NAME

comix2 - download comix for your offline pleasure

VERSION

Ask the version number to the script itself, calling:

shell$ comix2 --version

USAGE

comix2 [--usage] [--help] [--man] [--version]

comix2 [--all|-a] [--comics|-C] [--comics-by-plugin]
       [--config|-c <filename>] [--directory|-d <path>] [--errors <n>]
       [--get] [--insist] [--own-config|-o <filename>]
       [--plugin|-x <name>] [--plugins|-P] [--sample] [--upto <n>]

EXAMPLES

shell$ comix2

# Get a sample of all the available comics
$ comix2 --sample --all

# Which comics are available?
$ comix2 --comics

# Which plugin handles which comic?
$ comix2 --comics-by-plugin

# Which comics are handled by each plugin?
$ comix2 --plugins

# Get last available strip of "foo" feature
$ comix2 --sample foo

# Get no more than 5 strips
$ comix2 --upto 5 foo

# Get all available strips for "bar"
$ comix2 bar

# Don't stress the server too much, put some random pauses
$ comix2 -p 5 bar

# Save in "/path/to/bar" instead of default "./bar"
$ comix2 -d /path/to/bar bar

# Force usage of plugin "baz" to download "foo"
$ comix2 -x baz foo

DESCRIPTION

This script eases access to some comix websites by providing a unique and consistent interface through WWW::Comix. You can get the list of supported comics for the plugin you have in your system, the list of plugins themselves, and you can download strips for offline reading with a variety of options.

First of all, you can ask the list of available plugins, which will also give you the comics that each plugin supports. You can do this very easily:

$ comix2 --plugins

Once you know, you'd better go to the site that the plugin supports, and see which comics you like. Once you know that you're interested into comic Foo bars and Baz the Great, for example, you can download strips for offline reading:

$ comix2 "Foo bars" "Baz the Great"

Note that the quotes are needed by the shell due to the fact that the strips has a space in the name.

By default, a subdirectory named foo bar will be created, where the downloaded files will be saved. You can force the download to happen elsewhere using the --directory|-d option, anyway:

$comix2 -d /path/to/your/foo-bars "Foo bars"

Each saved strip is associated to an opaque id that varies by plugin but that should uniquely identify each strip. Each time a strip is successfully downloaded, the id is recorded in a history file inside the directory, so that the next time that particular strip will not be downloaded again. By default, when mirroring the research for untaken strips stops after the program skips two already-downloaded strips. If you know that there's a batch of old strips that you haven't fetched yet, you can --insist. The history file is saved in the strip's directory with name comix2.history.

When downloading lots of strips, you'd like to be lean on the server, and allow for some time betweene each download. If you specify some value with --pause|-p, a random time will be waited, ranging from the number of seconds passed through the option to the double of that number. Hence, if you specify 5 seconds, the pause will be randomly distributed between 5 and 10 seconds.

Sometimes a given strip could be provided by two or more providers (i.e. plugins). Each plugin is weighted depending on the number of strips it makes available, but if you want to insist on using a given plugin you can specify it with the --plugin|-x option.

If you have some options that you'd like to reuse at each run, you could want to save them into a file. For example, if you know that a given strip should be handled by a given plugin, a configuration file is an excellent place to put your preference. Configuration files resemble Windows .ini files, where you can specify global options (inside a "no group" section, or a section named _) and feature-specific options (inside a group that is named after the strip). For example:

pause 5

[foo]
plugin = bar

The names of the options are exactly the same of the command-line options, in their long format and without the leading dashes. You can either specify a full path to the configuration file:

$ comix2 -c /path/to/config foo

or you can signal that the progam will find some configuration file inside the directory that's specific for the strip itself:

$comix2 --own-config strip.config foo bar baz

OPTIONS

--all | -a

consider all comics instead of those given on the command line. Depending on the plugins that you have, you could reach quite a number of comics, so use this option with care (might be worth to download a sample of each comic and give it a try, anyway).

--comics | -C

get a list of all supported comics.

--comics-by-plugin

get a list of all supported comics, each with a list of plugins that support the given comic. This sublist is sorted by plugin priority, so the first plugin is the one that would be used by default.

--config | -c <filename>

specify a session-wide configuration file. See also --own-config below.

--directory | -d <path>

set the directory where the strips will be saved, instead of the default one built up from the feature's name.

--errors <n>

tolerate up to n consecutive errors, then bail out from current feature. If you set to zero, you'll disable this check (this proves useful when mirroring). Defaults to 2.

--get | --no-get

ask to download the strip. This is actually the default, so this option makes sense only in its negated form, to perform a dry run.

--help

print a somewhat more verbose help, showing usage, this description of the options and some examples from the synopsis.

