torrenter

torrenter gui

torrenter cli

Downloader with two engines and two fronts. Each GitHub Release ships a CLI binary and a native GUI binary (egui, no HTML/CSS).

1. Magnet / torrent — BitTorrent via librqbit
2. Direct HTTP(S) — 4-part parallel download with byte-range resume

Output goes to <OS Downloads>/torrenter until you pick another folder. Runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows. Both fronts show danted4/torrenter vX.Y.Z. Auto-update is off by default.

Two download modes

	Magnet / torrent	Direct HTTP(S)
Use when	magnet P2P	CDN, mirror, or any direct file URL
Input	magnet:?xt=urn:btih:…	https://example.com/file.iso
Engine	librqbit	reqwest + Range: bytes=
Parallelism	piece picker	4 byte-range parts
Resume	librqbit on disk under <dest>/<torrent-name>/	<dest>/.resume/ part files
Peers	live count in the bar	Peers: 0
Upload	Share (default): upload while downloading and keep seeding until Stop. Leech: never upload; stop at 100%	—
Fallback	—	single stream if the server ignores ranges

Magnet links need a 32-character base32 or 40-character hex info hash. .torrent files are not accepted. HTTP names come from Content-Disposition or the URL path (one path component only; . / .. become download.bin).

Single-stream HTTP does not resume. It truncates the destination and starts over.

Install

Pre-built binaries and SHA256SUMS are on GitHub Releases:

OS	CLI	GUI
Linux x86_64	torrenter-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu	torrenter-gui-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
macOS Apple Silicon	torrenter-aarch64-apple-darwin	torrenter-gui-aarch64-apple-darwin and torrenter-gui-aarch64-apple-darwin.app.zip
macOS Intel	torrenter-x86_64-apple-darwin	torrenter-gui-x86_64-apple-darwin and torrenter-gui-x86_64-apple-darwin.app.zip
Windows x86_64	torrenter-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.exe	torrenter-gui-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.exe

Releases are unsigned. The GUI updater still downloads the naked torrenter-gui-* Mach-O / .exe (CLI uses torrenter-*). The macOS .app.zip is extra packaging for Launchpad; it is not the updater asset.

On Unix: chmod +x the CLI (and the naked GUI if you use it). Put the CLI on your PATH if you want. No Rust/Cargo needed at runtime.

macOS GUI (Launchpad). Download torrenter-gui-<arch>-apple-darwin.app.zip, double-click to unzip torrenter.app, drag it to Applications. GitHub sets com.apple.quarantine:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/torrenter.app
open /Applications/torrenter.app

If macOS still blocks it: right-click torrenter → Open → Open, or System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway. Spotlight and Launchpad list it after it sits in Applications.

macOS CLI / naked GUI. Same quarantine on the Mach-O:

chmod +x torrenter-gui-aarch64-apple-darwin   # or the Intel / CLI name
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine torrenter-gui-aarch64-apple-darwin
./torrenter-gui-aarch64-apple-darwin

Windows (SmartScreen). Double-click the .exe. If Windows protected your PC appears: More info → Run anyway. Microsoft Defender may scan the first run. Share-mode magnets can prompt Windows Firewall for inbound TCP (allow if you want peers to connect). Pin-to-taskbar uses the icon baked into the .exe (v3.2.1+).

Linux GUI needs GTK 3 and xcb at run time (libgtk-3-0 libxkbcommon0 libxcb-render0 libxcb-shape0 libxcb-xfixes0 on Debian/Ubuntu). The CLI does not.

A vX.Y.Z tag whose commit is on main builds those assets.

From source (Rust 1.85+):

git clone https://github.com/danted4/torrenter.git
cd torrenter
cargo build --release
cargo build --release --features gui --bin torrenter-gui
./target/release/torrenter              # Windows: .\target\release\torrenter.exe
./target/release/torrenter-gui          # Windows: .\target\release\torrenter-gui.exe

Usage

CLI

Interactive (no arguments):

danted4/torrenter v3.2.3
auto-update: off
seed: on
download: /Users/you/Downloads/torrenter
Choose download type:
1. Magnet URL
2. Direct URL (multi-part)
3. Toggle auto-update
4. Update now
5. Toggle seed
6. Change download folder

