Install urlwatch with Homebrew, apk, apt, dnf, Nix, pacman, zypper

Project links

• Homepage

Commands and aliases

• urlwatch

Project history

The project is presented on Thomas Perl's site under a 2008 URL path, and the current site lists version 2.29 as a 2024 source distribution. Its public GitHub repository was created in 2014, while the current handbook documents the modern 2.x architecture: YAML job files, a separate urlwatch.yaml configuration file, reporters, filters, shell jobs, browser jobs, and an SQLite cache database for stored history.

The migration documentation explains the importance of the 2.0 line: URLs moved into YAML, the cache directory became an SQLite database, hooks were replaced by extensible jobs, filters, and reporters, and a configuration file was added for user preferences. Those changes turned a simple URL checker into a broader change-monitoring framework while keeping the command-line workflow.

Adoption history

The official project page links to PyPI, GitHub, and Repology packaging status; the input package-manager matrix lists Alpine, Homebrew, Debian, Fedora/dnf, Nix, Arch/pacman, Ubuntu, and openSUSE/zypper. That combination shows urlwatch as a widely packaged Unix-style automation utility rather than a one-platform script.

How it is used

A common setup is to install urlwatch, run it once, edit urls.yaml with urlwatch --edit, edit settings and reporters with urlwatch --edit-config, and schedule periodic runs with cron. Each run retrieves a job, applies filters, compares the result against the previous version, and invokes reporters if differences are found.

The handbook's job model covers ordinary URL fetches, headless-browser navigation for JavaScript-rendered pages, and shell commands. Its filter system supports selectors, HTML-to-text conversion, PDF and JSON handling, grep-like filtering, sorting, checksums, and chained transformations, making it useful for monitoring release pages, package indexes, documents, APIs, or local command output.

Why package nerds care

urlwatch is especially relevant to package-manager culture because package maintainers and power users often need to notice upstream tarballs, changelogs, documentation, security advisories, or formula metadata changing before those changes appear in a feed. It is also itself a well-packaged Python CLI with an official website, PyPI releases, Read the Docs documentation, and broad distro availability.

Timeline

• 2008: Project website is published under thp.io/2008/urlwatch.
• 2014-01-29: Public GitHub repository metadata records repository creation.
• 2.0: Migration docs describe the move to YAML jobs, SQLite cache history, extensible jobs, filters, reporters, and urlwatch.yaml.
• 2024-10-28: Project site lists urlwatch 2.29 source distribution.

Related projects

• urlwatch belongs to the same practical family as cron, diff, web-checking scripts, feed monitors, and package-update watchers, but wraps those patterns in a reusable CLI with filters, reporters, and persistent change history.

Sources

• GitHub repository metadata: https://api.github.com/repos/thp/urlwatch
• Input source_facts.package-manager lists cross-distribution packaging.
• Official README: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/thp/urlwatch/master/README.md
• Official handbook: https://urlwatch.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
• Official introduction: https://urlwatch.readthedocs.io/en/latest/introduction.html
• Official migration guide: https://urlwatch.readthedocs.io/en/latest/migration.html
• Official project site: https://thp.io/2008/urlwatch/