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+=head1 NAME
+
+F<epgsearch> - Searchtimer and replacement of the VDR program menu
+
+=head1 OVERVIEW
+
+EPG-Search can be used as a replacement for the default schedules
+menu entry. It looks like the standard schedules menu, but adds some
+additional functions:
+
+ - Commands for EPG entries with 5 built-in commands like 'show repeats',
+   'create search'. One can add own commands for other needs, like adding a
+   VDRAdmin auto-timer.
+
+ - Add up to 4 user-defined times to 'now' and 'next' and an optional
+   favorites menu 
+
+ - Searching the EPG: Create reusable queries, which can also be used
+   as 'search timers'.
+
+ - Search timers: Search for broadcasts in the background and add a
+   timer if one matches (similar to VDRAdmin's auto-timers) or simply
+   make an announcement about it via OSD
+
+ - Avoid double recordings of the same event
+   * timer preview
+   * recognition of broken recordings
+   * fuzzy event comparison
+
+ - Progress bar in 'What's on now' and 'What's on next'
+
+ - Shift the time displayed by key press, e.g. 'What's on now' + 30 minutes
+
+ - Start menu can be setup between 'Schedule' or 'What's on now'
+
+ - background check for timer conflicts with a timer conflict manager
+
+ - detailed EPG menu (summary) allows jumping to the next/previous
+   event
+
+ - support for extended EPG info for search timers
+
+ - extension of the timer edit menu with a directory item, user
+   defined weekday selection and a subtitle completion.
+
+ - Timer conflict check, informs you over the OSD about conflicts
+
+ - Timer conflict menu, show detailed information about the conflicts
+   and let you resolve them
+
+ - Email notifications about search timer updates and timer conflicts
+
+Works only with >= vdr-1.3.46 or newer. 
+
+Parts of the sources are based on the repeating-ECG patch from Gerhard Steiner, who gave me the permission to use them. Thanks for his work!
+
+=head1 OPTIONS
+
+=over 4
+
+=item -f file,  --svdrpsendcmd=file  
+
+the path to svdrpsend.pl for external SVDRP communication (default is
+internal communication, so this is usually not needed anymore)
+
+=item -c path,  --config=path
+
+to specify a specific config directory for all epgsearch config files, default
+is '<plugins configuration directory>/epgsearch'
+
+=item -l file,  --logfile=file
+
+to specify a specific log file for epgsearch (default log file is
+epgsearch.log in the epgsearchs config directory)
+
+=item -v n,  --verbose=n       
+
+verbose level for log file. Value 0 means no logging. Other values
+are 1 (general messages), 2 (detailed messages), 3 (planned for extra
+detailed info for debugging purposes)
+
+=item -r,  --reloadmenuconf       
+
+reload epgsearchmenu.conf with plugin call. This can be useful when testing
+customized menu layouts.
+
+=item -m file,  --mailcmd=file
+
+the external command to be used for mail delivery. The default uses
+'sendEmail.pl'. If you are using a different command or script make sure that
+it has the same parameter interface as sendEmail.pl.
+
+=back
+
+=head1 CONTENT
+
+ 1.    Description
+ 1.1     Menu commands
+ 1.2     Menu search
+ 1.2.1     Menu edit search
+ 1.2.2     Menu search results
+ 1.3     Extended 'now' and 'next'
+ 1.4     Menu setup
+ 2.    Search timers
+ 2.1     'Avoid repeats' - internals
+ 2.2     How do we compare two events?
+ 2.3     How and when do we compare?
+ 3.    Usage from other plugins or scripts
+ 4.    Using extended EPG info
+ 5.    Replacing the standard schedule menu
+ 6.    Add-ons
+
+=head1 1. Description
+
+At first glance EPG-Search looks like the schedules menu entry of VDR.
+By pressing the key '0', one can toggle the bottom color keys to access
+additional functions (the default assignment of the color keys can be
+adjusted by setup):
+
+
+=head2 1.1 Menu Commands
+
+This menu displays commands that can be executed on the current
+item. There are 8 built-in commands:
+
+ - Repeats: Searches for repeats
+
+ - Record
+
+ - Switch
+
+ - Create search
+   Switches to search menu and adds a new search with the name of the current
+   item (to avoid editing the name manually)
+
+ - Search in recordings:
+   Search the recordings for a broadcast with the same name
+
+ - Mark as 'already recorded':
+   This puts the selected event in the file epgsearchdone.data and instructs
+   epgsearch to avoid recording this event if an according search timer is set
+   to "avoid repeats". An already created timer will be automatically removed
+   with the next search timer update. 
