PODBOAT(1)

NAME
podboat - a podcast download manager for text terminals

SYNOPSIS

podboat [-C configfile] [-q queuefile] [-a] [-h]

DESCRIPTION

Podboat is a podcast manager for text terminals. It is a helper program to Newsboat which queues podcast downloads into a file. These queued downloads can then be download with Podboat.

OPTIONS

-h, --help
    Display help

-C configfile, --config-file=configfile
    Use an alternative configuration file

-q queuefile, --queue-file=queuefile
    Use an alternative queue file

-a, --autodownload
    Start automatic download of all queued files on startup

-l loglevel, --log-level=loglevel
    Generate a logfile with a certain loglevel. Valid loglevels are 1 to 6. An actual logfile will only be written when you provide a logfile name.

-d logfile, --log-file=logfile
    Use this logfile as output when logging debug messages. Please note that this only works when providing a loglevel.

PODCAST SUPPORT

A podcast is a media file distributed over the internet using syndication feeds such as RSS, for later playback on portable players or computers. Newsboat supports downloading, saving and streaming podcasts, though an external media player is needed for playback. This support differs a bit from other podcast aggregators or "podcatchers" in how it is done.

Podcast content is transported in RSS feeds via special tags called "enclosures". Newsboat recognizes these enclosures and stores the relevant information for every podcast item it finds in an RSS feed. Since version 2.0, it also recognizes and handles the Yahoo Media RSS extensions.

MANAGING AUDIO FILES WITH PODBOAT

What the user can do is to add the podcast download URL to a download queue. Alternatively, Newsboat can be configured to automatically do that. This queue is stored in the queue file next to the cache.db file.

The user can then use the download manager podboat to download these files to a directory on the local filesystem. Podboat comes with the Newsboat package, and features a look and feel very close to the one of Newsboat. It also shares the same configuration file.

Podcasts that have been downloaded but haven’t been played yet remain in the queue but are marked as downloaded. You can remove them by purging them from the queue with the "P" key. After you’ve played a file and close Podboat, it will be removed from the queue. The downloaded file remains on the filesystem unless "delete-played-files" is enabled.

A common "use case" is to configure Newsboat to automatically enqueue newly found podcast download URLs. Then, the user reloads the podcast RSS feeds in Newsboat, and after that, uses Podboat to view the current queue, and either selectively download certain files or automatically download them all together by pressing "a" within Podboat.

CONFIGURATION COMMANDS

delete-played-files (parameters: [yes/no]; default value: no)
    If set to yes, Podboat will delete files when their corresponding queue entry is removed (this includes "finished" and "deleted" entries as well). (example: delete-played-files yes)

download-path (parameters: <path>; default value: ~/)
    Specifies the directory where Podboat shall download the files to. Optionally, placeholders can be used to place downloads in a directory structure. See "Format Strings" section of Newsboat manual for details on available formats. This setting is applied at enqueueing time; changing it won’t affect download paths of the podcasts that were already added to the queue. (example: download-path "~/Downloads/%h/%n")

download-filename-format (parameters: <string>; default value: "%?u?%u&%Y-%b-%d-%H%M%S.unknown?")
    Specifies how Podboat would name the files it downloads (see also download-path). See "Format Strings" section of Newsboat manual for details on available formats. (example: download-filename-format "%F-%t.%e")

max-downloads (parameters: <number>; default value: 1)
    Specifies the maximum number of parallel downloads when automatic download is enabled. (example: max-downloads 3)

player (parameters: <player command>; default value: "")
    Specifies the player that shall be used for playback of downloaded files. (example: player "mp3blaster")

podlist-format (parameters: <format>; default value: "%4i [%6dMB/%6tMB] [%5p %%] [%12K] %-20S %u → %F")
    This variable defines the format of entries in Podboat’s download list. See the respective section in the documentation for more information on format strings. (example: podlist-format "%i %u %-20S %F")

FILES

By default, Newsboat stores all the files in a traditional Unix fashion, i.e. in the "dotdir" located at ~/.newsboat. However, it also supports a modern way, which splits the files between the following locations:

    • ~/.local/share/newsboat/

    • ~/.config/newsboat/

If these directories exist or the environment variables $XDG_CONFIG_HOME and $XDG_DATA_HOME are set, Newsboat will use these directories, otherwise it will default to ~/.newsboat as its configuration directory.

If you’re currently using ~/.newsboat/ but wish to migrate to XDG directories, you should move the files as follows:

config, urls
    to $HOME/.config/newsboat/

cache.db, history.search, history.cmdline, queue
    to $HOME/.local/share/newsboat/

dotfiles
    $HOME/.newsboat/config

    $HOME/.newsboat/queue

XDG
    $HOME/.config/newsboat/config

    $HOME/.local/share/newsboat/queue

ENVIRONMENT

BROWSER
    Tells Newsboat what browser to use if there is no browser setting in the config file. If this variable doesn’t exist, a default of lynx(1) will be used.

CURL_CA_BUNDLE
    Tells Newsboat to use the specified certificate file to verify the peer. The file may contain multiple certificates. The certificate(s) must be in PEM format.

    This option is useful if your libcurl is built without useful certificate information, and you can’t rebuild the library yourself.

EDITOR
    Tells Newsboat what fallback editor to use when editing the urls file via the edit-urls operation and no VISUAL environment variable is set. If this variable doesn’t exist either, a default of vi(1) will be used.

PAGER
    Tells Newsboat what pager to use if the pager setting in the config file is explicitly set to an empty string.

TMPDIR
    Tells Newsboat to use the specified directory for storing temporary files. If this variable doesn’t exist, a default of /tmp will be used.

VISUAL
    Tells Newsboat what editor to use when editing the urls file via the edit-urls operation. If this variable doesn’t exist, the EDITOR environment variable will be used.

XDG_CONFIG_HOME
    Tells Newsboat which base directory to use for the configuration files. See also the section on files for more information.

XDG_DATA_HOME
    Tells Newsboat which base directory to use for the data files. See also the section on files for more information.

SEE ALSO

newsboat(1)

AUTHOR

Alexander Batischev