transmission-daemon1

A bittorrent client

Usage

transmission-daemon -h

transmission-daemon [-a x.x.x.x, ...] [{-b | -B}] [-c directory] [-C] [-d] [-f] [-g directory] [-h] [-p port] [{-t | -T}] [-u username] [-v password] [-P port] [{-m | -M}] [-l limit] [-L limit] [{-er | -ep | -et}] [{-utp | -no-utp}] [-V] [-w download-dir] [-e logfile] [-x pid-file] [{-log-error | -log-info | -log-debug}]

Overview

transmission-daemon is a daemon-based Transmission session that can be controlled via RPC commands from transmission's web interface or transmission-remote(1).

Options

-a --allowed x.x.x.x,...: Allow RPC access to a comma-delimited whitelist of IP addresses. Wildcards can be specified in an address by using '*'. Default: "127.0.0.1,::1" Example: "127.0.0.*,192.168.1.*"
-b --blocklist: Enable peer blocklists. Transmission understands the bluetack blocklist file format. New blocklists can be added by copying them into the config-dir's "blocklists" subdirectory.
-c --watch-dir directory: Directory to watch for new .torrent files to be added. As they are added to this directory, the daemon will load them into Transmission.
-C: Do not watch for new .torrent files.
-B --no-blocklist: Disable blocklists.
-d --dump-settings: Dump transmission-daemon's settings to stderr.
-f --foreground: Run in the foreground and print errors to stderr.
-g --config-dir directory: Where to look for configuration files. This can be used to swap between using the cli, daemon, gtk, and qt clients. See https://github.com/transmission/transmission/blob/main/docs/Configuration-Files.md for more information.
-er --encryption-required: Encrypt all peer connections.
-ep --encryption-preferred: Prefer encrypted peer connections.
-et --encryption-tolerated: Prefer unencrypted peer connections.
-gsr --global-seedratio ratio: All torrents, unless overridden by a per-torrent setting, should seed until a specific ratio
-GSR --no-global-seedratio: All torrents, unless overridden by a per-torrent setting, should seed regardless of ratio
-h --help: Print command-line option descriptions.
--incomplete-dir dir: When adding new torrents, store their contents in directory until the torrent is done.
--no-incomplete-dir: Don't store incomplete torrents in a different directory.
-i --bind-address-ipv4: Listen for IPv4 BitTorrent connections on a specific address. Only one IPv4 listening address is allowed. Default: 0.0.0.0 (All addresses)
-I --bind-address-ipv6: Listen for IPv6 BitTorrent connections on a specific address. Only one IPv6 listening address is allowed. Default: :: (All addresses)
-r --rpc-bind-address: Listen for RPC connections on a specific address. This must be an IPv4 or IPv6 address. Only one RPC listening address is allowed. Default: 0.0.0.0 (All IPv4 addresses)
--paused: Pause all torrents on startup
-L --peerlimit-global limit: Overall peer limit. Useful on embedded systems where the default might be unsuitable. Default: 240
-l --peerlimit-torrent limit: Peer limit per torrent. Useful on embedded systems where the default might be unsuitable. Default: 60
-m --portmap: Enable portmapping via NAT-PMP or UPnP
-M --no-portmap: Disable portmapping
-o --dht: Enable distributed hash table (DHT).
-O --no-dht: Disable distributed hash table (DHT).
-p --port port: Port to open and listen for RPC requests on. Default: 9091
-P --peerport port: Port to listen for incoming peers on. Default: 51413
-t --auth: Require clients to authenticate themselves. This doesn't do much good unless username and password are also set.
-T --no-auth: Don't require authentication from clients.
-u --username username: Used for client authentication.
-v --password password: Used for client authentication.
-V --version: Show version number and exit
--utp: Enable uTP for peer connections.
--no-utp: Disable uTP for peer connections.
-w --download-dir: Where to store downloaded data.
-e --logfile: Where to store transmission's log messages.
--log-level level: Log level. Must be 'critical', 'error', 'warn', 'info', 'debug', or 'trace'.
--log-error: Deprecated. Use --log-level=error
--log-info: Deprecated. Use --log-level=info
--log-debug: Deprecated. Use --log-level=debug
-x --pid-file: Name of PID file

Environment

http_proxy: libcurl uses this environment variable when performing tracker announces.
TRANSMISSION_HOME: Sets the default config-dir.

Files

~/.config/transmission-daemon: The config-dir used when neither [TRANSMISSION_HOME] nor [-g] is specified. See https://github.com/transmission/transmission/blob/main/docs/Configuration-Files.md for more information.

Releases

10 releases since Debian 5.0 (Lenny); the text changed 7 times.

--allowed since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --auth since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --bind-address-ipv4 since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --bind-address-ipv6 since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --blocklist since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --dht since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --download-dir since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --dump-settings since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --encryption-preferred since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --encryption-required since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --encryption-tolerated since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --global-seedratio since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --incomplete-dir since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --log-debug since Debian 7 (Wheezy); --log-error since Debian 7 (Wheezy); --log-info since Debian 7 (Wheezy); --log-level since Debian 13 (Trixie); --logfile since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --no-auth since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --no-blocklist since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --no-dht since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --no-global-seedratio since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --no-incomplete-dir since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --no-portmap since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --no-utp since Debian 7 (Wheezy); --password since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --paused since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --peerlimit-global since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --peerlimit-torrent since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --peerport since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --pid-file since Debian 13 (Trixie); --port since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --portmap since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --rpc-bind-address since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --username since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --utp since Debian 7 (Wheezy); --version since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --watch-dir since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; -B since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -C since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -GSR since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -I since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -L since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -M since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -O since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -P since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -T since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -V since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -a since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -b since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -c since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -d since Debian 8 (Jessie); -e since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -ep since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -er since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -et since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -gsr since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -i since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -l since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -m since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -o since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -r since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -t since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -u since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -v since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -w since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -x since Debian 13 (Trixie).

--debug until Debian 5.0 (Lenny); --pidfile until Debian 5.0 (Lenny); --socket until Debian 5.0 (Lenny); -s until Debian 5.0 (Lenny).