+
+ - Add/Remove to/from switch list?:
+   Controls the switch list. If there is an event in the switch list, epgsearch
+   will announce it and switch to the event before it starts. To access the
+   complete switch list, call 'Search/Actions/Switch list'.
+
+ - Create blacklist:
+   A blacklist is used to ignore events when using search timers. A search
+   timer can be setup to ignore events from arbitrary blacklists.
+
+You can add your own commands to this menu by editing the file
+epgsearchcmds.conf in epgsearchs config directory. There's a sample
+conf file with some sample commands (see directory 'scripts', taken
+from vdr-wiki.de, thanks to the authors).
+
+The format of the file is the same as VDR's commands.conf or
+reccmds.conf. When a command is executed the following parameters
+are passed to it:
+
+ $1: the title of the EPG entry
+ $2: the start time of the EPG entry as time_t value (like in the 
+     shutdown script)
+ $3: the end time
+ $4: the channel number of the EPG entry
+ $5: the long channel name of the EPG entry
+ $6: the subtitle of the EPG entry, "" if not present 
+
+To execute a command from the main menu you can also press its
+associated number without opening the commands menu.
+
+=head2 1.2 Menu search
+
+Here you can add, edit, delete and execute your own queries on the
+EPG. The usage and behavior of this menu is similar to VDR's timer
+menu. 
+
+=head3 1.2.1 Menu edit search
+
+Most things in this menu are quite clear, so only some notes on:
+
+=over 4
+
+=item - B<Search term:>
+
+The term to search for. If you like to search for more words, separate
+them by blanks. Leaving this empty (combined with search mode
+'Phrase') will match anything. This is useful, if you search e.g. for
+anything that starts between some times on a specific channel.
+
+With 'blue' you can also select a template for the new search. If
+one of the templates is set to default, new searches will
+automatically get the settings of the default template.
+
+Note: fuzzy searching is limited to 32 chars!
+
+=item - B<Search mode:>
+
+'Phrase' searches for the expression within the EPG. 'All words'
+requires, that each word of the expression occurs in the EPG item.
+'at least one word' requires, that only one word occurs in the EPG item.
+'Match exactly' requires, that your search term matches exactly the
+found title, subtitle or description.
+
+With 'Regular expression' you can setup a regular expression as
+search term. You don't need a leading and trailing '/' in the
+expression. By default these are POSIX extended regular expressions.
+If you like to have Herl compatible regular expression, simply edit
+the plugins Makefile and uncomment #HAVE_PCREPOSIX=1 to
+HAVE_PCREPOSIX=1 (you will need pcreposix installed, comes with
+libpcre from www.pcre.org, but it's already part of most distributions).
+
+See also C<epgsearch(4)> 'Description of the search process'.
+
+=item - B<Use extended EPG info:>
+
+Only available if configured, see below 'Using extended EPG info'.
+
+=item - B<Ignore missing categories:>
+
+If set to 'Yes' this tells epgsearch that a missing EPG category 
+should not exclude an event from the results. Caution: Using this without 
+any other criterions could flood your timers.
+
+=item - B<Use channel:>
+
+Search only for events in the given channels interval, channel
+groups or FTA channels only.
+
+Channel groups (e.g. sport channels or Pay-TV channels) can be
+managed with a sub-menu called with 'blue'.
+
+ATTENTION: After changing the channels order please check the
+settings of your search timers!
+
+=item - B<Use day of week:>
+
+Besides the weekdays you can also set up a user-defined selection,
+e.g. search only on Monday and Friday.
+
+You'll find the user-defined selection in the list after Friday.
+
+=item - B<Use blacklists:>
+
+You can select one or more or all blacklists here. If any search result
+is also contained in one of the selected blacklists it will be skipped.
+
+=item - B<Use in favorites menu:>
+
+Only available if turned on in setup. With this option you can mark a search
+to be used in the favorites menu. The search results of all these searches are
+listed in the favorites menu. 
+
+=item - B<Result menu layout:>
+
+Only available if you have defined more than one menu template for search
+results in epgsearchmenu.conf. This option is used to assign a different menu
+layout for the search results of this search.
+
+=item - B<Use as Search Timer:>
+
+If set to yes, the plugin will do a background scan of the EPG in
+certain intervals and add a timer, if there is a match. You have to
+activate the 'search timers' in the setup. If set to "user defined" one
+can specify time margins with key 'blue' where the search timer is active
+or not.
+
+=item - B<Action:>
+
+Default action is creating a timer for the search results. But you can
+also choose to simply announce the found event via OSD or to switch
+to the event one minute before it starts. 
