From b5474cb3762929f1b57948aebde51ed0031b8073 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: =?UTF-8?q?=C3=89tienne=20Reuh=20Fildadut?= <fildadut@reuh.eu>
Date: Fri, 17 Oct 2025 13:59:00 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] feat: allow marking items as unread by restoring their files
 and add option to not write read articles even when synced

---
 src/feather/app.py              | 18 +++++++++++-------
 src/feather/config.default.toml |  9 ++++++++-
 src/feather/config.py           |  1 +
 src/feather/data.py             | 22 +++++++++++++---------
 4 files changed, 33 insertions(+), 17 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/feather/app.py b/src/feather/app.py
index 4db3319..27f90d7 100755
--- a/src/feather/app.py
+++ b/src/feather/app.py
@@ -82,13 +82,16 @@ class FeatherApp:
         to_mark_as_read = []
         to_mark_as_unread = []
         for article in self.iter_articles():
-            if not article.has_html():
-                if article.unread:
-                    to_mark_as_read.append(article)
-                    marked_as_read += 1
-                else:
-                    to_mark_as_unread.append(article)
-                    marked_as_unread += 1
+            has_html = article.has_html()
+            if article.unread and not has_html:
+                to_mark_as_read.append(article)
+                marked_as_read += 1
+            elif not article.unread and (
+                (config.write_read_articles and not has_html)
+                or (not config.write_read_articles and has_html)
+            ):
+                to_mark_as_unread.append(article)
+                marked_as_unread += 1
 
         if len(to_mark_as_read) == len(to_mark_as_unread) == 0:
             return  # nothing to do
@@ -260,6 +263,7 @@ class FeatherApp:
         """Regenerate all local files using local data only"""
         for article in self.iter_articles():
             article.regenerate()
+        self.remove_empty_categories()
 
     def clear_data(self):
         """Delete all local data"""
diff --git a/src/feather/config.default.toml b/src/feather/config.default.toml
index f5860c8..ce3629b 100644
--- a/src/feather/config.default.toml
+++ b/src/feather/config.default.toml
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ password = "password"
 # Set to 0 to let Feather choose (200 for ttrss, 1000 for googlereader).
 # Can be set through the environment variable SERVER_ARTICLES_PER_REQUEST.
 articles_per_request = 0
-# Set to true to only sync unread articles; Feather will not retrieve or store any read article.
+# Set to true to only sync unread articles; Feather will not retrieve any read article from the server.
 # Can be set through the environment variable SERVER_ONLY_SYNC_UNREAD_ARTICLES.
 only_sync_unread_articles = true
 
@@ -36,6 +36,13 @@ data = "data"
 reader = "reader"
 
 [html]
+# If set to true, Feather will also generate articles files for read articles.
+# Also remember to set server.only_sync_unread_articles = false; otherwise this will do nothing.
+# The the mark-as-unread behavior will also change depending on this value:
+# - if false, marking an article as unread requires its file to be recreated/restored from the trash;
+# - if true, marking an article as unread requires deleting its article file (same as mark-as-read).
+# Can be set through the environment variable HTML_WRITE_READ_ARTICLES.
+write_read_articles = false
 # Template used for generating article HTML files. All templates are Jinja2 templates.
 # Available fields:
 # - id: article id (int | str)
diff --git a/src/feather/config.py b/src/feather/config.py
index b61508b..7f72f09 100644
--- a/src/feather/config.py
+++ b/src/feather/config.py
@@ -65,6 +65,7 @@ class Config:
         self.timezone: ZoneInfo = ZoneInfo(str(get_config("datetime", "timezone")))
         self.time_format: str = str(get_config("datetime", "format"))
 
+        self.write_read_articles: bool = bool(get_config("html", "write_read_articles"))
         self.article_template: Template = Template(
             str(get_config("html", "article_template")), autoescape=True
         )
diff --git a/src/feather/data.py b/src/feather/data.py
index 09738e4..958f45e 100644
--- a/src/feather/data.py
+++ b/src/feather/data.py
@@ -234,8 +234,11 @@ class Article(ABC):
     def _delete_html(self, missing_ok=False):
         """Delete the HTML file associated with this article."""
         # Delete a HTML file for a JSON object
-        html_path = self.config.html_root / self.html_path
-        html_path.unlink(missing_ok=missing_ok)
+        if self.html_path is None:
+            return
+        else:
+            html_path = self.config.html_root / self.html_path
+            html_path.unlink(missing_ok=missing_ok)
 
     def has_html(self) -> bool:
         """Check if the HTML file associated with the article exists on disk."""
@@ -251,13 +254,14 @@ class Article(ABC):
 
     def write(self, recompute_paths=False):
         """Write all the files associated with this article to disk."""
-        try:
-            self._write_html(recompute_path=recompute_paths)
-        except FileExistsError:
-            raise
-        except:
-            self._delete_html(missing_ok=True)
-            raise
+        if self.unread or self.config.write_read_articles:
+            try:
+                self._write_html(recompute_path=recompute_paths)
+            except FileExistsError:
+                raise
+            except:
+                self._delete_html(missing_ok=True)
+                raise
         try:
             self._write_json(recompute_path=recompute_paths)
         except FileExistsError: