@(#)CDDB	6.5 99/03/11

CD DATABASE SERVERS
-------------------

Xmcd and cda supports CDDB(tm), a very large (and rapidly growing)
Internet database of CD information.  The CDDB concept was pioneered by
xmcd and is now embraced as a standard by many other CD and
music-related applications.

With CDDB, you do not have to type in the artist, disc title, track
titles and other disc information for the CDs in your collection.  Xmcd
and cda automatically queries the public CDDB servers, and if the query
is successful, the information is displayed.

CDDB access is free of charge, but you can use this feature only if your
system is connected to the Internet, either via a dial-up link or a
dedicated connection.  Xmcd/cda can connect to the public servers via
either CDDBP (CD database protocol) or HTTP (Hypertext transport
protocol).  CDDBP is the native protocol of the CD database servers, and
HTTP is what is used for web browsing.  To check whether you can reach
the CDDB servers using either CDDBP or HTTP, use the following
procedure:

 1. Testing for CDDBP connectivity
    Type the following command at your UNIX shell prompt:

        telnet cddb.cddb.com 8880

    If you see a sign-on banner similar to the following then all is well:

        201 www CDDBP server v1.4.1b2PL0 ready at Wed Oct 14 09:48:33 1998

    Type "quit" to disconnect from the server.  You can access CD database
    servers via the CDDBP protocol.

 2. Testing for HTTP connectivity
    Use your web browser and go to the following URL:

        http://cddb.cddb.com/~cddb/cddb.cgi

    If you can reach this site successfully, then you can access CD database
    servers in the HTTP mode (don't worry about the "command syntax error"
    message).

It is your choice whether to use CDDBP or HTTP.  They offer equivalent
functionality.  Specific CDDB server sites may offer only one or both
protocols.  Also, your network may have a firewall that allows only
HTTP access.  When setting up xmcd, you will be asked to choose which
protocol to use, and whether to use a HTTP proxy server.

The recommended configuration is to make xmcd/cda search your local CD
database for a match first (when a CD is inserted), and if a match is
not found, then query the remote server.  The order of the search is
determined by the "cddbPath" parameter which is set in the
XMCDLIB/config/common.cfg file.  When you install xmcd (using "make
install" or "install.sh"), you will be asked whether remote CD database
servers are to be used, and select from a list of servers.  That will
set up the default cddbPath parameter for you.  Each user can override
the default cddbPath settings in their own $HOME/.xmcdcfg/common.cfg
file.

The XMCDLIB/config/common.cfg file contains comments about the syntax
of the cddbPath parameter, should you wish to change the default
configuration or set up your own private settings.

By default, the information that is queried from the Internet CDDB
servers is automatically saved to your local database.  If the cddbPath
parameter is set with the local database before the CDDB servers, then
no more Internet access is necessary to get information on that
particular CD.  Xmcd/cda imposes file aging on the local database files,
and will expire a file if it's older than a configrable number of days. 
Once expired, xmcd/cda will re-query the CDDB server when the
information is needed, and overwrite the local file with the new data.
Note that an expired file will not be removed.  It will be overwritten
only if the remote query is successful.  If the remote query fails then
the expired entry will still be used.  The behavior is modifiable via
the cddbRemoteAutoSave parameter in the XMCDLIB/config/common.cfg file.
The standard behavior treats the local CD database as a cache of the
CDDB data.

If the Internet CDDB servers do not have the information for some of
your CDs, you are encouraged to enter the information, and then submit
it to the master database for others to share.  To do so, completely
fill out the artist / disc title and track titles in the CDDB/Program
subwindow.  You are also encouraged to type in other interesting data in
the extended disc information and extended track information areas.
Once done, click on the "Save" button to save it to your local database.
Choose an appropriate music category for the CD, and then click the
"Submit..." button to submit the entry to the master CDDB.  Please
observe specific format and style recommendations that are specified
on the CDDB web site.

Using xmcd's wwwWarp feature, you may go directly to the CDDB web site
at http://www.cddb.com/ for more information.  You may also use the
CDDB search engine at this site to perform keyword searches on the
entire database.

E-mail regarding the CD database itself, as well as the CDDB servers
should be directed to "cddb-support@cddb.com".