+
+=item - B<Serial recording:>
+
+If set to yes, the recordings will be stored in a folder with the name
+of the broadcasting and the recordings itself will have the name of
+the episode. If there is no episode name, the date and time of the
+recording will be used.
+
+=item - B<Directory:>
+
+Here you can assign a directory, where the recording should be stored,
+e.g. 'SciFi'. Use the key 'blue' to select directory entries already
+used in other search entries or given by entries in the file
+epgsearchdirs.conf (simply place your directories here one at each line
+without the leading video directory, also see MANUAL).
+If your provider delivers extended EPG infos you can also use
+variables like "%Genre%" or "%Category%" in your directory
+entry. These are replaced with the current EPG info, when a timer is
+created.
+
+See also C<epgsearch(4)> 'Using variables in the directory
+entry of a search timer'.
+
+=item - B<Delete recordings after ... days:>
+
+Some recordings should only be kept for a few days, like news. With
+this feature you can tell epgsearch to delete them automatically
+after ... days.
+
+=item - B<Pause if ... recordings exist:>
+
+If the given numbers of recordings currently exists, then epgsearch
+will not create further timers. After deleting one or more
+recordings it will go on generating new timers. 
+
+=item - B<Avoid repeats:>
+
+If you don't want to record repeats, this feature tries to check if
+an event was already recorded/programmed and skips it. Please refer
+to the section 'Avoid repeats - internals' below before using it. 
+
+=item - B<Allowed repeats:>
+
+If you like to accept a certain amount of repeats you can give here
+their number.
+
+=item - B<Only repeats within ... days:>
+
+Give here the number of days a repeat has to follow its first
+broadcast. 0 is equal to no restriction.
+
+=item - B<Compare title:>
+
+When comparing to events then specify here if the title should be
+compared.
+
+=item - B<Compare subtitle:>
+
+When comparing to events then specify here if the subtitle should be
+compared. If there is no subtitle than this event is always
+different to an event with/without a subtitle.
+
+=item - B<Compare description:>
+
+When comparing to events then specify here if the description should
+be compared. 
+
+For comparison all parts of the description, that look like a
+category value, are removed first. The remaining text will be
+compared. If this is similar at 90% (regarding the
+Levinshtein-Distance algorithm) then it will be accepted as equal.
+
+=item - B<Compare categories:>
+
+With the button 'setup' you can also specify which categories should
+be compared. As with subtitles an event is different if it has no
+according category value.
+
+=item - B<Priority, lifetime, margins for start and stop:>
+
+Each search timer can have its own settings for these parameters.
+Defaults can be adjusted in the plugins setup.
+
+=item - B<VPS:>
+
+If set to yes, VPS is used, but only, if activated in VDR's setup menu and
+if the broadcasting has VPS information.
+
+=item - B<Auto delete:>
+
+to automatically delete a search timer if the following is true:
+
+ * after x recordings, or
+ * after x days after the first recording
+
+Only complete recordings are counted. The deletion is executed directly after
+the correspondig recording
+
+=back
+
+To toggle the flag 'Use as search timer' without editing the search
+entry you can use the key '2'. This will call directly the second
+command of the command menu.
+
+=head3 1.2.2 Menu search results
+
+This menu displays the search results. A 'T' lets you know, that there
+is already a timer for the event. A 't' means that there's only a
+partial timer for it, as in standard schedules menu.
+
+=head2 1.3 Extended 'now' and 'next' and favorites
+
+By setup, one can add up to 4 additional times to extend the green
+button, e.g. 'afternoon', 'prime time', 'late night'. Times, that are
+already passed, are skipped (you will not get 'afternoon' at evening) with the
+exception that a time will be displayed for the next day, if it is less then
+20h in the future.
+In these menus you can shift the currently displayed time by pressing
+FastRew or FastFwd to move back and forward in time. If you don't have
+these keys on your remote, you can access this function by pressing
+'0' to toggle the green and yellow button to '<<' and '>>'. This toggling
+can be adjusted by setup.
+
+You can display a progress bar in 'now' and 'next'. When using text2skin you
+should use the setup option "text2skin" in the setup option "Show progress in
+'Now'"/Show progress in 'Next'" (the setting 'graphical' may also work with
+text2skin, but this depends on the selected skin).
+
+Furthermore you can enable in the setup an favorites list. You can configure
+your searchtimers ("Use in favorite list") to display their results in
+you favorite list. This list display event in the next 24 hours ordered by time.
