Suddenly recording every programme...

[Jon Davies]

On 21 November 2011 11:34, Nic Siddle <nicsiddle at gmail.com> wrote:
> However, given that I sometimes
> download 'unattended, I think it would be prudent to limit the number of
> programmes downloaded in any one run.

get_iplayer --prefs-add --limit-matches 5

will add the match limit to every invocation of get_iplayer by adding
it to your preferences file.

However, this limits the number of matches before what's already
downloaded is considered.  So to use a specific example:

I regularly download Top Gear in its various forms.  As of today there
are six episodes of Top Gear USA available (which as it happens I've
already downloaded).

If I do
  $ get_iplayer --type=tv "Top Gear" --limit-matches 5
then I get only episodes 1-5, which I've already got.  It doesn't list
episode 6.

Thus if you want to limit matches for the purpose of avoiding
downloading the entire content of iPlayer then you probably want to
set limit-matches to the maximum number of episodes in any series
you're trying to download, e.g.

get_iplayer --prefs-add --limit-matches 20

This leads me to a change proposal:

add a new option "limit-downloads" to constrain the number of
programmes actually downloaded for any given invocation of
get_iplayer.

This does still leave the possibility that you download
<limit-downloads> random programmes from iPlayer each time you run the
PVR when it's misconfigured.

I think this is distinct from limit-matches, but may replace it for
many users in practice.

Cheers
Jon