binmerge/README.md

# binmerge

Source code available at: https://github.com/putnam/binmerge

Tool to merge multiple bin/cue tracks into one.

Sometimes discs are ripped in such a way that they have a separate bin file for every track. One example that I know of is the Redump project, specifically for the Playstation 1 or PSX.

Here is a cuesheet for the imaginary PSX game "Big Buddy". You can see it refers to several individual bin files, one for each track:

```
FILE "Big Buddy (Track 01).bin" BINARY
  TRACK 01 MODE2/2352
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "Big Buddy (Track 02).bin" BINARY
  TRACK 02 AUDIO
    INDEX 00 00:00:00
    INDEX 01 00:02:00
FILE "Big Buddy (Track 03).bin" BINARY
  TRACK 03 AUDIO
    INDEX 00 00:00:00
    INDEX 01 00:02:00
FILE "Big Buddy (Track 04).bin" BINARY
  TRACK 04 AUDIO
    INDEX 00 00:00:00
    INDEX 01 00:02:00
FILE "Big Buddy (Track 05).bin" BINARY
  TRACK 05 AUDIO
    INDEX 00 00:00:00
    INDEX 01 00:02:00
...
```

Some software cannot read this style of disc image, because they only know how to work with a single bin file or are unable to properly parse cuesheets according to the standard.

`binmerge` reads a cuesheet and its associated series of bin files and generates a new, single merged bin file and cuesheet. It is completely non-destructive; it will not touch your existing files.

Here is the new cuesheet generated by `binmerge` with the above example:
```
FILE "Big Buddy.bin" BINARY
  TRACK 01 MODE2/2352
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
  TRACK 02 AUDIO
    INDEX 00 32:26:61
    INDEX 01 32:28:61
  TRACK 03 AUDIO
    INDEX 00 35:43:29
    INDEX 01 35:45:29
  TRACK 04 AUDIO
    INDEX 00 36:47:27
    INDEX 01 36:49:27
  TRACK 05 AUDIO
    INDEX 00 38:50:66
    INDEX 01 38:52:66
```

`binmerge` also supports reversing the process if you deleted the original files to save space. If you want to return to the split bin format you can instead pass a merged cue file with the `--split` parameter. However, for systems that have metadata tags (Dreamcast), these tags are currently not preserved by `binmerge` and will be missing. Complete cuesheet packs are available to download on Redump's site.

Have fun!