archive-chan 0.1.4
Makes a complete hostable archive of imageboard threads including images, HTML, and JSON.
Keywords: 4chan downloader images json dump

archive-chan
=============

``archive-chan`` archives threads from 4chan and other imageboards,
including images and/or thumbnails, thread HTML, JSON if available,
and produces a list of referenced external links.

To archive a thread and host it using a simple webserver:

::

  pip3 install -U archive-chan
  npm i -g http-server
  archive-chan https://boards.4channel.org/vg/thread/338253176 --runonce
  cd archive/4chan
  http-server -p 1234 -c-1

Then open `http://localhost:1234/vg/thread/338253176
<http://localhost:1234/vg/thread/338253176>`_ in your browser. All
thumbnail images, javascript, CSS, etc should work properly.

Once you've verified it works fine locally, you can ``rsync`` the
archive to your webserver.

Here's an example of how you might serve 4chan threads in production.
Suppose you own `www.example.com <www.example.com>`_, and you set up
nginx so that ``/path/to/www/foo.html`` on your server ends up being
served at `www.example.com/foo.html <www.example.com/foo.html>`_. You
can host 4chan threads like this:

::

  rsync -Pa archive/4chan/ you@www.example.com:/path/to/www/

**NOTE**: You must ensure each board is at the *root* of your static
server, or else 4chan's JS won't work properly! In other words, make
sure that the threads are served at
`www.example.com/vg/thread/338253176
<www.example.com/vg/thread/338253176>`_, not
`www.example.com/archive/4chan/vg/thread/338253176
<www.example.com/archive/4chan/vg/thread/338253176>`_. (Notice /vg/
isn't after .com; that's bad. The board name needs to be directly
after your domain name, at the root, or else you won't be able to
follow replies since 4chan's JS reply parser breaks for some reason.)

You can host the files using any webserver you like. Personally, I use
nginx + CloudFlare.

``archive-chan`` was forked from `BASC Archiver
<https://basc-archiver.readthedocs.io/en/latest/>`_, which seemed to
be unmaintained since 2018. It wasn't able to properly save 4chan
threads (because 4chan's image CDN subdomain had changed, which broke
the regex), nor did it save threads in a format that could easily be
hosted. So I created this quick fix for my needs in 2021, and released
it as ``archive-chan`` so others could use it too.

If you have questions or want to report a bug, DM me on twitter! I'm
`@theshawwn <https://twitter.com/theshawwn>`_; always happy to say
hello.

(Or you can `file a GitHub issue here <https://github.com/shawwn/archive-chan/issues/new>`_.)

The `original BASC Archiver README
<https://github.com/bibanon/BASC-Archiver#basc-archiver>`_ from 2018 appears verbatim
below:

Introduction
============

The **BASC Archiver** is a Python library (packaged with the
**thread-archiver** script) used to archive imageboard threads.
It uses the `4chan API <https://github.com/4chan/4chan-API>`_
with the py4chan wrapper. Developers are free to use the
BASC-Archiver library for some interesting third-party applications,
as it is licensed under the LGPLv3.

It comes with a CLI interface for archiving threads, the
**thread-archiver**, with a GUI interface under development.

The **thread-archiver** is designed to archive all content from a 4chan
thread:

-  Download all images and/or thumbnails in given threads.
-  Download all child threads (threads referred to in a post).
-  Download a JSON dump of thread comments using the 4chan API.
-  Download the HTML page.
-  Convert links in HTML to use the downloaded images.
-  Download CSS/JS and convert HTML to use them.
-  Keep downloading until 404 (with a user-set delay).
-  Can be restarted at any time.
-  Threaded downloading to download multiple files at the same time.

The **thread-archiver** replaces the typical “Right-click Save As, Web
Page Complete” action, which does not save full-sized images or JSON. It
works as a guerilla, static HTML alternative to Fuuka.


