podcasts.sh

This script downloads podcast episodes and tags the audio file with show and episode name in id3v2 format. It can either download the latest episodes or all episodes.

Dependencies

• Bash shell script
• Using the following standard unix commands: head, cat, bc
• tac (tac may not be available in all unix flavors. If not, change listcmd to cat in podcasts.sh)
• Uses flock for file locking
• Uses both curl and wget
• Uses xsltproc to run an rss parser (may need to install xsltproc package)
• Uses id3v2 to tag downloaded audio files with podcast name and episode (may need to install id3v2 package)
• Uses ffmpeg to change podcast speed (only when the -s option is used)

Setup

Copy podcasts.conf.sample to podcasts.conf and add and remove shows as desired. The format is one line per show, with the rss url and name of the podcast separated by a tab. (This assumes show names do not have tabs.)

Usage

To download the latest podcast from each show, run

./podcasts.sh -o /path/to/store/podcasts

This will download the latest podcasts from each show in podcasts.conf and store them in the given directory under show name subdirectories. This script is very convenient for using in crontab, e.g., to download podcasts every hour

0 * * * * /path/to/podcasts.sh -o /path/to/store/podcasts > /tmp/podcasts.out 2>&1

The script will automatically maintain a log (download.log) of previously downloaded podcasts to avoid ever redownloading them.

Advanced Usage

Download all podcast episodes

To download all podcasts instead of the latest, use -a. Specify different lists of shows using -f. For instance, to download all episodes of a single show from the default config file do

grep Crypto podcasts.conf | ./podcasts.sh -a -f - -o /path/to/store/podcasts

Download several of the most recent episodes

To download several of the most recent episodes, use -n with a number parameter, e.g., the following will download the ten most recent episodes:

grep Crypto podcasts.conf | ./podcasts.sh -n10 -f - -o /path/to/store/podcasts

Re-encode podcast at a different speed

To change the speed of the downloaded podcast, use -s with a speed multiplier, e.g, the following will download the latest episode and re-encode at 1.5x speed:

grep Show podcasts.conf | ./podcasts.sh -o test/ -f - -s 1.5