This is an informal changelog, a summary of changes in each release. Particulary important for developers is the precise description of changes to the library interfaces.
<li>Added a new option <ahref="documentation.html#flac_options_tag_from_file"><spanclass="argument">--tag-from-file</span></a> for setting a tag from file (e.g. for importing a cuesheet as a tag).</li>
<li>Added support for encoding from non-compressed AIFF-C (<ahref="https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=113478&aid=1090933&group_id=13478">SF #1090933</a>).</li>
<li>Importing of non-CDDA-compliant cuesheets now only issues a warning, not an error (see <ahref="http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=31282">here</a>).</li>
<li>Fixed a bug that caused a crash when <spanclass="argument">-a</span> and <spanclass="argument">-t</span> were used together (<ahref="https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1229481&group_id=13478&atid=113478">SF #1229481</a>).</li>
<li>Fixed a bug with --sector-align where appended samples were not always totally silent (<ahref="https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1237707&group_id=13478&atid=113478">SF #1237707</a>).</li>
<li>Added a new option <ahref="documentation.html#metaflac_shorthand_set_tag_from_file"><spanclass="argument">--set-tag-from-file</span></a> for setting a tag from file (e.g. for importing a cuesheet as a tag).</li>
<li>Fixed UTF-8 decoder to disallow non-shortest-form and surrogate sequences (see <ahref="http://www.unicode.org/versions/corrigendum1.html">here</a>).</li>
<li>Add support for building on OS/2 with EMX (<ahref="https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1229495&group_id=13478&atid=113478">SF #1229495</a>)</li>
<li>libFLAC: Fixed UTF-8 decoder to disallow non-shortest-form and surrogate sequences (see <ahref="http://www.unicode.org/versions/corrigendum1.html">here</a>).</li>
<li>libFLAC: Fixed a bug in the return value for <spanclass="argument">FLAC__stream_decoder_set_metadata_respond_application()</span> and <spanclass="argument">FLAC__stream_decoder_set_metadata_ignore_application()</span> when there was a memory allocation error (<ahref="https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1235005&group_id=13478&atid=113478">SF #1235005</a>).</li>
<li>Sped up decoding by a few percent overall.</li>
<li>Sped up encoding when not using LPC (i.e. when using <spanclass="commandname">flac</span> options <spanclass="argument">-0</span>, <spanclass="argument">-1</span>, <spanclass="argument">-2</span>, or <spanclass="argument">-l 0</span>).</li>
<li>Fixed a decoding bug that could cause sync errors with some ID3v1-tagged FLAC files.</li>
<li>Added <ahref="documentation.html#metaflac">HTML documentation for metaflac</a>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
FLAC format:
<ul>
<li>(none)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Ogg FLAC format:
<ul>
<li>(none)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
flac:
<ul>
<li>New option <ahref="documentation.html#flac_options_input_size"><spanclass="argument">--input-size</span></a> to manually specify the input size when encoding raw samples from stdin.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
metaflac:
<ul>
<li>(none)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
plugins:
<ul>
<li>Added support for HTTP streaming in XMMS plugin. <b>NOTE</b>: there is a <ahref="http://bugs.xmms.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2038">bug</a> in the XMMS mpg123 plugin that hijacks FLAC streams; to fix it you will need to add the '.flac' extension to the list of exceptions in <spanclass="code">Input/mpg123/mpg123.c:is_our_file()</span> in the XMMS sources and recompile.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
build system:
<ul>
<li>(none)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
libraries:
<ul>
<li>libFLAC: Sped up Rice block decoding in the bitbuffer, resulting in decoding speed gains of a few percent.</li>
<li>libFLAC: Sped up encoding when not using LPC (i.e. <spanclass="code">max_lpc_order == 0</span>).</li>
<li>libFLAC: Trailing NUL characters maintained on Vorbis comment entries so they can be treated like C strings.</li>
<li>libFLAC: More FLAC tag (i.e. Vorbis comment) validation.</li>
<li>libFLAC: Fixed a bug in the logic that determines the frame or sample number in a frame header; the bug could cause sync errors with some ID3v1-tagged FLAC files.</li>
<li>libFLAC, libOggFLAC: Can now be compiled to use only integer instructions, including encoding. The decoder is almost completely integer anyway but there were a couple places that needed a fixed-point replacement. There is no fixed-point version of LPC analysis yet, so if libFLAC is compiled integer-only, the encoder will behave as if the max LPC order is 0 (i.e. used fixed predictors only). LPC decoding is supported in all cases as it always was integer-only.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Interface changes:
<ul>
<li>
libFLAC:
<ul>
<li><b>Changed:</b> Metadata object interface now maintains a trailing NUL on Vorbis comment entries for convenience.</li>
<li><b>Changed:</b> Metadata object interface now validates all Vorbis comment entries on input and returns false if an entry does not conform to the Vorbis comment spec.</li>
<li><b>Changed</b> the signature of FLAC__metadata_object_vorbiscomment_entry_matches(): the first argument is now <spanclass="code">FLAC__StreamMetadata_VorbisComment_Entry entry</span> (was <spanclass="code">const FLAC__StreamMetadata_VorbisComment_Entry *entry</span>), i.e. <spanclass="code">entry</span> is now pass-by-value.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
