thesimplex/simpleredditrssbot

Simple Reddit RSS submit bot written in Go

SimpleRedditRSSBot

Simple Reddit RSS Bot for submitting RSS feed links to subreddit(s). It keeps cache of newest 10 000 links submitted in a cache file per subreddit. URLs in RSS feeds are not resubmitted to a subreddit if there are duplicates.

Setup bot app config

Register a new user for your bot in Reddit. Verify email. Set proper details. Create new app @ https://www.reddit.com/prefs/apps/ type is script. See Reddit documentation for details.

Client ID can be read below app's name for example:

MyBotAppExample
personal use script
sgdbfseyseghbgsef <- Client id

Secret is listed separately in the same app page.

Create a directory for the bot

$ mkdir redditrssbot
$ cd redditrssbot

Full path is now for example /home/raspi/redditrssbot

Now download the latest release to this directory.

Rename config.json.dist to config.json.

{
  "user": "reddit username you registered for this bot, for example my_simple_bot",
  "pass": "reddit password you registered this bot",
  "cid": "your bot's app client id from https://www.reddit.com/prefs/apps/",
  "secret": "your bot's app secret from https://www.reddit.com/prefs/apps/"
}

Setup feed URLs

Rename feeds.json.dist to feeds.json.

{
  "subreddit": "my_news", Default subreddit name
  "feeds": [
    {
      "subreddit": "", Subreddit to post to, uses default if empty
      "title": "news", Title for logs, not used in reddit side
      "prefix": "", Prefix for links (not implemented)
      "suffix": "", Suffix for links (not implemented)
      "fid": "", Flair ID for links (not implemented)
      "flair": "", Flair text for links (not implemented)
      "url": "" RSS URL
    },
    {
      "subreddit": "my_patch_news", Second feed, etc
      "title": "patches", Title for logs, not used in reddit side
      "prefix": "", Prefix for links (not implemented)
      "suffix": "", Suffix for links (not implemented)
      "fid": "", Flair ID for links (not implemented)
      "flair": "", Flair text for links (not implemented)
      "url": "" RSS URL
    }
  ]
}

Setup automatic submits to reddit with SystemD

Rename systemd.service.dist to redditbot.service.

Rename systemd.timer.dist to redditbot.timer.

Configure .service:

[Unit]
Description=Reddit RSS Bot Service

[Service]
Type=oneshot
# !! Change these:
WorkingDirectory=/home/raspi/redditbot
ExecStart=/home/raspi/redditbot/redditrssbot-x64

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

Enable the .service file in user mode:

$ systemctl --user enable redditbot.service

Configure .timer:

[Unit]
Description=Reddit RSS Bot Timer

[Timer]
# Wait after boot
OnBootSec=10min
# run every X duration
# Recommended 1 hour (1h)
# Reddit is very strict how often links should be 
# submitted so use at least one hour sleep time. 
# Otherwise the bot will be banned.
OnUnitActiveSec=1h
Unit=redditbot.service

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

Enable and start the redditbot.timer timer in user mode:

$ systemctl --user enable redditbot.timer
$ systemctl --user start redditbot.timer

Check that the timer is listed:

$ systemctl --user list-timers

Check the logs with journalctl --user -xe.

Troubleshooting

SystemD user timer doesn't work when I log out

You must enable linger to your user as root as follows:

$ sudo loginctl enable-linger <user>

For example:

$ sudo loginctl enable-linger raspi