Batch mode¶

instaLooter supports a batch mode for use cases that are more requiring than just download from a profile once or twice. To use it, you must specify a batch config file to the CLI. The file is in the Python configuration format, very close to the Windows INI format.

Format¶

A config file contains at least one section, but can contain more if needed. A section is organised as shown below, with a header and key-value pairs using the = sign:

[my section header]
key = value
other_key = other_value

Specifying targets¶

Users can be specified in the users parameter of each section, and hashtags in the hashtags parameter. Those sections take a key: value pair per line, where key is the name of the user, and value the path to the directory where the medias will be downloaded. For instance:

[Video Games]
users =
    borderlands: /tmp/borderlands
    ffxv: /tmp/ffxv
hashtags =
    nierautomata: /tmp/nier

[Music]
users =
   perm36 : ~/Music/Perm36

Logging in¶

Each section can be provided with a username and a password parameter:

if none are given, the scraping is done anonymously or using the last session you logged with (through instaLooter login for instance, or the session of the previous section).
if only username is given, instaLooter will interactively ask for the associated password and then login.
if both username and password are given, then instaLooter will logout from any previous session and login quietly.

Passing parameters¶

Each section can be given the same parameters as the command line:

add-metadata: set to True to add metadata to the downloaded images
get-videos: set to True to download videos as well as images
jobs: the number of threads to use, defaults to 16
template: the template to use, without quotes, defaults to {id}
videos-only: set to True to download only videos
quiet: set to True to hide the progress bar
new: set to True to only download new medias
num-to-dl: the number of images to download
dump-json: set to True to dump metadata in JSON format
dump-only: set to True to only dump metadata, not downloading anything.
extended-dump: set to True to fetch additional information when dumping metadata.

For instance, to download 3 new videos from #funny and #nsfw:

[Vids]
videos-only = true
new = true
num-to-dl = 3
hashtags =
    funny: ~/Videos
    nsfw: ~/Videos

Running the program¶

Simply run the following command

instaLooter batch /path/to/your/batch.ini

Bugs¶

Warning

This feature may not be completely functional yet ! I would say that it is still in beta, were the whole instaLooter program not in beta too :D.

Please report any bugs caused by this feature to the Github issue tracker, adding the configuration file as an attachment!