[ChristianW]

Is it possible to trigger database updates externally?

If I download stuff unattended using RSS I would want to trigger a database update in post processing. Especially for TV-shows. This way, my library would always reflect what actually exists.

Any work on detaching the database updating code from the main core (for the Linux version atleast, make it possible to update the database without xbmc running)

Christian...

[spiff]

yes; read the friendly wiki.
xbmc.updatelibrary(video) or xbmc.updatelibrary(music)
both are built-in commands that can be triggered using e.g. the webserver api.

you are free to use our scanner code for whatever you want to but be warned its heavily rooted in the xbmc codebase