There have been some recent reports of problems with .cur files showing
up in music libraries, but turning out to be unplayable. These files are
related to the presence of (usually unwanted) .cue files or cue sheets
embedded in flac files, so the solution is simple: get rid of the cue
files or embedded cue sheets. The .cur files disappear.
But I haven't found any discussion of exactly what these .cur files are,
and that's what I would like to address. I do not have any knowledge of
the code involved, so all I have to to say is speculation, but I have
tried to base it on logic and observation.
Background: originally LMS supported cue files that pointed to a single
audio file, defining a sequence of tracks contained within the file,
such as a rip of an entire CD or a side of an LP. A few years ago some
changes were made so that now LMS can use cue sheets that point to
multiple files, so each of the tracks can be a separate file. These
changes seem to be when .cur file problems began occurring.
Why would you want a cue sheet pointing to multiple files? If every
track on an album is already a separate file, why not just play those
files? There could be some valid reasons: having one file for each side
of an LP could be one reason. But another reason, maybe not so valid, is
because you want to use certain features in ways that were never
intended. And that is the reason for my interest in this issue: I want
to use the same individual track files in two or more albums, so I want
to be able to address the same files from multiple cue sheets.
Again, why? One reason is to be able to break individual albums out of
comprehensive compilations, like Mosaic box sets. Another reason has to
do with classical albums that contain several works, each with multiple
movements on different tracks. It may be desirable to have easy access
to the entire album, and to each of the complete works included.
(Note: it has been pointed out in another thread on the subject that it
would be much more sensible to just copy the files to a different
folder. That's very true, but not relevant to this post. Remember, this
part is just background!)
One complication with this is that files that are addressed by a cue
sheet are not supposed to be visible in the LMS database, for obvious
reasons. They are visible if you browse the music folder, but they
cannot be played. Oddly enough, they can be added to favorites, though.
In my scenario of a box set and separate albums contained within it (not
necessarily in the same sequence), it is necessary for both the box set
and the original albums to be defined by .cue files. It also seems to
help if the actual flac files are not directly scanned by LMS, so I put
them in a separate folder with a sentinel file to tell the scanner to
skip the folder. I put symbolic links to those files in the folder with
the cue sheet, which points to the symlinks.
That's all background to explain what I think is happening with .cur
files. It appears to me that they are database entries created by LMS
when it encounters discrepancies between a cue sheet and the tags it
finds in the flac files the cue sheet points to. For instance, if the
album name or track number is different, it stores a virtual .cur file
with the attributes of the flac file. The .cur file cannot be played,
but it can be added to the current playlist and LMS will throw an error
when it attempts to play the file.
If my speculation is wildly off base, I hope someone (by which I mainly
mean Michael, but there are others who may know, as well) will correct
me. But if this is close to what actually happens my question is this:
Is it really necessary for LMS to display the .cur files and allow them
to be loaded into the play queue? I assume they do serve a purpose,
internally, but couldn't they be hidden? Are there any occasions when it
is desirable for the user to see them in the database?
Here's an error report of a recent attempt to play a .cur file (I have
shortened the path to the file for readability, but it is otherwise
unedited):
Code:
--------------------
[22-03-02 15:36:18.9383] Slim::Formats::loadTagFormatForType (120) Error:
Couldn't load module: (cur) : [syntax error at (eval 1441) line 1, at EOF
]
[22-03-02 15:36:18.9390] Slim::Formats::loadTagFormatForType (120) Backtrace:
frame 0: Slim::Utils::Log::logBacktrace (/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Formats.pm
line 120)
frame 1: Slim::Formats::loadTagFormatForType
(/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Player/Protocols/File.pm line 409)
frame 2: Slim::Player::Protocols::File::canSeek
(/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Player/Song.pm line 842)
frame 3: Slim::Player::Song::canDoSeek (/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Player/Song.pm
line 812)
frame 4: Slim::Player::Song::canSeek (/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Player/Song.pm
line 394)
frame 5: Slim::Player::Song::open
(/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Player/StreamingController.pm line 1229)
frame 6: Slim::Player::StreamingController::_Stream
(/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Player/StreamingController.pm line 287)
frame 7: Slim::Player::StreamingController::_eventAction
(/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Player/StreamingController.pm line 746)
frame 8: Slim::Player::StreamingController::_nextTrackReady
(/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Player/StreamingController.pm line 700)
frame 9: Slim::Player::StreamingController::__ANON__
(/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Player/Song.pm line 336)
frame 10: Slim::Player::Song::getNextSong
(/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Player/StreamingController.pm line 705)
frame 11: Slim::Player::StreamingController::_getNextTrack
(/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Player/StreamingController.pm line 961)
frame 12: Slim::Player::StreamingController::_StopGetNext
(/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Player/StreamingController.pm line 287)
frame 13: Slim::Player::StreamingController::_eventAction
(/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Player/StreamingController.pm line 2124)
frame 14: Slim::Player::StreamingController::play
(/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Control/Commands.pm line 1052)
frame 15: Slim::Control::Commands::playlistJumpCommand
(/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Control/Request.pm line 1883)
frame 16: (eval) (/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Control/Request.pm line 1883)
frame 17: Slim::Control::Request::execute
(/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Control/Request.pm line 880)
frame 18: Slim::Control::Request::executeRequest
(/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Player/Client.pm line 635)
frame 19: Slim::Player::Client::execute
(/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Control/Commands.pm line 1810)
frame 20: Slim::Control::Commands::playlistXtracksCommand
(/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Control/Request.pm line 1883)
frame 21: (eval) (/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Control/Request.pm line 1883)
frame 22: Slim::Control::Request::execute
(/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Control/Request.pm line 880)
frame 23: Slim::Control::Request::executeRequest
(/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Control/Commands.pm line 2127)
frame 24: Slim::Control::Commands::playlistcontrolCommand
(/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Control/Request.pm line 1883)
frame 25: (eval) (/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Control/Request.pm line 1883)
frame 26: Slim::Control::Request::execute
(/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Control/Request.pm line 880)
frame 27: Slim::Control::Request::executeRequest
(/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Web/HTTP.pm line 929)
frame 28: Slim::Web::HTTP::processURL (/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Web/HTTP.pm line
728)
frame 29: Slim::Web::HTTP::processHTTP
(/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Networking/IO/Select.pm line 122)
frame 30: (eval) (/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Networking/IO/Select.pm line 118)
frame 31: Slim::Networking::IO::Select::__ANON__
(/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Networking/IO/Select.pm line 167)
frame 32: (eval) (/usr/share/perl5/Slim/Networking/IO/Select.pm line 167)
frame 33: Slim::Networking::IO::Select::loop (/usr/sbin/squeezeboxserver line
734)
frame 34: main::idle (/usr/sbin/squeezeboxserver line 684)
frame 35: main::main (/usr/sbin/squeezeboxserver line 1228)
[22-03-02 15:36:18.9409] Slim::Player::Song::open (425) Error: Couldn't
create command line for cur playback for
[file:///....It%27s%20Not%20My%20Cross%20To%20Bear.flac]
--------------------
LMS 8 nightly running on Raspberry Pi OS. Mostly virtual players,
occasionally with SB Radio, Boom or Classic.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=116062
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