get_iplayer - works at first... then doesn't

[Jeremy Nicoll - ml get_iplayer]

Jim Lesurf <jcgl at audiomisc.co.uk> wrote:

>On 07 Nov, Jeremy Nicoll - ml get_iplayer
><jn.ml.gti.91 at wingsandbeaks.org.uk> wrote:
>> Jim Lesurf <jcgl at audiomisc.co.uk> wrote:
>
>
>> >I'm using command line and issuing commands like
>> >
>> >get_iplayer --type=radio --verbose --not-tag --pid b04lsjkv --o <outdir>
>> >
>> > in a terminal. The --no-tag avoids the fetch working but getting a
>> > complaint about inability to fetch some metadata to tag the results.
>
>> Is that "--not-tag" in your sample command a typo, or are you actually
>> using the incorrect option name? 
>
>Sorry. Typo. I'd use >> to record the report...

One thing that might not work very well (or maybe it will work better under
linux) is redirection of get_iplayer's output.  The problem is that
get_iplayer already uses redirection of output from helper apps (eg
rtmpdump) so it can - where return codes don't provide enough info for it to
tell - trap and analyse that redirected output to decide if the helper app
worked properly.

I tried to use redirection in my REXX wrapper (which issues get_iplayer
commands) so I could analyse get_iplayer's output to see if my wrapper
should retry (or completely abandon) processes.  It didn't work.  I think
dinkypumpkin has that issue somewhere on his/her/its todo list.



>That's interesting because it didn't work before. I'm not sure if that's
>because installing 2.83 has set up something else which it requires.
>However I'll have to try it a few times before and after a
>shutdown-wait-bootup to see if it continues.

If get_iplayer 2.83 was installed via synaptic, maybe that pulled in
dependencies, which when you installed 2.90 from git_head you didn't get.
Maybe something else has changed in the interim; I know so little about
linux I can't even make an intelligent suggestion.


>> If you fetch the exact same programme both times, (you'll need to code
>> --force   on refetches) it'll be easier to compare.
>
>Ah. I'd noticed a force option but hadn't seen a description of what it
>does. Thanks.

What get_iplayer normally does is reads the download history file to see if
it has a line describing a previous successful download.  The --force option
says go ahead and fetch even if it has been fetched before.  You might need
--force quite often if you want to refetch programmes with different
versions or modes (qualities).  Or, eg if get_iplayer thinks it has fetched
a complete programme ok but the stream was corrupt.    
  

If you do: get_iplayer --help-long   you'll get a list of all the options
with some explanation of what they do.


>But why would 2.83 work *until* a shutdown-startup?

I think it's more a wonder that it worked at all.  One of the things that's
been discussed in the last few weeks is how different approaches to parsing
programme info out of different sorts of bbc webpages and different types of
feeds works in some cases and not others.  Maybe you were lucky at first and
were trying to get info about programmes still described in data formats
that the code in 2.83 could parse.  

-- 
Jeremy Nicoll - my opinions are my own.