libFLAC++:
<ul>
<li><b>Changed:</b> Metadata object interface now maintains a trailing NUL on Vorbis comment values for convenience.</li>
<li><b>Changed:</b> Metadata object interface now validates all Vorbis comment entries on input and returns false if an entry does not conform to the Vorbis comment spec.</li>
<li><b>Changed:</b> All Metadata objects' operator=() methods now return a reference to themselves.</li>
<li><b>Added</b> methods to FLAC::Metadata::VorbisComment::Entry for setting comment values from null-terminated strings:
<li><b>Changed</b> the signature of FLAC::Metadata::VorbisComment::get_vendor_string() and FLAC::Metadata::VorbisComment::set_vendor_string() to use a UTF-8, NUL-terminated string <spanclass="code">const FLAC__byte *</span> for the vendor string instead of <spanclass="code">FLAC::Metadata::VorbisComment::Entry</span>.</li>
<li><b>Added</b> FLAC::Metadata::*::assign() to all Metadata objects.</li>
<li>New optimizations almost double the decoding speed on PowerPC (e.g. Mac G4/G5)</li>
<li>A native OS X release thanks to updated Project Builder and autotools files</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
FLAC format:
<ul>
<li>Made invalid the metadata block type 127 so that audio frames can always be distinguished from metadata by seeing 0xff as the first byte. (This was also required for the Ogg FLAC mapping.)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Ogg FLAC format:
<ul>
<li>First official FLAC->Ogg bitstream mapping standardized (see new <ahref="ogg_mapping.html">FLAC-to-Ogg mapping specification</a>). See the documentation for the <ahref="documentation.html#flac_options_ogg"><spanclass="argument">--ogg</span></a> switch about having to re-encode older Ogg FLAC files.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
flac:
<ul>
<li>Print an error when output file already exists instead of automatically overwriting.</li>
<li>New option <ahref="documentation.html#flac_options_force"><spanclass="argument">-f</span> (<spanclass="argument">--force</span>)</a> to force overwriting if the output file already exists.</li>
<li>New option <ahref="documentation.html#flac_options_cue"><spanclass="argument">--cue</span></a> to select a specific section to decode using cuesheet track/index points.</li>
<li>New option <ahref="documentation.html#flac_options_totally_silent"><spanclass="argument">--totally-silent</span></a> to suppress all output.</li>
<li>New (but undocumented) option <spanclass="argument">--apply-replaygain-which-is-not-lossless</span> which applies ReplayGain to the decoded output. See <ahref="http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=17293&st=11">this thread</a> for usage and caveats.</li>
<li>When encoding to Ogg FLAC, use a random serial number (instead of 0 as was done before) when a serial number is not specified.</li>
<li>When encoding multiple Ogg FLAC streams, <spanclass="argument">--serial-number</span> or random serial number sets the first number, which is then incremented for subsequent streams (before, the same serial number was used for all streams).</li>
<li>Decoder no longer exits with an error when writing to stdout and the pipe is broken.</li>
<li>Better explanation of common error messages.</li>
<li>Default extension when writing AIFF files is .aif (before, it was .aiff).</li>
<li>Write more common representation of SANE numbers in AIFF files.</li>
<li>Bug fix: calculating ReplayGain on 48kHz streams.</li>
<li>Bug fix: check for supported block alignments in WAVE files.</li>
<li>Bug fix: "offset" field in AIFF SSND chunk properly handled.</li>
<li>Bug fix: <ahref="http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=851155&group_id=13478&atid=113478">#851155</a>: Can't seek to position in flac file.</li>
<li>Bug fix: <ahref="http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=877122&group_id=13478&atid=113478">#877122</a>: problem parsing cuesheet with CATALOG entry.</li>
<li>Bug fix: <ahref="http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=896057&group_id=13478&atid=113478">#896057</a>: parsing ISRC number from cuesheet.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
metaflac:
<ul>
<li>Renamed the tag editing options as follows (the <spanclass="argument">...-vc-...</span> options still work but are deprecated):
<li>Bug fix: small memory leak in XMMS plugin.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
build system:
<ul>
<li><spanclass="code">ordinals.h</span> is now static, not a build-generated file anymore.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
libraries:
<ul>
<li>libFLAC: PPC+Altivec optimizations of some decoder routines.</li>
<li>libFLAC: Make stream encoder encode the blocksize and sample rate in the frame header if at all possible (not in STREAMINFO), even if subset encoding was not requested.</li>
<li>libFLAC: Bug fix: fixed seek routine where infinite loop could happen when seeking past end of stream.</li>
<li>libFLAC, libFLAC++: added methods to skip single frames, useful for quickly finding frame boundaries (see interface changes below).</li>
<li>libOggFLAC, libOggFLAC++: New seekable-stream and file encoder and decoder APIs to match native FLAC APIs (see interface changes below).</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Interface changes:
<ul>
<li>
libFLAC:
<ul>
<li><b>Added</b> FLAC__metadata_get_tags()</li>
<li><b>Added</b> callback-based versions of metadata editing functions:
