I have written some small (?) script to update a local copy of the Database of the cddb clone FreeDB.
For hints on usage see sourcecode and comments in source.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use Net::FTP;

#
# Script to update freedb cd-database automatically.
#
# Finds actual date of local db by searching for database-source-files
+ in
# database directory, so if you deleted them, you'll have to create a 
+file
# (may be empty) with the filename of the last added db-file, like
# freedb-complete-20021023.tar.bz2 or freedb-update-20020917-20021023.
+tar.bz2
# I didn't find any other possibility to find out the version of the l
+ocally
# installed db. If you have got any idea, please tell me.
#
# You should change the ftp-server settings to a local mirror of yours
+ and
# check the settings for your database and the external programs.
#
# Version 0.70 by Spida (on www.perlmonks.org)
#
# ToDo:
# - Error handling: server unreachable, wrong user/pass, no write acce
+ss,
#   hd full, ...
# - Stability in case of killed script. Add ./.freedb_update_status fi
+le
# - resume downloads
#


my $freedb_ftp_mirror = "ftp.freedb.org";
my $freedb_ftp_user = "anonymous";
my $freedb_ftp_password = '-anonymous@';
my $remote_dir = "/ftp.freedb.org/pub/freedb/";

my $database_dir = '/data/raid/cddb';
my $database_user = 'cddb';
my $database_group = 'root';

my $command_database_stop = "/etc/init.d/cddbd stop";
my $command_database_start = "/etc/init.d/cddbd start";
my $command_database_reindex = "/usr/local/bin/cddbd/cddbd -fdv";
my $command_tar = "/bin/tar";
my $command_chown = "/bin/chown";
my $command_chmod = "/bin/chmod";


#connect to ftp
    print "Connecting to $freedb_ftp_mirror\n";
    my $ftp=Net::FTP->new($freedb_ftp_mirror);
    print "Logging in\n";
    $ftp->login($freedb_ftp_user, $freedb_ftp_password);
    $ftp->cwd($remote_dir);

#get remote filellist
    @ftpfilelist = $ftp->ls();

    @ftpfilelist = sort(@ftpfilelist);
    @ftpcompletefilelist = grep /freedb-complete-\d+.tar.bz2/, @ftpfil
+elist;
    @ftpupdatefilelist = grep /freedb-update-\d+-\d+.tar.bz2/, @ftpfil
+elist;

    if (@ftpcompletefilelist) {
        print "\n";
        print "Server has complete files to use:\n";
        foreach $file(@ftpcompletefilelist) {
            print "$file\n";
        }
        @ftpcompletefilelist = reverse(@ftpcompletefilelist);
        $lastftpcompletefile = $ftpcompletefilelist[0];
    }

    $laststartversionftpupdatefile=0;
    $lastendversionftpupdatefile=0;
    if (@ftpupdatefilelist) {
        print "\n";
        print "Server has update files to use:\n";
        foreach $file(@ftpupdatefilelist) {
            print "$file\n";
        }
        @ftpupdatefilelist = reverse(@ftpupdatefilelist);
    }

#get local filelist
    opendir(DIR, $database_dir);
    my @localfilelist = readdir(DIR);
    closedir(DIR);

    @localfilelist = sort(@localfilelist);
    @localcompletefilelist = grep /freedb-complete-\d+.tar.bz2/, @loca
+lfilelist;
    @localupdatefilelist = grep /freedb-update-\d+-\d+.tar.bz2/, @loca
+lfilelist;

    $lastversionlocalcompletefile=0;
    if (@localcompletefilelist) {
        print "\n";
        print "Found local files which are supposed to be in database:
+\n";
        foreach $file(@localcompletefilelist) {
            print "$file\n";
        }
        @localcompletefilelist = reverse(@localcompletefilelist);
        $lastlocalcompletefile = $localcompletefilelist[0];
        ($lastversionlocalcompletefile) = $lastlocalcompletefile =~ /f
+reedb-complete-(\d+).
tar.bz2/;
    }

    $laststartversionlocalupdatefile=0;
    $lastendversionlocalupdatefile=0;
    if (@localupdatefilelist) {
        print "\n";
        print "Found local files which are supposed to be included in 
+database:\n";
        foreach $file(@localupdatefilelist) {
            print "$file\n";
        }
        @localupdatefilelist = reverse(@localupdatefilelist);
        $lastlocalupdatefile = $localupdatefilelist[0];
        ($laststartversionlocalupdatefile, $lastendversionlocalupdatef
+ile) = $lastlocalupda
tefile =~ /freedb-update-(\d+)-(\d+).tar.bz2/;
    }


#find out which file to use
    print "\n";
    if ($lastversionlocalcompletefile > $lastendversionlocalupdatefile
+) {
        print "Last local version seems to be a complete db from $last
+versionlocalcompletef
ile.\n";
        $lastversionlocalfile=$lastversionlocalcompletefile;
    } else {
        if ($lastendversionlocalupdatefile != 0) {
            print "Last local version seems to be an update db from $l
+astendversionlocalupd
atefile.\n";
            $lastversionlocalfile=$lastendversionlocalupdatefile;
        } else {
            print "No local db found.\n";
            $lastversionlocalfile=0;
        }
    }

    print "\n";
    if ($lastversionlocalfile==0) {
        print "Starting fresh\n";
        push(@dbfiles, $lastftpcompletefile);
    } else {
        print "Will get following files:\n";
        foreach $file(@ftpupdatefilelist) {
            ($laststartversionftpupdatefile, $lastendversionftpupdatef
+ile) = $file =~ /free
db-update-(\d+)-(\d+).tar.bz2/;
            if ($lastversionlocalfile <= $laststartversionftpupdatefil
+e) {
                push(@dbfiles, $file);
                print "$file\n";
            }
        }
    }

#download updates
    print "\n";
    if (@dbfiles) {
        foreach $dbfile(@dbfiles) {
            print "downloading $dbfile\n";
            $ftp->get("$dbfile", "$database_dir/$dbfile");
        }
    } else {
        print "No need to update found.\n";
    }
    $ftp->quit;

#extract updates
    if (@dbfiles) {
        print "\n";
        foreach $dbfile(@dbfiles) {
            print "extracting $dbfile\n";
            system(`$command_tar xvjf $dbfile -C $database_dir`)
        }
#regenerate index
        system(`$command_chown -R $database_user:$database_group $data
+base_dir/*`);
        system(`$command_chmod -R 644 $database_dir/*`);
        system(`$command_chmod 755 * $database_dir/*`);
#regenerate index
        system(`$command_database_stop`);
        system(`$command_database_reindex`);
        system(`$command_database_start`);
    }

    print "\n";
    print "completed\n";
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