+
+=head2 1.4 Menu setup
+
+=head3 1.4.1 General
+
+=over 4
+
+=item - B<Hide main menu entry:>
+
+This hides the main menu entry 'search'. Attention: when the plugin is
+assigned to key 'green' then hiding the plugin will give you VDR's
+standard schedule menu (see below to avoid this).
+
+=item - B<Main menu entry:>
+
+If not hidden, the name of main menu entry can be set here. Default is
+'Program guide'. Note: If you set it to something different from the default
+then the main menu entry is no longer dependent on the OSD language. Setting
+it back to default or empty restores this behavior again.
+
+=item - B<Start menu:>
+
+Select the starting menu 'Schedules' or 'Now'
+
+=back
+
+=head3 1.4.2 EPG menus
+
+=over 4
+
+=item - B<Ok key:>
+
+Choose here the behavior of key 'Ok'. You can use it to display the summary
+or to switch to the corresponding channel. Note: the functionality of key
+'blue' (Switch/Info/Search) depends on this setting.
+
+=item - B<Red key:>
+
+Select if you like to have Standard ('Record') or 'Commands' as
+assignment for key 'red'.
+
+=item - B<Blue key:>
+
+select if you like to have Standard ('Switch') or 'Search' as
+assignment for key 'blue'.
+
+=item - B<Show progress in 'Now':>
+
+In the menu 'what's on now' you can display a progress bar, that
+displays the progress of the current item. When using text2skin you
+should use the setup option "text2skin" (the setting 'graphical' may also
+work with text2skin, but this depends on the selected skin).
+
+=item - B<Show channel numbers:>
+
+Select this if you like to have a leading channel number before each
+item in the EPG menus.
+
+=item - B<Show channel separators:>
+
+Display channel group separators between channel in the menus
+'Overview now',...
+
+=item - B<Show day separators:>
+
+Display a day separator between events on different days in the
+schedule menu.
+
+=item - B<Show radio channels:>
+
+Also list radio channels.
+
+=item - B<Limit channels from 1 to:>
+
+If you have a large channel set you can speed up things when you limit the
+displayed channels with this setting. Use '0' to disable the limit. If the
+current channel is above the limit, the limit is ignored and all channels will
+be displayed again.
+
+=item - B<'One press' timer creation:>
+
+If set to 'yes' a timer is immediately created when pressing 'Record' as
+introduced in vdr-1.3.38, else the timer edit menu is displayed.
+
+=item - B<Show channels without EPG:>
+
+Display channels without EPG to allow switching or create a timer.
+
+=item - B<Time interval for FR/FF [min]:>
+
+In the menus 'now', 'next', 'user def 1', ... you can shift the
+displayed time by pressing FastRew, FastFwd on your remote control.
+Adjust the amount of minutes to jump here.
+
+=item - B<Toggle Green/Yellow:>
+
+If you don't have FastRew, FastFwd on your remote control, set this to
+yes. When pressing '0' in the menus, this toggles the assignment of
+the color keys and assigns e.g. '<<' and '>>' to 'green' and 'yellow'.
+
+=item - B<Show favorites menu:>
+
+A favorites menu can display a list of your favorite broadcasts. Enable this
+if you want an additional menu besides 'Now' and 'Next'. You can choose
+between displaying this menu before or after the menus with user-defined
+times. Any search can be used as a favorite. You only have to set the option
+'Use in favorites menu' when editing a search.  
+
+=item - B<for the next ... hours:>
+
+This value lets you adjust the timespan used to display the favorites.
+
+=back
+
+=head3 1.4.3 User-defined EPG times
+
+=over 4
+
+=item - B<Use user time 1..4:>
+
+Add up to 4 user-defined times besides 'now' and 'next'.
+
+=item - B<Description:>
+
+Name of the user-defined time, e.g. 'Afternoon', 'Prime time', 'Late
+night'.
+
+=item - B<Time:>
+
+The associated time of the user-defined time.
+
+=back
+
+=head3 1.4.4 Timer programming
+
+=over 4
+
+=item - B<Use VDR's timer edit menu:>
+
+When programming a standard timer epgsearch uses an extended menu,
+that also supports a directory item, user defined weekday selection
+and subtitle completion. If you are using a patched version of VDR,
+that also has an extended timer edit menu and like to use this menu
+rather than epgsearch's then set this option to 'Yes'.
+
+=item - B<Default recording directory:>
+
+This entry will be used in standard timer programming as default
+directory. You can also use EPG category variables (e.g. 'My
+Movies~%Category%~%Genre%'). When the timer edit menu is launched
+epgsearch tries to replace all variables with the values found in
+the description of the event. If not all variables could be replaced
+then the directory item is left blank.
