Update

I'm in the processess of a rework/simplification of this project. I'm planning to have the newer, simpler version posted here within a week (after some testing, of course). All content of the readme and faq is also subject to change.

What is e621dl?

e621dl is an automated downloader for e621.net. It can be used to create a local mirror of your favorite searches, and to keep these searches up to date efficiently as new files are uploaded.

How does e621dl work?

Put very simply, when e621dl starts, it determines:

1. Which searches you would like to perform (by reading your tag file)
2. When the last time it was run (by reading config.txt)

Once it knows these two things, it goes through the searches one by one, and downloads only anything uploaded since the last time it was run.

Installing

There are two methods to install and run e621dl, using Python, or (Windows only) as a standalone executable.

Using Python

The standard method works on all platforms. Simply download this repository and run e621dl.py.

• You must install Python 2.7 first which you can find here.
• Download the latest release of e621dl
  • Select the source code (.zip or tarball, NOT the .msi)
• Unzip the archive to wherever you wish.

Windows Executable

This method does not require a Python installation, but only works in Windows.*

• Download the latest release of e621dl
  • Select `e621dl-VersionNumber-win32.msi (NOT the .zip or tarball)
• Run the installer. No shortcuts will be created, so remember where you install it
  • The default install directory is C:\Program Files (x86)\e621dl\.

*: This has been tested only in Windows 7. Users encountering any trouble should try the Python method.

Running e621dl

How you run e621dl depends on which of the above installation methods you selected:

Using Python

• Open the terminal/command line and run e621dl.py
  • You may need to type python e621dl.py if python is not in your path.
  • Do not double-click on e621dl.py. You must run it from the command line.

Windows Executable

• Double click on Run_e621dl_In_Windows.bat
  • This file will be located in e621dl's install directory.
  • Do not double-click e621dl.exe. It will open, and then close instantly.

First-Time Run

The first time you run e621dl, you should see something like:

e621dl      INFO     running e621dl version 2.3.7
configfile  ERROR    new default file created: config.txt
configfile  ERROR    	verify this file and re-run the program
tagfile     ERROR    new default file created: tags.txt
tagfile     ERROR    	add to this file and re-run the program
e621dl      ERROR    error(s) encountered during initialization, see above

It's not as bad as it looks. e621dl is telling you that it couldn't find config or tags files, so it created them. This is totally normal behavior.

Add your searches to the tags file

You must add at least one search you would like to perform to the tags file, so go ahead and open it and...

Suprise! There are already instructions on how to do this inside the file!

[optional] Modify the config file

Most users will not need to modify the config file, config.txt, but feel free to look at it and see what the adjustable settings are. However, please read How Do Config File to learn more about e621dl's settings BEFORE you change any of them.

Nornal Operation

Once you have added to the tags file, you should see something like this when you run e621dl:

e621dl      INFO     running e621dl version X.X.X
e621dl      INFO     e621dl was last run on 2014-06-25
e621dl      INFO     7 new uploads tagged: shark
e621dl      INFO         3 total (+3 new, 4 existing, 0 cached)

e621dl      INFO     starting download of 3 files

Downloading:        [###################################] 100.00% Done...

e621dl      INFO     successfully downloaded 3 files
e621dl      INFO     last run updated to 2014-06-25

There's actually quite a bit of information here. Since last time e621dl was run (2014-06-25) there have been 7 uploads that match the search "shark". 4 of these have been downloaded previously, so they will be skipped. But 3 are new, and they are downloaded. Once they have been downloaded, e621dl updates its last run date to today (2014-06-26).

Automate e621dl

Savvy users should realize at this point that they could simply schedule e621dl to run nightly in the wee hours of the morning, and their local collection will always be up-to-date... However, how you do this is completely dependent on your platform and outside the scope of this guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Please see the FAQ for solutions to common problems

Feedback and Feature Requests

If you have any ideas for how things might work better, or about features you'd like to see in the future, please send an email to [email protected]. I read every single email, so even if you think your idea is off-the-wall, please let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Donations

If you've benefitted from this free project, why not buy me something on Amazon? There's tons of cheap bullshit on there I would totally get a kick out of owning.

Alternatively, drop me an email and say thanks. Your support (monetary or not) provides me the motivation to keep fixing bugs and adding new features, so thanks for thinking of me!