How to download specific files / skip files in rtorrent or other linux program?

Question

I have been searching quite hard but cannot find an answer to this...

Are there any torrent programs out there for linux (centos) where you can skip certain files from the torrent OR download specific files? Or if not that skip files under or over a certain size?

I have checked rtorrent and bittorrent but neither seem to have this feature.

This needs to be automated so preferably like this:

./bittorrent --file='http://example.blah/filename.torrent' --skip'file1.jpg,file2.jpg' OR ./bittorrent --file='http://example.blah/filename.torrent' --skip > 1MB

I appreciate your answers :)

thanks!

Answer 1

rtorrent does allow you to control which file from a torrent to download from the 'File list' view. From the main view get there by selecting the particular torrent using up/down arrow keys so it is stared, then hit right arrow to view details, then down arrow to select 'File list', followed by right arrow to allow you to navigate the file list. Once you are in the list of files you move up/down with the arrows keys to select the file in question. Then hit the space-bar to toggle through the 'file priority' options of whether the file is 'hig' (i.e. High priority),'off' (i.e. don't download), or blank (i.e. 'normal'). The 'off' setting allows you skip the file(s) in question.

Answer 2

once you're in the file list view you can select the file that you don't want to download (using arrow keys) then toggle (using the space bar) the priority to off.

Answer 3

For proper automation you'd probably want to script it in python or ruby using some torrent library, but if it's generally more flexible file selection that you're after, then you could try utilizing the web interfaces that many torrent clients offer.

As an example using Tixati client and a hypothetical torrent where there's hundreds of directories that each have a subdirectory that you don't want (let's say it's called "RUS"). So, after enabling web interface from Tixati settings, you'd go to localhost:8888, open a javascript console and write something like this:

var jq = document.createElement('script');
jq.src = "//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1/jquery.min.js";
document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(jq);

$('.xferstable tr:has(td)').each(function(i,td){
  var fname= $('td:eq(1)', td).text();
  $('input', td).prop('checked', fname.match(/\\RUS\\/) == null);
})

You can visually verify that it selected the files you wanted and click Apply, et voilà.