Commands:

torrenter magnet "magnet:?xt=urn:btih:…"
torrenter http "https://example.com/large-file.iso"
torrenter magnet "magnet:?xt=urn:btih:…" --dir /tmp/out   # one-shot, not saved
torrenter --auto-update          # persist: check GitHub Releases on startup (TTY only)
torrenter --no-auto-update
torrenter update                 # install the latest matching CLI asset now

While a download runs, type 1 then Enter to pause/resume, or 2 then Enter to stop. HTTP pause aborts the live Range body and continues from <dest>/.resume/ on resume. Pause on a single-stream (no Range) download starts that GET over. Stop is honored during HEAD, range probe, part copy, and merge.

Torrent mode uses DHT in memory only. Share (default, seed: on) uploads while downloading, opens an incoming TCP listen on a random high port, and stays connected after 100% until you press 2 or quit — torrenter magnet will not return when the file is complete. Leech (seed: off) never uploads and calls session.stop() at 100%. The OS may prompt for a firewall exception the first time a share-mode magnet runs. Each magnet writes into <dest>/<torrent-name>/ (whitespace becomes _) so two torrents with the same filenames do not clobber each other. If the magnet has no name, or that folder belongs to a different info-hash, the folder is the hash (or name_hash). Overwrite is allowed only inside that folder so a retry can resume. Closing the CLI or GUI drops every seed.

Startup auto-update is skipped when stdin is not a TTY (scripts, pipes). torrenter update always runs when you ask.

GUI

Same engines, phosphor / amber / ice themes, magnet/HTTP swap on the URL row, share/leech glyphs (halo vs horns) between the URL field and START (faded and inactive in HTTP mode), dest path under the URL row, pause / stop / clear per row. Stop immediately shows clear (and restart), including queued or incomplete magnets — not only after 100%. Click a job title to open that job’s folder. Idle magnet and stopped HTTP rows use restart, which opens a confirm popup (original mode and dest; START begins the job). A search field above the list filters jobs by title, URL, folder, MAGNET/HTTP, or info-hash (Esc clears). Auto-update checkbox. Update-check notes and folder errors land in a bottom-right toast (info ~1.5s, errors 5s, click to dismiss; in-progress “checking/installing” and dest/update fatals stay until replaced or clicked). The window must stay open to keep seeding.

./torrenter-gui-aarch64-apple-darwin    # or the asset for your OS

At most four downloads run at once; further rows stay queued. The same magnet (or HTTP URL) cannot start twice while it is already active. A second copy of the same info hash also waits on an in-process folder lock.

The GUI binary only replaces itself with torrenter-gui-* assets; the CLI binary only replaces itself with torrenter-* assets. The binary directory must be writable. Auto and manual install are the same: the new Mach-O overwrites this executable (Windows first renames the running file to *.old). Startup deletes leftover *.old, .*.update, and .*.sha256sums next to it. If you launched from torrenter.app, that bundle stays; only Contents/MacOS/torrenter-gui is swapped, then Info.plist is restamped and the app is ad-hoc signed again. Other copies (Downloads, an old zip) are not searched or deleted.

Updates

Opt-in. The updater downloads only https://github.com/danted4/torrenter/releases/download/<tag>/<name> (tag in the path must match the release), checks SHA256SUMS, caps size, and times out. GitHub then 302s to objects.githubusercontent.com; that redirect is followed because the first hop is pinned.

SHA256SUMS is same-publisher integrity, not a signature. A stolen GitHub token can still ship a binary and a matching sums file.

Progress bar

[████████████████░░░░] 75% | Peers: 12 | D: 750.45 MB @ 2.5 MB/s | T: 1.0 GB | ETA: 2 minutes
[████████████████████] 100% | Peers: 8 | U: 120.00 MB @ 1.1 MB/s | T: 1.0 GB

