BlogAggregator

README

BlogAggregator

Long Running, Persistent RSS Blog Aggregator (aka gator)

Requirements

• Go (>= 1.20)
• Postgres (running instance, for persistent storage)

Installing the gator CLI

You can install the gator CLI by running:

go install github.com/JonahLargen/BlogAggregator/cmd/gator@latest

This will place the compiled binary in your $GOPATH/bin or $HOME/go/bin directory. Make sure this path is in your $PATH.

Setting up the configuration

Before running gator, you need to create a configuration file in your home directory:

• File: ~/.gatorconfig.json

Example contents:

{
  "db_url": "postgres://youruser:yourpassword@localhost:5432/yourdb?sslmode=disable",
  "current_user_name": ""
}

Replace the db_url with your own Postgres connection string.

Running the program

For production and normal usage, always use the gator binary:

gator <command> [args]

For development purposes, you can use:

go run .

Available Commands

Here are some of the commands you can run with the gator CLI:

• register <username>
  Register a new user.
• login <username>
  Log in as an existing user.
• reset
  Reset the database (dangerous, wipes data!).
• users
  List all users.
• agg <time_between_requests>
  Start aggregating feeds.
• addfeed <name> <url>
  Add a new RSS feed.
• feeds
  List available feeds.
• follow <feed_url>
  Follow a feed.
• following
  Show feeds you're following.
• unfollow <feed_url>
  Unfollow a feed.
• browse [limit]
  Browse your aggregated posts (optionally limit number of posts shown).

Example usage

Register (automatically logs you in):

gator register alice

Add a feed (you automatically follow any feed you add):

gator addfeed "MyBlog" "https://myblog.com/rss"

Aggregate feeds every 60 seconds:

gator agg 60s

Browse your most recent posts:

gator browse 10

Notes

• You must have Postgres running and accessible at the db_url provided in your config.
• The config file must be present and valid before running most commands.
• The Go toolchain is not required to run the binary after installation (go install produces a statically compiled binary).

MIT License © 2025 Jonah Largen