The actual beta-version released October 9th, 2016 got only one new option but hopefully attained "RC" state.
Option --coversize takes a width or width x height format to which a given cover shall be resized using ImageMagick.
And when using MusicBrainz, an additional coverart source will be checked.
Some bugs related to options loop and ISRC have been fixed.

In the previous Beta only the argument of the trackselection has been enhanced and accepts the string 1-a to rip the audio tracks only in case data tracks have been detected.
Option --loop has seen some minor bug fixes.

Option: --coverorg will enable coverart search at coverartarchive.org if MusicBrainz release ID is known (using MusicBrainz with option --mb).
Option: --mbrels allows to check for relationships on the MusicBrainz-DB on track level. If relationships of type "vocal" or "work" are found, they will be added to each track in braces like (featuring VOCAL) or [covering WORK].

Added new variables to track template: trackartist and trackname in case VA-style is used and detected. If no VA-style is found for a certain track or this option is used and no VA-style detected, these variables will get the default values, i.e. trackartist will be identical to the artist (i.e. album artist) and the trackname will be identical to the tracktitle. Note that mp3 files will get an additional TPE2 frame.
Fixed bug on large covers to be added to ogg files, as vorbiscomment calling sequence had to be tweaked to accept base 64 data larger than a certain size above 64k.
Fixed bug that in some cases with option --ghost and or options merge/ssh/threads the last tracks have been left unencoded.
Fixed bug on indicating negative duration in case option --merge is used.
Fixed bug on detection of duration in --inf files for ghost songs with long file names.

With some delay finally a revised version is ready to be tested. As the amount of new options increased one more time, this version still remains in alpha state as I couldn't test all sorts of combinations. Feedback is always welcome, even if no bugs are found.

Some bugs have been fixed, one concerning the --quality option that misbehaved in one case that has been reported.
The problems with special encodings in tags of mp3 files due to the latest development of Lame has been fixed, backward compability should be ensured.
Thanks for all suggestions and code submissions!

Refer to the HISTORY for all new options and bugfixes, headlines are:

Option: --cdtext will enable CD-text detection on the disc if no DB entry has been found. The command cd-info (from cdda2wav or cdio-utils package (libcdio-utils)) will be needed.
Option: --addtrackoffset allows to rip several releases into a single directory with adjusted track numbers to ensure continuous counting.
Option: --inputdir allows to rip from a directory instead a disc (wav or flac) and might be combined with related options.
Options: --accuracy and --verify will allow to check the rip qualities. Not sure yet if this is the right approach and if the software selection makes sense, hope to get some feedback too.
Options: --mp3tags and similarly --flactags and --oggtags to add special tags not supported by the encoder or in case some special variables shall be evaluated.

Note that my mailtool played a trick and made me believe that no users tried to contact me... Once I realized that I got quite a few messages, I tried to answer to all of them, but as kmail2 is said to also eat up mails... in case one believes having sent an important bugfix or so but not got any answer: please excuse the circumstances and feel free to contact me again!

Some users reported problems when starting ripit after an system update, e.g. error messages like:

Unicode::UCD: failed to find UnicodeData.txt in
/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.12.3/x86_64-linux-thread-multi
/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.12.3
[snip]
/usr/bin/ripit line 7133
Compilation failed in require at /usr/bin/ripit line 7133.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/bin/ripit line 7133.

The solution (thanks Norbert!) is to install the perl-doc package.

Development of the next version will start soon while release date is still unknown.
Apr 28, 2011

Version 3.9.0 released January 29th 2012 brings some new features:

Added more encoders: wavpack (encoder 6) and ffmpeg (encoder 7) to be used for exotic formats like "Apple lossless" (whatever that is). Note that usage of ffmpeg might not be straight forward.
To add coverart use option --coverpath to define the path to the picture to be added to the tags and --coverart to set the list of encoders (formats) to which coverart shall be added (if the cover is present). Option --copycover can be used to copy the cover from the original path to each directory of encoded files. Note that ripit does not download coverart by itself, one needs to provide them manually.
Option --precmd might be handy to download coverart, it actually executes whatever command providing all metadata of the disc to be ripped. This will happen right before ripping starts. The same arguments can be used as for option --dirtemplate.
Option --trackoffset adds a constant value to the track counter (used in tracktemplate). This might be helpful if more than one disc of a multidisc release shall be ripped into the same directory.
Options --vatag and --vastring enables detection of VA style metadata and splits the track title into track-artist and track-title (tags only).
Option --mp3tags may be used to add special tags to mp3 files not supported by the encoder or other unofficial tags (e. g. a compilation frame not yet known in id3v2.4).
Option --cdcue creates cue-files (cue-sheets) and merges all tracks into a single file.
Option --isrc will read out the "International Standard Recording Code" of each track, mainly to submit it to the MusicBrainz DB. For this one needs to send the login information through options --mbname and --mbpass.

Check the manpage for further information and the HISTORY for some bug fixes.

The development of version 3.9.0 was interrupted by several projects, among others eBayAgent.pl. From now on, it should be easier to get new CDs to test Ripit 3.9.0. (May 2010)

News of 3.8.3 are: --mb allows access to the MusicBrainz DB not using the cddb-protocoll (like in older versions) but using the perl module WebService::MusicBrainz. One needs the DiscID calculation tool, either the DiscID-command or in addition the perl module MusicBrainz::DiscID (recommended).

Ripit now supports the formats mp4als (lossless m4a) and Musepack (encoder 4 and 5) and executes just before ending a command: --execmd. This option accepts as arguments the same variables as --dirtemplate and --tracktemplate, including the new one: $trackno giving the number of tracks of the CD.

Other new options are --overwrite to overwrite an existing directory instead of adding a counter to the directory name; --quitnodb to end the process if no DB entry was found; --span to rip only portions of each track (only supported by cdparanoia und cdda2wav); --book merges all tracks into a single track (when using faac) with suffix m4b and creates a chapter.txt file; --inf creates similar to the cd.toc file for cdrdao inf-files to burn the wav-files in DAO-mode with CD-text using wodim (or cdrecord).

As usual use option --save once after an update to renew an existing configuration in $HOME/.ripit. Check the config file for new options and switch them on if desired.

After some 5 years of adding features and some 10'000 lines of code I announce my retirement... I.e. I will continue to maintain ripit but not develop anymore. Patches are welcome and shall be updated ASAP.

Oh, there is one feature I miss: Wouldn't it be nice to automatically save data content of a multi-session disc (videos and/or pictures) as files? Patches are welcome.