rTorrent and configuration

Documentation on rtorrent is scarce and spread all over the interwebs. Some options are self-explanatory, some are tricky, and for some features there is not a hint on the man page.

This config lets you
· deal with seperate trackers
· keep the .torrent files in respective directories
· watch these directories for new torrents
· prefer encrypted connections

Probably there is no point in encrypted traffic, as it uses RC4 as encryption algorithm, which is broken for years.

The numbers in like

schedule = tied_directory,5,15,start_tied=  

mean task done for the first time 5 seconds after starting, then every 15 seconds.

Basics

Control start / stopped state

^s – Start download item. Runs hash first unless already done.
^d – Stop an active download item, or remove a stopped one.
^k – Stop item and close all files, also set 'ignore commands' flag.

Global throttling

a|s|d – Increase the upload throttle by 1/5/50 KiB.
z|x|c – Decrease the upload throttle by 1/5/50 KiB.
A|S|D – Increase the download throttle by 1/5/50 KiB.
Z|X|C – Decrease the download throttle by 1/5/50 KiB.

Other general keys

‹up›|‹down› – Select an item.
‹left› – Go back to the previous screen.
^o – Set new download directory on a closed item.
^x – Open a prompt for rTorrent commands.
^q – Exit rTorrent (press twice to skip 'stop' tracker announces).

Errors & Warnings

A tracker returns a HTTP 5xx status page, or a similar HTML response

Tracker: [Could not parse bencoded data]

When trying to load corrupt metafiles

Could not create download, the input is not a valid torrent

Data of an item is changed or removed, after it is marked as complete;
recover by pressing Ctrl+k Ctrl+e Ctrl+r, then possibly Ctrl+s to re-download.

Download registered as completed, but hash check returned unfinished chunks.

Flow control

If you access rtorrent on another machine by screen, there are some caveats with flow control. The remote terminal and rtorrent may use same commands.

For rtorrent, Ctrl+s starts a torrent, and Ctrl+q quits the application.
For the remote terminal, Ctrl+s is often used for terminal control to stop screen output while Ctrl+q is used to start it, so Ctrl+s instead of starting a torrent pauses flow, therefore the session looks frozen.
You can check with

$ stty -a

To remove the mappings, change the terminal characteristics to undefine the aforementioned special characters (i.e. stop and start):

# stty stop undef
# stty start undef

Toggle off:

Ctrl+a Ctrl+f

should fix that for the moment.
To remove these mappings automatically at startup you may add the two preceding commands to your e.g. ~/.bashrc file.

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Search

Scrolling through a huge amount of torrents is tedious, and one can only scroll from one to the other without the ability to skip pages or skip to the next first letter like jump to the next torrent beginning with an H. But torrents can be filtered:

AltGr+End

opens the filter> prompt, and bar stre lists all torrents containing Barbra Streisand in its name. Search is case-insensitive. You can filter for regular expressions also, but using RE may put some heavy load on the machine.
A new empty filtering ends the filtering.

Disable SSL verification

Usually you want a secured connection to the tracker to avoid MITM attacks or your provider or other third party snooping your traffic. But some trackers mess up their SSL renewal process from time to time. If you consider your ratio more valueable than encrypted traffic, you might add

network.http.ssl_verify_peer.set=0

to your config. Remember to comment it out if not needed anymore and consider to reset your passkey. Furthermore, certificate checking can be enabled or disabled for all trackers, not seperately for each tracker.

A configuration template

# This is an example resource file for rTorrent. Copy to
# ~/.rtorrent.rc and enable/modify the options as needed.
# Uncomment the options you wish to enable.
#
# .rtorrent.rc for /path/to/data
pieces.sync.always_safe = yes
# Maximum and minimum number of peers to connect to per torrent.
# Many simultaneous up/ downloads and my old access point freaks out.
min_peers = 1
max_peers = 40

# Same as above but for seeding completed torrents (-1 = same as downloading)
min_peers_seed = 1
max_peers_seed = 40

# Maximum number of simultanious uploads per torrent.
max_uploads = 20
# Global upload and download rate in KiB. "0" for unlimited.
download_rate = 0
upload_rate = 0

# disable SSL verification. Do not uncomment unless you know what you're doing.
#network.http.ssl_verify_peer.set=0

# Default session directory. Make sure you don't run multiple instance
# of rtorrent using the same session directory. Perhaps using a
# relative path?
session = ~/rtorrentsession/

