rTorrent

rTorrent is an open source and free BitTorrent client application that runs entirely in the Linux console or in any X11 terminal emulator software. It is based on the libTorrent library created by the same developers and uses the Ncurses project for the CLI user interface.

Features at a glance

Key features include the ability to use URLs or file paths to add torrent files at runtime, Emacs-style find-file support for opening torrent files, stop, resume and delete of torrents, support for fast resume, automatic loading, saving and deletion of torrent files in a session directory, detailed peer and torrent information.

In order to use it, the user must add the entire URL of the torrent file or the local path where a previously downloaded torrent file is stored. As expected, the application can be utilized only with the keyboard. Details about its keyboard shortcuts can be found in the dedicated manpage or the project's homepage.

Under the hood and availability

The project is mostly written in the C++ and C programming languages, and uses the libTorrent and Ncurses libraries. Officially supported GNU/Linux operating systems include Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, Ubuntu, openSUSE, Arch Linux, CRUX, and Lunar Linux.

It is available for download as a universal source archive, allowing users to configure, compile and install the program in any Linux distribution. However, the best way to install it on your Linux OS is to use the packages from the default software repositories. Various BSD flavors are also supported, such as FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD, as well as Mac OS X.

Bottom line

Summing up, rTorrent is a BitTorrent client for those who prefer to use a minimal window manager on their GNU/Linux operating systems and don't care too much for complex graphical applications, such as Transmission or Deluge.

What is new in this release:

• Added a simple scheduler framework.Don't send numwant in STOPPED messages as some trackers are stupid about it.Reintroduced clearing of epoll event list when a socket is closed asit might cause race conditions.Added cppUnit test framework. Tests will be added on rather unregular basis.Logging for SCGI calls.Fixed handling of errors when writing out session torrents, itshould no longer hit an infinite loop.Fixed a bug that would cause reading of a piece to hang rtorrent ifthe incoming data contains only data up to a file boundary, but notthe next file's data.Fixes a file handle leak in the execute_capture functions. Patch byJosef Drexler.Fixed crash on empty bitfield in 'd.bitfield'.Fixed the Object::flag_unordered code to handle initial zero-lengthkeys. Ticket #1950.Made torrent::Rate::rate_type uint64_t and added sanity checks dueto reports of bad download/upload values being reported to sometrackers.

Requirements:

• Ncurses