About

rTorrent with ruTorrent Docker image.

Tip

Want to be notified of new releases? Check out 🔔 Diun (Docker Image Update Notifier) project!

---

• Features
• Build locally
• Image
• Environment variables
  • General
  • rTorrent
  • ruTorrent
• Volumes
• Ports
• Usage
  • Docker Compose
  • Command line
• Notes
  • XMLRPC through nginx
  • WebDAV
  • Populate .htpasswd files
  • Bootstrap config .rtlocal.rc
  • Override or add a ruTorrent plugin/theme
  • Edit a ruTorrent plugin configuration
  • Increase Docker timeout to allow rTorrent to shutdown gracefully
  • WAN IP address
  • Configure rTorrent session saving
  • Configure rTorrent tracker scrape
  • Configure rTorrent send receive buffers
• Upgrade
• Contributing
• License

Features

• Run as non-root user
• Multi-platform image
• Latest rTorrent / libTorrent release compiled from source
  • Includes rTorrent patches to increase software stability
  • Includes libtorrent patches to increase software stability
• Latest ruTorrent release
• Domain name resolving enhancements with c-ares and UDNS for asynchronous DNS requests
• Enhanced rTorrent config and bootstraping with a local config
• XMLRPC through nginx over SCGI socket (basic auth optional)
• WebDAV on completed downloads (basic auth optional)
• Ability to add a custom ruTorrent plugin / theme
• Allow persisting specific configuration for ruTorrent plugins
• ruTorrent GeoIP2 plugin
• mktorrent installed for ruTorrent create plugin
• Traefik Docker image as reverse proxy and creation/renewal of Let's Encrypt certificates (see this template)
• geoip-updater Docker image to download MaxMind's GeoIP2 databases on a time-based schedule for geolocation

Build locally

git clone https://github.com/crazy-max/docker-rtorrent-rutorrent.git
cd docker-rtorrent-rutorrent

# Build image and output to docker (default)
docker buildx bake

# Build image
docker buildx bake image

# Build multi-platform image
docker buildx bake image-all

Image

Registry	Image
Docker Hub	crazymax/rtorrent-rutorrent
GitHub Container Registry	ghcr.io/crazy-max/rtorrent-rutorrent

Following platforms for this image are available:

$ docker run --rm mplatform/mquery crazymax/rtorrent-rutorrent:latest
Image: crazymax/rtorrent-rutorrent:latest
 * Manifest List: Yes
 * Supported platforms:
   - linux/amd64
   - linux/arm/v6
   - linux/arm/v7
   - linux/arm64

Environment variables

General

• TZ: The timezone assigned to the container (default UTC)
• PUID: rTorrent user id (default 1000)
• PGID: rTorrent group id (default 1000)
• WAN_IP: Public IP address reported to the tracker (auto if empty)
• WAN_IP_CMD: Command to resolve the Public IP address
• MEMORY_LIMIT: PHP memory limit (default 256M)
• UPLOAD_MAX_SIZE: Upload max size (default 16M)
• CLEAR_ENV: Clear environment in FPM workers (default yes)
• OPCACHE_MEM_SIZE: PHP OpCache memory consumption (default 128)
• MAX_FILE_UPLOADS: The maximum number of files allowed to be uploaded simultaneously (default 50)
• AUTH_DELAY: The time in seconds to wait for Basic Auth (default 0s)
• REAL_IP_FROM: Trusted addresses that are known to send correct replacement addresses (default 0.0.0.0/32)
• REAL_IP_HEADER: Request header field whose value will be used to replace the client address (default X-Forwarded-For)
• LOG_IP_VAR: Use another variable to retrieve the remote IP address for access log_format on Nginx. (default remote_addr)
• LOG_ACCESS: Output access log (default true)
• XMLRPC_AUTHBASIC_STRING: Message displayed during validation of XMLRPC Basic Auth (default rTorrent XMLRPC restricted access)
• XMLRPC_PORT: XMLRPC port through nginx over SCGI socket (default 8000)
• XMLRPC_SIZE_LIMIT: Maximum body size of XMLRPC calls (default 1M)
• RUTORRENT_AUTHBASIC_STRING: Message displayed during validation of ruTorrent Basic Auth (default ruTorrent restricted access)
• RUTORRENT_PORT: ruTorrent HTTP port (default 8080)
• WEBDAV_AUTHBASIC_STRING: Message displayed during validation of WebDAV Basic Auth (default WebDAV restricted access)
• WEBDAV_PORT: WebDAV port on completed downloads (default 9000)

