mpodder 2005-06-11 review

mpodder is a simple command line based podcast receiving (podcatching) tool

License: GPL (GNU General Public License) File size: 36K Developer: Matthew Gates

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mpodder is a simple command line based podcast receiving (podcatching) tool. mpodder is written in perl and should run quite happily on Linux, the BSD's etc.

The intent is for mpodder to be called from cron. It will notify the user of new content by email or a kdialog/xmessage popup. mpoddercan download only feed items from the last n days, and feeds can be brought up to date withouot having to download all old items (using the "catchup" command).

Examples

Listing current feeds

To see what feeds mpodder is currently looking at, use the listoperation:

% mpodder list
http://www.lugradio.org/episodes.rss
http://www.thepodcastnetwork.com/linuxuser/feed/
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rmhttp/downloadtrial/worldservice/godigital/rss.xml
http://radio.linuxquestions.org/syndicate/lqpodcast.php
http://feeds.feedburner.com/techpodcasts
http://linux.quicksurf.com/wp-rss2.php?cat=78
http://slashdotreview.com/wp-rss2.php
http://feeds.feedburner.com/twit
http://www.joshmcadams.com/perlcast/index.xml

If you provide a second parameter, the list will be filtered. All filteres in mpodder are using perl style regular expressions:

% mpodder list linux
http://www.thepodcastnetwork.com/linuxuser/feed/
http://radio.linuxquestions.org/syndicate/lqpodcast.php
http://linux.quicksurf.com/wp-rss2.php?cat=78

Adding feeds

Adding a feed to mpodder is simple, just use the add operation, followed by the URL of the feed:

% mpodder add http://lugradio.org/episodes.rss

Removing feeds

To remove a feed, use the remove parameter and a filter. All feeds matching the filter will be removed

% mpodder remove lugradio

Removed feed: http://www.lugradio.org/episodes.rss

Removed 1 feeds from list

Fetching feeds

Fetching everything (all new items in all feeds) is the default operation of mpodder. To do this simply omit any parameters on the command line:

% mpodder

You can specify a filter to only download feeds whose URL matches the filter:

% mpodder fetch lugradio

Catching up feeds

If you've just added a new feed, but don't want to download all the items in the feed, use the catchup operation. The parameter is a filter pm the URL of the feed:

% mpodder catchup lugradio

Caught up with 3 feeds

Checking what would be done

Most operations in mpodder can be simulated using the --pretend option. This is like -n in GNU make. Instead of actually doing the operation that is requested, a message is printed saying what would be done if the --pretend option were removed:

% mpodder --pretend fetch lugradio

would fetch: http://lugmirror.pcproff.com/lugradio-s2e17-060605-high.mp3

Getting more information on what mpodder is doing

The --verbose and --debug=n options can be used to make mpodder print out more information that usual about what it is doing. Nice for the curious. The parameter to --debug is an integer from 1 to 10.

Requirements:
perl 5
curl or wget
Stuff tools
You should also have the command line mail tool "mailx" installed.