arrivals-osx

Arrivals (OSX)

Arrivals will watch a directory and convert or copy a variety of incoming audio or video files for you then place them somewhere you choose. This only works with OSX and the primary use-case is incoming torrents in flac or mkv formats that you'd like to play nice in an Apple ecosystem.

Requires node.js 4.0.0 or greater!

Features

• Watch many directories
• Register as launchdaemon
• Converts 'flac', 'mp3', 'mp4', 'm4a', 'm4v', 'mkv', 'mov' that are well-formed into ALAC/M4A, or M4V (with video passthrough, AAC safety track, original audio, and subtitles)
• Easy usage
• Status visibility through Finder tagging of source files

Installaion

npm install arrivals-osx -g

Use

Simplest:

$ cd ~/Downloads
$ arrivals --watch=incoming --destination=converted

More complex (watch multiple dirs as comma-delimited list, custom log level):

$ cd ~/Downloads
$ arrivals --watch="/Volumes/foo/Incoming Movies",/Volumes/bar/incoming-music --audio-destination=converted-audio --video-destination=converted-video --log-level=debug

Install as a system daemon and control

$ cd ~/Downloads
$ arrivals install --watch=incoming --destination=converted
$ arrivals restart|stop|uninstall

Reset the existing files database, tmp files and log

$ arrivals reset

Dependencies

There are a number of system dependencies. For audio, only FFmpeg is required. For video I suggest using my fork of mkvtomp4 via homebrew. It will install all the dependencies you need.

$ brew tap mshick/personal
$ brew install mshick/personal/mkvtomp4

The paths for these need to be defined absolutely, so if you don't use a standard homebrew installation path, or you use different versions of these you may need to pass additional command-line options, e.g.:

$ arrivals --watch=incoming --destination=converted --ffmpeg=/usr/local/bin/ffmpeg --mkvextract=/usr/local/bin/mkvextract

Required system libraries

• node.js >= 4.0.0
• ffmpeg (with libfdk_aac)
• mkvextract (mkvtoolnix)
• mp4box (gpac)
• mkvinfo (mkvtoolnix)
• mkvtomp4

Full command list

$ arrivals [command] [--flag=val]

(All are optional, run is the default)

Command	Description
run	Default value, simply runs the process.
install	Install as a system daemon
restart	Restarts an installed system daemon
stop	Stops an installed system daemon
uninstall	Uninstalls an installed system daemon.
reset	Reset the existing files database, tmp dir and log file. Obeys custom paths for all of those.

Flag	Possible Values	Required	Description
watch	Valid, existing directory path	no	Pass a relative (resolved relative to cwd) or absolute path. Accepts a comma-delimited list of multiple watch paths
destination	Valid, existing directory path	yes*	Pass a relative or absolute path
video-destination	Valid, existing directory path	yes*	(or a single destination above)
audio-destination	Valid, existing directory path	yes*	(or a single destination above)
tmp	Valid, existing directory path	no	Path to store temp conversion files. Defaults to ~/.arrivals/tmp
db	Valid, existing directory path	no	Path to store existing files db. Defaults to ~/.arrivals/db
log-level	info, debug, error	no	Logging level
log-type	file, console	no	How to log. Daemon defaults to console, which gets written in your Library/Logs folder. Command-line invocation default to a file in the ~/.arrivals directory
ffmpeg	path to ffmpeg bin	no	Defaults to /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg
mkvextract	path to mkvextract bin	no	Defaults to /usr/local/bin/mkvextract
mkvinfo	path to mkvinfo bin	no	Defaults to /usr/local/bin/mkvinfo
mp4box	path to mp4box bin	no	Defaults to /usr/local/bin/mp4box
mkvtomp4	path to mkvtomp4 bin	no	Defaults to /usr/local/bin/mkvtomp4
run-as-root	true	no	install the daemon as root, rather than current user
cwd	Valid path	no	Sets the cwd for all path resolution

How it works

1. Launches watcher for a directory
2. Builds existing paths database
3. When events occur, evaluate against criterion
   • is correct event
   • is proper extension
   • is not in existing paths db
4. Push to work queue
5. Add a Yellow "pending" tag for Finder
6. Do work, either mkvtomp4 or ffmpeg
7. Add a Green tag for "finished" or a Red tag for "error" in Finder

TODO

• rewrite to not require mkvtomp4 (big job) and maybe use ffprobe