Plex rclone cache scanner (plex_rcs)

A small little program that will monitor an rclone log file waiting for notices of file cache expiration. Upon receiving a notice, a local Plex scan of that folder will be triggered and new media will appear in Plex almost instantly.

This is useful for people who run Plex Media Server on a different server than Sonarr/Radarr/etc. It's possible to have media appear in your Plex server within 5-10 minutes of downloading using this program, along with an rclone --cache-tmp-wait-time 5m.

Requirements

1. Python 3+
2. Your rclone cache mount must include --log-level INFO
3. Your rclone cache mount must include --syslog OR --log-file /path/to/file.log

Installation

1. Clone this repo: git clone https://github.com/stokkes/plex_rcs.git
2. Install the requirements: sudo pip3 install -r requirements.txt

Configuration

1. Copy the config.yml.default to config.yml
2. Edit config.yml to include your X-Plex-Token, set your media_root setting and any other settings. See below for more information on the media_root setting.

Running plex_rcs

There are two ways I recommend you run this. Using screen or using the included plex_rcs.service systemd service (coming soon).

Using screen

Execute the program using screen:

/usr/bin/screen -dmS plexrcs /path/to/plex_rcs/plex_rcs.py

To view the console: screen -r plexrcs

Using systemd

Coming soon

1. Edit the included plex_rcs.service file and change the path to where the plex_rcs.py file is located
2. Copy the systemd file to /etc/systemd/service: sudo cp plex_rcs.service /etc/systemd/service
3. Reload systemd: sudo systemctl daemon-reload
4. Enable the service [auto-starts on boot]: sudo systemctl enable plex_rcs
5. Start the service: sudo systemctl start plex_rcs

More info on media_root configuration setting

This setting may be tricky to figure out at the first glance, but it is critical to get plex_rcs working properly.

The value of this setting is the folder inside your docker container (if using docker) that contains all your media. Typically, this would be in /media. If not using docker, this will likely be the path to your rclone cache remote mount, i.e.: /mnt/media

However, at this time there is 1 requirement:

The root of your rclone cache remote (i.e.: gdrive-cache:) must contain all your media in sub-folders, so that the remote and the folder that is mounted inside your docker container/on your system both contain the same sub-folders.

How to test:

1. rclone lsd cache: and
2. docker exec -ti plex ls /media (where /media is where your media is located inside your docker container)
3. If not using docker, ls /path/to/rclone/cache/mount

If the result of these two folders yield the same sub-folders, then plex_rcs will work correctly.

What won't work

1. rclone lsd cache: shows many different folders, not just media sub-folders
2. You've mounted the cache: remote to /mnt/media using something like rclone mount cache:Media /mnt/media
3. docker exec -ti plex ls /media shows only your media sub-folders

I hope to build some logic to help figure this out, but don't hold your breath.

Testing

You can test plex_rcs if you use the built in /var/log/syslog monitoring by executing the following command (replace tvshows and the series/episode by your values):

logger "Apr 21 07:20:51 plex rclone[21009]: tvshows/Survivor/Season 20/Survivor - S20E01 - Episode.mkv: received cache expiry notification"

If you're monitoring the plex_rcs console, you should see activity:

Starting to monitor /var/log/syslog with pattern for rclone                                                             
Match found: tvshows/Survivor/Season 20/Survivor - S20E01 - Episode.mkv
Processing section 1, folder: /media/tvshows/Survivor/Season 20
GUI: Scanning Survivor/Season 20

TODO

• Support Plexdrive (analyis required)
• Smarter logic to detect rclone cache root/docker media root
• Logging to file