+
+=item - B<Add episode to manual timers:>
+
+When manually adding a timer epgsearch can automatically add the
+episode name to the timer file resulting in a sub-folder for the
+later recording, that is named with the episode name. Choose here how
+this should be done. 'smart' tries to recognize if this makes
+sense. Therefore it checks the length of the event and skips the
+subtitle if the event has more than 80min.
+
+=item - B<Default timer check method:>
+
+Manual timers can be checked for EPG changes. Here you can setup the default
+check method for each channel. The following methods exist:
+   * no check
+   * by event ID: checks by an event ID supplied by the channel provider.
+   * by channel and time: check by the duration match.
+
+Not all channels provide a proper event ID, so you can setup the default for
+each channel here. When programming a manual timer, this default use used in
+epgsearch's own timer edit menu.
+
+=back
+
+=head3 1.4.5 Search and search timers
+
+=over 4
+
+=item - B<Use search timers:>
+
+If yes, the plugin makes a background scan of the EPG and adds timers
+if it finds matching entries. This applies only to searches that are
+marked with 'use as search timer'.
+
+=item - B<Update interval:>
+
+The update interval of the background scan for search timers in minutes.
+
+=item - B<SVDRP port:>
+
+If you are using a SVDRP port other than 2001 then enter this here
+to get the search timers working.
+
+=item - B<Default Priority:>
+
+Default priority of generated timers.
+
+=item - B<Default Lifetime:>
+
+Default lifetime of generated timers.
+
+=item - B<Margin at start/stop:>
+
+Default margins of generated timers.
+
+=item - B<No announcements when replaying:>
+
+suppress event announcements while any replay is active.
+
+=item - B<Recreate timers after deletion:>
+
+epgsearch remembers by default which timers where already created by search
+timers and will not recreate them if they were removed. To disable this
+behaviour set this to 'Yes'.
+
+Default margins of generated timers.
+
+=item - B<Ignore Pay-TV channels:>
+
+Set this to 'Yes' if you don't want to have events from Pay-TV channels when
+searching for a repeat.
+
+=item - B<Search templates:>
+
+Here you can manage search templates which can be used when creating a
+search.
+
+=item - B<Blacklists:>
+
+Here you can manage blacklists which can be used to suppress unwanted events
+within a search.
+
+=item - B<Channel groups:>
+
+Here you can setup channel groups (e.g. Sport channels, Pay-TV
+channels) that can be used as criterion in  searches. The same can
+be done in the search edit menu.
+
+=back
+
+B<Important>: if you get your EPG from external sources make sure that search
+timer updates are disabled while your EPG is updated. The reason for this is
+that epgsearch will remove timers without events assigned to them. This
+situation can exist while the new EPG is feeded to VDR. A simple way to
+disable search timer updates is to use the SVDRP command SETS in your EPG
+update script:
+
+svdrpsend.pl plug epgsearch SETS off
+
+<your EPG update script>
+
+svdrpsend.pl plug epgsearch SETS on
+
+=head3 1.4.6 Timer conflict checking
+
+=over 4
+
+=item - B<Ignore below priority:>
+
+If a timer will fail with a priority below the given value, you won't get an
+OSD message about this and the conflict will be classified as 'not relevant'
+in the conflicts overview.
+
+=item - B<Ignore conflict duration less ... min.:>
+
+If a conflict will last only the given minutes it will not produce an OSD
+message and the conflict will be classified as 'not relevant'
+in the conflicts overview.
+
+=item - B<Only check within next ... days:>
+
+Here you can specify the day range that should be used for the conflict
+check. 
+
+=item - B<After each timer programming:>
+
+This performs a conflict check after each manual timer programming and - if
+the new/modified timer is involved in a conflict - pops up an OSD message
+about it. 
+
+=item - B<"When a recording starts:>
+
+Set this to 'yes' if the conflict check should be performed when a recording starts. 
+In the case of a conlfict you get immediately a message that informs you about it. 
+The message is only displayed if the conflict is within the next 2 hours.
+
+=item - B<After each search timer update:>
+
+Specify here if you want to have a conflict check after each search timer
+update. If set to 'No':
+
+=item - B<every ... minutes:>
+
+performs a conflict check in the background every ... minutes and informs
+about relevant conflicts via OSD. Set this to '0' to disable this feature.
+
+=item - B<if conflicts within next ... minutes:>
+
+=over 4
+
+=item - B<every ... minutes:>
+
+if you like to have a more frequent check and OSD notification when a
+conflict appears within the given time, use this feature.
