how can i backup a flickr account under linux?

March 11, 2009 5:56 PM

how can i backup a flickr account under linux?

i'm considering moving all my photos to flickr and downloading them
regularly for backup. what do you recommend for doing this on a linux
system?

preference is given to commandline tools that can run from a cronjob.
i'd like to set it and forget it, and just check the cron email for
errors. if necessary, though, i'll set myself a reminder to run a gui
tool periodically.

the most promising solution i found was mounting through flickrfs and
rsyncing to a local directory. unfortunately, flickrfs seems to be
abandonware, with bugs possibly coming from being so out-of-date. it
mounted well the first time, but now doesn't even create a directory for
my sets when it's run.

thanks for any help you can offer.

sincerely,
jeff

posted by jeffcovey to computers & internet (8 comments total)

Offlickr is what you want.

I am currently working on extending it to download videos as well - if you poke me in a week or so I'll have a patch, Hugo's been lazy about importing my patches lately.
posted by dmd at 6:40 PM on March 11, 2009

There's Net::Flickr::Backup (which comes with examples of usage). It hasn't been updated in a while, but I haven't noticed it missing any features. It's what I currently use.
posted by thebabelfish at 7:29 PM on March 11, 2009

I've heard good things about Conduit.
posted by chrisamiller at 8:41 PM on March 11, 2009

See also flickrfs.
posted by devbrain at 8:57 PM on March 11, 2009

Do any of the flickr backup solutions also capture comments posted on the photo page?
posted by zippy at 10:39 PM on March 11, 2009

FYI, Offlickr doesn't work with the latest version of the Python Flickr API. I've patched it to work - contact me if you need my patches. I'll try and get Hugo to wake up soon.
posted by dmd at 4:32 AM on March 12, 2009

thanks for all the ideas, everyone! offlickr seems to be working best for me so far.

sincerely,
jeff
posted by jeffcovey at 4:57 PM on March 13, 2009

My version of Offlickr also backs up videos and photoset metadata now. And yes, it backs up comments.

It lives here, temporarily until Hugo updates his site with my changes.
posted by dmd at 2:04 PM on March 14, 2009