Page index

1. Overview
2. Installing on Ubuntu
3. Installing on OS X
4. Configuration
   1. Stand-alone configuration
   2. Lobber web app configuration
   3. OS X specific configuration

Overview

A lobber storage node is essentially a standard BitTorrent client with a very thin layer used to receive notification about new and modified torrents. A lobber storage node is provided as a twisted plugin and is installed from the python package index. Currently the twisted plugin works with transmission - a popular, cross-platform BitTorrent client. Other BT clients may be supported in the future. Anchorinstallinstall

Installing

The examples below assume a debian/ubuntu and OS X environment. If you're running another unix-like or windows OS your milage may vary. Our goal is for lobber to run on a multitude of environments and operating systems. Please provide us with patches!

Installing on Ubuntu

Install Transmission

We recommend installing transmission 2.03 or later. If you are using Ubuntu 10.04 you may have to install transmission from a PPA:

...

At this point you should have a transmission daemon running after each reboot. Use the /etc/init.d/transmission-daemon tool to stop/start the service in the normal way.anchorinstallstoragenodeinstallstoragenode

Install lobber-storagenode

...

apt-get install python-pip python-setuptools python-twisted

pip install stompservice transmissionrpc feedparser

Get Download the tar archive lobber-storagenode-2.tar.gz or get the storage node from git.nordu.net:

git clone git@gitgit://git.nordu.net:/lobber-storagenode.git

Install the storagenode:

cd(for tar archive) tar xvzf lobber-storagenode
-2-tar.gz
cd lobber-storagenode
python setup.py install

At this point twistd should have a new plugin registered. Verify this by running twistd --help and look for lobberstoragenode in the list of commands. If you see this then you're installation should be ok.

Installing on OS X

Install Transmission

Install Transmission for OS X and enable "Remote Access" in Preferences. We recommend installing transmission 2.03 or later.

Install lobber-storagenode

Download the tar archive lobber-storagenode-2.tar.gz or get the storage node from git.nordu.net:

git clone git://git.nordu.net/lobber-storagenode.git

Configuration

At this point twistd should have a new plugin registered. Verify this by running twistd --help and look for lobberstoragenode in the list of commands. If you see this then you're installation should be ok.

# twistd --help
...
Commands:
    ftp                    An FTP server.
    

# twistd --help
...
Commands:
    ftp                    An FTP server.
    telnet                 A simple, telnet-based remote debugging service.
    socks                  A SOCKSv4 proxy service.
    manhole-old            An interactive remote debugger service.
    portforward            A simple port-forwarder.
    lobberstoragenode      A Storage Node for Lobber
    web                    A general-purpose web server which can serve from a
                           filesystem or application resource.
    inetd                  An inetd(8) replacement.
    news                   A news server.
    xmpp-router            An XMPP Router server
    words                  A modern words server
    toc                    An AIM TOC service.
    dns                    A domain name server.
    mail                   An email service
    manhole                An interactive remote debugger service accessible via
                           telnet and ssh and providing syntax coloring and
                           basic line editing functionality.
    conch                  A Conch SSH service.

...

$ twistd lobberstoragenode --help
Usage: twistd [options] lobberstoragenode [options]
Options:
  -n, --standardNotifications      Add standard notificiation destinations
  -R, --register                   Register new torrents with lobber
  -a, --announceUrl=               Announce URL (tracker) to use for new
                                   torrents
  -A, --acl=                       Access Control List to apply to new torrents
  -b, --dropbox=                   A directory to watch for new content
  -d, --torrentDir=                The directory where to store torrents
                                   [default: torrents]
  -D, --transmissionDownloadsDir=  The downloads directory for transmission
                                   [default:
                                   /var/lib/transmission-daemon/downloads]
  -h, --lobberHost=                The host running both STOMP and https for
                                   lobber
  -k, --lobberKey=                 The Lobber application key to use
  -p, --trackerProxyTrackerUrl=    Enable tracker proxying for given https
                                   tracker (HOST[:PORT])
  -P, --trackerProxyListenOn=      Adress to bind the tracker proxy to [default:
                                   localhost:8080]
  -r, --removeLimit=               Remove torrent and data when this many other
                                   storage-nodes have the data (0=never remove)
                                   [default: 0]
  -S, --stompUrl=                  The STOMP protocol URL to use for
                                   notifications
  -T, --transmissionRpc=           The RPC URL for transmission
      --version                    
      --help                       Display this help and exit.

Configuration

Stand-alone storage node

...

Storage node for Lobber web application

To start a storage node to complement the Lobber web application you need
first First you will have to create a key with the right entitlements and url filter via the web ui.

To make the storage node able to write in transmissions standard download directory you need to add the group
debian-transmission to the www-data user.

usermod -G debian-transmission www-data

When you have made the key and added www-data to the group debian-transmission run:

sudo -u www-data twistd -l /var/django/lobber/logs/ --pidfile /tmp/twistd.pid lobberstoragenode -k [KEY] -h localhost -b /path/to/lobber/dropbox

If that seemed to work correctly you can copy the following startup script:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

