Introduction
Just a few weeks ago I used Amarok to download podcasts to my mp3 player but since I have a server running 24/7 i figured that I could use my bandwidth more sensible. Using podget I can make my server download the most recent podcasts into a specific folder a certain time during the night. The is both easier for me and reduces the load on my network connection during the day hours.
Setup
Installation on Ubuntu or Debian based Linux distributions are as always a breeze:
root@nobel:~# aptitude install podget
Starting podget at the shell for the first time will create two files, namely .podget/podgetrc and .podget/serverlist. Note the period in front. The first file configures how and where to store the podcasts and the second file sets which podcasts to download and how to categorize them.
The first thing to edit is .podget/podgetrc. The most important setting to change is the dir_library:
# Name of Server List configuration file config_serverlist=serverlist # Directory where to store downloaded files dir_library=/home/tjansson/Music/podcasts ...
This is the content of my .podget/serverlist. As it can be seen I provied the url, the category and a name of the podcast.
# Default Server List for podget # FORMAT: <url> <category> <name> # NOTES: # 1. The Category must be one word without spaces. You may use underscores. # 2. Any spaces in the urls needs to be converted to %20 # 3. Disable the downloading of any feed by commenting it out with a #. # 4. If you are creating ASX playlists, make sure the feed name does not # have any spaces in it. # Find more servers at: http://www.ipodder.org/directory/4/podcasts http://podcast.dr.dk/p1/rssfeed/alle_tiders_historie.xml DR Alle-tiders-historie http://podcast.dr.dk/p1/rssfeed/dokumentartimen.xml DR Dokumentartimen http://podcast.dr.dk/p1/rssfeed/feature.xml DR Feature http://podcast.dr.dk/p1/rssfeed/harddisken.xml DR Harddisken http://podcast.dr.dk/p1/rssfeed/orientering.xml DR Orientering http://podcast.dr.dk/p1/rssfeed/Radioklassikeren.xml DR Radioklassikeren http://podcast.dr.dk/p1/rssfeed/videnskabens_verden.xml DR Videnskabens-verden
The final step is to setup a cronjob to run podget every night, so I run
tjansson@nobel:~# crontab -e
and set the podget command to be run every night at 3:00
# m h dom mon dow command 0 3 * * * /usr/bin/podget -s
Cool, for a fellow Dane, it is just the info I need to have Exaile and/or Rhythmbox download the Orietering and other DR podcasts .