rTorrent

• RT_LOG_LEVEL: rTorrent log level (default info)
• RT_LOG_EXECUTE: Log executed commands to /data/rtorrent/log/execute.log (default false)
• RT_LOG_XMLRPC: Log XMLRPC queries to /data/rtorrent/log/xmlrpc.log (default false)
• RT_SESSION_SAVE_SECONDS: Seconds between writing torrent information to disk (default 3600)
• RT_TRACKER_DELAY_SCRAPE: Delay tracker announces at startup (default true)
• RT_DHT_PORT: DHT UDP port (dht.port.set, default 6881)
• RT_INC_PORT: Incoming connections (network.port_range.set, default 50000)
• RT_SEND_BUFFER_SIZE: Sets default tcp wmem value (network.send_buffer.size.set, default 4M)
• RT_RECEIVE_BUFFER_SIZE: Sets default tcp rmem value (network.receive_buffer.size.set, default 4M)

ruTorrent

• RU_REMOVE_CORE_PLUGINS: Comma separated list of core plugins to remove ; set to false to disable removal
• RU_HTTP_USER_AGENT: ruTorrent HTTP user agent (default Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.0; WOW64; rv:12.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/12.0)
• RU_HTTP_TIME_OUT: ruTorrent HTTP timeout in seconds (default 30)
• RU_HTTP_USE_GZIP: Use HTTP Gzip compression (default true)
• RU_RPC_TIME_OUT: ruTorrent RPC timeout in seconds (default 5)
• RU_LOG_RPC_CALLS: Log ruTorrent RPC calls (default false)
• RU_LOG_RPC_FAULTS: Log ruTorrent RPC faults (default true)
• RU_PHP_USE_GZIP: Use PHP Gzip compression (default false)
• RU_PHP_GZIP_LEVEL: PHP Gzip compression level (default 2)
• RU_SCHEDULE_RAND: Rand for schedulers start, +0..X seconds (default 10)
• RU_LOG_FILE: ruTorrent log file path for errors messages (default /data/rutorrent/rutorrent.log)
• RU_DO_DIAGNOSTIC: ruTorrent diagnostics like permission checking (default true)
• RU_CACHED_PLUGIN_LOADING: Set to true to enable rapid cached loading of ruTorrent plugins (default false)
• RU_SAVE_UPLOADED_TORRENTS: Save torrents files added wia ruTorrent in /data/rutorrent/share/torrents (default true)
• RU_OVERWRITE_UPLOADED_TORRENTS: Existing .torrent files will be overwritten (default false)
• RU_FORBID_USER_SETTINGS: If true, allows for single user style configuration, even with webauth (default false)
• RU_LOCALE: Set default locale for ruTorrent (default UTF8)

Volumes

• /data: rTorrent / ruTorrent config, session files, log, ...
• /downloads: Downloaded files
• /passwd: Contains htpasswd files for basic auth

⚠️ Note that the volumes should be owned by the user/group with the specified PUID and PGID. If you don't give the volumes correct permissions, the container may not start.

Ports

• 6881 (or RT_DHT_PORT): DHT UDP port (dht.port.set)
• 8000 (or XMLRPC_PORT): XMLRPC port through nginx over SCGI socket
• 8080 (or RUTORRENT_PORT): ruTorrent HTTP port
• 9000 (or WEBDAV_PORT): WebDAV port on completed downloads
• 50000 (or RT_INC_PORT): Incoming connections (network.port_range.set)

⚠️ Port p+1 defined for XMLRPC_PORT, RUTORRENT_PORT and WEBDAV_PORT will also be reserved for healthcheck. (e.g. if you define RUTORRENT_PORT=8080, port 8081 will be reserved)