How it works

flowchart TD
  start[torrenter] --> entry{Args?}
  entry -->|none| menu{Menu}
  entry -->|magnet| torrent
  entry -->|http| httpStart
  entry -->|update| updater
  menu -->|1 Magnet| torrent
  menu -->|2 Direct URL| httpStart
  menu -->|3 Toggle auto-update| menu
  menu -->|4 Update now| updater
  menu -->|5 Toggle seed| menu
  menu -->|6 Change download folder| menu

  subgraph magnetFlow [Magnet]
    torrent[librqbit session]
    torrent --> dht[DHT in memory no persistence]
    dht --> upload{share?}
    upload -->|no| leech[disable upload]
    upload -->|yes| listen[listen TCP]
    leech --> waitComplete[wait_until_completed]
    listen --> waitComplete
    waitComplete --> after{share?}
    after -->|no| stopSession[session.stop]
    after -->|yes| seedUntilStop[seed until Stop]
    seedUntilStop --> stopSession
    stopSession --> magnetDir
  end

  subgraph httpFlow [Direct HTTP]
    httpStart[HEAD plus Range bytes 0-0]
    httpStart --> sized{Known size?}
    sized -->|no| single[Single GET stream]
    sized -->|yes| parts[4 parallel Range parts]
    parts --> resumeDir["dest/.resume hashed-url parts"]
    resumeDir --> honor{"HTTP 206?"}
    honor -->|no| wipe[Wipe parts] --> single
    honor -->|short body| fail[Fail incomplete no zero pad]
    honor -->|yes| merge[Copy exact bytes to temp then rename]
    merge --> httpDir
    single --> httpDir
  end

  magnetDir["dest/torrent-name"]
  httpDir["dest"]
  updater[GitHub Releases plus SHA256SUMS]

Loading

HTTP resume keeps {sha256(url)[0..16]}.part-N plus a small JSON manifest under <dest>/.resume/. Oversized parts are truncated before append; a short 206 is an error, not a zero-filled hole. Merge writes .{filename}.merge.tmp then replaces the final file.

Configuration

• Download folder: <OS Downloads>/torrenter until download_dir is set (src/paths.rs)
• Parallel HTTP parts: PART_COUNT = 4 in src/http.rs
• GUI concurrent jobs: 4
• Progress format: BAR_TEMPLATE in src/progress.rs
• HTTP and updater timeouts: 20s connect, 60s between reads
• Auto-update, magnet seed, and optional download_dir: ~/.config/torrenter/config.json (macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/torrenter/config.json, Windows: %APPDATA%\torrenter\config.json). seed defaults to on. Missing download_dir keeps following the live OS Downloads path.

Development

cargo test --all-features
cargo fmt --check
cargo clippy --all-targets --all-features -- -D warnings

CI on every push and pull request to main: fmt, clippy (-D warnings), tests on Linux, macOS, and Windows (--all-features so the GUI compiles).

Release: git tag vX.Y.Z && git push origin vX.Y.Z (commit must already be on main). That publishes CLI + GUI binaries, macOS torrenter-gui-*.app.zip, and SHA256SUMS. Doc-only changes on main do not need a tag.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Fix
Invalid magnet URL	Must start with magnet:?xt=urn: and a 32-char base32 or 40-char hex hash
No peers / slow torrent	Wait for DHT; try a seeded magnet; check firewall/UDP
Share magnet, no upload	Keep the app open; allow the firewall prompt; leech mode never uploads and does not listen
Too many open files	torrenter raises the process limit when it can; otherwise ulimit -n 10240 and retry
Invalid HTTP(S) URL	Full http:// or https:// URL required
Multipart not used	Server did not return HTTP 206 — single stream is used instead
Resume not working (HTTP)	Same URL and same dest folder; state is in <dest>/.resume/
Incomplete part	Server closed a Range early; retry the same URL
Linux GUI missing GTK/xcb	Install GTK 3 and xcb (see Install)
macOS “cannot be opened because it is from an unidentified developer”	xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine on torrenter.app or the Mach-O, then right-click Open or Privacy & Security → Open Anyway (see Install)
Windows SmartScreen / “Windows protected your PC”	More info → Run anyway. Builds are unsigned; this is expected
GUI says already downloading	Same magnet info-hash or HTTP URL is already active
Auto-update did nothing in a script	Startup check is TTY-only; use torrenter update
Update hash / URL refused	Asset must be this repo’s release for that tag, with a matching SHA256SUMS line
Rust version error	Recent stable toolchain if building from source (rustup update)

Responsible use

Download only content you have the legal right to access. Generic tool — not affiliated with rqbit beyond using their OSS library.

License

MIT