PowerCrust v1.1

(this is a Rust re-implementation of my powercasts module)

A command-line utility that extracts media files from RSS feeds listed in an OPML file.

Features

• Parses RSS feeds from an OPML subscription file
• Extracts media URLs (MP3, MP4) from podcast feeds
• Creates a list of all media URLs in a text file
• Generates a separate list of the newest episodes from each feed
• Supports multiple output formats for newest episodes (plain text, Markdown, HTML)
• Optional chronological sorting of episodes in the output file [NOT FUNCTIONAL ATM]
• Configurable time window for "current" episodes
• [NEW] player
  • https://v1d.dk/h/powercrust_player_v6.htm
    • the player needs a powercrust format newest.txt file to run:
    • https://v1d.dk/h/newest.txt

Installation

Prerequisites

• Rust (1.55 or newer)
• Cargo (included with Rust)

How to Use the Linux executable

Just copy the powercrust executable in /target/release to somewhere comfortable, then run it on your OPML file.

Building from source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/taext/powercrust.git
cd powercrust

# Build with cargo
cargo build --release

# Optional: copy to your PATH
cp target/release/powercrust /usr/local/bin/

Usage

The basic usage is:

powercrust [OPTIONS] <OPML_FILE>

Arguments

• <OPML_FILE>: Path to the OPML file containing RSS feed subscriptions

Options

• -c, --check-current <BOOL>: Only include episodes published within the specified days (default: true)
• -d, --days <DAYS>: Number of days to consider as "current" (default: 30)
• -o, --chronological <BOOL>: Sort all episodes chronologically (oldest first) in the output file (default: false)
• -f, --format <FORMAT>: Format for newest.txt output (txt, md, html) (default: txt)

Examples

# Basic usage - parse feeds from subscriptions.opml
powercrust subscriptions.opml

# Include all episodes, not just recent ones
powercrust --check-current false subscriptions.opml

# Consider episodes from the last 7 days as current
powercrust --days 7 subscriptions.opml

# Sort episodes chronologically in the output file
powercrust --chronological true subscriptions.opml

# Output newest episodes in Markdown format
powercrust --format md subscriptions.opml

# Output newest episodes in HTML format
powercrust --format html subscriptions.opml

Output Files

The program generates two output files:

1. <OPML_FILENAME>.txt: Contains all media URLs from the feeds (one URL per line)

   • When --chronological is enabled, URLs are sorted by publication date (oldest first)
   • When --chronological is disabled, URLs are in no particular order

2. newest.<FORMAT>: Contains the newest episode from each feed

   • Format depends on the --format option (txt, md, or html)
   • For txt format: Feed Name: Episode Title [Date] - URL
   • For md format: Markdown structured document with headers and links
   • For html format: HTML document with styling for better presentation

Configuration

The RSS Feed Scraper can be configured through command-line arguments. You can combine multiple options to customize the behavior according to your needs.

Time Window Configuration

By default, the program only includes episodes published within the last 30 days. You can:

• Disable this filter with --check-current false
• Adjust the time window with --days <NUMBER>

Output Formatting

• Choose how the newest episodes are formatted with --format <FORMAT>
• Sort all episodes chronologically with --chronological true (default is off)

Notes

• The OPML file should follow standard format with <outline> elements containing text and xmlUrl attributes
• The program uses a regex to extract media URLs, so it might miss some URLs if they don't match the pattern
• For feeds that don't provide publication dates, episodes will be treated as if they have no date when filtering and sorting

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.