tooling: auto-upgrade gallery-dl + yt-dlp before every run and weekly; document 2026-10-22 empty posts listing

scripts/gdl-cron.sh

@@ -84,6 +84,14 @@ if [ -x "$SESSION_CHECK" ]; then
   echo "preflight: $SESSION_MSG" | tee -a "$LOG"
 fi
 
+# Upgrade gallery-dl/yt-dlp first (PyPI only, no Instagram requests; never fatal). Instagram
+# endpoints change and gallery-dl follows within days -- on 1.32.14 the posts listing silently
+# returned "No results" after 1.32.17 had already fixed the query. See gdl-upgrade.sh.
+UPGRADE="$GDL_HOME/gdl-upgrade.sh"
+if [ -x "$UPGRADE" ]; then
+  "$UPGRADE" 2>&1 | tee -a "$LOG" || true
+fi
+
 # Staging is wiped every run ON PURPOSE. What we already hold is decided by the
 # skip-archive (--download-archive), never by which files happen to be sitting
 # in staging, so starting empty is correct -- and it keeps the publish rsync

scripts/gdl-upgrade.sh

@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# Upgrade gallery-dl and its injected yt-dlp (both pipx). Instagram changes its
+# endpoints often and gallery-dl follows within days -- 1.32.17 (2026-10-17)
+# "update user & posts query parameters" landed while we were still on 1.32.14
+# and the posts listing silently returned "No results".
+#
+# Called by gdl-cron.sh before every scrape and weekly by gdl-upgrade.timer.
+# Never fatal: a failed upgrade (offline, PyPI down) must not stop a stories
+# run, which cannot be backfilled -- it just scrapes with what is installed.
+# Costs no Instagram requests (PyPI only).
+set -u
+
+PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"; export PATH
+
+VENV_PY="${GDL_VENV_PY:-$HOME/.local/share/pipx/venvs/gallery-dl/bin/python}"
+
+versions() {
+  printf 'gallery-dl %s, yt-dlp %s' \
+    "$(gallery-dl --version 2>/dev/null || echo '?')" \
+    "$("$VENV_PY" -c 'import yt_dlp; print(yt_dlp.version.__version__)' 2>/dev/null || echo '?')"
+}
+
+before=$(versions)
+if ! timeout 180 pipx upgrade --quiet --include-injected gallery-dl >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+  echo "upgrade: WARNING pipx upgrade failed; continuing with $before" >&2
+  exit 0
+fi
+after=$(versions)
+
+if [ "$before" = "$after" ]; then
+  echo "upgrade: up to date ($after)"
+else
+  echo "upgrade: CHANGED $before -> $after"
+fi

scripts/systemd/gdl-upgrade.service

@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+[Unit]
+Description=Upgrade gallery-dl and yt-dlp (pipx)
+After=network-online.target
+Wants=network-online.target
+
+[Service]
+Type=oneshot
+ExecStart=%h/gdl/gdl-upgrade.sh
+Nice=10

scripts/systemd/gdl-upgrade.timer

@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+[Unit]
+Description=Weekly gallery-dl and yt-dlp upgrade
+# gdl-cron.sh also upgrades before every scrape; this keeps the tools current
+# on weeks when no run happens to call it.
+
+[Timer]
+OnCalendar=weekly
+RandomizedDelaySec=1d
+Persistent=true
+
+[Install]
+WantedBy=timers.target