Unshackle - Modular Movie, TV, and Music Archival Software

[SummerArk]

Starting a new Unshackle discussion to keep it out of billybanana's Devine thread.

https://github.com/unshackle-dl/unshackle

Discuss away

[billybanana]

Haha, now get ready for all the PM'S you'll get from people thinking you're behind Unshackle. I've lived that Devine life just from starting the thread.

[Tom Saurus]

I might give it a try as long as I can still have Devine installed and working along side it. I also want to try Ozvine and AllHellYes.

[deccavox]

A couple of teething problems but, yes, much much much much easier to install than devine. I'm a great fan of uv and use it with all my scripts now. It makes the installation, installing dependencies and creating venvs a piece of piss. And it's incredibly easy to pass on a complete project to others and they have minimal work to do to get it going (usually just 'uv sync').

I've still to tailor my download settings in the unshackle.yaml file. I've installed it so that everything is completely self contained within its own folder (ie. not global). That's the way I prefer it. I've tested it out on the usual UK channels: ITVX, STV, iplayer, All4, My5, UKTV. Works well. I've done nothing fancy, just downlloaded individual epsisodes so far.

Let's hope that unshackle remains supported by the developer.

PS, did I mention how much easier it is to install than devine and bloody poetry

[ImSp4rky]

A couple of teething problems but, yes, much much much much easier to install than devine. I'm a great fan of uv and use it with all my scripts now. It makes the installation, installing dependencies and creating venvs a piece of piss. And it's incredibly easy to pass on a complete project to others and they have minimal work to do to get it going (usually just 'uv sync')...

I'm happy to try to clean up those teething problems; I want to make the general installation and preparation as seamless as possible. What parts caused issues other than copying services over and renaming the "from devine" to "from unshackle" I've added some additional commands for Windows/Mac/Unix for automating this process https://github.com/unshackle-dl/unshackle/wiki/Migration-from-Devine

Wiki has some initial information, but will be opening it further.

I'm looking to support this for the foreseeable future, as it's my primary tool for archiving my content.

Issues/problems can either be raised on Github or mentioned here and I will raise on your behalf.

[deccavox]

A couple of teething problems but, yes, much much much much easier to install than devine. I'm a great fan of uv and use it with all my scripts now. It makes the installation, installing dependencies and creating venvs a piece of piss. And it's incredibly easy to pass on a complete project to others and they have minimal work to do to get it going (usually just 'uv sync')...

I'm happy to try to clean up those teething problems; I want to make the general installation and preparation as seamless as possible.

My teething problems were my own stupidity. I was transfering some settings from my old devine.yaml to the new unshackle.yaml. My old used indents of 4 spaces. The new uses 2 spaces. Python doesn't like a mixture . Also, I had downloaded yesterday's version from github which didn't cater for srt subs. It does now.

Here's some of my thoughts if you want to add them to your future setup instructions.

I use Windows and the cmd.exe box.

I decided to do a clean install and not migrate my devine to unshackle.

For those who haven't installed uv, I'd recommend using pipx and not pip. uv is young and gets frequent updates. It's easier to update successfully with pipx. Install it globally so it can be used anywhere.

Open a cmd box (anywhere)
Install pipx (if you've never installed it before):

python -m pip install --user pipx

Install uv with pipx:

pipx install uv

In future, to update uv

pipx upgrade uv

With uv, you don't need to activate the venv. Using

uv run ....

at the CL does that. Nice and simple.

I wanted everything to be self contained within the project folder unshackle (ie. not global).

So,
go to the root folder you'll be installing unshackle

git clone https://github.com/unshackle-dl/unshackle.git
cd unshackle
uv sync
uv run unshackle --help

The last line proves it works.

You need to set up the \unshackle\unshackle\unshackle.yaml file.

Because I've made mine to be self contained, my paths:

directories:
  services: D:\unshackle\unshackle\services
  cache: D:\unshackle\cache
  cookies: D:\unshackle\cookies
#  dcsl: DCSL # Device Certificate Status List
  downloads: D:\unshackle\Downloads
  logs: D:\unshackle\Logs
  temp: D:\unshackle\temp
  WVDs: D:\unshackle\unshackle\WVDs

I've not changed commands, services, vaults, fonts

I'll let you sort out the rest of the unshackle.yaml. I'm sure there'll be input from others. I totally deleted the VPN and proxy bits, they're of no interest to me. I put my cdm key in that WVD folder.

Once set up, this is useful (it gives all the commands)

uv run unshackle dl -?

Member 'phased' gave you a collection of amended services: https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/414154-Devine-Modular-Movie-TV-and-Music-Archival-...60#post2778797
Put them in the services folder. I didn't use those. I got my collection from WhiskeyJack for which I thank him.

Downloading a programme is similar to devine, eg.

uv run unshackle dl all4 https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-veil/on-demand/78102-001
uv run unshackle dl -w s02 itvx https://www.itv.com/watch/karen-pirie/10a0641

Since I had used to get unshackle from github:

git clone https://github.com/unshackle-dl/unshackle.git

I find the easiest way to update unshackle when new versions come along (and they seem to be frequent):
1. Cut/paste (ie. move) your existing unshackle.yaml to somewhere else. If you just back it up without moving (cutting) it, the update will abort with

error: Your local changes to the following files would be overwritten by merge:
        unshackle/unshackle.yaml
Please commit your changes or stash them before you merge.
Aborting

2. browse to your \unshackle folder
3.

git pull
uv sync

4. Replace the 'new' unshackle.yaml with your original

No other files/folders that you've created will be touched. `git pull` will only update tracked files that's in the repository.

[WhiskeyJack]

Put them in the services folder. I didn't use those. I got my collection from WhiskeyJack for which I thank him.

As always, you're welcome.

[Tom Saurus]

So Devine and Unshackle can both be on one's computer and co-exist. I like having more than one tool to get things done.

[ImSp4rky]

So Devine and Unshackle can both be on one's computer and co-exist. I like having more than one tool to get things done.

Correct, Unshackle lives within the .venv file that's created on installation by default. Devine can also be installed into .venv, but the majority of people install it with

pip install -r requirements.txt

which would install it across the system.