hellanzb - automatic one-click nzb in Ubuntu Dapper 6.06 May 12th, 2007

This program is very cool. It handles verification and downloading of nzb files better than anything I’ve seen. This includes downloading par2 files on the fly when needed, and automatically un-compressing all of your downloads.

Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu Dapper.

install the needed ubuntu packages: 
sudo apt-get install par2 python-twisted-web
download rar for linux here: RarSoft install it: 
tar -xzvf rarlinux-3.6.b6.tar.gz
cd rar
sudo mv rar unrar /usr/bin
download hellanzb. install it: 
sudo python setup.py install
configure it: 
cd /usr/etc
sudo mv hellanzb.conf.sample hellanzb.conf
sudo gedit /usr/etc/hellanzb.conf

*Update: queue directory explained. By default, hellanzb.py will monitor a queue directory for new .nzb files. It’s a good idea to make this the same directory your browser uses for downloads (so you can one click nzb from your brower). The best way I’ve found to do this is to change your download directory into a symbolic link to the nzb daemon directory.

# Important locations
55      Hellanzb.PREFIX_DIR = '/home/yourhome/hellanzb/'
56
57      # Where to put queued .nzb files
58      Hellanzb.QUEUE_DIR = Hellanzb.PREFIX_DIR + 'nzb/daemon.queue/'
59
60      # Where the fully processed archives go
61      Hellanzb.DEST_DIR = Hellanzb.PREFIX_DIR + 'usenet/'

After running hellanzb.py for the first time, the above directories will be automatically created.

After you change the PREFIX_DIR, you should make a symbolic link to it and set Firefox to download into the directory. For example, create a symbolic link: 
ln -s /home/yourhome/hellanzb/nzb/daemon.queue /home/yourhome/download

Then set Firefox to download to /home/yourhome/download. Hellanzb will ignore non .nzb files.

This config will monitor /home/yourhome/download for new .nzbs, and the finished product will go in /home/yourhome/hellanzb/usenet.

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