sbn_arxiv

Retrieve and format submissions from arXiv.org into an html-file.

What it does

The purpose of this script is to simplify the process of keeping up-to-date with submissions from arXiv.org. Specifically, sbn_arxiv tracks the newly uploaded papers to the archives of interest and formats them into a convinient, easily-read html file, that can be opened in a browser or sent via email (e.g. to replace the regular arXiv subscription).
For every paper of interest the script lists the title (that is also a link to the full pdf), tags, and authors:

html file generated by sbn_arxiv	default arXiv email

How to run it

• Prerequisites. Install the requirements listed in requirements.txt, e.g. pip install -r requirements.txt.
• Customization. Specify archives to be tracked and the regularity of retrievals in the settings.ini file.
• Execution. Run sbn_arxiv.py to generate an html file with the desired submissions: python sbn_arxiv.py. The folder html_files will be created with the newly generated html file it.
• Automation. Optionally, set up a regular execution of the script, followed by emailing the generated html file. That way you'll be receiving regular updates on arXiv submissions that are more readable than the default subscriptions. For instance, I use the bash script

  #!/bin/bash
  # execute sbn_arxiv.py
  python sbn_arxiv.py
  # go to the directory containing html files 
  cd "html_files"
  # if a file was created recently, send it in an email
  if [ $(find ./ -type f -ctime -.1 | wc -l) -gt 0 ]
          then mail -s "$(ls -t | head -1 | cut -f 1 -d '.')" -a
          'Content-type: text/html' your@email < "$(ls -t | head -1)"
  fi

  and execute it regularly with crontab:

  # retrieve and email arxiv submissions every weekday at 7:00am est
  00 11 * * 1-5 cd "directory of the above script"; sh script.sh

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.