Configuration

Configuration options, command-line arguments, and dependencies for Lightshot Scrape

This page documents all configuration options available in Lightshot Scrape, including command-line arguments, file paths, and required dependencies.

Command-line arguments

The Lightshot Scrape CLI accepts command-line arguments to control its behavior.

The main.py script is currently a work in progress and does not have full implementation. For direct usage, use singleImage.py which contains the core scraping functionality.

Mode selection

-m, --mode · string · required

Specifies the operating mode for the scraper.

Accepted values:

• en - Single image mode (scrapes one image)
• loop - Loop mode (continuously scrapes images)

Example:

python main.py -m en
python main.py --mode loop

Usage examples

Single image mode

python main.py -m en

If you run the script without specifying the mode argument, the program will exit with an error message: “Ange inställning (‘-m en’ eller ‘-m loop’)“

Argument parsing

The tool uses Python’s getopt module to parse command-line arguments:

import getopt
import sys

nameargv = sys.argv[1:]

try:
    opts = getopt.getopt(nameargv, "m:", ["mode ="])
    print(opts)
except:
    print("Ange inställning ('-m en' eller '-m loop')")
    sys.exit(2)

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File paths

Image save path

By default, scraped images are saved to the Windows Pictures folder.

imgpath · string

The directory where downloaded images will be saved.

Default value: C:\Users\%username%\Pictures\Saved Pictures

Note: The %username% variable should be expanded by the system to the current user’s username.

Configuration in code

# Default save path
imgpath = "C:\\Users\\%username%\\Pictures\\Saved Pictures"

In the current implementation, there is commented-out code that would allow users to specify a custom save path via input. This feature is currently disabled:

# Commented out in current version:
# imgpath = input("Var ska bilderna sparas? (Enter för att spara i Sparade Bilder)").strip() 
#          or "C:\\Users\\%username%\\Pictures\\Saved Pictures"

---

Dependencies

Lightshot Scrape requires several Python packages to function properly.

Required packages

cloudscraper

Purpose: Bypasses Cloudflare protection on Lightshot pages

Usage in code:

import cloudscraper

scraper = cloudscraper.create_scraper()
site = scraper.get(link).text

Why it’s needed: Lightshot uses Cloudflare protection, which blocks regular requests. Cloudscraper mimics a real browser to bypass this protection.

Installation:

pip install cloudscraper

beautifulsoup4

Purpose: Parses HTML to extract image URLs

Usage in code:

from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

soup = BeautifulSoup(site, 'html.parser')
img = soup.find_all('img')[0]
img = img['src']

Why it’s needed: Extracts the image source URL from the Lightshot page HTML by finding <img> tags.

Installation:

pip install beautifulsoup4

requests

Purpose: HTTP library for making web requests

Usage in code:

import requests

Why it’s needed: Used as a dependency for cloudscraper and for downloading images.

Installation:

pip install requests

Standard library modules

The following Python standard library modules are also used (no installation required):

• random - Generates random characters for URL creation
• string - Provides character sets (ascii_lowercase, ascii_uppercase, digits)
• time - Time-related functions
• os - Operating system interface
• sys - System-specific parameters and functions
• getopt - Command-line argument parser

Complete dependency list

Create a requirements.txt file with these dependencies:

requirements.txt

cloudscraper>=1.2.58
beautifulsoup4>=4.9.3
requests>=2.25.1

Install all dependencies with:

pip install -r requirements.txt

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Environment requirements

Python version

Python 3.6 or higher recommended

Operating system

Designed for Windows (default save path uses Windows directory structure)

Internet connection

Required to access Lightshot URLs and download images

Disk space

Sufficient space in the save directory for downloaded images

---

Cloudscraper instance

The tool creates cloudscraper instances in multiple locations:

Global instance

Created at module level in both main.py and singleImage.py:

scraper = cloudscraper.create_scraper()

Local instance

The ImageHandler function creates its own instance:

def ImageHandler(link):
    scraper = cloudscraper.create_scraper()
    site = scraper.get(link).text
    # ...

Creating a new scraper instance for each request ensures fresh sessions and helps avoid rate limiting or blocking.