Simple script that lets you watch videos from your subscribed channels without distraction of youtube page.
Table of Contents
- SUBTUBE
- Explanation
- DEPENDENCIES
- UPDATE
- INSTALL
- USAGE
- MPV_HISTORY
- SXIV integration
- CRONTAB
- BSPWM
- WAYLAND
- FUTURE WORK
Whole idea came from realizing that sxiv in it's thumbnail mode allows you to select images the same way programs like rofi, dmenu, fzf, etc. This makes it usefull as some sort of dialog. Images contain video id in it's name so all you need is to play it via mpv through yt-dlp. Screenshot above has my modified fork of sxiv so it looks little different.
I rewrote this script with a lot of comments so feel free to fork and modify it to your liking
This project has 3 dependencies and 2 optional ones. If you use arch or almost any normal linux distribution, this should be easy to get for you.
First 4 are core, last 3 are optional.
Dunst is simply notification daemon that is heavily used. If you dont install dunst, you still get some notification (because you probably have different one), but dunst supports images and stacking.
Without this dependency you wouldnt see any notifications, but it would still work. If you dont know what notification daemon means, you probably have it.
XOB is progress bar, if it's not installed then progress bar will be automatically disabled. Using subtube update --secret also disables the progress bar.
Script was rewritten to avoid bash dependency. Use any POSIX compliant shell to run (like dash but bash will also suffice).
on arch based distro, you can skip getting dependencies and install via AUR in install section.
sudo pacman -S sxiv mpv dunst yt-dlp
paru xob
pip install --user yt-dlp
sudo apt install sxiv mpv dunst
Xob is not present on debian repo, install from source via link in dependencies. You will probably just need to run these commands
cd /tmp # or anywhere else if you wish to preserve repository
git clone https://github.com/florentc/xob
cd xob
make
sudo make install
if script stops working one day for you, you need to update your yt-dlp
pip install --user --update yt-dlp
Arch users can install from AUR with any AUR helper (i'm using paru)
paru subtube-git
Or clone repository and install manually
git clone https://github.com/nagy135/subtube
cd subtube
sudo make install
These commands will clone repository and install executable to /usr/bin.
removes all files created
sudo make uninstall
provides CLI interface via subtube (you might wanna check subtube --help)
subtube command
if ran without command, help is shown. The optimal workflow you should try is to bind commands to key presses in key handler of your choice. I prefer this configuration:
| Key press | command |
|---|---|
| super+y | subtube play |
| super+F5 | subtube update |
performs update but doesnt actually download any image. This is to fill your seen database. You can skip this and run update instead.
subtube init
reads subscribe list, downloads the newest 10 videos (if not seen yet) and allows you to play them (with play)
subtube update
or
subtube update --secret
subtube update -s
to avoid notification (I use it with crontab 30 min interval)
brings up sxiv thumbnail selection, where (default sxiv bindings) m marks thumbnail and q closes it and starts playing all of marked videos (if any).
subtube play
or
subtube play --browser
subtube play -b
to play with browser instead.
Either specify with env variable (from env setting config like ~/.zshenv) or manually like
BROWSER=google-chrome-stable subtube play -b
or let script try few popular options in random order
OR
subtube play --handler "google-chrome-stable --incognito"
subtube play -h "firefox --headless"
to play with custom handler. Each handler call wont block execution (ran in background).
adds new subscribed channel. This is a link of a channel's page.
subtube add "https://www.youtube.com/@3blue1brown"
gives you option to find and "mark to remove" old videos, where N means at least N days old videos. This brings sxiv selection to mark videos for deletion
subtube clean N
allows you to only pick from videos N minutes old (date when subtube update downloaded image). Very useful when you see notification but have many unseen videos to find it in.
subtube newest N
note that we use url of videos folder, not channel. This is because we find new videos by parsing page html (link has to point to videos folder!)
Another script of mine mpv_history can be used to replay video again. Simply install it and subtube will populate it with records.
if you add following lines to your sxiv config (~/.config/sxiv/exec/key-handler) you will be able to show video title as notification or remove thumbnails.
After sxiv installation, create config folder and key handler script like this
mkdir -p ~/.config/sxiv/exec
touch ~/.config/sxiv/exec/key-handler
then add this content to the file (If this case statement already exists, so just copy 3 lines inside.)
#!/bin/bash
case "$1" in
"n") while read file; do subtube name $file & disown ; done ;;
"l") while read file; do subtube name_length $file & disown ; done ;;
"r") while read file; do rm $file; done ;; # remove thumbnail
esac
then make it executable
chmod +x ~/.config/sxiv/exec/key-handler
this allows you to use sxiv prefix (ctrl+x) followed by key inside quotes to perform additional actions
put these lines to you crontab file to download new thumbnails every 10 minutes.
There is little issue with this showing notification on some systems.
You might have to google a little to make it work.
But once your crontab can regularly spawn notify send 'title' 'body', it will work and refresh new videos regularly.
If you can't notify send from crontab, it would simply update without notification.
*/10 * * * * XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/$(id -u) subtube update --secret
i m using it on bspwm, so there is "one-shot sticky floating small middle screen" rule with notification if too many thumbnails to fit
My daily usage is currently on wayland. If you use xwayland you should be fine but on wayland branch there are some wayland related changes. We also have wayland AUR package in install section
- make repo of my "mpv history" script, that can play already played videos via rofi launcher