Install Tiny Webcasts on Linux

Users of the Linux operating system will usually prefer a direct install of the required programs as well as the Tiny Webcasts command-line tools on their system. However, for convenience, they can nevertheless use the Docker image provided.

Note

Linux users are assumed hereafter to be familiar with the command line and their operating system, e.g. using the package manager of the respective Linux distribution for installing programs.

Direct install

Directly installing the Tiny Webcasts command-line tools is a rather straight-forward three-step process:

  1. Download (or clone) the Tiny Webcasts project from GitHub

  2. Install all necessary prerequisites

  3. Install the Tiny Webcasts command-line tools

Download (or clone) the Tiny Webcasts project from GitHub

The Tiny Webcasts command-line tools used for creating the webcasts can be obtained from GitHub. Just download and unpack the project from there:

Note

Instead of simply downloading the master branch, it might be advisable to look at the releases and download the latest (stable) release.

If you prefer, you can alternatively clone the git repository from GitHub:

git clone https://github.com/tillbiskup/tiny-webcasts.git

This allows you to be always up to date with the latest developments of Tiny Webcasts.

Here again, it might be advisable to switch to the release branch after you have cloned the repository:

git checkout releae

This should give you the latest (stable) release.

Install all necessary prerequisites

Running the Tiny Webcasts command-line tools directly on your machine rather than in the Docker container provided, you need to install a series of command-line programs freely available for Linux. For most Linux distributions, these programs should be available as packages via the respective package manager. For details, see the “Requirements” page and install all the required programs before continuing.

Debian (and Ubuntu) users may be lazy and simply run a small bash script provided that installs all necessary requirements for them. To do so, open a terminal, change directory to the directory you’ve downloaded and unpacked Tiny Webcasts to, change to the webcasts subdirectory, and type the following into it:

./twc-install-dependencies-debian.sh

This should install all necessary requirements. For details, see the “Requirements” page.

Install the Tiny Webcasts command-line tools

To install the Tiny Webcasts command-line tools directly to your system, use the installer provided. This will basically do two things for you:

  1. Concatenate all bash functions and the main bash script into a single file

  2. Copy this file to ~/bin/ and add this directory to your path (if necessary)

To use the installer, open a terminal, change directory to the directory you’ve downloaded and unpacked Tiny Webcasts to, change to the webcasts subdirectory, and type the following into it:

./twc-install.sh

If it was successful, you should see the message:

Installing twc scripts to /<path_to_users_home_dir>/bin/ was successful.
You may now create tiny webcasts by calling 'twc' from anyhwere.

with <path_to_users_home_dir> usually something like /home/johndoe.

Important

If you see the message You need to open a new terminal for the changes to take effect..., please do as been told before continuing to work with the tiny webcasts scripts. Otherwise, you will not be able to access the scripts from everywhere.

Congratulations! Now you’re ready to create your first webcast.

Using the Docker image

Installing Tiny Webcasts using the Docker image provided is a two-step process:

  1. Install Docker for Linux

  2. Download and install Tiny Webcasts

Install Docker for Linux

In order to build and use the Docker image provided with “Tiny Webcasts”, you need to install Docker for your platform. Follow the instructions on the Docker website and make sure your Docker installation is working.

There is a detailed and step-by-step guide for the Docker installation for Ubuntu available on the official Docker website. However, there may well be packages available for your particular Linux distribution.

Once you’ve installed Docker, test that everything is well setup and working. To do so, open a terminal and type the following into it:

docker run hello-world

This should usually present you with a welcome message and tell you that your Docker installation was successful and everthing seems working.

If however you see some error messages, refer to the official Docker documentation and trouble-shoot accordingly.

Important

Please refer to the information available on the Docker website for any questions regarding the installation of Docker for your platform. There will be no support by the authors of “Tiny Webcasts” regarding those questions.

Download and install Tiny Webcasts

The Tiny Webcasts command-line tools used for creating the webcasts can be obtained from GitHub. Just download and unpack the project from there:

Note

Instead of simply downloading the master branch, it might be advisable to look at the releases and download the latest (stable) release.

Tiny Webcasts comes with an installer that helps you getting everything setup. It is named twc-install-docker.sh and lives inside the webcasts directory of the directory you’ve just downloaded and unpacked Tiny Webcasts to.

The installer will do two things for you:

  1. Build the docker image

  2. Install a small script file named twc to the bin directory in your user directory and add that directory to the path (if necessary)

To install Tiny Webcasts, open a terminal, change directory to the directory you’ve downloaded and unpacked Tiny Webcasts to, change to the webcasts subdirectory, and type the following into it (and afterwards, hit the “Enter” key):

./twc-install-docker.sh

The output of this command is a bit lengthly, as it includes building the docker image. It should look similar to the following:

Sending build context to Docker daemon  38.96MB
Step 1/7 : FROM alpine
latest: Pulling from library/alpine
Digest: sha256:b276d875eeed9c7d3f1cfa7edb06b22ed22b14219a7d67c52c56612330348239
Status: Image is up to date for alpine:latest
 ---> a187dde48cd2
Step 2/7 : RUN apk --no-cache --update add bash         ffmpeg  sox     flac    imagemagick     poppler-utils
 ---> Using cache
 ---> a5feb5e63d2e
Step 3/7 : COPY webcasts/ /usr/local/webcasts/
 ---> Using cache
 ---> e11de3151254
Step 4/7 : COPY docker/docker-entrypoint.sh /usr/local/bin/
 ---> Using cache
 ---> 0f75bb6c8a9b
Step 5/7 : RUN cd /usr/local/webcasts/functions/; ./generate-combine-user-chaptermetadata-times-awk-function.sh > combine-user-chaptermetadata-times.sh
 ---> Using cache
 ---> d531da265065
Step 6/7 : RUN cd /usr/local/webcasts/; targetFile=twc; (echo '#!/bin/bash'; cat `ls functions/*sh | grep -v 'awk'` | grep -v '^#!/bin/bash'; grep -v '^#!/bin/bash' twc.sh) > ${targetFile}; chmod +x ${targetFile}; mv ${targetFile} /usr/local/bin/
 ---> Running in 0ad94cbe3eb6
Removing intermediate container 0ad94cbe3eb6
 ---> c077dc5bfe42
Step 7/7 : ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint.sh"]
 ---> Running in 63cc9885c6a0
Removing intermediate container 63cc9885c6a0
 ---> e446af9b4da8
Successfully built e446af9b4da8
Successfully tagged twc:latest

Installing 'twc' script to /Users/till/bin/ was successful.
You may now create tiny webcasts by calling 'twc' from anyhwere.

Depending on whether you have installed the image previously, there will be much more output lines from building the original image and container.

Important

If you see the message You need to open a new terminal for the changes to take effect..., please do as been told before continuing to work with the tiny webcasts scripts. Otherwise, you will not be able to access the scripts from everywhere.

Congratulations! Now you’re ready to create your first webcast.