can I populate the download_history without actualy downloading

[Vangelis forthnet]

On Tue Sep 6 14:30:03 BST 2016, Dave Widgery wrote: 

> due to a disk crash I have had to rebuild my system. 
> One problem I have is the download_history file 
> is missing a lot of entries of programs I have already downloaded. 

On Wed Sep 7 23:18:02 BST 2016, Jon Davies wrote: 

> If get-iplayer tries to download a programme 
> that already exists on disk, it won't download it again. 

... This was my immediate thought, too, 
when I read about Dave's predicament; 
indeed, if --overwrite is not specified, then 
GiP won't re-record an existing download, 
provided that the new recording attempt 
would have produced a file with the same 
<filename> substitution parameter 
(same file name and download directory), i.e. 
<filename> = <dir>\<fileprefix>.EXT

Dave informed us that he had lost his 
original history file due to disk failure, 
but maybe he has salvaged (some?) 
of his downloads via backups in other disks (???)

So, for this idea to work, he should place all 
"programs he had already downloaded" 
to the same location that GiP is currently configured 
to place downloads (output directory), 
provided the <fileprefix> parameter is 
still the same as before the disk crash...

Regards, 
Vangelis.

Edit: I now see Alan beat me to it!