a lot. (C) may be interesting depending on the work needed and the result of (B).
I hope the C++-basedness of TagLib poses no problem for upstreams (although there are C bindings); libid3tag from the MAD project would be another alternative.

Note that how applications should handle different id3 versions is another relevant question; mp3-players aren't easily patched to support v2.4, so it may not be always the best thing to upgrade a tag to the latest version (like Rhythmbox does).

[Fabian Zeindl (fabian-xover)]

I think B is hardly more work than C. And why create a glue library when you can use taglib or libid3tag directly? Code has to be changed anyway.

@MP3-Players: This is a difficult issue, maybe we should rely on that they at least support ID3 v1.

[Jerome COUDERC (easytag)]

Note that since the version 2.1.1, EasyTAG uses libid3tag for reading and writing tags. So id3lib is optional and will be used only if you want to write tags to ID3v2.3

[wvengen (wvengen)]

verified with Gutsy's EasyTAG which has version 2.1.2 currently; one can choose the id3v2 version (v2.3/v2.4) in the preferences.

[Andreas Moog (ampelbein)]

This bug report is being closed due to your last comment regarding this being fixed with an update. For future reference you can manage the status of your own bugs by clicking on the current status in the yellow line and then choosing a new status in the revealed drop down box. You can learn more about bug statuses at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Status . Thank you again for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Feel free to submit any future bugs you may find.