screen, torrents and crontab

joshdr77 · Apprentice Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 180

hey people

i need alittle help

my isp has introducted unmetered downloads between 2:00am and 8:00am - i want to abuse this with all my mite.

i want to start btlaunchmanycurses.py within a screen session at 2:00am and end this at 8:00

any ideas howto do this?

thanks heaps - josh.

maskedbishounen · Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 2:40 am Post subject:

Shouldn't be too hard. :)

First, we want to ensure you start after the meter kicks out. So for safety's sake, we'll set a two minute offset, at two in the morning. We'll screen the process with a useful name (bt), and start it as your user.

Beetle B. · Guru Joined: 01 Mar 2003 Posts: 524

cron?
_________________
Beetle B.

Please update the table of equivalents.
A Firefox guide.

ChojinDSL · l33t Joined: 07 Jul 2003 Posts: 784

Well, Im sure it would be possible to write a really fancy schmancy bash script that will continously check the time and activate/deactivate accordingly, but here's a theoretical crude method.

First of all stick all of your torrents you wish to download into a single directory.

Then you could either put an entry in crontab which starts "btlaunchmanycurses /path/to/my/torrents/" at a specific time. And another crontab entry which does "killall btlaunchmanycurses.py" at a specific time.

If you wanted to be able to periodically check the status via a screen session, then you could write a script that goes something like this:

cd /path/to/my/torrents
screen -S bittorrent
btlaunchmanycurses /path/to/my/torrents/

Then just remember to chmod+x that script file and configure crontab to start it at a specific time.

To kill it just add a killall entry in crontab like mentioned before.

If during the torrent session you wanna check the progress, you just do a
screen -r bittorrent
and voila'

I'm sure that you will find all the necessary details in the man pages. If not post again and I'll help out if Im not too lazy.

If you are on dialup and use a CLI tool to connect via modem, then the same principal applies.

Good luck!

joshdr77 · Apprentice Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 180

hey - thats how i envisioned doing it, and i even did as mentioned above before posting - but for some strange reason it just dies after like one minute after starting - im not sure why - ive been at the beach all day and will see if i can work out why soonish - if anyone has any ideas please let me know.

joshdr77 · Apprentice Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 180

hmmm - it only dies if i start the btlaunchmany within a screen - seems fine if i dont :S very weird

joshdr77 · Apprentice Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 180

ok - i tryed the headless version - with screen logging - no errors- it just quits

screen -L btlaunchmany.py --max_upload_rate 10 /mnt/stuff/torrent/tv/

goes for about 3secs then dies

if i do

screen [enter]
btlaunchmany.py --max_upload_rate 10 /mnt/stuff/torrent/tv/

its all good - only fails if i run the command...........

joshdr77 · Apprentice Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 180

man - i need to get this rocking soonish - im starting to feel tired and i want it to work!!! someone surely must be able to help me out :S
thanks in advance

chunderbunny · Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 1:15 pm Post subject:

How many torrents are you putting in your torrents directory? I've noticed that btlaunchmany crashes if you try and get it to do too many torrents simultaneously on startup. It might be a better idea to have btlaunchmanycurses running permanently but use a script to copy the torrent files into the torrent directory at the appropriate time (and another to copy them out again.)

joshdr77 · Apprentice Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 180

the same annoying behaviour even with a signle file in the directory - arghhhh - why dont things just work :S

Gherald · Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 1:44 pm Post subject:

you might try nohup instead of screen

maskedbishounen · Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 1:59 pm Post subject:

Global options go after the directory.

chunderbunny · Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 2:32 pm Post subject:

Aah! Of course, I should have seen that. Well spotted that man.

joshdr77 · Apprentice Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 180

Xaid · Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 5:10 pm Post subject:

I think he means do:
screen -L btlaunchmany.py /mnt/stuff/torrent/tv/ --max_upload_rate 10

joshdr77 · Apprentice Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 180

sadly that did not fix the problem - it must be a screen bug? can someone test and see if they get the same syptoms as me

screen -Sdm bt btlaunchmanycurses /mnt/stuff/torrents/

thanks

Xaid · Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 6:09 pm Post subject:

screen -Sdm bt btlaunchmanycurses.py movies/torrents/
works like a charm here.

you typed:
screen -Sdm bt btlaunchmanycurses /mnt/stuff/torrents/

I think you are missing the .py?

joshdr77 · Apprentice Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 180

this is so unfair - really it works like a charm - i have read other peoiple have had simular problems - your very lucky - i did forget to write teh ,py in the post - but not in my console :S

hmm - welll i have no idea - i guess im gonna have to set and alarm for 2:00am and 8:00 each day

Fanatic · Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 7:03 pm Post subject:

joshdr77 · Apprentice Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 180

i hope it does - im emerge syncing on my server right now - thanks for your help

joshdr77 · Apprentice Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 180

i uograded to the r1 of screen - still no good

im using bittornado by the way

maskedbishounen · Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 9:13 pm Post subject:

I just tried it again to be sure, yet it's still working properly for me.

joshdr77 · Apprentice Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 180

hey - im changing over to main stream bittorrent now - ill let you guys know if i have greater succes later on tonite - cheers for your help

joshdr77 · Apprentice Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 180

just tried it with the main stream bittorrent client - it suffers from the same friggen annoying behaviour - its fine checking file integerty and as soon as thats done the screen terminates.

joshdr77 · Apprentice Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 180

this is so frustrating - i have work tomorrow and i cant solve my problem - im so tired and i just want to download stufff - man help me someone plz