Description of file/segment linking and the appropriate options.

mkvmerge.1

@@ -72,6 +72,18 @@ so on. If there's no extension then '-%03d' will be appended to the name.
 \fB\-\-split\-max\-files\fR <\fIn\fR>
 Create at most \fIn\fR files, even if the last file will be longer or larger
 than indicated by \fB\-\-split\fR.
+.TP
+\fB\-\-dont\-link\fR
+Do not link files to one another when splitting the output file. See the
+section \fBFILE LINKING\fR below for details.
+.TP
+\fB\-\-link\-to\-previous\fR <\fIUID\fR>
+Links the first output file to the segment with the given \fIUID\fR. See the
+section \fBFILE LINKING\fR below for details.
+.TP
+\fB\-\-link\-to\-next\fR <\fIUID\fR>
+Links the last output file to the segment with the given \fIUID\fR. See the
+section \fBFILE LINKING\fR below for details.
 .LP
 Options that can be used for each input file:
 .TP
@@ -301,6 +313,43 @@ switch. If the subtitles are already encoded in UTF-8 then you can use
 \fB\-\-sub\-charset UTF\-8\fR.
 
 
+.SH FILE LINKING
+.LP
+Matroska supports file linking which simply says that a specific file is the
+predecessor or successsor of the current file. To be precise, it's not really
+the files that are linked but the Matroska segments. As most files will
+probably only put one Matroska segment into a file I simply say 'file linking'
+although 'segment linking' would be more appropriate.
+.LP
+Each segment is identified by a unique 128 bit wide segmend UID. This UID
+is automatically generated by \fBmkvmerge\fR. The linking is done primarily
+via putting the segment UIDs of the previous/next file into the segment
+header information. \fBmkvinfo(1)\fR prints these UIDs if it finds them.
+.LP
+If a file is split into several smaller ones and linking is used then the
+timecodes will not start at 0 again but will continue where the last file
+has left off. This way the absolute time is kept even if the previous files
+are not available (e.g. when streaming). If no linking is used then the
+timecodes should start at 0 for each file. By default \fBmkvmerge\fR uses
+file linking. If you don't want that you can turn it off with the
+\'\fB\-\-dont\-link\fR\' option. This option is only useful if splitting
+is activated as well.
+.LP
+Regardless of whether splitting is active or not the user can tell
+\fBmkvmerge\fR to link the produced files to specific UIDs. This is achieved
+with the options '\fB\-\-link\-to\-previous\fR' and '\fB\-\-link\-to\-next\fR'.
+These options accept a segment UID in the format that \fBmkvinfo(1)\fR
+outputs: 16 hexadecimal numbers between 0x00 and 0xff prefixed with '0x' each,
+e.g. \fI0x41 0xda 0x73 0x66 0xd9 0xcf 0xb2 0x1e 0xae 0x78 0xeb 0xb4 0x5e 0xca
+0xb3 0x93\fR. Alternatively a shorter form can be used: 16 hexadecimal numbers
+between 0x00 and 0xff without the '0x' prefixes and without the spaces, e.g.
+\fI41da7366d9cfb21eae78ebb45ecab393\fR.
+.LP
+If splitting is used then the first file is linked to the UID given with
+\'\fB\-\-link\-to\-previous\fR\' and the last file is linked to the UID given
+with \'\fB\-\-link\-to\-next\fR\'. If splitting is not used then the one
+output file will be linked to both of the two UIDs.
+
 .SH NOTES
 .LP
 What works:
@@ -317,12 +366,18 @@ text streams (subtitles).
 WAV as the audio source
 .TP
 *
-MP3 audio files
+AAC audio files (only those with ADTS headers before each packet)
 .TP
 *
 AC3 audio files
 .TP
 *
+DTS audio files
+.TP
+*
+MP3 audio files
+.TP
+*
 Track selection
 .TP
 *
@@ -330,8 +385,8 @@ Manual audio synchronization by adding silence/removing packets for Vorbis
 audio and for text streams by adjusting the starting point and duration.
 .TP
 *
-Manual audio synchronization for AC3 and MP3 audio by duplicating/removing
-packets at the beginning.
+Manual audio synchronization for AAC, AC3, DTS and MP3 audio by duplicating
+or removing packets at the beginning.
 .TP
 *
 Text subtitles can be read from SRT (SubRipper / subrip) files or