Alt.bin

Which binaries grabber for Linux ?

* Multi-server, multi-sources :

1. Pan 0.1** beta now uses less memory, handles multiple servers and nzb files. It only allows 4 connections per server though, which is kind of bad for those of us who pay for using more. I wish it could support SSL and nntps as well.

2. Klibido : GNU, handles Nzb files, OK but unstable

3. BNR2 : heavy, unstable, coded with Kylix, ( not free? )

4. Newsbin Pro is also reported to work fine with Wine and seem to use very few memory. ( not free )

* Nzb command-lines : nzb, hellanzb, NZBget, nzbperl, Knzb.

* Command-line binary grabbers : ubh, brag, aub, nget,

How do I repair incomplete files with the par2 parity files ?

With the parchive package ( or par2 package if you use Debian/Ubuntu )and the par2 command :

$ par2 r file.par2

or :

$ par2repair file.par2

Or with Quickpar that works fine with Wine.

How do par2/repair by double-clicking from my file manager without opening a console ? Is there a par2 GUI ?

Those using KDE/Konqueror won’t have any problem associating par2 files with par2repair and letting the console open after the operation, it’s very straight forward.
With Gnome opening a gnome-terminal from Nautilus is tricky since it the window closes too quickly you can’t see what happened, so let’s use xterm instead :

In Nautilus, associate par2 extensions with custom command-line :

xterm -hold -e par2repair

About the Par2 GUIs there are several :

• Ben’s Par2GUI KDE script, which judging by the comments is very handy.
• Gpar2
• PyPar2

Please drop a comment if you have a question or new software to plug !

• How do I repair incomplete files with the par2 parity files ?
• How do par2/repair by double-clicking from my file manager without opening a console ?
• Is there a par2 GUI ?
• How to batch-repair the millions of files that I have downloaded legally
• How do I extract multiple-part Rar archives with Linux ? ( rar r00 r01 r02, etc )
• How do I create Rar archives with Linux ?
• How to join split files .001 .002 .003 .004… back together ?
• Advice for posting par2 and split files
• Linux newsgrabbers and newsreaders

»

Many thanks to the people on a.b.m.a.d for their help ! ( Anthony, Nobody, etc )

If you have other interesting tips to share about Usenet binaries with Linux, do not hesitate to drop a comment ( no registration required ). Stay tuned, this FAQ is regularly updated.

updated July 2007 : rar and Ben’s Par2GUI

updated September 2009 : new website