nzbperl 0.6.6 review

nzbperl is a newsreader utility that can process an nzb file, autodecode, and do bandwidth throttling. Run Linux (or OSX or Window

License: GPL (GNU General Public License) File size: 96K Developer: Jason Plumb

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nzbperl is a newsreader utility that can process an nzb file, autodecode, and do bandwidth throttling.

Run Linux (or OSX or Windows)? Need a multi-connection newsreader utility that can process an nzb file and autodecode and even do bandwidth throttling? You've come to the right place.

I looked around for something that I could use for nzb files on my Linux setup, and I soon discovered limited options. There are progs out there that will download nzb files (nzbget and knzb are apparently the most visible ones), but none seemed to have a key feature that I put importance on: bandwidth throttling. So, like many other one-off hacks and open source projects, this little toy was built to scratch an itch.

Here are some key features of "nzbperl":
Automated parsing and sorting of nzb files
Supports multiple server connections
Automated parts downloading, assembling, and decoding
Decodes uuencoded and yenc encoded files (via uudeview)
User controllable bandwidth throttling (even change speeds during runtime)
Nice colored text display with progress information
News server authentication (optional)
Perl script requires no compilation.
Few dependencies
Small footprint (about a 57kB download)

Requirements:
UUDeview - great program, used by nzbperl to do file decoding.

Perl (version likely flexible), and the following modules:

use Socket;
use threads; (only if you want threaded decoding)
use Thread::Queue; (only if you want threaded decoding)
use XML::DOM;
use Getopt::Long;
use Time::HiRes;
use Term::ReadKey;
use Term::Cap;
use Term::ANSIColor; (only if you want color)
use IO::Socket::SSL; (only if you want SSL)
use IO::Socket::Socks; (only if you want to use SOCKS proxy)
use Net::HTTPTunnel; (only if you want to use an HTTP tunnel)

On most systems, installing Perl modules from CPAN is a snap (as root):
$ perl -MCPAN -e "install XML::DOM"

What's New in This Release:
A problem with the --nothread option that prevented it from working properly was fixed.
It should be possible to run nzbperl now without a threaded version of perl.
The --forever option was added to prevent nzbperl from ever exiting (requires --queuedir to also be provided).
The --postnzb option was added to allow nzbperl to run an external program after the last file in an nzb file is decoded.
The --chunksize option was added to allow users to modify the internal recv byte count.