rtorrent is an awesomely powerful command line BitTorrent (the protocol) client. This little BitTorrent client is important because the tracker I was recently invited to doesn’t like the way Transmission reports information.
The documentation for rtorrent is inadequate and so much of today was spent searching on Google for .rtorrent.rc file examples and trying to piece together what the declarations meant. My current rtorrent configuration is embedded below from gist.github.com/1525912. I have included the explanations I found or puzzled out inline as comments.
Part of the key is keeping torrent files from this private tracker separate from any other torrents I download. I’m using the following folder structure with rtorrent and sorting as appropriate.
tracker
|-- leeching
|-- rtactive
|-- sorted
|-- torrents
|-- unsorted
Downloaded .torrent files go into the torrents folder for archival purposes, .torrent files can be put into rtactive to be automatically added, in progress downloads go into leeching, completed downloads go into unsorted. From unsorted I am manually moving completed downloads into a directory structure under sorted and updating the torrent’s base directory in rtorrent.
# This is an example resource file for rTorrent. Copy to
# ~/.rtorrent.rc and enable/modify the options as needed. Remember to
# uncomment the options you wish to enable.
# Maximum and minimum number of peers to connect to per torrent.
min_peers = 1
max_peers = 100
# Same as above but for seeding completed torrents (-1 = same as downloading)
min_peers_seed = 1
max_peers_seed = 50
# Maximum number of simultanious uploads per torrent.
max_uploads = 10
# Maximum number of simultaneous downloads
max_downloads_global = 3
max_uploads_global = 10
# Global upload and download rate in KiB. "0" for unlimited.
download_rate = 0
upload_rate = 300
# Default directory to save the downloaded torrents.
directory = ./leeching
# Default session directory. Make sure you don't run multiple instance
# of rtorrent using the same session directory. Perhaps using a
# relative path?
session = ./.rtorrent
# Watch a directory for new torrents, and stop those that have been
# deleted.
schedule = watch_directory,5,5,load_start=./rtactive/*.torrent
schedule = tied_directory,6,5,start_tied=
schedule = untied_directory,7,5,stop_untied=
# Close torrents when diskspace is low.
schedule = low_diskspace,5,60,close_low_diskspace=2000M
# Periodically save session data
schedule = session_save,240,300,session_save=
# Enable the default ratio group.
ratio.enable=
# Change the limits, the defaults should be sufficient.
ratio.min.set=400
ratio.max.set=2000
ratio.upload.set=250M
# When seeding ratio is reached close the torrent
system.method.set = group.seeding.ratio.command, d.close=
# Move files around when download completes
system.method.set_key = event.download.finished,move_complete,"execute=mv,-n,$d.get_base_path=,./unsorted/;d.set_directory=./unsorted/"
# Port range to use for listening.
port_range = 33101-33199
# Start opening ports at a random position within the port range.
port_random = yes
# 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
# 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).
# The default is "off". For DHT to work, a session directory must be defined.
#
#dht = auto
# UDP port to use for DHT.
#
#dht_port = 6881
# Enable peer exchange (for torrents not marked private)
#
#peer_exchange = yes
The resources used to put this together are: