glitchup

Note: This project is still a work in progress. You can install the current executable by using:

• cargo install glitchup
• downloading the program from here

...however it's incomplete and you may encounter bugs.

If you have any questions, for example "What's databending?" or "Why did you make this?", check the Q&A

If you wanna have a headstart on databending, check out the databending tutorial!

Options

An example options file can be found at Options.toml. I'll explain some important parts:

Input + Output

The inputfile option needs to be set in order to specify which file to databend:

inputfile = "somefile.jpeg"

You can also specify a file that's not in the current directory. A file being in subdirectories (dir/file.jpeg) was tested, however a file being out of the current directory (../file.jpeg) was not. This may work, however some further testing is currently required.

By default, the output file will have the same name as the input file (along with an appended string). If you'd like to save the file with a different name/directory, you can specify the outputfile option.

inputfile = "somefile.jpeg"
outputfile = "otherfile.jpeg"

Note: The output file's name will not be exactly the same as the name you specified. Currently, the format of the output files name is name<mutations>.extension. This is to display what mutations the file underwent, while also avoiding overwriting existing files.

Global options

Currently there are 4 global options:

• times: This specifies how many times to run the program.
• iterations: Specifies how many times the mutation should be performed before saving.
• chunksize: The size of each chunk to mutate at a time.
• mutations: The mutations to use.

So with the following options:

times = 2
iterations = [5,10]
chunksize = 1000
mutations = [ ["Reverse"], ["Swap"] ]

The program is going to be run twice, with each run containing an output for

• A mutation of 1KB chunks by applying Reverse 5 to 10 times, and
• A mutation of 1KB chunks by applynig Swap 5 to 10 times

...resulting in 2 * 2 output files in total. (Times * No. of Mutations)

Ranges

As you've seen above, iterations is an array of 2 integers. Almost all mutation-specific options can be set up with ranges, meaning an array of 2 numbers:

• iterations = x: x iterations
• iterations = [x,y] : Between x and y iterations.

A number will be generated randomly between x and y for each time. So if you want to randomly generate a setting between two bounds, use [x,y]. Otherwise, if you want your setting to be more concrete, simply use a literal number.

Mutations

The mutations option has been overhauled from BEND++! Now it uses an array of arrays

mutations = [
  ["Reverse", "Swap"],
  ["Shuffle"],
  ...
]

Each element of mutations is an array and represents a single output. This array can have multiple mutations chained together!

In the options shown above, it means that the first file will first be mutated by Reverse, then by Swap, then saved. Then a new copy of the original file will be made, mutated by Shuffle, then saved. And so on...

Specific options

Some mutations may have their own options that they require. For example, currently there is a Loops mutation that requires an option loops to be set. Each mutation has its own configuration as [<Mutation>Config], so to configure Loops:

[LoopsConfig]
loops = 10

This will set loops to be 10 for the Loop mutation. If you forget to specify this option, the program will specify which options it requires, and under which name.

TODO: Add example of error.

Note: In the case above, you only need to specify the loops option if you include "Loops" in the mutations option! If you exclude "loops" then the part above can be excluded as well.

Overriding global options

What if, for example, you want Loops to have different values for chunksize? You can override them by simply specifying them under [LoopsConfig]:

[LoopsConfig]
loops = 10
chunksize = [10,1000]

In this case, the iterations used will be the global option set, however the chunksize used will be taken from [LoopsConfig].

Feedback!

This project is currently a prototype. As a result, any sort of feedback is heavily appreciated! If you'd like to contact me, you can use my email, or if you're on the Fediverse you can hit me up there!.

You can also open an issue, and I'll try to respond as fast as possible! Don't worry - any kind of feedback is accepted, be they feature requests, opinions, or criticism.

TODO

• Update structure/formatting of code
  • Improve structure to use CfgMap instead.
  • Find a way to improve structure of Mutations, specifically randomly generating settings in ranges.
• Improve UX by possibly adding a CLI app.
• Improve UX by possibly adding a GUI.