+
+=back
+
+=item - B<Avoid notification when replaying:>
+
+Set this to 'yes' if the don't want to get OSD messages about conflicts if 
+you currently replay something. Nevertheless messages will be displayed if
+ the first upcoming conflict is within the next 2 hours.
+
+=back
+
+Also have a look at C<epgsearch(4)>, section 'Working with the timer conflict menu'.
+
+=head3 1.4.7 Email notification
+
+Please make sure, that 'sendEmail.pl' is in the path of your executables and
+that the 'epgsearchupdmail.templ' and 'epgsearchconflmail.templ' exists in
+epgsearch's configurations directory!
+
+=over 4
+
+=item - B<Search timer notification:>
+
+Enable this, if you want to get an email notification, when the search timer
+background thread has
+
+  - created a new timer
+  - modified an existing timer
+  - deleted a timer, that was void because of EPG changes or other user
+    actions.
+
+(Also requires 'Use search timers' in the search timer setup to be activated.)
+
+=item - B<Timer conflict notification:>
+
+Enable this, if you want to get an email notification about timer
+conflicts. The notification will only include 'relevant' conflicts as
+specified in the timer conflict setup. epgsearch will always send a new
+notification if there is any change in the current conflicts.
+
+(Also requires 'After each search timer update' or 'every ... minutes' in the
+conflict check setup to be activated.)
+
+=item - B<Send to:>
+
+The mail adress of the recipient. Note: Some providers (like Arcor) don't 
+allow the same adresse for sender and recipient.
+
+=item - B<Mail method:>
+
+You can choose between:
+
+  - sendEmail.pl: this is a simply script shipped with epgsearch, that allows
+    mail delivery also on systems without a configured mail server. Please
+    copy it to your $PATH
+  - sendmail: requires a properly configured mail system
+
+=item - B<Email address:>
+
+Your full(!) email account address to be used for sending the mail. 
+
+=item - B<SMTP server:>
+
+The name of your SMTP server to be used for sending the mails.
+
+=item - B<Use SMTP authentication:>
+
+Select 'yes' if your account needs authentication to send mails.
+
+=item - B<AUTH user:>
+
+Specify the accounts username if your account needs authentication.
+
+=item - B<AUTH password:>
+
+Specify the accounts password if your account needs authentication.
+Note: The password is saved as plain text. You have to make sure on your own
+that your system is safe and no VDR configurations files are visible to non
+authorized persons.
+
+=back
+
+After the account setup, check if it works with 'Test'. If you are
+using 'sendEmail.pl' for mail delivery, there should be something like 'Email
+sent successfully' at the end of the test output. The test function is not
+available for method 'sendmail'.
+
+Also have a look at C<epgsearch(4)>, section 'Email notifications'.
+
+=head1 2. Search timers
+
+This is quite the same as VDRAdmin's auto-timers, but needs no external
+software. When you create a search, you can give it an option to use
+it as search timer. Now the plugin scans EPG entries in certain update
+intervals (->setup) in the background and creates timers if there
+are matching entries. If you don't like to get a new timer, but only
+want to be informed about the event set 'Announce only (no timer)' to
+yes. 
+Since these search timers are quite useful for serials, you can set
+the  option 'serial recording' in a search, which creates timers
+whose recordings are stored in a folder with the serials name and
+whose entries are named with the episode name. If there is no episode
+name, the plugin names the recording with a date/time string.
+
+To use search timers, you also have to activate them in the plugins setup.
+Also edit the SVDRP port, if you are not using the default 2001.
+
+If you want to trigger a background scan manually simply
+
+touch /etc/vdr/plugins/epgsearch/.epgsearchupdate
+
+This can also be part of your shutdown script. (Add here a sleep
+afterwards to give the plugin the time to finish the scan.)
+
+For more info about searchtimers please refer to C<epgsearch(4)>, 
+'Description of the search process' and 'How do Search Timers work?' 
+
+=head2 2.1 'Avoid repeats' - internals
+
+This section explains the feature 'Avoid repeats' for a search timer.
+Sometimes one cannot avoid double recordings of an event only by
+setting the corresponding search criterions.
+
+Therefore the feature 'avoid repeats' tries to check before creating a
+timer, if the same event was already recorded in the past or if there
+is a timer that records the same event. If so, there will be no new
+timer for the event.
+
+=head2 2.2 How do we compare two events?
+
+To check if two events are the same there are many possible settings
+for a search timer. You can choose the title, subtitle, description or
+extended EPG categories within the description of an event to be
+compared with the elements of another event.
+
+This comparison is always done case-sensitive and for the whole
+term. But the description of an event makes an exception of this. 
