Suggestion for uncluttered downloads

[Archibald]

There seems to be no simple way to look at a folder of UE downloaded material and determine if it has passed verification. Some of the programs I've used previously have an option to move the files contained in the PAR2 set to a different folder after a successful parity check. Once this happens it's safe to assume that anything in this destination folder is "A-OK".

Also, something I've seen implemented elsewhere (with various levels of success!) is an auto-clean up feature:

1) check and move files that are part of the PAR2 set to a destination subfolder (named after the PAR2 file or some other configurable name), then perform the unRAR if necessary
2) move any extra "wanted" files from the source folder that were not included in the PAR2 set (from a wildcard list such as "*.nfo, *.jpg" etc.) to the new destination subfolder
3) delete the source download folder if it's either empty or only includes "unwanted" files from a wildcard list (such as *.nzb, *.m3u, etc.)
4) optionally delete "unwanted" files from the destination folder, even if they were part of the PAR2 set or part of the RAR set


The closest I've seen to this feature is Newsleecher with PAR Buddy running along with it, but it has a few problems. Newsleecher has a nasty habit of deleting downloads under certain circumstances , and PAR Buddy can't handle a situation where the main PAR2 file is simply named ".par2". I'm happy to say UE has no problems whatsoever with either of those situations.

[alex]

usually when i'm implementing something i don't refer to anything else directly (elsewhere it is not always the case), when copying or rather copycating i tend to lose interest and all goes much slower and less chance to get something original, also the implementation itself may get cluttered. with unpack i think i ran AutoUnpack a couple of times about two years ago, maybe i took the name from there

so it works better through user feedback, since after someone's else mind redigested it it gets more interesting, sometimes a concrete implementation has its limitations because of internals (difficulty/bug level may rise exponentially at some point when attempting a small addition even as it is logical), users in that sense have more open mind.

the next v2.1 is now practically sealed off and it was quite a lot of work, i'm just running it here to see whether i notice anything, in principle no problem to create directory and move files here and there based on a pattern, with trigger points, say after par2 set is complete/repaired or after successful unrar, the main problem will be finding more space for options in the unpack pane.

without me thinking much now when asking the question, since i'm checking the next version, is your suggestion well thought of or you can think about reducing it to something more concrete or concise? - in the sense there are many features already, many can be added. we can wait for more feedback in any case.

[Archibald]

It's well thought out in that I think it can be distilled to those 4 steps.

It's basically all about me being lazy!

Ideally, I'd like to queue up a batch of music downloads, then when I come back see that they are sorted into separate folders for each album (I very much like the auto-suggest feature in UE), and that there are no unnecessary files in the folder (of course everyone's got a different idea what files are unnecessary - hence the wildcard list)...and that there is no remaining clutter leftover in the source download folder.

The only thing is - I don't think this applies to what most people seem to download (big movie files in a RAR set), so I guess it's a minor request at best. It's mostly for the music downloads where RAR doesn't even kick in. I just like knowing that there are no glitches in the songs and that I don't have extra crap in the folders when I burn them.

For wiping out the unwanted files, I already have a line in a simple batch file that wipes them out, so this really is just a laziness thing for me:

Code: Select all

del /s *.sfv *.md5 *.par2 *.1 *.2 *.m3u *.nzb *PREVIEW*.ogg *.pls *screen*.jpg *screen*.bmp audiotester.jpg *auCDtect*

[alex]

par2 files are not a problem since UE just can delete them, and if it verifies the set it guaranties all is ok on the disk.

so basically the minimum what you are asking for a single edit box to delete files according to wildcard(or ue rather wildmat - boolean wildcard) pattern after the completion trigger above (par2 set complete or unrar successful)? any reason to discern between unrar and par2? is there rationale also for option to move them from anything anywhere? anywhere would probably be then recycle bin.

[Archibald]

I suppose there might be reason to differentiate between unrar vs par2, in case someone wants to keep everything inside a RAR set even though some of the files might be on the "unwanted" list.

The most important thing for me is to be able to tell immediately that a folder's contents have passed the PAR2 check. Right now, I'm not sure if that's possible without looking within UE for some mention of an error. I need to find a corrupt post to see what exactly happens.

If an option to move the verified sets elsewhere existed, then it would make it easier to do things outside UE afterward (like tagging audio files, passing them to a custom renamer, etc., setting them up to be archived & burned) without worrying that bad files were being processed. Wiping out unwanted files and cleaning up the source folder is just a bonus.

I'm curious if anyone else would even use an option like this.

[alex]

when files passed verification par2 set is tagged "complete" in the status column, if you set UE to delete par2 files after successful repair if you don't see any par2 files it means files are ok.

no reason to run quickpar to reverify them, i don't use third party code so it would be the program bug if files were deleted by mistake, you can try to run quickpar on hundred or so downloads to be sure if you like.

anyway no hurry to add it right now, usually if i add or think about something within the next couple of days i have a better and sometimes different idea of it

[Archibald]

No PAR2 files could also mean there were no PAR2 files to begin with! But thanks for mentioning that, because for some reason one of the only things I messed with from default was to check "preserve PAR2 zero file", and I have no idea why I did it!

I'm still curious what others think...if this is even useful to anyone other than me.