Receive rss feeds by email
r2e [options] <command> [<args>]
r2e is a simple program which you can run in your crontab. It watches RSS feeds and sends you nicely formatted email message for each new item.
For a quick start with r2e, try these steps:
r2e new [email protected] r2e add feedname http://feed.url/somewhere.rss r2e run
The last command should eventually be put into your crontab, if you want things be sent you automatically.
--help
Print the rss2email help and exit.
-v, --version
Print the rss2email version and exit.
-c, --config <path>
The program configuration is read from $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/rss2mail.cfg by default (see also FILES and ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES below). Use this option to set a different configuration file.
-d, --data <path>
Dynamic program data is read from $XDG_DATA_HOME/rss2mail.json by default (see also FILES and ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES below). Use this option to set a different data file.
-V, --verbose
Increment the logging verbosity.
new [<email>]
Create a new feed database. If the <email> argument is given, it sets the default email address that mails are sent to.
email [<email>]
Update the default target email address to <email>.
add <name> <url> [<email>]
Subscribe to a feed. The <name> argument gives the feed a name for future manipulation. <url> is the URL of the feed. The optional <email> argument is the email address to send new items to, overriding the default address for this particular feed. Repeat for each feed you want to subscribe to.
run [--no-send] [<index> [<index> ...]]
Scan the feeds and send emails for new items. This can be run in a cron job.
The --no-send option stops r2e from sending any email. This can be useful the first time you run it, as otherwise it would send an email for every available feed entry.
If an <index> is specified, r2e will only download that feed. <index> can be either the feed name (as set by add) or the feed index (as shown by list).
list
List all the feeds in the database.
pause [<index> [<index> ...]]
Pause feeds (disable fetching). The <index> option selects the feed(s) to pause (see run for possible values). If no <index> is given, all feeds are paused.
unpause [<index> [<index> ...]]
Unpause feeds (enable fetching).
delete <index> [<index> [<index> ...]]
Remove a feed (or feeds) from the database. The <index> option selects the feed(s) to delete (see run for possible values).
reset [<index> [<index> ...]]
Forget dynamic feed data (e.g. to re-send old entries). The <index> option selects the feed(s) to reset (see run for possible values). If no <index> is given, all feeds are reset.
opmlimport [<path>]
Import new feeds from OPML. <path> is the file from which the OPML data will be read. If <path> is not given r2e reads the data from stdin.
opmlexport [<path>]
Export all feeds to OPML. <path> is the file to which the OPML data will be written. If <path> is not given r2e writes the data to stdout.
The program's behavior can be controlled via the $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/rss2email.cfg (see also FILES and ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES below). The file format is similar to a Microsoft Windows INI file. It is parsed by Python's ConfigParser class, so see the Python documentation at http://docs.python.org/3/library/configparser.html for format details.
The config file stores general configuration (applied to all feeds) in the [DEFAULT] section. The new command will create a configuration file for you, which you can edit as you see fit. The add command will add feed-specific sections. To override any a setting for all feeds, change the value in the [DEFAULT] section. To override a setting for a particular feed, add that setting to the feed-specific section. Here is an example overriding use-publisher-email and name-format for the feedname feed.
[DEFAULT] from = [email protected] force-from = False use-publisher-email = False name-format = {feed-title}: {author} .\|.\|. verbose = warning [feed.feedname] url = http://feed.url/somewhere.rss use-publisher-email = True name-format = {author} ({feed.title})
You can configure the following items:
The email address messages are from by default
Transfer-Encoding. For local mailing it is safe and convient to use 8bit.
True: Only use the 'from' address. False: Use the email address specified by the feed, when possible.
True: Use the publisher's email if you can't find the author's. False: Just use the 'from' email instead.
If empty, only use the feed email address rather than friendly name plus email address. Available attributes may include 'feed', 'feed-title', 'author', and 'publisher', but only 'feed' is guaranteed.
Set this to default To email addresses.
Set an HTTP proxy (e.g. 'http://your.proxy.here:8080/')
Set the timeout (in seconds) for feed server response
True: Fetch, process, and email feeds. False: Don't fetch, process, or email feeds
True: Send a single, multi-entry email per feed per rss2email run. False: Send a single email per entry.
True: Generate Date header based on item's date, when possible. False: Generate Date header based on time sent.
A comma-delimited list of some combination of ('issued', 'created', 'modified', 'expired') expressing ordered list of preference in dates to use for the Date header of the email.
Set this to add bonus headers to all emails Example: bonus-header = 'Approved: [email protected]'
True: Receive one email per post. False: Receive an email every time a post changes.
True: Receive one email per unique link url. False: Defer to trust-guid preference. Toggling this for existing feeds may result in duplicates, because the old entries will not be recorded under their new link-based ids.
To most correctly encode emails with international characters, we iterate through the list below and use the first character set that works.
User processing hooks. Note the space after the module name. Example: post-process = 'rss2email.post_process.downcase downcase_message'
User processing hooks for digest messages. If 'digest' is enabled, the usual 'post-process' hook gets to massage the per-entry messages, but this hook is called with the full digest message before it is mailed. Example: digest-post-process = 'rss2email.post_process.downcase downcase_message'
True: Send text/html messages when possible. False: Convert HTML to plain text.
Use CSS
Optional CSS styling
Use Unicode characters instead of their ascii psuedo-replacements
Put the links after each paragraph instead of at the end.
Wrap long lines at position. 0 for no wrapping.
Select protocol from: sendmail, smtp, imap
Path to sendmail (or compatible)
Set to True to use SMTP AUTH
username for SMTP AUTH
password for SMTP AUTH
SMTP server
Connect to the SMTP server using SSL
TLS/SSL version to use on STARTTLS when not using 'smtp-ssl'.
set to True to use IMAP auth.
username for IMAP authentication
password for IMAP authentication
IMAP server
IMAP port
connect to the IMAP server using SSL
where we should store new messages
Verbosity (one of 'error', 'warning', 'info', or 'debug').
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/rss2email.cfg
If this file exists, it it read to configure the program.
$XDG_DATA_HOME/rss2email.json
The database of feeds. Use r2e to add, remove, or modify feeds, do not edit it directly.
The environment variables used by r2e are all defined in the XDG Base Directory Specification, which aims to standardize locations for user-specific configuration and data files.
XDG_CONFIG_HOME
The preferred directory for configuration files. Defaults to $HOME/.config.
XDG_DATA_HOME
The preferred directory for data files. Defaults to $HOME/.local/share.
XDG_CONFIG_DIRS
A colon ':' separated, preference ordered list of base directories for configuration files in addition to $XDG_CONFIG_HOME. Defaults to /etc/xdg. If multiple configuration files are found in this path, they will all be read by the ConfigParser class (see also CONFIGURATION above).
XDG_DATA_DIRS
A colon ':' separated, preference ordered list of base directories for data files. Defaults to /usr/local/share/:/usr/share/. Only the first matching file is used.
rss2email was started by Aaron Swartz, and is currently maintained by W. Trevor King. For a more complete list of contributors, see the __contributors__ list in rss2email/__init__.py.
Report bugs to the mailing list (see the README for details).