+First all text within the description will be truncated that looks
+like an extended category entry, e.g. 'Rating: tip'. An extended
+category entry is a line of text beginning with max. 40 signs,
+followed by ':' and ending with max. 60 further signs.
+The reason for this cutting is that some categories like the rating of
+an event are not part of the description of the repeat of the same
+event. 
+
+The remaining text will now be compared by length. If the difference
+is bigger then 90%, then we rate the description of the two events as
+different. If not, we apply the Levinsthein-Distance-Algorithm (LD),
+which makes a fuzzy text comparison. We accept the description of the
+events as equal, if LD returns a match of more then 90%.
+Since LD is quite runtime intensive (O(mn)), you should not choose
+'compare description' as the only comparison criterion, but combine
+it always with other criterions.
+
+=head2 2.3 How and when do we compare?
+
+As already mentioned each search timer update checks search timers
+with this feature for recordings in the past or an already existing
+timer for the same event.
+
+To remember past recordings epgsearch stores their info in the file
+epgsearchdone.data. You can have a look at the contents of this file
+calling 'show recordings done' in the 'actions' of the searches menu. 
+This file only stores info about recordings that are complete,
+i.e. that started and stopped just in time. So a broken recording will
+not be stored in this file and epgsearch will automatically try to
+record the next repeat, if there is any.
+
+B<How to use it?>
+
+As you see, the whole feature depends on the quality of the EPG.
+After creating such a search timer, you should first check if it does
+what is intended. Therefore the menu of search results has an
+additional mode for the key 'blue' named 'Timer preview'. Here you can
+see, what timers the next update would create. Existing timers are
+labeled with 'T', future timers with 'P'. 
+
+Hint: If the programming results in a conflict simply disable the
+conflicting timer in the timers menu. The next search timer update,
+will try to program a different timer for the same event, if it exists.
+
+B<When it works not correctly :-)>
+
+To get a better control of the programming or not-programming of the
+timers when using this feature a log file was introduced. When starting
+epgsearch with the command line option '-v n' where n is the log level
+than you get additional info in the file epgsearch.log. Available log
+levels are 0 (no logging) to 3 (extended logging). See also the manual
+for the command line options.
+
+=head1 3. Usage from other plugins or scripts
+
+See C<epgsearch(4)>.
+
+=head1 4. Using extended EPG info
+
+Some EPG providers deliver additional EPG information like the type of
+event, the video and audio format, cast,...
+
+Using tvm2vdr or epg4vdr you can import this into vdr.
+To use this information with search timers one has to configure it
+with the file epgsearchcats.conf in epgsearchs config directory. The
+format of the file is as follows:
+
+ ID|category name|name in menu|values separated by ','(option)|search mode(option)
+
+ - 'ID' should be a unique positive integer
+    (changing the id later on will force you to re-edit your search timers!)
+ - 'category name' is the name as delivered by the EPG provider, e.g. 'Genre'
+ - 'name in menu' is the name displayed in epgsearch.
+ - 'values' is an optional list of possible values
+ - 'search mode' specifies the search mode:
+   text comparison:
+   0 - the whole term must appear as substring
+   1 - all single terms (delimiters are ',', ';', '|' or '~') 
+       must exist as substrings. This is the default search mode.
+   2 - at least one term (delimiters are ',', ';', '|' or '~') 
+       must exist as substring.
+   3 - matches exactly
+   4 - regular expression
+   numerical comparison:
+   10 - less
+   11 - less or equal
+   12 - greater
+   13 - greater or equal
+   14 - equal
+   15 - not equal
+
+Sample files for epgsearchcats.conf are delivered with the plugin in the
+directory 'conf'.
+
+Simply copy the one that fits for you to epgsearchs configurations directory
+filename epgsearchcats.conf and then have a look to the search timers
+edit menu (after a restart of VDR).
+
+Since setting up a new epgsearchcats.conf is a lot of work, I've added
+a small tool 'createcats', that makes the biggest part of the job. It
+should have been compiled with the plugin and exists in the sources
+directory.
+
+See C<createcats(1)> for information about how to use it.
+
+Internals: epgsearch scans the summary of an event for the category
+name followed by ': ' for all categories that have a corresponding
+value set in the search timer. The search is case sensitive regarding
+the category name as also the value.
+
+=head1 5. Replacing the standard schedule menu
+
+To use this plugin as a replacement for the default green key, simply 
+put the line
+
+ Green   @epgsearch
+
+in your keymacros.conf. If you don't like to get another plugin entry
+in your main menu, first hide it by setup. Then you could use my
+launcher-plugin and put the line 
+
+ Green @launcher x 
+
+in your keymacros.conf, where x is the position of the Epgsearch
+plugin within launchers menu listing.