Usage

Docker Compose

Docker compose is the recommended way to run this image. Copy the content of folder examples/compose in /var/rtorrent-rutorrent/ on your host for example. Edit the compose file with your preferences and run the following command:

mkdir data downloads passwd
chown ${PUID}:${PGID} data downloads passwd
docker compose up -d
docker compose logs -f

Command line

You can also use the following minimal command:

mkdir data downloads passwd
chown ${PUID}:${PGID} data downloads passwd
docker run -d --name rtorrent_rutorrent \
  --ulimit nproc=65535 \
  --ulimit nofile=32000:40000 \
  -p 6881:6881/udp \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -p 9000:9000 \
  -p 50000:50000 \
  -v $(pwd)/data:/data \
  -v $(pwd)/downloads:/downloads \
  -v $(pwd)/passwd:/passwd \
  crazymax/rtorrent-rutorrent:latest

Notes

XMLRPC through nginx

rTorrent 0.9.7+ has a built-in daemon mode disabling the user interface, so you can only control it via XMLRPC. Nginx will route XMLRPC requests to rtorrent through port 8000. These requests can be secured with basic authentication through the /passwd/rpc.htpasswd file in which you will need to add a username with his password. See below to populate this file with a user / password.

WebDAV

WebDAV allows you to retrieve your completed torrent files in /downloads/complete on port 9000. Like XMLRPC, these requests can be secured with basic authentication through the /passwd/webdav.htpasswd file in which you will need to add a username with his password. See below to populate this file with a user / password.

Populate .htpasswd files

For ruTorrent basic auth, XMLRPC through nginx and WebDAV on completed downloads, you can populate .htpasswd files with the following command:

docker run --rm -it httpd:2.4-alpine htpasswd -Bbn <username> <password> >> $(pwd)/passwd/webdav.htpasswd

Htpasswd files used:

• rpc.htpasswd: XMLRPC through nginx
• rutorrent.htpasswd: ruTorrent basic auth
• webdav.htpasswd: WebDAV on completed downloads

Bootstrap config .rtlocal.rc

When rTorrent is started the bootstrap config /etc/rtorrent/.rtlocal.rc is imported. This configuration cannot be changed unless you rebuild the image or overwrite these elements in your .rtorrent.rc. Here are the particular properties of this file:

• system.daemon.set = true: Launcher rTorrent as a daemon
• A config layout for the rTorrent's instance you can use in your .rtorrent.rc:
  • cfg.basedir: Home directory of rtorrent (/data/rtorrent/)
  • cfg.download: Download directory (/downloads/)
  • cfg.download_complete: Completed downloads (/downloads/complete/)
  • cfg.download_temp: Downloads in progress (/downloads/temp/)
  • cfg.logs: Logs directory (/data/rtorrent/log/)
  • cfg.session: Session directory (/data/rtorrent/.session/)
  • cfg.watch: Watch directory for torrents (/data/rtorrent/watch/)
  • cfg.rundir: Runtime data of rtorrent (/var/run/rtorrent/)
• d.data_path: Config var to get the full path of data of a torrent (workaround for the possibly empty d.base_path attribute)
• directory.default.set: Default directory to save the downloaded torrents (cfg.download_temp)
• session.path.set: Default session directory (cfg.session)
• PID file to /var/run/rtorrent/rtorrent.pid
• network.scgi.open_local: SCGI local socket and make it group-writable and secure
• network.port_range.set: Listening port for incoming peer traffic (50000-50000)
• dht.port.set: UDP port to use for DHT (6881)
• log.open_file: Default logging to /data/rtorrent/log/rtorrent.log
  • Log level can be modified with the environment variable RT_LOG_LEVEL
  • rpc_events are logged be default
  • To log executed commands, add the environment variable RT_LOG_EXECUTE
  • To log XMLRPC queries, add the environment variable RT_LOG_XMLRPC

Override or add a ruTorrent plugin/theme

You can add a plugin for ruTorrent in /data/rutorrent/plugins/. If you add a plugin that already exists in ruTorrent, it will be removed from ruTorrent core plugins and yours will be used. And you can also add a theme in /data/rutorrent/themes/. The same principle as for plugins will be used if you want to override one.

