Rtorrent

From Fastsh.it

[edit] Installation

rTorrent should already be installed on all VPSs and shared plans. To run rTorrent:

SSH into your server through PuTTY (Windows) or terminal (Linux/Mac), and type:

rtorrent

To quit use Ctrl+q (this exits rtorrent and stops all downloads/uploads until rTorrent is reopened)

A much better way to use rTorrent is to use it with the screen command, which allows you to, put is simply, hide it in the background without closing it, and reconnect (reopen) again, from any location. Even if you where to disconnect from your server, rtorrent shall still be running and continuing to download/seed.

So, start rTorrent with screen, instead of the above method:

screen rtorrent

You can 'hide' rtorrent by pressing Ctrl + a, and then Ctrl + d. To show rtorrent again, use the command:

rtorrent -r

This reconnects to the screen session (hence the -r).

This leaves rtorrent running in the background, so that you can close and exit PuTTY without exiting rtorrent.

[edit] Configuration

rTorrent can be used without a configuration file (and as default your plan wont have one); however, greater control over rTorrent can be achieved by using one: the file is located at ~/.rtorrent.rc (remember "~/" is the home directory of the current logged in user.)

Here is a users, reacocard, rtorrent config file: http://www.reacocard.net/pubfiles/configs/rtorrent.rc

You can use this config as a guide to creating or editing your own. Change directory to your home, and use nano, vi, vim, or whatever you are comfortable with to edit/create the file:

nano ~/.rtorrent.rc

[edit] Tips

You can add the following lines to your own config file for greater control:

# Global upload and download rate in KiB. "0" for unlimited.
download_rate = 0
upload_rate = 0

Moving completed downloads to a specific directory. (Make sure the directory exists by creating it with: mkdir /home/some/location)

# Move completed downloads
on_finished = move_complete,"execute=mv,-u,$d.get_base_path=,/home/some/location/;d.set_directory=/home/some/location/"

# Close torrents when diskspace reaches 200MB
schedule = low_diskspace,5,60,close_low_diskspace=200M

Choosing the port rTorrent listens on, it is recommended to change this as the default port is a well known for bittorrent traffic; choose something high between 10000-65536

# Port range to use for listening.
port_range = 55555-55556

DHT is a technique to help find peers in the bittorrent swarm; it is recommended to disable it: most private trackers require disabling DHT as it could allow other users, who are not a member of a private torrent site, to stumble upon the torrent (not good). However, this only happens if the torrents downloaded from the site are not marked as 'private' (the majority of torrents from public trackers are marked as non-private). Most, if not all, torrents downloaded from a private tracker are marked as private so the below may not be of any real use, but it wont hurt adding it to your config file as non-private trackers are not allowed on here anyway.

# Enable DHT support for trackerless torrents or when all trackers are down.
# May be set to "disable" (completely disable DHT), "off" (do not start DHT),
# "auto" (start and stop DHT as needed), or "on" (start DHT immediately).
# 
dht = disable