PODBOAT(1) | PODBOAT(1) |
NAME¶
podboat - a podcast download manager for text terminals
SYNOPSIS¶
podboat [-C configfile] [-q queuefile] [-a] [-h]
DESCRIPTION¶
Podboat is a podcast manager for text terminals. It is a helper program to Newsboat which queues podcast downloads into a file. These queued downloads can then be download with Podboat.
OPTIONS¶
-h, --help
-C configfile, --config-file=configfile
-q queuefile, --queue-file=queuefile
--lock-file=lockfile
-a, --autodownload
-l loglevel, --log-level=loglevel
-d logfile, --log-file=logfile
PODCAST SUPPORT¶
A podcast is a media file distributed over the internet using syndication feeds such as RSS, for later playback on portable players or computers. Newsboat supports downloading, saving and streaming podcasts, though an external media player is needed for playback. This support differs a bit from other podcast aggregators or "podcatchers" in how it is done.
Podcast content is transported in RSS feeds via special tags called "enclosures". Newsboat recognizes these enclosures and stores the relevant information for every podcast item it finds in an RSS feed. Since version 2.0, it also recognizes and handles the Yahoo Media RSS extensions.
Remote APIs don’t always list those "enclosures", so podcasts might be missing from Newsboat. Such APIs are marked in the relevant section of our docs. If a note is missing but you still don’t see enclosures in Newsboat, please file an issue and we’ll get to the bottom of it!
MANAGING AUDIO FILES WITH PODBOAT¶
What the user can do is to add the podcast download URL to a download queue. Alternatively, Newsboat can be configured to automatically do that. This queue is stored in the queue file next to the cache.db file.
The user can then use the download manager podboat to download these files to a directory on the local filesystem. Podboat comes with the Newsboat package, and features a look and feel very close to the one of Newsboat. It also shares the same configuration file.
Podcasts that have been downloaded but haven’t been played yet remain in the queue but are marked as downloaded. You can remove them by purging them from the queue with the Shift + P key. After you’ve played a file and close Podboat, it will be removed from the queue. The downloaded file remains on the filesystem unless "delete-played-files" is enabled.
A common "use case" is to configure Newsboat to automatically enqueue newly found podcast download URLs. Then, the user reloads the podcast RSS feeds in Newsboat, and after that, uses Podboat to view the current queue, and either selectively download certain files or automatically download them all together by pressing A within Podboat.
CONFIGURATION COMMANDS¶
delete-played-files (parameters: [yes/no]; default value: no)
download-path (parameters: <path>; default value: ~/)
download-filename-format (parameters: <string>; default value: "%?u?%u&%Y-%b-%d-%H%M%S.unknown?")
max-downloads (parameters: <number>; default value: 1)
player (parameters: <player command>; default value: "")
podlist-format (parameters: <format>; default value: "%4i [%6dMB/%6tMB] [%5p %%] [%12K] %-20S %u → %F")
FILES¶
By default, Newsboat stores all the files in a traditional Unix fashion, i.e. in a "dotdir" located at ~/.newsboat. However, it also supports a modern way, XDG Base Directory Specification <https://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html>, which splits the files between the following locations:
If the newsboat directory exists under XDG_CONFIG_HOME, then Newsboat will use XDG directories (creating the data directory if necessary). Otherwise, Newsboat will default to ~/.newsboat.
If you’re currently using ~/.newsboat/ but wish to migrate to XDG directories, you should move the files as follows:
config, urls
cache.db, history.search, history.cmdline, queue
Newsboat and Podboat also create "lock files". These prevent you from starting two instances of the same program, and thus from corrupting your data. Newsboat and Podboat remove these files when you quit the program, so there is no need to copy them anywhere — just be aware of them in case you write scripts that work with cache.db or queue. By default, lock files are located as follows:
dotdir | XDG | |
Newsboat | ~/.newsboat/cache.db.lock | $XDG_DATA_HOME/newsboat/cache.db.lock |
Podboat | ~/.newsboat/pb-lock.pid | $XDG_DATA_HOME/newsboat/.lock |
Newsboat places the lock file next to the cache file, so if you specify cache-file setting or pass —cache-file command-line argument, the path to the lock file will change too. Podboat’s lock can be placed elsewhere using —lock-file command-line argument.
dotfiles
~/.newsboat/queue
XDG
$XDG_DATA_HOME/newsboat/queue
Note: if the XDG_CONFIG_HOME environment variable is not set, Podboat behaves as if it was set to ~/.config. Similarly, XDG_DATA_HOME defaults to ~/.local/share.
ENVIRONMENT¶
BROWSER
CURL_CA_BUNDLE
This option is useful if your libcurl is built without useful certificate information, and you can’t rebuild the library yourself.
EDITOR
NO_PROXY
This variable contains a comma-separated list of hostnames, domain names, and IP addresses.
Domain names match subdomains, i.e. "example.com" also matches "foo.example.com". Domain names that start with a dot only match subdomains, e.g. ".example.com" matches "bar.example.com" but not "example.com" itself.
IPv6 addresses are written without square brackets, and are matched as strings. Thus "::1" doesn’t match "::0:1" even though this is the same address.
PAGER
TMPDIR
VISUAL
XDG_CONFIG_HOME
XDG_DATA_HOME
SEE ALSO¶
AUTHOR¶
Alexander Batischev
2024-09-24 |