cdrkit is a collection of computer programs for CD and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

authoring that work on

Unix-like A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X or *nix) operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Unix-li ...

systems. cdrkit is released under the

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end user In product development, an end user (sometimes end-user) is a person who ultimately uses or is intended to ulti ...

version 2.

Fedora A fedora () is a hat with a soft brim and indented crown.Kilgour, Ruth Edwards (1958). ''A Pageant of Hats Ancient and Modern''. R. M. McBride Company. It is typically creased lengthwise down the crown and "pinched" near the front on both sides ...

Gentoo Linux Gentoo Linux (pronounced ) is a Linux distribution built using the Portage package management system. Unlike a binary software distribution, the source code is compiled locally according to the user's preferences and is often optimized for t ...

Mandriva Linux Mandriva Linux (a fusion of the French distribution Mandrake Linux and the Brazilian distribution Conectiva Linux) is a discontinued Linux distribution developed by Mandriva S.A. Each release lifetime was 18 months for base updates (Linux, syst ...

, and

Ubuntu Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: '' Desktop'', '' Server'', and ''Core'' for Internet of things devices and robots. All th ...

all include cdrkit. Joerg Jaspert is cdrkit's leader and release manager. It was created in 2006 by

Debian Debian (), also known as Debian GNU/Linux, is a Linux distribution composed of free and open-source software, developed by the community-supported Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993. The first version of De ...

developers as a fork of

cdrtools cdrtools (formerly known as cdrecord) is a collection of independent projects of free software/open source computer programs. The project was maintained for over two decades by Jörg Schilling, who died on October 10, 2021. Because of some ...

based on the last GPL-licensed version when cdrtools licensing changed.

Features

The cdrkit includes many features for CD and DVD writing, such as * creation of audio, data, and mixed (audio and data) CDs * burning CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-r. * usage without root identity is possible in many cases, some device drivers still may fail, show unexplainable problems * can use device node instead of scsi id numbers on Linux

Components

Major components include: * ''wodim'' (an acronym for write optical disk media), which was forked from the ''cdrecord'' program in cdrtools. *''icedax'' (an acronym for incredible digital audio extractor), which was forked from the ''cdda2wav'' program in cdrtools. * ''genisoimage'' (short for generate

ISO image An optical disc image (or ISO image, from the ISO 9660 file system used with CD-ROM media) is a disk image that contains everything that would be written to an optical disc, disk sector by disc sector, including the optical disc file system. I ...

), which was forked from the ''mkisofs'' program in cdrtools.

Front-ends

Other software can use cdrkit tools in the back-end. cdrkit tools will maintain interface compatibility with cdrtools 2.01.01a08 at least for the near future. Numerous programs can therefore use it, including

Brasero Brasero may refer to: *Brasero (heater) A brasero (Spanish: "brazier") is a heater commonly used in Spain. It is placed under a table covered with a cloth that extends to the floor to provide heat for people sitting at the table. This arrangem ...

(the default GNOME Desktop CD/DVD application), K3b (the default

KDE KDE is an international free software community that develops free and open-source software. As a central development hub, it provides tools and resources that allow collaborative work on this kind of software. Well-known products include the ...

desktop application), and X-CD-Roast (

desktop environment In computing, a desktop environment (DE) is an implementation of the desktop metaphor made of a bundle of programs running on top of a computer operating system that share a common graphical user interface (GUI), sometimes described as a graphi ...

independent).

History

A license dispute arose between the Debian maintainers and the since deceased cdrtools author Jörg Schilling. The Debian developers said that the

GPL The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general us ...

license is not

compatible Compatibility may refer to: Computing * Backward compatibility, in which newer devices can understand data generated by older devices * Compatibility card, an expansion card for hardware emulation of another device * Compatibility layer, compon ...

with the

CDDL The Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL) is a free and open-source software license, produced by Sun Microsystems, based on the Mozilla Public License (MPL). Files licensed under the CDDL can be combined with files licensed under ot ...

license that covers part of the cdrtools code. In contrast, cdrtools maintainer Jörg Schilling stated that there is no problem with the license, and also felt that the Debian fork is not legally redistributable. The Red Hat legal team differed with Schilling's position, saying that he has not provided them with any proof of either license or copyright violation in cdrkit. Schilling also said that the cdrkit fork reintroduced various bugs from the first versions of cdrtools, which were already fixed in later cdrtools versions. Debian developers considered that some of these changes were necessary to solve existing problems, rather than being bugs.

References

External links

''cdrkit (fork of cdrtools) uploaded to Debian, please test''
(fork announcement)

essay by Jörg Schilling referring to cdrkit without mentioning its name
Debburn SVN repository which contains cdrkit
{{Optical disc image software Debian Free optical disc authoring software Optical disc authoring software