Libsndfile
Encyclopedia
libsndfile is a widely-used C library written by Erik de Castro Lopo for reading and writing audio files. It supports a wide variety of audio encodings and sound file format
s and will convert automatically from one to another. It allows the programmer to ignore many details, such as endianness
.
In addition to the library itself, the package provides command-line programs for converting one format to another (sndfile-convert), for playing audio files (sndfile-play), and for obtaining information about the contents of an audio file (sndfile-info).
libsndfile is available for Unix-like
systems, including Linux
and Mac OS X
, and for Microsoft Windows
. It is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License
.
File format
A file format is a particular way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file.Since a disk drive, or indeed any computer storage, can store only bits, the computer must have some way of converting information to 0s and 1s and vice-versa. There are different kinds of formats for...
s and will convert automatically from one to another. It allows the programmer to ignore many details, such as endianness
Endianness
In computing, the term endian or endianness refers to the ordering of individually addressable sub-components within the representation of a larger data item as stored in external memory . Each sub-component in the representation has a unique degree of significance, like the place value of digits...
.
In addition to the library itself, the package provides command-line programs for converting one format to another (sndfile-convert), for playing audio files (sndfile-play), and for obtaining information about the contents of an audio file (sndfile-info).
libsndfile is available for Unix-like
Unix-like
A Unix-like operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, while not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification....
systems, including Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
and Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
, and for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
. It is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License
GNU Lesser General Public License
The GNU Lesser General Public License or LGPL is a free software license published by the Free Software Foundation . It was designed as a compromise between the strong-copyleft GNU General Public License or GPL and permissive licenses such as the BSD licenses and the MIT License...
.