use nix-shell shebang and a cronjob to get this off my back for now

README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+## RSS Notifier
+A python script which checks an RSS feed for new entries and sends
+notifications to any libnotify-compatible Linux Desktop when it finds them.

rss_notifier.py

@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env nix-shell
+#! nix-shell -i python -p python3 libnotify python3Packages.beautifulsoup4 python3Packages.lxml python3Packages.requests
 from requests import get
 from sqlite3 import Connection as SQL, Cursor
 from contextlib import contextmanager
@@ -6,27 +8,33 @@ from sys import argv, stderr
 from dataclasses import dataclass
 from typing import *
 from subprocess import Popen, PIPE, run
-from os import execvp, environ
+from os import execvp, environ, makedirs
 from json import dumps, loads
+from pathlib import Path
 
 
 @dataclass
 class Feed:
     id: int
     url: str
+    title: Optional[str] = None
     content: Optional[Soup] = None
 
-    def fetch(self):
+    def fetch_content(self):
         res = get(self.url)
         res.raise_for_status()
         self.content = Soup(res.text, features="xml")
+        if title_tag := self.content.find('title'):
+            self.title = title_tag.text
+        else:
+            print(f'warning: no title for feed {self.url!r}')
         return self
 
     def entries(self):
         if content := self.content:
             return content.find_all('entry')
         else:
-            return self.fetch().entries()
+            return self.fetch_content().entries()
     
     @classmethod
     def from_record(cls, record):
@@ -42,7 +50,7 @@ class Feed:
         return hash(self.id)
 
     def to_dict(self):
-        return {'id': self.id, 'url': self.url}
+        return {'id': self.id, 'url': self.url, 'title': self.title}
     
     def to_json(self) -> str:
         return dumps(self.to_dict())
@@ -50,7 +58,7 @@ class Feed:
     @classmethod
     def from_json(cls, text: str) -> 'Feed':
         data = loads(text)
-        return cls(id=data['id'], url=data['url'])
+        return cls(id=data['id'], url=data['url'], title=data['title'])
 
 ACTIONS = ['--action', 'open=Open link', '--action', 'read=Mark read']
 
@@ -65,10 +73,16 @@ class FeedEntry:
 
     @classmethod
     def select_all(cls, db_connection) -> List['FeedEntry']:
-        feed_entries = db_connection.cursor().execute("select entry.*, feed.url from entries entry join feeds feed on feed.id = entry.feed_id;").fetchall()
+        query = '''
+            select entry.*, feed.url, feed.title
+            from entries entry
+            join feeds feed
+            on feed.id = entry.feed_id;
+        '''
+        feed_entries = db_connection.cursor().execute(query).fetchall()
         return set(
-            FeedEntry(id, Feed(feed_id, feed_url), upstream_id, title, link, read)
+            FeedEntry(id, Feed(feed_id, feed_url, feed_title), upstream_id, title, link, read)
-            for id, feed_id, upstream_id, title, link, read, feed_url, 
+            for id, feed_id, upstream_id, title, link, read, feed_url, feed_title 
             in feed_entries
         )
 
@@ -83,7 +97,10 @@ class FeedEntry:
 
     def to_json(self) -> str:
         assert list(self.__dict__.keys()) == "id feed upstream_id title link read".split()
-        return dumps({ k: v.to_dict() if k == 'feed' else v for k, v in  self.__dict__.items() })
+        return dumps({
+            k: v.to_dict() if k == 'feed' else v
+            for k, v in  self.__dict__.items()
+        })
 
     @classmethod
     def from_json(cls, data) -> 'FeedEntry':
@@ -118,7 +135,7 @@ class FeedEntry:
                 self.upstream_id,
                 self.title,
                 self.link,
-                self.mark_read
+                self.read
             )
         )
         
@@ -133,9 +150,13 @@ class RSSNotifier:
 
     def create_tables(self):
         db = self.db_connection.cursor()
-        db.execute(
+        db.execute('''
-            'create table if not exists feeds (id integer primary key autoincrement, url text)'
+            create table if not exists feeds (
-        )
+                id integer primary key autoincrement,
+                url text unique not null,
+                title text
+            );
+        ''')
         db.execute('''
             create table if not exists entries (
                 id integer primary key autoincrement,
@@ -154,9 +175,9 @@ class RSSNotifier:
         return map(Feed, feeds)
 
     def add_feed(self, url: str, mark_read: bool):
-        feed = Feed(-1, url).fetch()
+        feed = Feed(-1, url).fetch_content()
         cursor = self.db_connection.cursor()
-        cursor.execute("insert into feeds (url) values (?)", (url,))
+        cursor.execute("insert into feeds (url, title) values (?, ?)", (url, feed.title))
         feed.id = cursor.lastrowid
         for entry in feed.entries():
             FeedEntry.from_rss(entry, feed, mark_read).insert(cursor)
@@ -166,7 +187,7 @@ class RSSNotifier:
     def parse_args(self, args=None):
         mark_read = True
         if args is None:
-            args = argv
+            args = argv[1:]
         feeds_to_add = []
         try:
             while True:
@@ -241,7 +262,7 @@ class RSSNotifier:
                     '--expire-time', '0',
                     '--app-name', 'RSS Notifier',
                     *ACTIONS,
-                    f'New RSS Story: {entry.title}'
+                    f'New RSS Story from "{entry.feed.title}": {entry.title}'
                 ],
                 stdout=PIPE,
                 stderr=PIPE
@@ -261,4 +282,11 @@ class RSSNotifier:
 
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
-    RSSNotifier(environ.get("RSS_NOTIFIER_DATABASE_LOCATION") or Path(environ.get("HOME")) / ".local/state/rss-notifier/db.sqlite3").parse_args()
+    db_path = environ.get("RSS_NOTIFIER_DATABASE_LOCATION")
+    if db_path is None:
+        db_path = Path(environ.get("HOME")) / ".local/state/rss-notifier/db.sqlite3"
+    else:
+        db_path = Path(db_path)
+    if not db_path.parent.exists():
+        makedirs(db_path.parent)
+    RSSNotifier(db_path).parse_args()