Usage
=====

::

    Usage:
      thread-archiver <url>... [options]
      thread-archiver -h | --help
      thread-archiver -v | --version

    Options:
      --path=<string>                Path to folder where archives will be saved [default: ./archive]
      --runonce                      Downloads the thread as it is presently, then exits
      --thread-check-delay=<float>   Delay between checks of the same thread [default: 90]
      --delay=<float>                Delay between file downloads [default: 0]
      --poll-delay=<float>           Delay between thread checks [default: 20]
      --dl-threads-per-site=<int>    Download threads to use per site [default: 5]
      --dl-thread-wait=<float>       Seconds to wait between downloads on each thread [default: 0.1]
      --nothumbs                     Don't download thumbnails
      --thumbsonly                   Download thumbnails, no images
      --nojs                         Don't download javascript
      --nocss                        Don't download css
      --ssl                          Download using HTTPS
      --follow-children              Follow threads linked in downloaded threads
      --follow-to-other-boards       Follow linked threads, even if from other boards
      --silent                       Suppresses mundane printouts, prints what's important
      -v --verbose                   Printout more information than normal
      -h --help                      Show help
      -V --version                   Show version


Example
=======

::

    thread-archiver http://boards.4chan.org/b/res/423861837 --delay 5 --thumbsonly


Installation
============
The BASC-Archiver is designed for Python 3.x, and can be installed on Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X.

(Python2 has intractable ascii->unicode conversion errors, whereas Python 3.x stores all strings in unicode, so we strongly recommend using 3.x.)

New stable releases can be found on our `Releases page <https://github.com/bibanon/BASC-Archiver/releases>`_,
or installed with the PyPi package `BASC-Archiver <https://pypi.python.org/pypi/BASC-Archiver>`_.

Linux and OSX
-------------

1. Make sure you have Python3 and pip3 installed. On Debian/Ubuntu, Fedora/Red Hat/CentOS, install the packages `python3` and `python3-pip` . Here's a `Mac OS X Installation Guide. <http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/starting/install/osx/>`_ 
2. Run ``pip3 install basc-archiver``

   - Linux users must run this command as root, or prefix the command with `sudo`.
3. Run ``thread-archiver http://boards.4chan.org/etc/thread/12345``

Threads will be saved in ``./archive``, but you can change that by supplying a directory with the ``--path=`` argument.

Windows
-------

1. Download the latest release from `our page <https://github.com/bibanon/BASC-Archiver/releases>`_.
2. Open up a command prompt window (``cmd.exe``), and move to the directory with ``thread-archiver.exe``
3. Run ``thread-archiver.exe http://boards.4chan.org/etc/thread/12345``

Using the Windows version will become simpler once we finish writing the GUI.

Android (CLI)
-------------

    **Note:** This is a temporary solution until we put together some
    kind of Android GUI app.

Thanks to the QPython interpreter, you can effortlessly run the
BASC-Archiver on your Android phone.

1. Install the `QPython app <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hipipal.qpyplus>`_ from Google Play.
2. Open the QPython app, and swipe left to reach the menu.
3. Tap **Package Index**. Then scroll down and tap **Pip Console**.
4. Run the following commands (after starting the pip\_install.py
   script):

   ::

       pip install requests
       pip install basc-archiver

Now you can just open QPython, tap **My QPython**, tap **pip\_console**,
and run the following command with your own thread URL:

::

    thread-archiver --path=/sdcard/ http://boards.4chan.org/qa/thread/23839

To run the script in the background, press the back button, and tap
**OK** at the **Run in Background** prompt. You can stop the script
anytime using ``Vol Down`` + ``C``.

-  **Note**: On Android (CLI), it is important to set the path to
   ``/sdcard/``, so the thread dump can be accessed from the
   ``/sdcard/archives/4chan/`` folder.
-  **Note**: To update the BASC-Archiver on Android (CLI), you must open
   QPython, press the **3-dot menu** button, scroll down and tap **Reset
   Private Space**. Then just reinstall the BASC-Archiver.

License
=======

Bibliotheca Anonoma Imageboard Thread Archiver (BASC Archiver)

Copyright (C) 2014 Antonizoon Overtwater, Daniel Oaks. Licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License v3.