Install rTorrent latest version on Debian

This howto is tested on :

• Debian 5.0 Lenny
• Debian 6.0 Squeeze

This howto is tested with these versions of rTorrent:

• 0.9.2

Installation

Install the required softwares :

command apt-get install build-essential libssl-dev libcppunit-dev \
    libsigc++-2.0-dev autogen automake libtool \
    libcurl4-openssl-dev libncurses5-dev

XML-RPC for C install

The software require a recent version of XML-RPC for C library. Fetch the library sources using the sf-downloader script :

command wget 'https://raw.github.com/biapy/howto.biapy.com/master/various/sf-downloader' \
    --quiet --no-check-certificate --output-document='/tmp/sf-downloader'
command chmod +x '/tmp/sf-downloader'
SOURCE="$(/tmp/sf-downloader --tgz xmlrpc-c xmlrpc-c-VERSION.tgz)"

Go to the new folder :

command pushd "${SOURCE}"

Compile the library :

./configure
command make

Install the library :

command make install

Delete the downloaded files :

command popd
command rm -r "${SOURCE}"

libTorrent install

Fetch the library stable version sources download URL, and get the version number from this URL :

SOURCE_URL="$(command wget --quiet --output-document=- \
    'http://libtorrent.rakshasa.no/' \
    | command grep --max-count=1 'libtorrent-.*.tar.gz' \
    | command sed -e 's/^.*href="\([^"]*\)".*$/\1/')"
VERSION="$(echo "${SOURCE_URL}" \
    | command sed -e 's/.*libtorrent-\(.*\)\.tar\.gz/\1/')"

Download the sources archive :

command wget "${SOURCE_URL}" \
    --output-document="/tmp/libtorrent-${VERSION}.tar.gz"

Decompress the archive :

command tar --directory "/tmp" -xzf "/tmp/libtorrent-${VERSION}.tar.gz"

Note: to install the development version use :

# VERSION='trunk'
# command git clone 'https://github.com/rakshasa/libtorrent' "/tmp/libtorrent-${VERSION}"

Go to the created folder :

command pushd "/tmp/libtorrent-${VERSION}"

Compile the library :

./autogen.sh
./configure
command make

Install the library :

command make install

Delete the downloaded files :

command popd
command rm -r "/tmp/libtorrent-${VERSION}"
command rm "/tmp/libtorrent-${VERSION}.tar.gz"

rTorrent install

Fetch the software stable version sources download URL, and get the version number from this URL :

SOURCE_URL="$(command wget --quiet --output-document=- \
    'http://libtorrent.rakshasa.no/' \
    | command grep --max-count=1 'rtorrent-.*.tar.gz' \
    | command sed -e 's/^.*href="\([^"]*\)".*$/\1/')"
VERSION="$(echo "${SOURCE_URL}" \
    | command sed -e 's/.*rtorrent-\(.*\)\.tar\.gz/\1/')"

Download the software sources :

command wget "${SOURCE_URL}" \
    --output-document="/tmp/rtorrent-${VERSION}.tar.gz"

Decompress the archive :

command tar --directory "/tmp" -xzf "/tmp/rtorrent-${VERSION}.tar.gz"

Note: to install the development version use :

# VERSION='trunk'
# command git clone 'https://github.com/rakshasa/rtorrent' "/tmp/rtorrent-${VERSION}"

Go to the created folder :

command pushd "/tmp/rtorrent-${VERSION}"

Compile the software :

./autogen.sh
./configure --with-xmlrpc-c
command make

Install the software :

command make install

Delete the downloaded files :

command popd
command rm -r "/tmp/rtorrent-${VERSION}"
command rm "/tmp/rtorrent-${VERSION}.tar.gz"

Setup the rTorrent daemon

Install the daemon required software :

command apt-get install dtach

Create the folders used by the daemon :

command mkdir --parents "/var/lib/rtorrent/sessions"
command mkdir --parents "/var/lib/rtorrent/torrents/doing"
command mkdir --parents "/var/lib/rtorrent/torrents/watch"
command mkdir --parents "/var/lib/rtorrent/torrents/done"
command chown -R www-data:www-data "/var/lib/rtorrent"

Fetch the software configuration file :

command wget 'https://raw.github.com/biapy/howto.biapy.com/master/various/rtorrent.rc' \
    --quiet --no-check-certificate --output-document='/etc/rtorrent.rc'

Install the init.d script :

command wget 'https://raw.github.com/biapy/howto.biapy.com/master/various/rtorrent.init-d' \
    --quiet --no-check-certificate --output-document='/etc/init.d/rtorrent'
command chmod +x '/etc/init.d/rtorrent'

Initialize the daemon log :

command touch "/var/log/rtorrent.log"
command chown www-data:adm "/var/log/rtorrent.log"

Setup the log rotation :

command echo '# rtorrent logrotate config.
"/var/log/rtorrent.log" {
    weekly
    missingok
    rotate 10
    compress
    delaycompress
    notifempty
    create
    sharedscripts
    postrotate
      sh -c "[ -x /etc/init.d/rtorrent ] && /etc/init.d/rtorrent restart"
    endscript
}' > '/etc/logrotate.d/rtorrent'

Open the following TCP port range on the firewall :

49160-49300

Start the daemon :

/etc/init.d/rtorrent start

Enable daemon launch at startup :

command update-rc.d rtorrent defaults

Solving problems

If the rtorrent daemon does not start, try to remove the lock file :

command rm '/var/lib/rtorrent/sessions/rtorrent.lock'

Thanks

• Thanks to libTorrent an rTorrent (en) developers.