+
+Attention: Hiding the plugin without using the launcher plugin or
+other patches that enable calling hidden plugins will show the standard
+schedules menu when you press the green key. This is not needed
+anymore after VDR >= 1.3.32.
+
+Another approach is using a patch to VDR that replaces vdr's standard
+schedule menu with epgsearch (vdr-replace-schedulemenu.diff.gz in the
+patches subdir, thanks to the author Uwe/egal@vdrportal). When using
+this patch the entry should look like
+
+ Gree Schedule
+
+This patch is already included in some patch collections, like the
+Bigpatch. 
+
+=head1 6. Add-ons
+
+epgsearch delivers 2 'mini'-plugins. Both require an installed epgsearch (but
+epgsearch can be hided in the main menu):
+
+=over 4
+
+=item - B<epgsearchonly:>
+
+For those who only want to use the search feature and/or
+search timers or simply want to have a separate main menu entry for the
+search feature. This plugin creates a main menu entry 'Search' which calls
+epgsearch search menu.
+Activation in VDR start script with "-Pepgsearchonly".
+
+=item - B<conflictcheckonly:>
+
+The timer conflict check can also have its own main menu
+entry which displays epgsearch conflict overview menu. It has a setup option
+to display an information about the last check directly in its main menu entry.
+Activation in VDR start script with "-Pconflictcheckonly".
+
+=back
+
+Have fun!
+
+Christian Wieninger
+
+=head1 Advanced description
+
+See C<epgsearch(4)> or read online
+
+L<http://winni.vdr-developer.org/epgsearch/README.DE>
+
+L<http://winni.vdr-developer.org/epgsearch/README>
+
+L<http://winni.vdr-developer.org/epgsearch/MANUAL>
+
+=head1 SEE ALSO
+
+C<epgsearch.conf(5)>, C<epgsearchcats.conf(5)>, C<epgsearchcmds.conf(5)>, C<epgsearchdirs.conf(5)>, C<epgsearchmenu.conf(5)>, C<epgsearchuservars.conf(5)>, C<epgsearchdone.data(5)>, C<epgsearchswitchtimer.conf(5)>, C<epgsearchblacklists.conf(5)>, C<epgsearchchangrps.conf(5)>
+
+=head1 FILES
+
+F<epgsearch.conf>
+
+Searchtimers. See C<epgsearch.conf(5)>.
+
+F<epgsearchcats.conf>
+
+Categories, advanced epg. See C<epgsearchcats.conf(5)>.
+
+F<epgsearchcmds.conf>
+
+EPG-commands, like the commands in commands.conf. See C<epgsearchcmds.conf(5)>.
+
+F<epgsearchdirs.conf>
+
+Pre-defined patches which can be selected while editing an searchtimer. See C<epgsearchdirs.conf(5)>.
+
+F<epgsearchmenu.conf>
+
+Configuration of the OSD menu layout. See C<epgsearchmenu.conf(5)>.
+
+F<epgsearchuservars.conf>
+
+User defined variables. See C<epgsearchuservars.conf(5)>.
+
+F<epgsearchdone.data>
+
+The done-data. See C<epgsearchdone.data(5)>.
+
+F<epgsearchswitchtimers.conf>
+
+The switchtimers. See C<epgsearchswitchtimer.conf(5)>.
+
+F<epgsearchblacklists.conf>
+
+The blacklist. See C<epgsearchblacklists.conf(5)>.
+
+F<epgsearchchangrps.conf>
+
+The channelgroups. See C<epgsearchchangrps.conf(5)>.
+
+F<epgsearchtemplates.conf>
+
+Templates for searchtimers. See C<epgsearchtemplates.conf(5)>.
+
+=head1 AUTHOR (man pages)
+
+Mike Constabel <epgsearch (at) constabel (dot) net>
+
+=head1 REPORT BUGS
+
+Bugreports (german):
+
+L<http://www.vdr-developer.org/mantisbt/>
+
+Mailinglist:
+
+L<http://www.vdr-developer.org/mailman/listinfo/epgsearch>
+
+=head1 COPYRIGHT and LICENSE
+
+Copyright (C) 2004-2007 Christian Wieninger
+
+This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
+modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
+as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
+of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
+
+This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+GNU General Public License for more details.
+
+You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
+Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
+Or, point your browser to http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html
+
+The author can be reached at cwieninger@gmx.de
+
+The project's page is at http://winni.vdr-developer.org/epgsearch
+
+The MD5 code is derived from the RSA Data Security, Inc. MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm.