1PODBOAT(1) PODBOAT(1)
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6 podboat - a podcast download manager for text terminals
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9 podboat [-C configfile] [-q queuefile] [-a] [-h]
10
12 Podboat is a podcast manager for text terminals. It is a helper program
13 to Newsboat which queues podcast downloads into a file. These queued
14 downloads can then be download with Podboat.
15
17 -h, --help
18 Display help
19 -C configfile, --config-file=configfile
21 Use an alternative configuration file
22 -q queuefile, --queue-file=queuefile
24 Use an alternative queue file
25 -a, --autodownload
27 Start automatic download of all queued files on startup
28 -l loglevel, --log-level=loglevel
30 Generate a logfile with a certain loglevel. Valid loglevels are 1
31 to 6. An actual logfile will only be written when you provide a
32 logfile name.
33 -d logfile, --log-file=logfile
35 Use this logfile as output when logging debug messages. Please note
36 that this only works when providing a loglevel.
37
39 A podcast is a media file distributed over the internet using
40 syndication feeds such as RSS, for later playback on portable players
41 or computers. Newsboat supports downloading, saving and streaming
42 podcasts, though an external media player is needed for playback. This
43 support differs a bit from other podcast aggregators or "podcatchers"
44 in how it is done.
45 Podcast content is transported in RSS feeds via special tags called
47 "enclosures". Newsboat recognizes these enclosures and stores the
48 relevant information for every podcast item it finds in an RSS feed.
49 Since version 2.0, it also recognizes and handles the Yahoo Media RSS
50 extensions.
51
53 What the user can do is to add the podcast download URL to a download
54 queue. Alternatively, Newsboat can be configured to automatically do
55 that. This queue is stored in the queue file next to the cache.db file.
56 The user can then use the download manager podboat to download these
58 files to a directory on the local filesystem. Podboat comes with the
59 Newsboat package, and features a look and feel very close to the one of
60 Newsboat. It also shares the same configuration file.
61 Podcasts that have been downloaded but haven’t been played yet remain
63 in the queue but are marked as downloaded. You can remove them by
64 purging them from the queue with the "P" key. After you’ve played a
65 file and close Podboat, it will be removed from the queue. The
66 downloaded file remains on the filesystem unless "delete-played-files"
67 is enabled.
68 A common "use case" is to configure Newsboat to automatically enqueue
70 newly found podcast download URLs. Then, the user reloads the podcast
71 RSS feeds in Newsboat, and after that, uses Podboat to view the current
72 queue, and either selectively download certain files or automatically
73 download them all together by pressing "a" within Podboat.
74
76 delete-played-files (parameters: [yes/no]; default value: no)
77 If set to yes, Podboat will delete files when their corresponding
78 queue entry is removed (this includes "finished" and "deleted"
79 entries as well). (example: delete-played-files yes)
80 download-path (parameters: <path>; default value: ~/)
82 Specifies the directory where Podboat shall download the files to.
83 Optionally, placeholders can be used to place downloads in a
84 directory structure. See "Format Strings" section of Newsboat
85 manual for details on available formats. This setting is applied at
86 enqueueing time; changing it won’t affect download paths of the
87 podcasts that were already added to the queue. (example:
88 download-path "~/Downloads/%h/%n")
89 download-filename-format (parameters: <string>; default value:
91 "%?u?%u&%Y-%b-%d-%H%M%S.unknown?")
92 Specifies how Podboat would name the files it downloads (see also
93 download-path). See "Format Strings" section of Newsboat manual for
94 details on available formats. (example: download-filename-format
95 "%F-%t.%e")
96 max-downloads (parameters: <number>; default value: 1)
98 Specifies the maximum number of parallel downloads when automatic
99 download is enabled. (example: max-downloads 3)
100 player (parameters: <player command>; default value: "")
102 Specifies the player that shall be used for playback of downloaded
103 files. (example: player "mp3blaster")
104 podlist-format (parameters: <format>; default value: "%4i [%6dMB/%6tMB]
106 [%5p %%] [%12K] %-20S %u → %F")
107 This variable defines the format of entries in Podboat’s download
108 list. See the respective section in the documentation for more
109 information on format strings. (example: podlist-format "%i %u
110 %-20S %F")
111
113 By default, Newsboat stores all the files in a traditional Unix
114 fashion, i.e. in a "dotdir" located at ~/.newsboat. However, it also
115 supports a modern way, XDG Base Directory Specification
116 <https://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html>,
117 which splits the files between the following locations:
118 • $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/newsboat/
120 • $XDG_DATA_HOME/newsboat/
122 If the XDG_CONFIG_HOME environment variable is not set, Newsboat
124 behaves as if it was set to ~/.config. Similarly, XDG_DATA_HOME
125 defaults to ~/.local/share.
