4scanner

4scanner can search multiple imageboards threads for matching keywords then download all images to disk.

Supported imageboards

• 4chan
• lainchan
• uboachan

You can create an issue if you want to see other imageboards supported

Installing

pip3 install 4scanner

(4scanner is ONLY compatible with python3+)

For Arch Linux there is an AUR package

Running via Docker

Create a config (detail below), name it config.json and drop it where you would like to download the images. Then run a container:

docker run -v /can/be/anywhere:/output -v /anywhere/else:/root/.4scanner lacsap/4scanner

/can/be/anywhere Can be anywhere on your computer, images will be downloaded there (This is the directory where you need to put the config.json) /anywhere/else Can be anywhere on your computer, it will contain the sqlite3 database 4scanner use to keep track of downloaded threads and duplicate

How to

the first thing you need to do is create a simple json file with the directories names you want, the boards you want to search and the keywords. (see the json file section for more details)

After your json file is done you can start 4scanner with:

4scanner file.json

it will search all threads for the keywords defined in your json file and download all images/webms from threads where a keyword is found. (In the current directory unless you specify one with -o )

Creating your JSON file via the 4genconf script (easy)

The 4genconf utility is now installed as of 4scanner 1.5.1. This utility will ask you simple questions about what you want to download and generate a configuration file for you!

Creating your JSON file manually

Creating the JSON file is easy, you can use the example.json file as a base.

Your "Searches" are what 4scanner use to know which board to check for what keywords and the name of the folder where it needs to download the images, you can have as many "Searches" as you want.

Here is an example of what the JSON file should look like:

{"searches":[
    {
      "imageboard": "IMAGEBOARD",
      "folder_name": "YOUR_FOLDER_NAME",
      "board": "BOARD_LETTER",
      "keywords": ["KEYWORD1", "KEYWORD2"]
    },

    {
      "imageboard": "4chan",
      "folder_name": "vidya",
      "board": "v",
      "keywords": ["tf2", "splatoon", "world of tank"]
    }
]}

Search options

4scanner has a lot of options for downloading only the images you want. Such as downloading only images with a certain width or height, or only images with a certain extension.

To see all available options with examples check out: OPTIONS.md

Hydrus Network users: check out the tag option to automatically tag your images on import

• Example with all optional options

{"searches":[
    {
      "imageboard": "4chan",
      "folder_name": "vidya",
      "board": "v",
      "width": ">1000",
      "height": ">1000",
      "filename": "IMG_",
      "extension": [".jpg", ".png"],
      "tag": ["game"],
      "keywords": ["tf2", "splatoon", "world of tank"],
      "check_duplicate": true,
      "subject_only": false
    }
]}

This will download images bigger than 1000x1000 which are .jpg or .png with a filename containing IMG_

Notes

• the keywords search is case insensitive

4downloader

4downloader is also installed with 4scanner and can be use to download a single thread like this: 4downloader http://boards.4chan.org/b/thread/373687492

It will download all images until the thread die. You can also download threads from imageboards other than 4chan with -i