Q1: How do I compile/build RSStool?

Q2: How do I install RSStool?

Q3: cron + RSStool + MySQL?

Q4: RSStool + TOR?

Q5: I have problems parsing Google/Video feeds


Q1: How do I compile/build RSStool?
A: cd src && ./configure && make && make install

Q2: How do I install RSStool?
A: make install

Q3: cron + RSStool + MySQL?
A: You can use RSStool to store RSS feeds into a database for use in your own Apache+PHP+MySQL combo.
First you need to create a database (with phpMyAdmin for example) Entering (in the cmdline): rsstool -sql rss.slashdot.org/slashdot/slashdot ...will create a ANSI SQL script that starts like this: -------------------------------------------------------------- -- RSStool - read, parse, merge and write RSS (and Atom) feeds -------------------------------------------------------------- -- DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `rsstool_table`; -- CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `rsstool_table` -- ( -- `rsstool_dl_url` text, -- `rsstool_dl_date` int(11), -- `rsstool_site` text, -- `rsstool_url` text, -- `rsstool_url_md5` varchar(32), -- `rsstool_url_crc32` varchar(8), -- `rsstool_date` int(11), -- `rsstool_title` text, -- `rsstool_title_md5` varchar(32), -- `rsstool_title_crc32`varchar(8), -- `rsstool_desc` text, -- UNIQUE KEY `rsstool_url_md5` (`rsstool_url_md5`), -- UNIQUE KEY `rsstool_url_crc32` (`rsstool_url_crc32`), -- UNIQUE KEY `rsstool_title_md5` (`rsstool_title_md5`), -- UNIQUE KEY `rsstool_title_crc32` (`rsstool_title_crc32`) -- ); remove those '--' and the INSERT statements and create the database from the cmdline by entering: cat <the above output in a text file> | mysql -f -u root -p rssdb "rssdb" is the name of the empty database you created (with phpMyAdmin for example). The -f option together with the UNIQUE KEY's makes sure MySQL doesn't exit on duplicate RSS feeds. When that worked for you (if not send me a mail), you can enter rsstool -sql rss.slashdot.org/slashdot/slashdot | mysql -f -u root -p rssdb and the feeds will be in your database afterwards. I won't explain cron, PHP, or MySQL here.

Q4: RSStool + TOR?
A: Install the packages tor and proxychains (Every good distribution should have these packages). Then start rsstool with: proxychains rsstool -sql rss.slashdot.org/slashdot/slashdot and you can download the RSS feed a gazillion times (if you're an ass) from sites with controlfreaks as admins. Please keep in mind that tor "leaks" when it does DNS requests. So entering: proxychains rsstool -sql 66.150.96.111/slashdot/slashdot ...could fix that leakage problem. But in general you should be fine w/o using TOR. UPDATE: with current TOR releases you shall put torify instead of proxychains in front of the command

Q5: I have problems parsing Google/Video feeds
A: Currently the Google/Videos feeds seem to be messed up a little 1) The item title containes unescaped <em> and </em> tags to highlight the keywords from the search 2) The encoding of the feed says UTF-8 but if you have problems try overriding it with the --enc=ISO-8859-15 option I guess this will be fixed on Googles side somewhen...