Transmission BitTorrent Setup
Installation⚓︎
Install transmission packages from terminal enter:
Configuration⚓︎
Trasmission stop⚓︎
Make sure the Transmission daemon is not running when changing the config file otherwise your changes will be over written.
edit /var/lib/transmission-daemon/info/settings.json
Username and Password⚓︎
The default rpc-username and password is transmission
Change if increased security is required.
Change it to whatever you want (any password will work). After next restart the password will be rewritten in SHA1 encrypted format for security reasons.
"rpc-password": "{62b16db87b89a91dd49a5110a7cafc06d20eb4f2wtK6kqPj",
"rpc-username": "transmission",
Whitelist⚓︎
This must be changed for remote access
rpc-whitelist defines access to transmission. Localhost (127.0.0.1) is defined by default. I added ,192.268.*.* to allow any machine on my LAN access.
umask parameter⚓︎
You will also have to set the "umask" parameter in Transmission’s settings file to “2” (default is 18) for the account user to have full access to files/folders created by Transmission.
Transmission Restart⚓︎
After configuration change, restart transmission
Default File Directory⚓︎
Place a torrent file in this directory for automatic file download
Configure Users and Permissions⚓︎
It is recommended that Transmission runs under it’s own username for security reasons. This creates a few issues with file and folder access by Transmission as well as your account (let us assume it is user).
Add the username user to the group debian-transmission:
Change "user" to you own Ubuntu user login name.
Note
When adding a user to a new group, the user must log out and log back in for it to take affect. A reboot will also accomplish this.
Web Interface⚓︎
With your browser you can now add torrents, download and seed. You can also configure many transmission settings.
Command Line Interface⚓︎
With a headless server full control of Transmission requires CLI
Transmission Create⚓︎
Create a torrent file with transmission CLI. Torrent files can be generated from either a single file or directories. The example below is a directory example
transmission-create -o /var/lib/transmission-daemon/downloads/files.torrent -c "My comments" -t udp://tracker.openbittorrent.com:80 -t udp://open.demonii.com:1337 -t udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969 -t udp://tracker.leechers-paradise.org:6969 ~/torrent/complete/
Breakdown of options used..
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| -o /var/lib/transmission-daemon/downloads/files.torrent | New torrent name and where to store the torrent |
| -c "My comments" | Any comments to be attached to the file |
| -t udp://tracker.openbittorrent.com:80 | |
| -t udp://open.demonii.com:1337 | |
| -t udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969 | |
| -t udp://tracker.leechers-paradise.org:6969 | Trackers for the torrents, more than one tracker is recommended in case one or more goes down. |
| ~/torrent/complete/ | Directory to be made into a torrent. If a single file is required use this format /var/lib/transmission-daemon/downloads/MyFile.txt |
For more information about "transmission-create" - transmission-create -h
Add a Torrent⚓︎
To add a torrent to the daemon, use this command:
transmission-remote -n 'transmission:transmission' -a /var/lib/transmission-daemon/downloads/files.torrent
Torrent Information⚓︎
Display information about torrent's being downloaded
| Description | Command |
|---|---|
| Help information | transmission-remote -h |
| List all torrents | transmission-remote -n 'username:password' -l |
| Basic Stats All Torrents | transmission-remote -n 'transmission:transmission' -st |
| Full Stats All Torrents | transmission-remote -n 'transmission:transmission' -si |
| Torrent #3 Full Stats | transmission-remote -n 'transmission:transmission' -t 3 -f |
| Torrent #3 Summary Stats | transmission-remote -n 'transmission:transmission' -t 3 -i |
Note
Authentication is required. Here transmission:transmission refers to username:password set to transmission
Transmission Control⚓︎
| Description | Command |
|---|---|
| Start all torrents | transmission-remote -n 'transmission:transmission' -s |
| Stop all torrents | transmission-remote -n 'transmission:transmission' -S |
| Start a specific torrent | transmission-remote -s [hash] |
| transmission-remote -n 'transmission:transmission' -s -t 3 | |
| Stop a specific torrent | transmission-remote -S [hash] |
| transmission-remote -n 'transmission:transmission' -S -t 3 | |
| Remove all torrents | transmission-remote -n 'transmission:transmission' -r |
| Remove a specific torrent | transmission-remote -r [hash] |
| transmission-remote -n 'transmission:transmission' -r -t 3 | |
| Get hashes for all torrents | transmission-remote -n 'transmission:transmission' -i |
| Quit the daemon | transmission-remote -n 'transmission:transmission' -q |