Initially forked from https://github.com/thehodapp/craigslist-watcher.
Usage: craigslist-watcher OPTIONAL_PATH_TO_CONFIG
Keep an automatic eye on Craiglist.
This tool is a simple node.js script you can run from the terminal to keep track of new Craigslist posting based off search terms. When a new posting is found, an email is sent to a chosen recipient. This gives Craigslist buyers the advantage of finding out about good deals sooner than other buyers without having to refresh search pages constantly.
I am not responsible for any harm occured while using this code. There may be legal consequences of using it in an improper way.
I'm not entirely sure if the SENDER_EMAIL field will work with email addresses not using gmail. If someone could let me know what works or doesn't work for them that would be appreciated.
You can clone this git repo and run the install.sh script with root privileges to place the installation in /usr/local and a symlink in /usr/local/bin.
You'll need to create a config.js file that follows the format of the example-config.js. The script will by default look for a config.js file in the same directory as the script, but you can specify a path to a config file anywhere you like. This way you can setup a cron job that uses your specified search config, and you can simply update the config file without touching the cron to modify the search.
craigslist-watcher is not a daemon, so you must use some kind of scheduling tool to run it every once in a while. I use cron to run craigslist-watcher every 5 minutes.
One annoying thing about cron is that it doesn't use your usual environment, so you will likely have to place the following line before the command:
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin;
so that the path to the craigslist-watcher binary is available to cron.
Here's an example crontab setup. First, run crontab -e and you'll add a line like this:
# Run every five minutes
*/5 * * * * /usr/local/bin/craigslist-watcher export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin; OPTIONAL_PATH_TO_CONFIG
- Configuration for scrape params to ease maintenance
- Support for sending individual searches to different email addresses
- Support for a more robust data store (necessary?)