# twic_script
A bash script to maintain an updated SCID database of chess games downloaded from The Week In Chess (TWIC) 

==============================



  This simple bash script helps maintaining an updated database of
  chess games for SCID, based on the famous "The Week In Chess" game
  collection made available at
   
  http://www.theweekinchess.com/
 
  Games are distributed as zipped png files, which are uploaded weekly
  on http://www.theweekinchess.com/zips/ (Should that URL change at some 
  point in the future, you will just need to update the ADDR variable 
  below)

  *SYNOPSIS*

     ./twic_script.sh --help

     ./twic_script.sh [<start_issue> [<end_issue> [<pgnfile>]]]
  
  When called with "--help" as first argument, the script outputs
  a *minimal* help.

  Otherwise, if called with a start_issue (an integer, default to the 
  first issue to be downloaded, as specified into ${IDFILE}, or to 
  the first known online issue of TWIC, number 210, if ${IDFILE} does
  not exist), it will start downloading the TWIC issues from start_issue
  up to the latest (or up to end_issue, if provided). The zips are stored 
  into ${ZIPDIR} (default to "./zips"), while the png database is 
  maintained into ${PNGFILE} (default to ${DBDIR}/twic.png), or into the 
  file provided by the user as third argument. 

  The new pgn files are concatenated at the end of ${PNGFILE}, and then the
  SCID database is rebuilt (this can take a while...).

  The script maintains a record of the last downloaded issue, into the
  file ${IDFILE} (default to ${ZIPDIR}/.last_id), so that it is sufficient
  to call it regularly (e.g., as a user cron job) with no arguments in order
  to have an updated DB of chess games. 

  *DEPENDENCIES*
  
  twic_script.sh depends on:
  
  - wget (to download the zip files)
  - unzip (well, what do you think we are using it for?)
  - pgnscid (a program provided by scid to convert a pgn file into a SCID
             .si4 game DB)

  **** IMPORTANT NOTE ****
 
  BEWARE!!! IF YOU REMOVE ${PNGFILE}, THE CORRESPONDING SCID DB FILE WILL 
  BE OVERWRITTEN BY THE FIRST RUN OF THIS SCRIPT!!!


  **** DISCLAIMER ****

  THIS SCRIPT USES AND AGGREGATES ONLY PUBLICLY AVAILABLE PGN
  FILES. THIS PROJECT IS NOT RELATED IN ANY WAY TO THE WEBSITE "TWIC -
  THE WEEK IN CHESS", WHICH IS CREATED AND MAINTAINED BY Mark
  Crowther. THE BEST WAY TO SUPPORT THIS PROJECT (WHICH DOES NOT NEED
  THAT MUCH EFFORT INDEED) IS BY SUPPORTING "THE WEEK IN CHESS"
  (http://www.theweekinchess.com) AND ITS CREATOR Mark Crowther, WHO
  HAS DONE A GREAT JOB PUTTING TOGETHER A SUPERB CHESS WEBZINE.