flget

Search and extract books from a local Flibusta mirror.

There are two frontends over the same backend:

• fltui: a terminal UI with search-as-you-type, author and series browsing, filters, and a book card with annotation, reviews and cover.
• flget: a CLI for searching, inspecting, syncing and extracting books.

⚠️ flget distributes no books and no copyrighted content. It only indexes and reads a library mirror that you already have on your own disk. It is not affiliated with Flibusta. See the Disclaimer.

Contents

• Screenshots
• Requirements
• Installation
• First run
• Usage
• Sync
• Files
• FAQ
• Development
• Disclaimer
• License

Screenshots

Authors: an author's books, grouped by series	Series: a cycle in reading order
Filters: genre, format, language, year and file size	CLI: flget show book

_{CLI: flget search book "Foundation" -l en -f fb2}

Requirements

• Python 3.12 or newer.

• A local Flibusta mirror.

  /mnt/library/Flibusta.Net/
  ├── d.fb2-009373-367300.zip
  ├── d.usr-172703-173908.zip
  ├── f.fb2-173909-177717.zip
  ├── …
  └── flibusta_all_local.inpx
  

• Optional: a terminal with an image protocol (Kitty, WezTerm, iTerm2, Sixel) for covers. Elsewhere covers are drawn with half-block characters.

Installation

uv tool install flget
# or
pipx install flget

This installs two commands, flget and fltui.

From source:

git clone https://github.com/akashihi/flget.git
cd flget
uv sync
uv run fltui

First run

flget sync --library-path /mnt/library/Flibusta.Net   # import the INPX, build the index, validate
fltui

Once the sync succeeds, the mirror location is stored in flget.toml; later commands and syncs use it.

The first sync parses the whole catalogue and opens every archive for validation, so on a full mirror it takes a while. Until a sync has completed, commands say so instead of returning empty results.

Usage

fltui

Type in the search box to search the active tab (Books, Authors or Series).

The Authors tab lists an author's books grouped by series. The This author only switch hides other authors' books in shared series.

flget

Search:

flget search book   "The Colour of Magic"
flget search author "Corris"
flget search series "Discworld"
flget search all    "Foundation"

Filters work on every search, can be repeated and combined:

flget search book "Foundation" -l en -f fb2 -f epub
flget search book "Dune" -l en --year-from 2000 --year-to 2015
flget search book "War and Peace" -l en --min-size 500K --max-size 5M

flget filters genres|formats|languages lists the values present in your mirror.

Show details by ID (IDs come from search output):

flget show book   273027
flget show author 81354
flget show author 81354 --author-only    # only this author's books in shared series
flget show series 3088

Extract a book:

flget get 305016             # into the Documents folder
flget get 305016 ~/Books

Sync

flget sync builds the catalogue from one of two sources:

The default imports the INPX, then validates it against the archives on disk: missing archives, unknown archives, and books found in archives but not in the catalogue. If the INPX turns out incomplete, sync suggests a dump sync.

The INPX has no author or series IDs, so flget assigns its own during import. Author and series IDs shown by flget search and used by flget show therefore differ between an INPX sync and a dump sync; after switching sources, look them up again.

The mirror location comes from --library-path, or from flget.toml when the option is omitted. A successful sync stores it; a failed one leaves the stored location unchanged. If the mirror moves, sync again with the new --library-path.

flget sync --library-path /mnt/library/Flibusta.Net   # INPX, store the location
flget sync                                            # INPX, stored location
flget sync --dumps-dir ~/flibusta-sql                 # SQL dumps from a local folder

flget does not download the dumps itself. --dumps-dir takes a flat folder of the dumps under their original names:

lib.libavtor.sql.gz         lib.libgenrelist.sql.gz     lib.libseq.sql.gz
lib.libavtorname.sql.gz     lib.libjoinedbooks.sql.gz   lib.libtranslator.sql.gz
lib.libbook.sql.gz          lib.librate.sql.gz          lib.b.annotations.sql.gz
lib.libfilename.sql.gz      lib.librecs.sql.gz          lib.b.annotations_pics.sql.gz
lib.libgenre.sql.gz         lib.libseqname.sql.gz       lib.reviews.sql.gz
lib.b.attached.zip

Files

Locations come from platformdirs:

The cache is fully rebuildable: delete it and run flget sync. The mirror itself is only ever read.

FAQ

Why are author names and genres in Russian? That's how the Flibusta catalogue stores them. Translated authors are listed under the Russian spelling (Terry Pratchett is Терри Пратчетт); genre names are always Russian. Titles keep their original language. If an author search finds nothing, search by title, series or the Russian name.

No annotations, reviews or covers. The INPX doesn't contain them. Sync from the SQL dumps.

Covers look blocky. The terminal has no image protocol; flget falls back to half-blocks.

Development

uv sync
uv run pre-commit install
uv run pre-commit run --all-files   # ruff, mypy --strict, deptry, codespell, gitleaks, pytest

Tests cover the pure parsers (INPX, mysqldump, naming, filters) and need no mirror. Sync, index, CLI and TUI are checked by running them.

Disclaimer

flget is a search and indexing tool. It does not host, distribute or link to books or other copyrighted material, and works only with a mirror already on your storage, which it reads but never modifies. It makes no network access. It is not affiliated with Flibusta. Make sure your use of any library complies with the laws of your country.

License

GPL-3.0-or-later. See LICENSE.

Denis Chaplygin - Initial work - akashihi