126 If the XDG config directory exists, Newsboat will use XDG directories,
128 creating the data directory if necessary. Otherwise, it will default to
129 ~/.newsboat.
130 If you’re currently using ~/.newsboat/ but wish to migrate to XDG
132 directories, you should move the files as follows:
133 config, urls
135 to $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/newsboat/
136 cache.db, history.search, history.cmdline, queue
138 to $XDG_DATA_HOME/newsboat/
139 Newsboat and Podboat also create "lock files". These prevent you from
141 starting two instances of the same program, and thus from corrupting
142 your data. Newsboat and Podboat remove these files when you quit the
143 program, so there is no need to copy them anywhere — just be aware of
144 them in case you write scripts that work with cache.db or queue. By
145 default, lock files are located as follows:
146 ┌─────────┬───────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┐
148 │ │ │ │
149 │ │ dotdir │ XDG │
150 ├─────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
151 │ │ │ │
152 │Newsboat │ ~/.newsboat/cache.db.lock │ $XDG_DATA_HOME/newsboat/cache.db.lock │
153 ├─────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
154 │ │ │ │
155 │Podboat │ ~/.newsboat/pb-lock.pid │ $XDG_DATA_HOME/newsboat/.lock │
156 └─────────┴───────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────┘
157 Newsboat places the lock file next to the cache file, so if you specify
159 cache-file setting or pass --cache-file command-line argument, the path
160 to the lock file will change too. Podboat, on the other hand, always
161 places its lock file as shown above.
162 dotfiles
164 ~/.newsboat/config
165 ~/.newsboat/queue
167 XDG
169 $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/newsboat/config
170 $XDG_DATA_HOME/newsboat/queue
172 Note: if the XDG_CONFIG_HOME environment variable is not set,
174 Podboat behaves as if it was set to ~/.config. Similarly,
175 XDG_DATA_HOME defaults to ~/.local/share.
176
178 BROWSER
179 Tells Newsboat what browser to use if there is no browser setting
180 in the config file. If this variable doesn’t exist, a default of
181 lynx(1) will be used.
182 CURL_CA_BUNDLE
184 Tells Newsboat to use the specified certificate file to verify the
185 peer. The file may contain multiple certificates. The
186 certificate(s) must be in PEM format.
187 This option is useful if your libcurl is built without useful
189 certificate information, and you can’t rebuild the library
190 yourself.
191 EDITOR
193 Tells Newsboat what fallback editor to use when editing the urls
194 file via the edit-urls operation and no VISUAL environment variable
195 is set. If this variable doesn’t exist either, a default of vi(1)
196 will be used.
197 PAGER
199 Tells Newsboat what pager to use if the pager setting in the config
200 file is explicitly set to an empty string.
201 TMPDIR
203 Tells Newsboat to use the specified directory for storing temporary
204 files. If this variable doesn’t exist, a default of /tmp will be
205 used.
206 VISUAL
208 Tells Newsboat what editor to use when editing the urls file via
209 the edit-urls operation. If this variable doesn’t exist, the EDITOR
210 environment variable will be used.
211 XDG_CONFIG_HOME
213 Tells Newsboat which base directory to use for the configuration
214 files. See also the section on files for more information.
215 XDG_DATA_HOME
217 Tells Newsboat which base directory to use for the data files. See
218 also the section on files for more information.
219
221 newsboat(1)
222
224 Alexander Batischev
225 2021-03-22 PODBOAT(1)