⚠️ Container has to be restarted to propagate changes

Edit a ruTorrent plugin configuration

As you probably know, plugin configuration is not outsourced in ruTorrent. Loading the configuration of a plugin is done via a conf.php file placed at the root of the plugin folder. To solve this issue with Docker, a special folder has been created in /data/rutorrent/plugins-conf to allow you to configure plugins. For example to configure the diskspace plugin, you will need to create the /data/rutorrent/plugins-conf/diskspace.php file with your configuration:

<?php

$diskUpdateInterval = 10;	// in seconds
$notifySpaceLimit = 512;	// in Mb
$partitionDirectory = null;	// if null, then we will check rtorrent download directory (or $topDirectory if rtorrent is unavailable)
				// otherwise, set this to the absolute path for checked partition. 

⚠️ Container has to be restarted to propagate changes

Increase Docker timeout to allow rTorrent to shutdown gracefully

After issuing a shutdown command, Docker waits 10 seconds for the container to exit before it is killed. If you are a seeding many torrents, rTorrent may be unable to gracefully close within that time period. As a result, rTorrent is closed forcefully and the lockfile isn't removed. This stale lockfile will prevent rTorrent from restarting until the lockfile is removed manually.

The timeout period can be extended by either adding the parameter -t XX to the docker command or stop_grace_period: XXs in compose.yml, where XX is the number of seconds to wait for a graceful shutdown.

WAN IP address

WAN_IP is the public IP address sent to the tracker. In the majority of cases you don't need to set it as it will be automatically determined by the tracker.

But it can be sometimes required to enforce the public IP address when you are behind a VPN where an erroneous IP is sometimes reported.

You can also use the WAN_IP_CMD environment variable to specify a command to resolve your public IP address. Here are some commands you can use:

• dig +short myip.opendns.com @resolver1.opendns.com
• curl -s ifconfig.me
• curl -s ident.me

Configure rTorrent session saving

RT_SESSION_SAVE_SECONDS is the seconds between writing torrent information to disk. The default is 3600 seconds which equals 1 hour. rTorrent has a bad default of 20 minutes. Twenty minutes is bad for the lifespan of SSDs and greatly reduces torrent throughput.

It is no longer possible to lose torrents added through ruTorrent on this docker container. Only torrent statistics are lost during a crash. (Ratio, Total Uploaded & Downloaded etc.)

Higher values will reduce disk usage, at the cost of minor stat loss during a crash. Consider increasing to 10800 seconds (3 hours) if running thousands of torrents.

rTorrent tracker scrape patch

RT_TRACKER_DELAY_SCRAPE specifies whether to delay tracker announces at rTorrent startup. The default value is true. There are two main benefits to keeping this feature enabled:

1. Software Stability: rTorrent will not crash or time-out with tens of thousands of trackers.
2. Immediate Access: ruTorrent can be accessed immediately after rTorrent is started.

rTorrent send receive buffers

Overriding the default TCP rmem and wmem values for rTorrent improves torrent throughput.

• RT_SEND_BUFFER_SIZE: Sets default tcp wmem value for the socket.
• RT_RECEIVE_BUFFER_SIZE: Sets default tcp rmem value for the socket.

Recommended values:

• 2GB of less system memory: Reduce to 1M send and 1M receive regardless of speed.
• 4GB to 16GB of system memory: Keep at default values of 4M send and 4M receive.
• 16GB to 32GB of system memory: Increase to 8M send for 500Mbps speeds.
• 32GB to 64GB of system memory: Increase to 16M send for 1G speeds.
• 64GB to 128GB of system memory: Increase to 32M send for 2.5G speeds.
• 128GB to 256GB of system memory: Increase to 64M send for 10G speeds.

Memory is better spent elsewhere except under limited circumstances for high memory and speed conditions. The default values should not be increased, unless both the memory and speed requirements are met. These values of system memory are also recommended based on the port speed for rTorrent to reduce disk usage.

Upgrade

To upgrade, pull the newer image and launch the container:

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

Contributing

Want to contribute? Awesome! The most basic way to show your support is to star the project, or to raise issues. You can also support this project by becoming a sponsor on GitHub or by making a PayPal donation to ensure this journey continues indefinitely!

Thanks again for your support, it is much appreciated! 🙏

License

MIT. See LICENSE for more details.