Download and share files using transmissionbt on Ubuntu Snappy.

Has to be run in devmode.

A good hardware companion for this Snap is the Nextcloud Box which comes with a 1TB hard drive and Nextcloud, a next-generation Files, Sync and Share solution.

• Olivier Paroz

Prerequisite: You need to have both snapcraft and snapd installed. See https://snapcraft.io

Download the source

$ git clone https://github.com/oparoz/transmissionbt-snap

Compile the snap

$ cd transmissionbt-snap
$ sudo snapcraft

Install it locally

$ sudo snap install transmissionbt_1.0.1oparoz_amd64.snap --force-dangerous --devmode

Note: Replace the filename with the one which has been generated

This downloads the app from the Ubuntu app store

$ sudo snap install transmissionbt --beta --devmode

Note: devmode is required because snapd doesn't offer yet the needed interface to confine this snap

The next step is to connect the Snap to you home and /media folders and to restart the service

$ snap connect transmissionbt:home ubuntu-core:home
$ snap connect transmissionbt:removable-media ubuntu-core:removable-media
$ sudo systemctl restart snap.transmissionbt.transmission-daemon

You can optionally relax the apparmor policy by typing:

$ sudo snap connect transmissionbt:mount-observe ubuntu-core:mount-observe

Go with your browser to the URL of the device on which the snap was installed, but use port 9091.

Per example: http://nextcloud.local:9091

From there, you'll be able to:

• upload torrents file
• monitor download and seeding progress
• delete files

The snap provides wget and p7zip to make it easier to fetch torrents and to unpack them using the command line or custom scripts. Transmission can call a script each time a download is completed per example.

The snap also provides a blocklist script which you can use to retrieve lists of IPs to block. The URL and list of files to download are blank, letting you pick what's best for your use-case.

You can find the script here:

/var/snap/transmissionbt/current/transmission/blocklists.sh

Once you've updated the blocklist, simply restart the service

$ sudo systemctl restart snap.transmissionbt.transmission-daemon

Note: It takes a while as your blocklists will need to be downloaded and unpacked

Go to the web interface, click on the "wrench" button (bottom left), go to the "Peers" tab. You should see a high number of rules.

Place your torrents files here:

/media/transmissionbt/torrents

The downloaded files are placed here:

/media/transmissionbt/downloads

Files still being downloaded can be found here:

/media/transmissionbt/incomplete

Create the torrent

$ sudo transmissionbt.transmission-create -o ~/torrents/transmissionbt_1.0.1oparoz_amd64.snap.torrent -c "transmissionbt Snap for Ubuntu Snappy" -t udp://tracker.openbittorrent.com:80 -t udp://open.demonii.com:1337 -t udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969 -t udp://tracker.leechers-paradise.org:6969 ~/mysnaps/transmissionbt_1.0.1oparoz_amd64.snap

Path to the torrent to create, including the full path to its location

-o ~/torrents/transmissionbt_1.0.1oparoz_amd64.snap.torrent

Comments you want to add to the file

-c "transmissionbt Snap for Ubuntu Snappy"

As many trackers as you want. Use more than one for redundancy

-t udp://tracker.openbittorrent.com:80
-t udp://open.demonii.com:1337
-t udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969
-t udp://tracker.leechers-paradise.org:6969

File or directory to share

~/mysnaps/transmissionbt_1.0.1oparoz_amd64.snap

Copy the file/folder to your transmission download folder

$ sudo cp ~/mysnaps/transmissionbt_1.0.1oparoz_amd64.snap /media/transmissionbt/downloads/

Send the torrent file to transmission

Note: Authentication is required when using transmission-remote. The default login/password are transmission/transmission

$ sudo transmissionbt.transmission-remote -n 'transmission:transmission' -a ~/torrents/transmissionbt_1.0.1oparoz_amd64.snap.torrent
localhost:9091/transmission/rpc/ responded: "success"

List all torrents

$ sudo transmissionbt.transmission-remote -n 'transmission:transmission' -l
ID     Done       Have  ETA           Up    Down  Ratio  Status       Name
   1   100%   11.47 MB  Done         0.0     0.0    0.0  Idle         transmissionbt_1.0.1oparoz_amd64.snap
Sum:          11.47 MB               0.0     0.0