Zero Plugin#

The zero plugin allows you to null fields in files’ metadata tags. Fields can be nulled unconditionally or conditioned on a pattern match. For example, the plugin can strip useless comments like “ripped by MyGreatRipper.”

The plugin can work in one of two modes:

  • fields: A blacklist, where you choose the tags you want to remove (used by default).

  • keep_fields: A whitelist, where you instead specify the tags you want to keep.

To use the zero plugin, enable the plugin in your configuration (see Using Plugins).

Configuration#

Make a zero: section in your configuration file. You can specify the fields to nullify and the conditions for nullifying them:

  • Set auto to yes to null fields automatically on import. Default: yes.

  • Set fields to a whitespace-separated list of fields to remove. You can get the list of all available fields by running beet fields. In addition, the images field allows you to remove any images embedded in the media file.

  • Set keep_fields to invert the logic of the plugin. Only these fields will be kept; other fields will be removed. Remember to set only fields or keep_fields—not both!

  • To conditionally filter a field, use field: [regexp, regexp] to specify regular expressions.

  • By default this plugin only affects files’ tags; the beets database is left unchanged. To update the tags in the database, set the update_database option to true.

For example:

zero:
    fields: month day genre comments
    comments: [EAC, LAME, from.+collection, 'ripped by']
    genre: [rnb, 'power metal']
    update_database: true

If a custom pattern is not defined for a given field, the field will be nulled unconditionally.

Note that the plugin currently does not zero fields when importing “as-is”.

Manually Triggering Zero#

You can also type beet zero [QUERY] to manually invoke the plugin on music in your library.

Preserving Album Art#

If you use the keep_fields option, the plugin will remove embedded album art from files’ tags unless you tell it not to. To keep the album art, include the special field images in the list. For example:

zero:
    keep_fields: title artist album year track genre images