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fiction-dl (1.8.3)
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fiction-dl is a command-line utility designed to download works of (fan)fiction from the web and save them in a few portable file formats. It requires a Python interpreter installed, version 3.8 or higher.
The application currently supports almost two dozen websites and six output file formats; the latter being: HTML, ODT, PDF, EPUB and MOBI. It's able to download images found in story content, as well as capable of applying basic typographic corrections to the content itself.
fiction-dl can download stories from a multitude of sites - in some cases, it also supports downloading all stories published by any specific user (which is called downloading stories from a channel).
In a select few sites, it allows you to log-in to the site using the command-line; this functionality allows the user to access subforums closed to guest viewers, like the Fandom category on AlternateHistory.com, or quarantined subreddits on Reddit.
| # | Category | Site | Authentication support | Channel support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | fanfiction | Archive of Our Own | ✓ yes | ✓ yes [1] |
| 2 | fanfiction | FanFiction.net | ✗ no | ✓ yes [2] |
| 3 | fanfiction | FicWad.com | ✗ no | ✓ yes |
| 4 | fanfiction | SpaceBattles.com | ✓ yes | ✗ no |
| 5 | fanfiction | SufficientVelocity.com | ✓ yes | ✗ no |
| 6 | fanfiction | AlternateHistory.com | ✓ yes | ✗ no |
| 7 | fanfiction | QuestionableQuesting.com | ✗ no | ✗ no |
| 8 | fanfiction | HarryPotterFanFiction.com | ✗ no | ✓ yes |
| 9 | fanfiction | WhoFic.com | ✗ no | ✓ yes [3] |
| 10 | fanfiction | SamAndJack.net | ✗ no | ✓ yes |
| 11 | fanfiction | Ralst.com | ✗ no | ✗ no |
| 12 | original fiction | Fiction Press | ✗ no | ✓ yes |
| 13 | original fiction | ✓ yes | ✗ no | |
| 14 | original fiction | Quotev | ✗ no | ✗ no |
| 15 | original fiction | Wuxiaworld | ✗ no | ✗ no |
| 16 | erotica | AdultFanFiction | ✗ no | ✓ yes |
| 17 | erotica | Literotica | ✗ no | ✓ yes |
| 18 | erotica | Hentai Foundry | ✗ no | ✓ yes |
| 19 | erotica | NajlepszaErotyka.com.pl | ✗ no | ✗ no |
| 20 | erotica | Nifty.org | ✗ no | ✗ no |
| 21 | erotica | asstr.org/~Kristen | ✗ no | ✗ no |
- [1] fiction-dl is also capable of downloading whole collections and series.
- [2] The application supports also downloading entire collections.
- [3] The application supports downloading whole series as well.
It is also possible to process stories stored in local files. You can put the HTML-formatted story in a raw text file and use fiction-dl to reformat it in all of its output file formats.
Downloaded stories are auto-formatted and saved in a few file formats:
| File Format | Requirements |
|---|---|
| HTML (.html) | None. |
| EPUB (.epub) | None. |
| MOBI (.mobi) | Calibre installed on the machine. |
| OpenDocument (.odt) | None. |
| Portable Document Format (.pdf) | LibreOffice installed on the machine. |
The application can download images found in story content and embed them in output files.
fiction-dl automatically applies basic typographic corrections to the content of downloaded stories. For example:
| Source Text | Corrected Text |
|---|---|
| Lorem ipsum... dolor. | Lorem ipsum… dolor. |
| Lorem ipsum...dolor. | Lorem ipsum… dolor. |
| Lorem ipsum...... dolor. | Lorem ipsum… dolor. |
| Lorem ipsum , dolor. | Lorem ipsum, dolor. |
| Lorem ipsum????? Dolor. | Lorem ipsum? Dolor. |
| Lorem ipsum - dolor. | Lorem ipsum — dolor. |
If you're downloading a lot of short stories, you can pack them into a single file, using the "-pack" command line option. This way you're adding only a single item to your Kindle book list, instead of many.
You can install fiction-dl using pip:
python3 -m pip install --upgrade fiction-dl
(If the package's already installed, this command will also update it.)
If you're running a Debian-derived Linux distribution, you might also need to install the following packages:
apt-get install libgl1-mesa-glx libglib2.0-0 libmupdf-dev
(fiction-dl uses OpenCV for processing downloaded images, which requires them to be installed. PyMuPDF requires libmupdf-dev when it's being built from the source.)
To download a story from a URL, simply type:
f-dl URL
In order to download multiple stories, create a text file and place the URLs in it, each one in a separate line. Then type:
f-dl YourFilesName
| Option | Result |
|---|---|
| -h (--help) | shows the overview of command-line options |
| -a | authenticates the user to supported sites using interactive mode |
| -c | clears the cache before launching the application |
| -pack | packs all downloaded stories inside one file (of each type) |
| -v | enables the (more) verbose mode |
| -f | overwrites output files (in case they already exist) |
| -d | enables debug mode (saves some data useful for debugging) |
| -no-images | disables downloading images found in story content |
| -persistent-cache | preserves the cache after the application quits |
| -lo | used to specify the path to the LibreOffice executable (soffice.exe) |
| -o | used to specify the output directory path |
Create a text file meant to contain the story. In its first lines type:
LOCAL TEXT STORY
*URL*
*The Title of the Story*
*The Author*
*The One-Line Summary*
Follow it by the story's content, wrapped in HTML tags. Then call:
f-dl FilePath.txt
You can insert chapter-breaks in the story by typing "CHAPTER BREAK LINE" in an empty line.
GNU GPL 3. The text of the license is provided in the LICENSE file.
All the changelogs can be found in the Docs/Changelogs.md file.
You can generate code documentation using Doxygen; the relevant configuration file is Docs/Docs.doxygen. Generated files will appear in the Docs/Code Documentation directory.
Launching the Integration Test can be done by entering the Tests directory and executing the following code:
python3 "Integration Test.py"