rss-image-downloader

This is a simple script for downloading images from RSS feeds (such as the ones from flickr).

Usage

rss-image-download URL DIRECTORY
rss-image-download DIRECTORY

• URL: the RSS feed url, e.g., http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne?tags=interestingness&format=rss_200_enc (Flickr Interestingness)
  • you need to make sure that there are <closure> tags with images
• DIRECTORY: the directory to store the images
  • during the first download process the script will save the url as well as the last retrieved rss file inside the directory as well
  • therefore after the first download you only need to supply the DIRECTORY argument to retrieve new images
  • the script automatically compares the latest rss feed with the last retrieved one to determine if new images are available for download

Integration with crontab

For example, I have the following in my crontab

0 0 * * * find ~/Pictures/wallpapers/'#rss' -type d -links 2 -print0 | xargs -0 -n1 rss-image-download

This updates all my RSS image feeds every day at midnight.