Files
kage/docs/content/reference/configuration.md
Tam Nguyen Duc f3704021cd Add mandatory ZIM metadata for zimcheck (#14)
* Add mandatory ZIM metadata for zimcheck

ZIM archives were missing two pieces of metadata that the spec and
zimcheck treat as mandatory: a Description and the Illustrator_48x48@1
favicon Kiwix shows as the book icon. A Name was missing too.

Every archive now writes a Name and a Description, defaulting the
description to a host-derived line when --description is not given. When
the mirror has a usable icon, the favicon is rescaled to a 48x48 PNG and
stored as Illustrator_48x48@1 with an image/png MIME, reusing the icon
discovery and square-fit scaling the app packer already uses.

AddMetadataBytes is added to the zim writer so a binary metadata value
can carry its own MIME instead of being forced to text/plain.

Verified by reading the output back through the libzim engine: all
mandatory keys are present and the illustrator decodes as a 48x48 PNG.

* Update docs for ZIM metadata and current flags

Document the new mandatory metadata in the packing guide and the Kiwix
compatibility note, and default --description in the CLI reference.

While in the reference, bring it back in line with the code: add the
--app and --icon pack flags (shipped in v0.2.0 but never documented),
drop the --max-asset-mb clone flag that does not exist, and fix a stale
--resume mention in the configuration layout.

Add the v0.2.1 release notes and cut the changelog entry.
2026-06-15 13:30:45 +07:00

3.1 KiB

title, description, weight
title description weight
Configuration Environment variables kage reads, and the layout of a cloned mirror on disk. 20

kage is configured almost entirely through command-line flags (see the CLI reference). It reads a couple of environment variables for locating the browser.

Environment variables

Variable Meaning
KAGE_CHROME Path to the Chrome/Chromium binary. Takes precedence over autodetection. Equivalent to --chrome.
CHROME_BIN Fallback Chrome path, read if KAGE_CHROME is unset.

If neither is set and no system Chrome is found in the usual install locations, kage's launcher can download a private copy of Chromium on first use.

Output layout

A clone of example.com lands under $HOME/data/kage/example.com/ (override the root with -o/--out):

$HOME/data/kage/example.com/
├── index.html                  # the home page (/), scripts stripped
├── about/index.html            # /about
├── blog/
│   ├── index.html              # /blog
│   └── a-post/index.html       # /blog/a-post
├── _kage/                      # reserved directory
│   ├── example.com/
│   │   ├── site.css            # localised stylesheet, url() rewritten
│   │   ├── logo.png
│   │   └── fonts/body.woff2
│   ├── cdn.example.com/        # assets from other hosts, by host
│   └── state.json              # visited set, for resume
└── ...

Key points:

  • Pages become directories. A page at /about is written as about/index.html, so a link to /about resolves to a real file when served.
  • Assets live under the reserved directory. Everything kage downloads, CSS, images, fonts, media, goes under _kage/<asset-host>/, mirroring the path it had on its origin. Cross-origin assets are grouped by their own host.
  • Query strings are folded into the filename. An asset like style.css?v=3 is saved with a short hash suffix so two versions never collide.
  • State lives in the mirror. _kage/state.json records every page written, which is what lets a repeated run skip completed work. Rename the reserved directory with --reserved if _kage would clash with a real path on the site.

Resume, refresh, and re-crawl

A clone is idempotent: every page is keyed by the file it writes, so the same page reached over http and https, with or without a trailing slash, or as /index.html versus /, is fetched exactly once. Re-running picks the work back up rather than starting over.

You want to… Use What happens
Continue an interrupted crawl (default) Loads state.json, skips pages already written, fetches only what is missing
Pull in content that changed on the site --refresh Keeps the mirror, re-renders every page in place, overwrites with the new DOM
Start completely clean --force Deletes the host's mirror, then crawls from scratch
Run once and leave no trace --no-resume Skips nothing, writes no state.json