Feed Aggregator (Gator)

A command-line RSS feed aggregator built with Go. Gator allows you to track and browse RSS feeds from your terminal.

Prerequisites

Before running this program, you'll need to have the following installed on your system:

• Go (version 1.20 or higher) - Download and install Go
• PostgreSQL - Download and install PostgreSQL
• Goose - Database migration tool

Make sure PostgreSQL is running and you have access to create databases.

Installing Goose

Install goose using Go:

go install github.com/pressly/goose/v3/cmd/goose@latest

Installation

Install the gator CLI using Go's install command:

go install github.com/khizar-sudo/gator@latest

This will download, compile, and install the gator binary to your $GOPATH/bin directory (or $GOBIN if set).

Make sure your $GOPATH/bin is in your system's PATH to run gator from anywhere:

# Add this to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
export PATH=$PATH:$(go env GOPATH)/bin

Database Setup

1. Create a PostgreSQL database for the feed aggregator:

CREATE DATABASE gator;

2. Run the database migrations using goose:

cd sql/schema
goose postgres "postgres://username:password@localhost:5432/gator?sslmode=disable" up

Replace username and password with your PostgreSQL credentials.

This will automatically run all migration files in the correct order. Goose tracks which migrations have been applied, so it's safe to run this command multiple times.

Other Useful Goose Commands

• Check migration status:

  goose postgres "postgres://username:password@localhost:5432/gator?sslmode=disable" status

• Rollback the last migration:

  goose postgres "postgres://username:password@localhost:5432/gator?sslmode=disable" down

• Reset database (rollback all migrations):

  goose postgres "postgres://username:password@localhost:5432/gator?sslmode=disable" reset

Configuration

Before running the program, you need to create a configuration file in your home directory:

File location: ~/.gatorconfig.json

Contents:

{
  "db_url": "postgres://username:password@localhost:5432/gator?sslmode=disable",
  "current_user_name": ""
}

Replace username and password with your PostgreSQL credentials. The current_user_name field will be automatically populated when you register or login.

Usage

The general syntax for running commands is:

gator <command> [arguments]

Available Commands

User Management

• Register a new user:

  gator register <username>

  Creates a new user and automatically logs you in.

• Login as an existing user:

  gator login <username>

  Sets the current user in the config file.

• List all users:

  gator users

  Displays all registered users.

Feed Management

• Add a new RSS feed:

  gator addfeed <feed_name> <feed_url>

  Example: gator addfeed "Blog" https://blog.example.com/feed.xml

  This command automatically follows the feed after adding it.

• List all feeds:

  gator feeds

  Shows all RSS feeds in the system and their creators.

• Follow a feed:

  gator follow <feed_url>

  Start following an existing feed.

• List feeds you're following:

  gator following

  Shows all feeds that you're currently following.

• Unfollow a feed:

  gator unfollow <feed_url>

  Stop following a feed.

Aggregation and Browsing

• Start the aggregator:

  gator agg <time_duration>

  Example: gator agg 1m or gator agg 30s

  Fetches new posts from all feeds at the specified interval. This command runs continuously until you stop it (Ctrl+C).

• Browse recent posts:

  gator browse [limit]

  Example: gator browse 10

  Displays recent posts from feeds you're following. If no limit is specified, it shows 2 posts by default.

Utility

• Reset the database:

  gator reset

  Deletes all users and cascades to feeds and posts (use with caution!).

Example Workflow

Here's a typical workflow to get started:

# 1. Register a new user
gator register john

# 2. Add some RSS feeds
gator addfeed "Boot.dev Blog" https://blog.boot.dev/index.xml
gator addfeed "Golang Weekly" https://golangweekly.com/rss

# 3. View all feeds
gator feeds

# 4. Start the aggregator in the background (fetch every minute)
gator agg 1m &

# 5. Browse recent posts
gator browse 5

Development

This project uses:

• sqlc for type-safe SQL queries
• goose for database migrations
• PostgreSQL for data storage
• Native Go RSS parsing

License

This project is part of the Boot.dev curriculum.