--insist

normally, after finding a couple of strips that have already been taken, the quest for new strips is ended. If this option is given, the quest is ended only at the very end of the list of strips. This can prove useful when performing the initial mirror, because if some strips are skipped due to errors you wouldn't get them in the following downloads. When updating the offline reading cache, anyway, this option is only likely to make you waste band and time.

--man

print out the full documentation for the script.

--own-config | -o <filename>

signal that the configuration file (with the given filename) will be found in the directory used to download the strips. This allows you to have a different configuration file for each strip (unless you specify a directory, in which case all strips will share the same configuration file in that directory).

--plugin | -x <name>

set the plugin to use instead of the default one chosen by comix2 on the base of priority values. You shouldn't usually need it, because priorities are calculated in order to privilege providers that give access to more strips.

--plugins | -P

get the list of installed plugins.

--sample

get only a sample for the given strips. If you want to get a sample of all the comics, you can do this:

$ comix2 --sample --all

--upto <n>

download at most n strips that aren't already in the local cache. This lets you be even more lean on the server, e.g scheduling n downloads per day (in this case you'll probably need --insist as well).

--usage

print a concise usage line and exit.

--version

print the version of the script.

DIAGNOSTICS

comix2 gives you a feedback on what's doing, and each operation is visually logged. You won't have difficulties in understanding what's going wrong: errors are clearly marked as such!

CONFIGURATION AND ENVIRONMENT

comix2 configurations can be given with either the --config|-c option or using the --own-config|-o option.

All options in the INTERFACE section can be given, even though not all of them will make sense. The configuration file follows a Windows .ini style, where you can have different configuration groups. In this case, each group is the name of a different feature. Every option outside a configuration group, or in group _, are considered global and applied to all features. Comments can be given with the usual hash symbol, and must be put in a line by themselves.

Example:

# Overall pause
pause 5

[Foo bars]
plugin = bar

[Baz the Great]
plugin = baz

DEPENDENCIES

You will need the following modules:

• WWW::Comix

• version

• Log::Log4perl

• Path::Class

• Config::Tiny

BUGS AND LIMITATIONS

No bugs have been reported.

Please report any bugs or feature requests through http://rt.cpan.org/

AUTHOR

Flavio Poletti flavio@polettix.it

LICENCE AND COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2008, Flavio Poletti flavio@polettix.it. All rights reserved.

This script is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. See perlartistic and perlgpl.

Questo script è software libero: potete ridistribuirlo e/o modificarlo negli stessi termini di Perl stesso. Vedete anche perlartistic e perlgpl.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY

BECAUSE THIS SOFTWARE IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE SOFTWARE, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE SOFTWARE "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE SOFTWARE PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR, OR CORRECTION.

IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE SOFTWARE AS PERMITTED BY THE ABOVE LICENCE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE SOFTWARE TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER SOFTWARE), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

NEGAZIONE DELLA GARANZIA

Poiché questo software viene dato con una licenza gratuita, non c'è alcuna garanzia associata ad esso, ai fini e per quanto permesso dalle leggi applicabili. A meno di quanto possa essere specificato altrove, il proprietario e detentore del copyright fornisce questo software "così com'è" senza garanzia di alcun tipo, sia essa espressa o implicita, includendo fra l'altro (senza però limitarsi a questo) eventuali garanzie implicite di commerciabilità e adeguatezza per uno scopo particolare. L'intero rischio riguardo alla qualità ed alle prestazioni di questo software rimane a voi. Se il software dovesse dimostrarsi difettoso, vi assumete tutte le responsabilità ed i costi per tutti i necessari servizi, riparazioni o correzioni.

In nessun caso, a meno che ciò non sia richiesto dalle leggi vigenti o sia regolato da un accordo scritto, alcuno dei detentori del diritto di copyright, o qualunque altra parte che possa modificare, o redistribuire questo software così come consentito dalla licenza di cui sopra, potrà essere considerato responsabile nei vostri confronti per danni, ivi inclusi danni generali, speciali, incidentali o conseguenziali, derivanti dall'utilizzo o dall'incapacità di utilizzo di questo software. Ciò include, a puro titolo di esempio e senza limitarsi ad essi, la perdita di dati, l'alterazione involontaria o indesiderata di dati, le perdite sostenute da voi o da terze parti o un fallimento del software ad operare con un qualsivoglia altro software. Tale negazione di garanzia rimane in essere anche se i dententori del copyright, o qualsiasi altra parte, è stata avvisata della possibilità di tali danneggiamenti.

Se decidete di utilizzare questo software, lo fate a vostro rischio e pericolo. Se pensate che i termini di questa negazione di garanzia non si confacciano alle vostre esigenze, o al vostro modo di considerare un software, o ancora al modo in cui avete sempre trattato software di terze parti, non usatelo. Se lo usate, accettate espressamente questa negazione di garanzia e la piena responsabilità per qualsiasi tipo di danno, di qualsiasi natura, possa derivarne.

cpanm WWW::Comix

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install WWW::Comix