L_KEY=792bd8f0a4709e82ee3ac93f9f
L_TORRENTS=/var/run/lobber
L_USER=debian-transmission
L_GROUP_PERM=debian-transmission
L_PIDDIR=/var/run/lobber-storagenode
L_PIDFILE=lobber-storagenode.pid
L_LOG=--syslog
#L_URLS="https://beta.lobber.se/torrent/all.json"
L_HOST="dev.lobber.se"
# SEEDER="transmission-remote -n transmission:transmission -a"
# --torrent-done-script FILE
L_ARGS="--standardNotifications --trackerProxyTrackerUrl=http://dev.lobber.se/trac
ker/announce --trackerProxyListenOn=127.0.0.1:8080"


if [ -f /etc/config.d/lobber ]; then
   . /etc/config.d/lobber
fi

if [ -f /etc/defaults/lobber ]; then
   . /etc/defaults/lobber
fi

L_OPTS="$L_LOG --pidfile $L_PIDDIR/$L_PIDFILE lobberstoragenode $L_ARGS"

if [ "x$L_KEY" != "x" ]; then
   L_OPTS="${L_OPTS} -k $L_KEY"
fi

if [ "x$L_HOST" != "x" ]; then
   L_OPTS="${L_OPTS} -h $L_HOST"
fi

if [ "x$L_TORRENTS" != "x" ]; then
   L_OPTS="${L_OPTS} -d $L_TORRENTS"
fi

case "$1" in
  start)
     transmission-remote -n transmission:transmission -GSR #seed forever
     transmission-remote -n transmission:transmission -t all -s #start all (just in case)

     [ -d $L_TORRENTS ] || mkdir -p $L_TORRENTS
     chown $L_USER:$L_GROUP_PERM $L_TORRENTS
     chmod 770 $L_TORRENTS

     [ -d $L_PIDDIR ] || mkdir $L_PIDDIR
     chown $L_USER:$L_GROUP_PERM $L_PIDDIR
     chmod 770 $L_PIDDIR

     cd $L_PIDDIR
     sudo -u $L_USER twistd $L_OPTS -r 2 -D /var/www/dropbox $L_URLS
     ;;
   stop)
        kill `cat $L_PIDDIR/$L_PIDFILE`
        ;;
   *)
        echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/lobber {start|stop}"
        exit 1
        ;;
esac

Unrevised old documentation

When running a storage-node for development purposes you will typically run it with both the --stompUrl and --lobberUrl parameters pointing to endpoints on your local development sandbox. When running a storage-node off of beta.lobber.se you will typically want to start it this way:

# twistd -n lobberstoragenode -k <appkey> -h beta.lobber.se -d /var/torrents [<destination|rss>]*

The final arguments is a set of STOMP destinations and/or RSS feeds. Each RSS feed is pulled regularly and each link is downloaded. If the downloaded data is a BitTorrent file it is stored in the --torrentDir directory (/var/torrents in the example above). Optionally if a --script option was given it will be run as a command with the path to the torrent-file as an argument.

If you want to notify transmission of new torrents you might do something like this

# twistd -n lobberstoragenode ... --script="transmission-remote -n transmission:transmission -a"

A more complete example. This would regularly pull all torrents linked from https://beta.lobber.se/torrent/tag/foo.rssImage Removed and ask transmission to add the new ones.

# twistd -n lobberstoragenode -k <key> -h beta.lobber.se -d /tmp \\
         --script="transmission-remote -n transmission:transmission -a" \\
         https://beta.lobber.se/torrent/tag/foo.rss /torrent/tag/foo

Useful stuff to listen to for a storagenode

STOMP destinations

RSS URLs

...

Location

...

What it gets you

...

https://lobber.example.org/torrents/all.rss

...

All torrents readable by the current user (or key)

to be able to access the torrents you are interested in. You do this in the Lobber web app under Application Keys.

Find the configuration file config in the directory /etc/lobberstoragenode/.

You need to change the following options:

L_MODE="standalone"

L_KEY="[KEY]"
L_HOST="tracker.someserver.net"

L_TRACKERPROXYURL="https://tracker.someserver.net:443/tracker/uannounce"
L_TRACKERPROXYLISTEN="localhost:8080"
L_URLS="https://tracker.someserver.net/torrent/all.json ... ..."

L_URLS is a set of STOMP destinations and/or RSS feeds. Each destination is pulled regularly and each link is downloaded. If the downloaded data is a BitTorrent file it is stored in the --torrentDir directory and added to transmission.

By default (L_STDNOTIFY="True") the standalone storage node will listen to stomp://tracker.someserver.net/torrent/new.

STOMP destinations

RSS URLs

Start the storage node:

/etc/init.d/lobberstoragenode start

To make the storagenode start automatically start on reboot run:

update-rc.d lobberstoragenode defaults

Storage node for Lobber web application

To start a storage node to complement the Lobber web application you need first to create a key with the right entitlements and url filter via the web ui.

To make the storage node able to write in transmissions standard download directory you need to add the group debian-transmission to the www-data user.

usermod -G debian-transmission www-data

Find the configuration file config in the directory /etc/lobberstoragenode/.

You need to change the following options:

L_MODE="webapp"

L_KEY="[KEY]"
L_HOST="localhost"
L_DROPBOXDIR="/path/to/lobber/dropbox"

The L_KEY is the lobber application key you obtain from lobber. The L_HOST should be 'beta.lobber.se' in order to use the Lobber Beta site and L_DROPBOXDIR is the path to a directory in your file system that will act as a dropbox. Any file or directory placed here will be uploaded to lobber and then removed.

Start the storage node:

/etc/init.d/lobberstoragenode start

To make the storagenode start automatically start on reboot run:

update-rc.d lobberstoragenode defaults

OS X specific configuration

These are the changes that are needed to make the storage node work with the OS X version of Transmission.

L_TORRENTDIR="/Users/[username]/Downloads"
L_TRANSMISSIONDLDIR="/Users/[username]/Downloads"
L_TRANSMISSIONRPC="http://localhost:9091"
L_USER="[username]"
L_GROUP_PERM="staff"

...

https://lobber.example.org/torrents/tag/foo.rss

...