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https://github.com/alopezrivera/anchorage

Save your bookmark collection in the Internet Archive, or locally.
https://github.com/alopezrivera/anchorage

archiving internet-archive permanence web

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Save your bookmark collection in the Internet Archive, or locally.

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README 

        
# Anchorage



![alt text](tests/coverage/coverage.svg ".coverage available in tests/coverage/")



Anchorage consists of a Python library and CLI to save your bookmark collection in bulk, forever:

online in the [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/) or locally, using [ArchiveBox](https://archivebox.io/).



Anchorage will automatically retrieve your bookmark collection from your browser of 

choice, filter out duplicates, local files as well as entries matching filters of your

own making, and archive the chosen ones.



Read on to get started. [The full Python API documentation is available 

here](https://anchorage-docs.github.io/).



![alt text](https://github.com/antonlopezr/anchorage/blob/master/docs/demo/gifs/run.gif "Anchorage in action")



-----



#### Table of Contents



[ 1. Introduction ](#1-introduction)



[ 3. Requirements & Install  ](#2-requirements--install)



[ 4. Anchorage configuration  ](#3-anchorage-configuration)



[ 4. Anchorage CLI  ](#4-anchorage-cli)



[ 6. Python API  ](#5-python-api)



[ _6.1 Anchorage configuration_ ](#51-anchorage-configuration)



[ _6.3 Bookmark retrieval_ ](#52-bookmark-retrieval)



[ _6.3 Archiving_ ](#53-archiving)



---



## 1. Introduction



As the internet ages link rot takes over larger and larger swathes of it, from the tiny to the mighty, from the trivial

to the best pieces you ever found: all lost forever. Anchorage is an attempt to make it as easy as possible for you to

save the little corner of it you're most fond of, for your own peace of mind and the enjoyment of us all :)



## 2. Requirements & Install

A working [Docker](https://docs.docker.com/get-docker/) install is the only requirement, beyond Python and Anchorage's 

dependencies. 

**Without Docker**: Docker is used to run [ArchiveBox](https://archivebox.io/), via a provided 

[docker-compose file](https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Docker#docker-compose). 

Without Docker Anchorage will not be able to archive your collection locally, but it will still be 

able to save it online in the Internet Archive.



Anchorage can be installed using pip as any Python package. Its dependencies will be downloaded automatically. 



    pip install anchorage

    

## 3. Anchorage configuration

To access a browser's bookmarks file, Anchorage stores its location in its configuration file:



    ~/.anchorage/config.toml

    

There's an [example `config.toml`](https://github.com/antonlopezr/anchorage/blob/master/example-config.toml)

in this repo for reference. 



To add a new browser simply add a new top-level key, followed by its bookmark file paths. Anchorage only needs

the path in your operating system to work.



    []

    linux = 

    macos = 

    windows = 



Importantly:

- Linux and MacOS paths are stored in **full**.

- Windows paths are stored from the **`AppData`** directory.



The default `config.toml` contains the bookmark file paths for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge

and Edge Beta for **Windows** only. To use Anchorage in **Linux or MacOS** add the bookmark file path of your

browser of choice to your `config.toml`.



#### Editing the Anchorage config file

The config file can be edited just as any other. 

New browsers will automatically be listed in the CLI.



Importantly:

- Set unknown bookmark file paths to "?". That way the CLI will recognize those as unknown and behave appropriately.



![alt text](https://github.com/antonlopezr/anchorage/blob/master/docs/demo/gifs/config.gif "Adding the location of the Google Chrome bookmarks file to ~/.anchorage/config.toml")



## 4. Anchorage CLI

The CLI will guide you through retrieving your bookmarks from your browser of choice, applying

filters to you bookmark collection and archiving your bookmarks in the Internet Archive or locally, 

using ArchiveBox.



To start the CLI open your shell and type



    anchorage



You will be asked whether you're ready to proceed. On the ok it will ensure all dependencies are present.



##### 1. Config check

If a config file is found, you will be prompted to choose whether to 

keep the current config or overwrite it with the default one.



##### 2. Browser choice

You will be prompted to choose which browser to retrieve your bookmark collection from. The browser 

choices are sourced from `config.toml`. Refer to [section 3](#3-anchorage-configuration) for 

editing it to add a missing browser or enter the path to the bookmarks file of your browser, if it's missing 

(equal to "?").



##### 3. Applying filters to the collection

Filters can be applied to your bookmark collection before archiving. 

Any or all of four filters can be chosen, one specific for URLs:



- `Local files`: remove local URLs (say, PDFs stored in your computer) from the collection.



and three general: 



- `Match string`: remove bookmark URLs, names or bookmark directories matching a provided string or any string 

in a string list.

- `Match substring`: remove bookmark URLs, names or bookmark directories containing a provided string or any string 

in a string list.

- `Regex`: remove bookmark URLs, names or bookmark directories matching a provided regex formula.



For each you will be prompted to choose to apply it to any or all of the previous.



##### 4. Archive choice

You will be then asked to choose whether to archive your collection online or locally.

##### _Online_

By default websites will not be archived if a previous image exists in The Internet Archive. This is to save time: we rest easy as a those 

sites are saved already at some point. In case you want to save a current snapshot of the colection, you will be prompted whether to override this 

and archive all sites in the collection regardless. This may take significantly longer. Based on your choice, you will be given an estimate of the 

archive time. 

##### _Local_

To archive your collection locally you will be prompted for an archive directory. 



##### 5. Run

After a last confirmation the process will begin. A progress bar will inform you of how far the process 

is from finishing, how many bookmarks have been saved and provide a dynamic estimate of the time remaining 

before the process is finished.



## 5. Python API: user's guide

The full documentation of the Anchorage API is available in the [docs](https://anchorage-docs.github.io/) site.



### 5.1 Anchorage configuration

Generate the Anchorage config file with the `init` command.



    from anchorage import init

    

    init()



### 5.2 Bookmark retrieval

Three methods are relevant:



- `path()`: obtain the path to your chosen browser's bookmarks file (in your OS) from `config.toml`.

- `load()`: read your chosen browser's JSON or JSONLZ4 bookmarks file and return a Python dictionary.

- `bookmarks()`: create an instance of the `bookmarks` class.



The `bookmarks` class creates a second bookmarks dictionary more suitable for our intent, and contains methods

to filter and loop through the collection. Filters can be applied as seen below.  



    from anchorage import path, load, bookmarks

    

    collection = bookmarks(load(path()),

                           drop_local_files= ,

                           drop_dirs=        ,

                           drop_names=       ,

                           drop_urls=        ,

                           drop_dirs_subs=   ,

                           drop_names_subs=  ,

                           drop_urls_subs=   ,

                           drop_dirs_regex=  ,

                           drop_names_regex= ,

                           drop_urls_regex=  

                           )



### 5.3 Archiving

Input: `bookmarks` instance or bookmark dictionary returned by `load`. 



#### Online



    from anchorage import anchor_online

    

    anchor_online(bookmarks, overwrite=)

    

The `overwrite` parameter determines whether to save snapshots of sites already present in the 

Internet Archive or not.

    

#### Locally



    from anchorage import anchor_locally

    

    anchor_locally(bookmarks, archive=)

    

The `archive` parameter specifies the directory in which to create the local archive.



Running the ArchiveBox default NGINX server 

can be done with the following command.



    from anchorage import server

    

    server()



---



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