Some Tools for Image Collectors 0.7

stic bundles a few Linux tools which are intended to support the task of collecting an unreasonable amount of pictures (preferrably in JPEG format).
similar
a program for detecting duplicate or very similar images. It maintains a
database of characteristic color samples which it compares with submitted
pictures. similar depends on libjpeg and ImageMagick s convert (on a
modern Linux desktop system these components should already be present).
Storage medium may be a usual filesystem or a MySQL database. There
also is a MySQL UDF extension to compare image samples within SQL queries.
similar contains the communications module described at sagent.
simv
a core program to perform file management tasks on an image collection.
Its main purpose is to coordinate file movements with the content of
similars database. This applies to importing new files which get tested
against the existent collection, as well as to inform similar about moving
and deleting files within the collection.
simv depends on an external image viewer like ImageMagick s display
(should already be present on a modern Linux desktop system) or John
Bradleys xv (quite a fast one).
simv contains the communications module described at sagent.
sagent
a standalone version of the communications module used in simv and
similar. This software receives input from its start terminal and multiple
clients, distributes several types of output back to them, and is also
able to act itself as such a client.
Since communications mainly use TCP/IP there is an encryption layer
(Blowfish with 128 bit keys) which provides user authentication. Any
single activity of such a user may be particularly permitted or denied.
Secure connections should be possible that way as long as one can defend
the keyfiles and programs on client and server host against foreign
access.
Front-end connection software is available in C, Tcl/Tk and PHP3 to build
custom clients. In the most primitive case even telnet can act as a
client.
The standalone program sagent may be used as communications node in a tree
of clients. Another purpose is to be a shell frontend which sends commands
to a server and receives its replies.
snntpbatch
a command line based NNTP (newsgroups) client. It is mainly intended for
automatic download of images by use of a filter language. Nevertheless it
also downloads the message texts and converts them to HTML code which
includes the downloaded images. Also, it is capable of automatically
posting sets of images to the newsgroups.
The tools are designed to be very independent of the system flavor. On an
average Linux desktop there should be no need to update existing system
components. Actually one could use stic without having display equipment for
graphics.
Any program activity which is possible in dialog may also be performed in
batch runs. Therefore the tools are quite suitable for users who like to get
boring tasks automated and manual tasks simplified.
All tools code is open source and distributed under BSD license.
Example images Credit: U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (see images/CREDITS)
Enhancements:
- The new encrypted protocol version 0.2 is standard now : SHA-1 seal, 256 bit keys, variable chaining initialization vector.
- The protocol of a connection is chosen by the client and may or may not be accepted by the server.
- See sagent command -security options clientprotocol , serverprotocol.