RedditNotifier

Simple script that queries and scrapes a Reddit subreddit for new listings that match a given regex (regular expression). The script will print out any matching listings, and can be setup to notify via email or text whenever a match is found.

There is a python version under the python branch. main branch is written in rust now

Instructions

Installation

Clone repository: git clone https://github.com/spoorn/RedditNotifier.git
Or
Download and extract zip under Releases: https://github.com/spoorn/RedditNotifier/releases

Prerequisites

1. The script accesses Reddit APIs to fetch subreddit listings. You will need to provide an API Key and Secret Key for authentication:
   • Go to https://www.reddit.com/prefs/apps/
   • Click create another app... at the bottom
   • Type in any name, and description
   • Select type script
   • redirect url can be anything as it's unused in the script, but required to create an app on reddit. You can use https://github.com/spoorn/RedditNotifier
   • API Key will be under "personal use script"
   • Secret Key will be after "secret"
   • These keys will be needed in the configurations below

Configurations

All setup and configurations are inputted in config.properties.

This script uses SMTP to send messages/text other emails/phone numbers. You will need to provide an email for the SENDER (GMail has been tested and works). Recommend to use a non-important email as credentials will be stored in a configuration file - you can create a new dummy email. The SENDER email is logged in via SMTP, so depending on the email server, you may need to allow access from "Less Secure Apps" (see https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6010255 if you are using Gmail).

⚠️Note: If you are running the script from a server such as Google Compute Engine, or you don't want to store your password directly in the config file, you can make use of an App Password instead: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833

⚠️ Note: If you are trying to notify a phone via text message, be sure to enable MMS messaging on your phone. If you are trying to notify via email, double check the Spam folder and some email servers may mark the email as spam.

Running the script

cd into the directory where you installed, then run via the pre-built binary with ./bin/reddit_notifier

(or if you have the rust toolchain installed, via cargo with cargo run)

Ctrl + C to terminate the script.

Tips

1. It's good practice to reboot or bounce systems every now and then. If you are running the RedditNotifier script in the background constantly, the most up-to-date script is capable of collecting snapshots so that a reboot can re-load what was already queried previously. You can schedule the script to be run in the background in a tmux session on reboot, and set the system to reboot every week:
   • run crontab -e and open with your favorite text editor, then add the following:

   @reboot tmux new -d redditnotifier && tmux send-keys -t redditnotifier.0 "cd <path-to-RedditNotifier/> && ./bin/reddit_notifier" ENTER
   # Reboot on Sundays at 4 AM
   0 4 * * 0 sudo reboot