Downloads helps me get big files into Tanzania. It’s been fun to write! Maybe you’ll be able to make use of it, too.

Overview

Since http downloads can be a little flaky over a slow connection, we take this basic approach:

  1. Ssh to a server with a fast connection and download the file to a special directory there.

  2. Later, rsync down the contents of that directory.

Beyond that, it’s all polish. There’s a nice interactive shell, smart (non-)use of the network, and good tab completion all around.

Sample Workflow

$ downloads add http://media.railscasts.com/videos/143_paypal_security.mov
$ downloads sync
receiving incremental file list
143_paypal_security.mov
      229376   0%    7.86kB/s    0:50:27
...
$ downloads rm 143_paypal_security.mov
$

Installation

sudo gem install matthewtodd-downloads --source http://gems.github.com

Configuration

You can see your current configuration via the “config” command:

downloads config

To update these parameters, pass the key and the new value like so:

downloads config remote_host downloads.example.com

Commands

$ downloads help
add URL ...
attachments
config [KEY [VALUE]]
help [COMMAND]
ls
mv SOURCE TARGET
quit
rm FILE ...
shell
status
sync [kill]

Tips

  1. downloads shell re-uses the same ssh connection through your entire session, saving the re-connection overhead for every remote command.

  2. Tab completion is available for free in downloads shell. You can also get it at the command line thanks to Dr. Nic’s excellent TabTab gem, github.com/drnic/tabtab/tree/REL-0.9.1/PostInstall.txt.

  3. I use the following cron jobs to sync my downloads overnight. (Restarting sync every half hour helps recover from dropped connections.)

    */30 0-5,22-23 * * * downloads sync
30   6         * * * downloads sync kill

  4. I like to set up a GeekTool window showing the results of downloads status. If you like, you can bottom-justify this text by piping it through gist.github.com/43363.

  5. Install Downloads on your mail server, and you can set up a special email address, say [email protected], that pipes all its messages through downloads attachments. Currently, the messages will be dropped on the floor, but any attachments will be dropped into your downloads folder, ready to be sync’ed down.

  6. I’ve been noodling with some applescripts. Check out the resources folder.