rbdb is a small tool that parses a Rockbox database and prints the played filenames.

What problem does it solve?

I sync new podcasts from gPodder to an excellent SanDisk Sansa Clip+ player once in a while. Before each sync, I also need to mark played episodes as old (those that I want to keep) or delete played episodes. This program helps me recollect what I listened to because Rockbox stores a database and tracks various runtime information about the present tracks.

Running the program

Currently, no binary releases are provided, so you need to install Haskell Stack (for example, with GHCup) and build the project with stack build. Then stack install can install the executable into ~/.local/bin/; if the directory is in your $PATH, you can simply run rbdb.

$ rbdb -h
Print played podcast episodes from the rockbox database

Usage: rbdb [--dump | [-f|--filename-only] [--color ARG]] ROCKBOX_PATH

Available options:
  --dump                   Dump valid entries from the parsed database
  -f,--filename-only       Show only filenames (default: false)
  --color ARG              Show colorized output: yes|no|auto (default: auto)
  ROCKBOX_PATH             Path to the rockbox database directory (with
                           `database_*.tcd`)
  --version                Show version
  -h,--help                Show this help text

The program requires the path to a rockbox database, which is a directory with database_*.tcd files. It's the .rockbox/ directory in the root of your player. When it's connected to the computer and mounted, the path will be like /Volumes/player/.rockbox. So providing the path to the program would output something like this:

$ rbdb /Volumes/player/.rockbox
/podcasts/The Amp Hour Electronics Podcast/#661 – Blogging Electronics with Pallav Aggarwal.mp3: 27%, 1 plays, file 26% played
/podcasts/Darknet Diaries Bonus Episodes/Bonus Episode #1 - Wes.mp3: 100%, 1 plays, file 100% played
/podcasts/Hacker Public Radio/HPR4077_ FFMPEG Series_ Joining and Splitting files.mp3: 100%, 2 plays, file 100% played
/podcasts/Hacker Public Radio/HPR4078_ Learning to read music, part two_ pitch.mp3: 34%, 1 plays, file 32% played
/podcasts/Hanselminutes/Our Retro FPGA future powered by Jose Tejada (JOTEGO).mp3: 100%, 1 plays, file 99% played
/podcasts/The Haskell Interlude/42 _ Jezen Thomas.mp3: 100%, 2 plays, file 100% played
/podcasts/Headwaters/Climate and Community with Mike Durglo, Jr.mp3: 100%, 2 plays, file 96% played
/podcasts/Security Now/SN 966_ Morris The Second - Voyager 1, The Web Turns 35.mp3: 100%, 3 plays, file 100% played
/podcasts/Soft Skills Engineering/Episode 394_ Scrum master, weapons master and minimum tenure to not look bad.mp3: 100%, 1 plays, file 100% played
/podcasts/Software Engineering Radio/SE Radio 597_ Coral Calero Muñoz and Félix García on Green Software.mp3: 33%, 1 plays, file 33% played

The podcasts are sorted the way gPodder does it: case-insensitive, ignoring the "the " prefix if present and replacing certain letter with umlauts to those without (ö => o, ü -> u, ä => a). That's why "The Haskell Interlude" appears before "Headwaters" in the output above.

The --dump option shows more information about the valid entries from the parsed database:

$ rbdb --dump /Volumes/player/.rockbox
/podcasts/The Amp Hour Electronics Podcast/#661 – Blogging Electronics with Pallav Aggarwal.mp3: duration=3812.856s, 27% played (raw: 0.266603302091, autoscore=26.66033020916604) 1 play, playTime=1016.52s, playOrder=1042, lastOffset=15822883, lastElapsed=1001520, flags=4, file progress=0.26293896346045326
/podcasts/Darknet Diaries Bonus Episodes/Bonus Episode #1 - Wes.mp3: duration=2178.638s, 100% played (raw: 1.0, autoscore=100.0) 1 play, playTime=2178.638s, playOrder=1026, lastOffset=0, lastElapsed=0, flags=4, file progress=1.0
/podcasts/Hacker Public Radio/HPR4077_ FFMPEG Series_ Joining and Splitting files.mp3: duration=642.744s, 100% played (raw: 1.103481323824, autoscore=55.174066191205206) 2 plays, playTime=709.256s, playOrder=1023, lastOffset=0, lastElapsed=0, flags=4, file progress=1.0
/podcasts/Hacker Public Radio/HPR4078_ Learning to read music, part two_ pitch.mp3: duration=906.192s, 34% played (raw: 0.336220138778, autoscore=33.622013877853696) 1 play, playTime=304.68s, playOrder=1024, lastOffset=2319144, lastElapsed=289680, flags=4, file progress=0.31983005239425993
/podcasts/Hanselminutes/Our Retro FPGA future powered by Jose Tejada (JOTEGO).mp3: duration=1968.248s, 100% played (raw: 0.998006348793, autoscore=99.80063487934447) 1 play, playTime=1964.324s, playOrder=1032, lastOffset=31275037, lastElapsed=1949324, flags=4, file progress=0.9904434277276265
/podcasts/The Haskell Interlude/42 _ Jezen Thomas.mp3: duration=3062.831s, 100% played (raw: 1.318571935572, autoscore=65.92859677860123) 2 plays, playTime=4038.563s, playOrder=1020, lastOffset=36638569, lastElapsed=3051860, flags=4, file progress=0.9964414988077183
/podcasts/Headwaters/Climate and Community with Mike Durglo, Jr.mp3: duration=1895.131s, 100% played (raw: 1.871429996132, autoscore=93.57149980660968) 2 plays, playTime=3546.605s, playOrder=1041, lastOffset=43909505, lastElapsed=1827827, flags=4, file progress=0.964535300061506
/podcasts/Security Now/SN 966_ Morris The Second - Voyager 1, The Web Turns 35.mp3: duration=7668.36s, 100% played (raw: 1.65099291113, autoscore=55.03309703769776) 3 plays, playTime=12660.408s, playOrder=1030, lastOffset=0, lastElapsed=0, flags=4, file progress=1.0
/podcasts/Soft Skills Engineering/Episode 394_ Scrum master, weapons master and minimum tenure to not look bad.mp3: duration=1760.914s, 100% played (raw: 1.0, autoscore=100.0) 1 play, playTime=1760.914s, playOrder=1036, lastOffset=0, lastElapsed=0, flags=4, file progress=1.0
/podcasts/Software Engineering Radio/SE Radio 597_ Coral Calero Muñoz and Félix García on Green Software.mp3: duration=3829.237s, 33% played (raw: 0.328555270932, autoscore=32.855527093256434) 1 play, playTime=1258.116s, playOrder=1038, lastOffset=20193571, lastElapsed=1243116, flags=4, file progress=0.32797083508469216

Database versions

The program can parse databases generated by two rockbox versions:

• 3.15, the latest released version; database changed in https://git.rockbox.org/cgit/rockbox.git/commit/?id=31b712286721dd606940c7b557d03e3f714b9604;
• the current (April 2024) development version; database changed in https://git.rockbox.org/cgit/rockbox.git/commit/?id=fcb9c068526cf1e565a05e6b6ccc50dc3e5ba0d5.