Prevent starting new download when disk space is insufficient

[emanruse]

Background

I often queue a lot of torrents to download for the night on a tmpfs (a Linux system with lots of RAM) as these are torrents I don't need to store long-term, just to review them quickly in the morning (and there is no need to wear the disk for all that). However in the morning I often see the tmpfs partition is full (in KDE Plasma Dolphin even claims the files occupy more space than the actual size of the partition) and the download speed is 0. The end result is: very few (or none) of the torrents have actually completed, although there are enough seeders and many of the files would surely fit on the partition. So unless I monitor/handle manually this process, I can't seem to really have a sequential queue of automatically completing torrents.

My settings are:

Maximum active downloads = 2
Download rate threshold = 50 KiB/s
Upload rate threshold = 50 KiB/s
Torrent inactivity timer = 20 sec

Currently (4.1.6) can't seem to find a way to tell QBT to NOT start (pre-allocate) next torrent files if there is insufficient space on the target partition. It would be really useful to have such option.

[iheartcsharp]

This should apply whether you you pre-allocate torrents or not. Maybe there can be a setting that says if free space is less than X amount do not start any torrents. Create a new status like "Waiting". Also if you don't preallocate it should auto-pause torrents that are downloading.

[emanruse]

Maybe there can be a setting that says if free space is less than X amount do not start any torrents.

Better: "Do not start torrent which would result in disk free space less than X". Then QBT will simply move on to the next (possibly smaller) ones in the queue and keep the big ones queued. If a torrent is relocated to another volume (or moved to a category) which gives it more space it will be re-evaluated for the new location and respective: stay queued or start downloading.

Also if you don't preallocate it should auto-pause torrents that are downloading.

That may cause complication and confusion as with many torrents it may be difficult for one to know why something is paused and not possible to resume. Also I don't quite see how it could possibly work with "Force resume". Seems much easier to simply have the requested option available only with full torrent pre-allocation enabled.

[JakubKoralewski]

@emanruse

Seems much easier to simply have the requested option available only with full torrent pre-allocation enabled.

Why restrict that? Pre-allocation is currently broken (see #6195). I don't see a reason why this option only be available when pre-allocation is checked. Finished torrents will free up space when they are moved to another drive not only when they are pre-allocated, but also when downloading normally.

[dantebarba]

Is this possible to achieve by just using qbt API?.

1. Check "Downloading" torrents
2. If total_torrent_size > size_limit then
   2.1. queue the smallest torrent / queue the biggest torrent and retry (the solution to this issue is not trivial, same as allocating pages in memory, starvation could be an issue).
3. else, continue downloading.

Don't know if the api has all those parameters, but yeah torrent size + torrent status I think are already available.

[Rojikku]

It's been two years and this would still be great.

[joeblack2k]

wen disk space.. :(

[MrOscarvs]

It's been two years and this would still be great.

three years actually....

[Extremity]

Just woke up to my computer freaking out because for some reason 200 new things were uploaded last night. DL cache drive was completely full.

Every other client I use has a "leave minimum space available" or "don't download if available space <" option. Don't see why we can't here.

[zsugabubus007]

It's been two years and this would still be great.

three years actually....

Three and a half now and it still would be an awesome feature!

[eeyou]

Over 4 years old and I'd be very happy to have this feature right now to help me tame down QB 😦

[ghost]

Came across this. Can't believe there's not a solution. Made a solution:

python script

Basically it assumes you start all torrents as paused w/ metadata downloaded, and it'll go resume all the ones with enough disk space to finish. I run it via a cronjob. Simple, but works for my purposes, hopefully will for others.

[Greatdane]

Would love this to be an option, still routing for it as a feature request! Just had my Unraid docker's die because the cache drive got full due to an unusual torrent. With all the advanced options in qbt, I am surprised this is not one yet!

[Extremity]

This is so stupid simple:

1. Add the following option, with two sub-inputs:

--- Require minimum available space to download:
-------- [ ] DL Destination Drive: [ 0.000 ] (GB)
-------- [ ] DL Temporary Drive: [ 0.000 ] (GB)

...where there's an option header, followed by the two sub-headings preceded by checkboxes (to enable either or, or both) and followed by a numeric input field followed by a selectable containing KB, MB, GB, TB.

2. The logistics of it are also stupid simple. On any torrent addition, if an option is enabled, check remaining disk space for the assigned location related to the option(s) selected. If there is not enough space, simply continue to add the file but do so as inactive/paused/whatever. Bonus points if a new error type can be added to show it did not start due to "Insufficient destination/temporary disk space (user defined)."

3. Bonus options which would be appreciated but are absolutely not required - Auto resume any halted downloads (specifically only if halted due to space check) if available space increases and exceeds limit, notification option for when a download is halted due to hitting the limit.

Ignoring the bonus options - which again are just a nicety, not a requirement, this is beyond simple. Check if option is set when adding torrent. If so, check for assigned path related to which setting is enabled, or both. Check disk space of path. If < assigned limit, halt. Done. If this happens on a manual addition rather than an automated/RSS addition, simply prompt the user and allow them to continue anyways if they wish.

Checking available disk space is not only crazy easy to do but you're already interfacing with the filesystem all over the place, so you KNOW it's easy to do. I don't get it, this is a fifteen minute (if that) fix, why the hesitation? Does one of us need to do it ourselves? I feel like me cobbling it together with no other experience working on torrent clients is not the best solution, but hell, if it's not going to be done otherwise I'll take a shot at it.

[ShadabFaiz]

This is still not possible to do?

[Extremity]

Of course it's possible, and other clients have the option.

[glassez]

Does one of us need to do it ourselves?

Who exactly do you mean by "one of us"? If it's "one of qBittorrent community", then yes, one of us need do it - someone who has the desire and opportunity to do it. There is no such person yet.

[stephenshutters]

Gosh, this feature is essential.