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General note about key combinations: ^ means the Ctrl-key. M-x means Meta-x (Usually Alt-x or
Esc-x)
Add torrent using an URL or file path. Use tab to view directory content and do auto-
backspace
complete. Also, wildcards can be used. For example: ~/torrent/*
return Same as backspace, except the torrent remains inactive. (Use ^s to activate)
^o Set new download directory for selected torrent. Only works if torrent has not yet
been activated.
^s Start download. Runs hash first unless already done.
^d Stop an active download, or remove a stopped download.
^k Stop and close the files of an active download.
^r Initiate hash check of torrent. Without starting to download/upload.
Note that ^s (and ^q for quit) is often used for terminal control to pause screen output (and ^q to
resume). This may interfere with rTorrent. Type stty -a to see whether these have been mapped.
To remove the mappings, execute the commands
before running rTorrent (or reattaching to screen) to leave them undefined. You could also replace
undef with some other code -- ^p, say. ^d also usually sends end-of-file but ncurses passes this
through to rTorrent. stty eof undef if you are worried.
To fix this, you may also toggle the flow control in screen with ^a ^f until screen displays "-flow" in
the bottom left corner.
Throttling
Note that all throttling is applied globally and not per torrent.
Navigating
Global Keys
^q Initiate shutdown, press again to force the shutdown and skip sending the stop signal to
trackers.
up/down Select item.
Go back to the previous screen.
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left
Priority options are blank (standard priority), hig (high priority) and off (not to be downloaded).
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torrent:
* ubuntu-5.10-install-i386.iso
* Torrent: 161.6 / 617.2 MB Rate: 1.1 / 41.3 KB Uploaded: 5.1 MB [24%] 0d 3:
*
3 4
Uploaded: 5.1 MB
[24%]
Download ratio. 161.6 MB downloaded makes 24% of the total 617.2 MB. Well, roughly
apparently, presumably since some of the downloaded data may have been bad and
discarded.
0d 3:09
R: 0.03
Note that the estimated completion time does not take into account whether you turned off the
download of individual files in the torrent. It just relies on the current download speed and total size
of the torrent.
Throttle U/D: 200/off Rate: 141.6 / 0.0 KiB Listen:<default>:xxxxx Bind: xxx.xxx.x
3 4
In this case the total upload speed is limited to 200 KB/s. With the D setting to "off"
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there is no limit on download speed.
Listen:<default>:xxxxx
This is the ip reported to the tracker. It should be the same as the ip from where you
are browsing the tracker.
Bind: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
[D 15/0]
[H 1/32]
Current number of active HTTP requests (for tracker announces and downloads of
.torrent files), and the maximum.
[U 3/14]
Current number of upload slots in use, and the maximum, which depends on the global
upload rate limit.
[S 6/40/768]
[F 4/128]
The two numbers represent open files/max open files. The library dynamically closes the
least used files as needed.
Header:
Example entry:
Explanation
IP
The IP address of the peer. (Which, of course, has nothing to do with DNS)
UP
DOWN
The rate at which your client is downloading from the peer (KiB/sec).
PEER
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The download rate (KiB/sec) of this peer for this torrent (reported to your client by the
peer client).
C/RE/LO
RE = Remote client information, has two parts; the first is u or c and the second is i or
n.
c = This peer has choked your client (which means it is not going to send
you any pieces for now).
LO = Local client information, has two parts; the first is u or c and the second is i or n.
c = Your client has choked this peer (which means it is not going to send
this peer any pieces for now).
QS
Queues Outoing/Incoming pieces. The first is the number of pieces that are queued to
be sent to the peer. The second is the number of pieces your client has requested and
is waiting for the peer to send.
DONE
REQ
The number of the piece that is currently on the top of the request queue.
SNUB
This field has a * in it when your client is snubbing this peer. When a peer agrees to
send you a piece you have requested and then does not send that piece within a
certain time your client will snub this peer. It is basically a way for the client to flag
that this peer is unreliable and it is better to request pieces from other clients.
Status
Peers
The amount of peers you are connected and (not connected) to.
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Min/Max
The minimum and maximum amount of peers to try to keep connected. Can be toyed
with keys 3, 4, 5 and 6.
Uploads
Maximum number of peers to upload to at the same time (given the global upload slots
are available). Can be toyed with keys 1 and 2.
U/I/C/A
C = Complete peers
A = Peers accounted
Failed
C/A/D stands for Complete/Accounted/Distributed copies. Only those peers whose bitfields are
accounted for are included above; they do not include seeders, peers with empty bitfields, nor
normal peers if there are too many.
Then, you have a view of the chunks of the torrent. The chunks are shown in groups of 10. Each
new line begins with the number of the first chunk on that line.
Each chunk is shown by a hexadecimal number (0123456789ABCDEF) which is equal to its rarity
among the non-seeders:
a chunk shown as 0 is not available from non-seeders in the swarm (but all seeders have it of
course)
a chunk shown as 6 is available from 6 non-seeders
and a chunk shown as F is available from 15 or more peers.
If the chunk is in bold it means you do not have that chunk yet, if it is underlined then it is in the
transfer list (i.e. queued to be downloaded), and if the chunk is in reverse, it is currently being
downloaded. Otherwise, a normal font indicates that the chunk has already been downloaded and
verified as correct by rTorrent.
Session directory
Setting the session option will enable session management and the torrent files for all open
downloads will be stored in this directory. When restarting rtorrent all torrents previously open will
be restored. Only one instance of rtorrent should be used with each session directory, though at
the moment no locking is done. An empty string will disable the session directory.
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schedule = watch_directory,5,5,load_start=./watch/*.torrent
schedule = untied_directory,5,5,stop_untied=
Trackers
Using the -i <ip> flag or "ip = <ip>" option you may change your ip address that is reported to the
tracker. If you have a dynamic ip address then "schedule = ip_tick,0,1800,ip=my_address" may be
used to update the ip address every 30 minutes.
The client may spend as much as 60 seconds trying to contact a UDP tracker, so if you are behind
a firewall that blocks the reply packets you should tell the client to skip the UDP tracker. Set
"use_udp_trackers = no" in your configuration file or in the command line option.
Signal handlers
SIGINT Normal shutdown with 5 seconds to send the stopped request to trackers.
SIGTERM Shut down immediately.
SIGWINCH Resize and redraw.
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