podget – automatic podcast retrieval

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

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  1. 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 .

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