Doesn't fix the issue, see #974 (comment).

You're right @auouymous, it didn't work on busybox. I pushed a new version which checks for interfaces with an inet and broadcast address, which apparently is a sign of active connection. This works at least with 'busybox ip' and 'ip' in Debian.

Merged, thanks!

Little late, but the patch works fine and looks like it should solve the issue.

One problem I see, that existed before this patch, is that all three *_get_active_interfaces methods yield the result. Is there a reason for this? They are only called once and returning the result would be more efficient, right?

I also don't see the point for using generator functions in this case, but a patch fixing all these functions would have been a lot more invasive (and would have to be tested on all platforms).

yes, no need for a generator, and no point, really, since all the command output is gathered before analyzing it.

I wrote a patch the other day that renamed those three functions and returned a bool. But are those functions usable by extensions? If so, do we care about breaking extensions not in gpodder? They are only called once per manual or automatic update, so performance isn't that important. There are also some functions in util.py not used anywhere in gpodder.

But are those functions usable by extensions? If so, do we care about breaking extensions not in gpodder?

yes on both counts. Are those used, though? Not likely. An extension would use the connection_available() function.
Personally I wouldn't change them, but if you find it irksome, you may change them.

There are also some functions in util.py not used anywhere in gpodder.

which ones?

They are rarely called so I'm fine leaving them alone.

parse_time, isabs, write_m3u_playlist, check_command and website_reachable are unused.