Localhost Podcast

Tool to make it easy to sync media from my computer to my phone's podcast player. As described here: https://www.worthe-it.co.za/blog/2020-05-27-localhost-podcast.html

Usage

Run localhost-podcast --help to see the built in CLI documentation.

Usage: localhost-podcast [OPTIONS] [COMMAND]

Commands:
  run    Reads localhost-podcast.toml as a config to build RSS feeds, and then host them. This is the default if no command is provided
  init   Create a new localhost-podcast.toml config file with default values
  build  Do a once-off build without a config file, and then host it
  help   Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)

Options:
  -b, --build-only  Do not start a webserver to host the built contents. Only build the RSS feeds
  -h, --help        Print help
  -V, --version     Print version

Using a config file

When run with no arguments, localhost-podcast will look for a config file named localhost-podcast.toml in the current working directory. This should describe all of the feeds you want to generate.

Each TOML section (the headings in square brackets) is a separate podcast feed, and an RSS file will be generated for each of them.

host = "http://192.168.0.12:9090"

["Localhost Books"]
description = "Audiobooks from Justin's collection"
image = "books/thumb.jpg"
dir = "books"
extensions = ["mp3", "ogg"]
out = "books/rss.xml"

["Localhost Movies"]
description = "Movies and series"
image = "movies/thumb.jpg"
dir = "movies"
extensions = ["mp4", "avi", "mkv"]
out = "movies/rss.xml"

If you don't have a localhost-podcast.toml file, you can create an example template by running the init subcommand.

localhost-podcast init

Once-off builds

You can create an RSS feed without having a config file using the build subcommand:

Usage: localhost-podcast build [OPTIONS] [DIR]

Arguments:
  [DIR]  The directory to scan for media. Defaults to the current working directory [default: .]

Options:
  -t, --title <TITLE>              The title of the podcast
  -d, --description <DESCRIPTION>  A description of the podcast
  -i, --image <IMAGE>              The path to a thumbnail image for the podcast
  -e, --extensions <EXTENSIONS>    Which file extensions to include in the feed. Can be passed multiple times [default: mp3 ogg]
  -o, --out <OUT>                  Where to write the resulting RSS feed [default: rss.xml]
  -H, --host <HOST>                Where will these files be hosted? This is included as a prefix to the URL of every file [default: localhost]
  -p, --port <PORT>                What port will these files be hosted on? This is included in URLs, and is also used by webserver [default: 8080]
  -h, --help                       Print help

Example: This one liner below will create books/rss.xml, which lists the .mp3 and .ogg files in the books directory. The podcast will be called Localhost Books, and its description will be Audiobooks from Justin's collection. Its thumbnail will be books/thumb.jpg. The command will then start a webserver, which will serve the files in my current working directory. You can then open the podcast player on your phone and subscribe to http://192.168.0.12:9090/books/rss.xml.

localhost-podcast build books -e mp3 -e ogg -t "Localhost Books" -d "Audiobooks from Justin's collection" -i books/thumb.jpg -H 192.168.0.12 -p 9090 -o books/rss.xml

License

Copyright 2025 Justin Wernick.

Licensed under either of Apache License, Version 2.0 or MIT license at your option.

Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in this crate by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.