# Periodically save session data
schedule = session_save,500,120,session_save=

# Watch a directory for new torrents, save to corresponding folders and
# stop those that have been deleted.
schedule = watch_directory_1,30,90,"load.start=/path/to/data/abc/*.torrent,d.set_directory=/path/to/data/ABC/"
schedule = watch_directory_2,30,90,"load.start=/path/to/data/def/*.torrent,d.set_directory=/path/to/data/DEF/"
schedule = watch_directory_3,30,90,"load.start=/path/to/data/ghi/*.torrent,d.set_directory=/path/to/data/GHI/"
schedule = watch_directory_4,30,90,"load.start=/path/to/data/jkl/*.torrent,d.set_directory=/path/to/data/JKL/"
schedule = watch_directory_5,30,90,"load.start=/path/to/data/mno/*.torrent,d.set_directory=/path/to/data/MNO/"
schedule = watch_directory_6,30,90,"load.start=/path/to/data/pqr/*.torrent,d.set_directory=/path/to/data/PQR/"

# Restart torrents that have been copied back…
schedule = tied_directory,5,15,start_tied=

#… and stop those that have been deleted
schedule = untied_directory,5,15,close_untied=

# Close torrents when diskspace is low.
schedule = low_diskspace,5,60,close_low_diskspace=50G

# Stop torrents when reaching upload ratio in percent,
# when also reaching total upload in bytes, or when
# reaching final upload ratio in percent.
# example: stop at ratio 2.0 with at least 200 MB uploaded, or else ratio 20.0
#schedule = ratio,60,60,stop_on_ratio=200,200M,2000

# The ip address reported to the tracker.
# ip = 91.121.112.71
#ip = rakshasa.no

# The ip address the listening socket and outgoing connections is
# bound to.
#bind = 127.0.0.1
#bind = rakshasa.no

# Port range to use for listening.
port_range = 40000-59999

# Start opening ports at a random position within the port range.
port_random = yes

# Check hash for finished torrents. Might be usefull until the bug is
# fixed that causes lack of diskspace not to be properly reported.
check_hash = yes

# Set whetever the client should try to connect to UDP trackers.
use_udp_trackers = yes

# Alternative calls to bind and ip that should handle dynamic ip's.
#schedule = ip_tick,0,1800,ip=rakshasa
#schedule = bind_tick,0,1800,bind=rakshasa

# Encryption options, set to none (default) or any combination of the following:
# allow_incoming, try_outgoing, require, require_RC4, enable_retry, prefer_plaintext
#
# The example value allows incoming encrypted connections, starts unencrypted
# outgoing connections but retries with encryption if they fail, preferring
# plaintext to RC4 encryption after the encrypted handshake
#
encryption = allow_incoming,try_outgoing,enable_retry 
#,prefer_plaintext
# Encryption options, set to none (default) or any combination of the following:
# allow_incoming, try_outgoing, require, require_RC4, enable_retry, prefer_plaintext
#
# The example value allows incoming encrypted connections, starts unencrypted
# outgoing connections but retries with encryption if they fail, preferring
# plaintext to RC4 encryption after the encrypted handshake

# Sort the main view by ratio
view.sort_current = main,greater=d.get_ratio=
view.sort_new = main,less=d.get_ratio=
view.sort = main

# Sort the seeding view by the upload rate and only show torrents with peers
view.sort_current = seeding,greater=d.get_up_rate=
view.filter = seeding,"and=d.get_complete=,d.get_peers_connected="
view.sort_new = seeding,less=d.get_up_rate=
view.sort = seeding

# Sort the leeching view by name
view.sort_current = leeching,greater=d.get_name=
view.sort_new = leeching,greater=d.get_name=
view.sort = leeching

# Filter the active view by connected peers
view.sort_current = active,less=d.get_name=
view.sort_new = leeching,less=d.get_name=
view.filter = active,d.get_peers_connected=
view.sort = active

#
# Do not modify the following parameters unless you know what you're doing.
#

# Hash read-ahead controls how many MB to request the kernel to read
# ahead. If the value is too low the disk may not be fully utilized,
# while if too high the kernel might not be able to keep the read
# pages in memory thus end up trashing.
#hash_read_ahead = 10

# Interval between attempts to check the hash, in milliseconds.
#hash_interval = 100

# Number of attempts to check the hash while using the mincore status,
# before forcing. Overworked systems might need lower values to get a
# decent hash checking rate.
#hash_max_tries = 10

# Max number of files to keep open simultaniously.
#max_open_files = 64

# Number of sockets to simultaneously keep open.
#max_open_sockets = <no default>

# Example of scheduling commands: Switch between two ip's every 5
# seconds.
#schedule = "ip_tick1,5,10,ip=torretta"
#schedule = "ip_tick2,10,10,ip=lampedusa"

# Remove a scheduled event.
#schedule_remove = "ip_tick1"  

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