Linux BitTorrent client with support for magnet links

Question

Is there a Linux application (bonus points for being console/headless) that supports magnet links - like the ones provided now by some famous "bay" for pirate BitTorrent users?

Magnet links are different? I thought that they were the same as any other torrent, just linked from other trackers... — Kaji, Dec 06 '09 at 23:41
Yes. They are trackerless torrents, but require a different way of authenticating than traditional torrents — Katerberg, Jan 09 '10 at 18:38
magnet links are not about being trackerless, they are about being .torrent less. You can have a .torrent file that uses the DHT instead of a tracker. magnet links take this one step further and do away with the .torrent file entirely. — user23307, Jan 09 '10 at 20:21
I notice that the "headless" thing was mostly ignored. Did you find an actual solution? Deluge site doesn't mention feeding it magnet links with console- rather than X-based browsers. By now you clearly know that firefox-->vuze works for normal usage... — Maggie, Jan 18 '12 at 01:20
@Maggie: the accepted answer - rtorrent - is the one that I found the most useful. I run rtorrent on screen (well, actually tmux), and it doesn't require any kind of X environment. — , Jan 18 '12 at 12:00

score 21 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 25 '16 at 09:04

21

rTorrent has support for magnet links since v0.8.7 released in October 2010. To load one, just hit backspace in rTorrent and paste the magnet information.

The information provided below is three years old and outdated.

Maybe the tutorial How To Compile rTorrent From SVN In Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala / Debian 5 Lenny With Magnet Link Support will help you.

edited Jun 25 '16 at 09:04

Peter Mortensen

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answered Dec 06 '09 at 21:30

magnets arnt supported till rtorrent 0.8.7 but 0.8.7 doesnt work with rutorrent... – Hayden Thring Jan 19 '13 at 23:36

score 8 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 25 '16 at 09:05

8

Also, Transmission development version 1.80b1 supports magnet links. See changes.

edited Jun 25 '16 at 09:05

Peter Mortensen

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answered Dec 11 '09 at 01:30

Mad Fish

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BitTorrent Information Hierarchy(`xt=btih` or `at=btih`) only. No other topic types supported. – Erkin Alp Güney Oct 19 '16 at 06:18

score 7 · Answer 3 · edited Jan 18 '12 at 17:59

7

Deluge 1.1.9 supports magnet.

Deluge is a full-featured BitTorrent client for Linux, OS X, Unix and Windows. It uses libtorrent in it's backend and features multiple user-interfaces including: GTK+, web and console. It has been designed using the client server model with a daemon process that handles all the bittorrent activity. The Deluge daemon is able to run on headless machines with the user-interfaces being able to connect remotely from any platform.

edited Jan 18 '12 at 17:59

haimg

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answered Jan 09 '10 at 18:24

Deluge works as a server which has several clients that connect to it, this is specially good for depesz because there are at least 3 clients. One written in GTK, another is web based, and the third runs on the console. – Flávio Amieiro Jan 09 '10 at 20:57
[Deluge](http://deluge-torrent.org) supports magnet links. It also has headless operation and a WebUI, it is like uTorrent. But you must teach Firefox/Chromium whatever browser you use or xdg-open about how to open Magnet links. – Mavromatis Lozay Jan 18 '12 at 17:35

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 25 '16 at 09:12

2

Here's a useful script to enable magnet URLs in Firefox and Chrome / xdg-open:

http://sam.nipl.net/code/nipl-tools/bin/magnet-enable

For example:

./magnet-enable vuze

edited Jun 25 '16 at 09:12

Peter Mortensen

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answered Aug 12 '12 at 16:24

Sam Watkins

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score 1 · Answer 5 · edited Jun 25 '16 at 09:06

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KTorrent, as far as I know, supports them.

edited Jun 25 '16 at 09:06

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jan 19 '11 at 14:07

jet

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score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 11 '09 at 02:29

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Azureus has support for magnet links.

answered Dec 11 '09 at 02:29

Oracle2b

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score 1 · Answer 7 · edited Jun 25 '16 at 09:06

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The new Transmission version (1.82) accepts magnet links. It works fine!

edited Jun 25 '16 at 09:06

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jan 23 '10 at 23:38

score 0 · Answer 8 · edited Jun 25 '16 at 09:12

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With Transmission it is very simple. Just go to that "bay" and copy the magnet link address. Then in Transmission go to file->Open URL and paste it there. :)

edited Jun 25 '16 at 09:12

Peter Mortensen

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answered Mar 29 '14 at 11:54

Juanch0p

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Note that the OPś question was made 5 years ago. Transmission did not support magnet links then. – Kard Nails Mar 29 '14 at 12:56

score -2 · Answer 9 · edited Jun 25 '16 at 09:08

HEADLESS OPERATION WORKS!

The problem we faced lies in the instability of older versions of rTorrent and libtorrent. rTorrent 0.8.9 and libtorrent 0.12.9 are stable and will correctly load magnet links if the magnet link is wrapped as given by the script provided by rTorrent.

As far as I know, rTorrent is the only client that can handle magnet links dropped in to the client as easily as torrents.

Linux BitTorrent client with support for magnet links

9 Answers9