BatchPatch

BatchPatch is a Python script designed for automating the generation and distribution of a batch of patch files with the xdelta tool. The targeted use case is anime batch releases in particular; the script expects names like [group] Series name - 01v3 (720p) [1357acde].mkv, and corresponding file pairs are identified by that version marker. In addition to the patch files, the script also writes a ready-to-use batch file for Windows with which the recipient can easily apply all of the patches to their files.

Requirements

• Python 3. More recent is probably better, written and tested on Python 3.4.3.
• pip, if it didn't come bundled with your version of Python 3.
• An xdelta executable, copied into the same folder as the script. Previously, xdelta was licensed under GPL 2.0, which put an unreasonable burden for any software repackaging even the pre-built executable by requiring the source code also be provided with it. xdelta is now licensed under Apache License, which does not have this requirement, so a copy xdelta might be packaged with BatchPatch by default at some point in the future.

Installing

After cloning the repository, install dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

That's it.

Basic usage

python batchpatch.py -o "olddir" -n "newdir"

This will create patches for each matching pair of files between the folders olddir and newdir into a new timestamped directory in the same folder as the script itself.

Switch reference

• -o dir, --olddir dir: Specifies the directory with the old files.

• -n dir, --newdir dir: Specifies the directory with the new files.

• -t dir, --target dir: Specifies where the patch files and the script should be written to. It will be created if it does not yet exist.

• -l level, --loglevel level: Controls the amount of output the script will print. Valid values are, in order of verbosity:

  • debug (prints everything)
  • notice (default if not set)
  • warning
  • error
  • silent (doesn't print anything)

• -x path, --xdelta_path path: defines an alternate location for the xdelta executable. By default, one is expected to be located in the same folder as the script.

• -v, --version: Prints the version information and exits.

• -h, --help: Prints a help message, which contains more or less the same information as this section.

• --script-lang lang: Selects another language to use when writing the automatic patch applying script. Allowed values are defined by the present subfolders in the i18n directory.

• --script-name name: Specifies the filename to use for the patch script, without the file extension. Default name is 'apply'.

• --patch-pattern pattern: Specifies the pattern used for the filenames of the patch files. Variables are enclosed in curly brackets, everything else will be used as is. The available variables are as follows:

  • {raw_group}, {raw_name}, {raw_ep}, {raw_specifier}, {raw_ext} - Unmodified versions of the corresponding variables listed below. Most of the variables are run through a normalization filter that changes letters to lowercase, strips accents, and converts spaces and most other characters to underscores.
  • {group} - The group short name.
  • {name} - The series name.
  • {ep} - The episode number.
  • {v_old}, {v_new} - The versions of the two files. Plain numbers, 1 is set for files with no version number found in the filename.
  • {hash_old}, {hash_new} - The CRC hashes of the two files.
  • {specifier} - The specifier located after the episode/version number in parentheses, if present.
  • {specifier_items} - An array version of the above variable, split by spaces. This way you can pick a certain piece, e.g. the resolution from "1080p 10bit".
  • {ext} - The file extension.
  • {type} - A shorthand for {specifier}{ext}, representing a specific release format of the series.

  The default pattern is {name}{specifier_items[0]}_{ep}_v{v_old}v{v_new}.vcdiff.

• -z, --zip: Additionally create a ZIP archive out of the output files.

• --zip-name name: The name for the patch archive, if -z was used. Defaults to patch.zip.

What constitutes a suitable pair of files for a patch?

The internal regular expression splits each filename it comes across into a few distinct pieces in this order:

• Group short name in square brackets, if present.
• Main name.
• Episode number (also allowing alphabets, i.e. "S1" or "NCOP2" are valid episode numbers), if present. A leading dash surrounded by spaces is expected before the number.
• Version tag in the form "vX", if present. Absence implies version one.
• Additional qualifiers in parentheses, if present. Commonly contains data like the resolution.
• CRC hash in square brackets, if present.
• The file extension.

The files are considered to be compatible for patching if their group name, main name, episode number, qualifiers and file extension match and additionally their versions differ. Take note that missing values also match. As most elements are optional, the minimal case of compatible files is as simple as file.txt and file v2.txt.

The regular expression cannot currently be configured without editing the script.

License

The source code is licensed under the MIT license.