Automatically seeding Debian torrents

[ct...@sdf.org]

Hi Debian,

I have a home server set up to fetch the RSS feed of another distro's ISO
torrents for the purpose of automatically seeding them. I would like to do
the
same with Debian torrents, but haven't found an RSS feed and am unsure if
there's another method I'm overlooking. I would appreciate any advice or
direction you can point me in.

Respectfully,
Chris

[Andrew M.A. Cater]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your interest. Typically, we release new torrent files with
every point release (about every 2-3 months) and the major release is
typically once every two years.

See also https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/bt-cd/

There is a torrent file per Debian architecture: realistically, only the
amd64 architecture is likely to get much use at this point. You can
probably serve just the debian-12.4 netinst image - you won't need to
serve the Mac image there and the debian-edu image is currently untested.

The 64 bit torrent for DVD may also be useful but is likely to see fewer
downloads again.

The team would be interested in how successful this is because we
don't have much visibility of torrent downloads.

With every good wish, as ever,

Andy Cater
(amac...@debian.org)

For the Debian images team

> Respectfully,
> Chris
>

[Elena ``of Valhalla'']

On 2023-12-28 at 08:17:16 +0000, Andrew M.A. Cater wrote:
> The team would be interested in how successful this is because we
> don't have much visibility of torrent downloads.

not op, but I usually download and seed a few torrents after each major
release, and this is my current data.

A few notes: the selection of ISO I download is basically what we used
to use most often during our LUG meetings back when we had in-person
ones where people sometimes asked for help installing things. Now it's
mostly a matter of habit and vague hope for the future :D

And I don't bother with point releases for the big images, except
sometimes for the netist iso if I need it for something at home.

That said, these are the images that I'm currently seeding

Ratio Name
0.6 debian-10.13.0-amd64-netinst.iso
0.2 debian-11.7.0-amd64-netinst.iso
1.2 debian-12.0.0-amd64-netinst.iso
1.0 debian-12.0.0-i386-netinst.iso
0.5 debian-12.0.0-arm64-DVD-1.iso
0.4 debian-12.0.0-armhf-DVD-1.iso
4.6 debian-live-12.0.0-amd64-cinnamon.iso
3.0 debian-live-12.0.0-amd64-standard.iso
4.9 debian-live-12.0.0-amd64-xfce.iso
2.8 debian-live-12.0.0-amd64-lxqt.iso
2.6 debian-live-12.0.0-amd64-lxde.iso
3.8 debian-live-12.0.0-amd64-mate.iso
4.7 debian-live-12.0.0-amd64-kde.iso

Since the 12.0.0 images have been downloaded around the same time (and
on the same client, of course) I think that their ratio values may be
suitable for comparison, and it seems to me that the various live images
are worth seeding, the netist just barely so. The two arm images I keep
downloading for my (mostly theoretical) use, but are probably not really
worth seeding otherwise.

of course this excludes all of the other images I don't have, and it may
also just mean that I've helped other people who download said images
for seeding rather than actually helping distributing debian to users :)
--
Elena ``of Valhalla''

[Artur Tagisow]

I'm getting the impression that OP was asking about something like this:
https://archlinux.org/feeds/releases/

Do note that the RSS entries provide a direct link to a .torrent file, like:
https://archlinux.org//releng/releases/2024.01.01/torrent/

The feed I linked could be consumed by a human, but the point seems to
be to register the feed in some automation plugin, have it periodically
scan for new entries, and add new torrents and automatically start
downloading - all without human interaction.

I use the Arch Linux feed with Autobrr
(https://autobrr.com/configuration/feeds#rss) to download and seed
without my interaction, though you can use e.g.: https://github.com/nning/transmission-rss

There's linuxtracker.org which should theoretically cover this, but the
rss feed for Debian also contains other distros based on Debian
(e.g. Gnoppix). If you want to try anyway you can check the checkbox to
the RIGHT of debian here: https://linuxtracker.org/index.php?page=modules&module=getrss
and press "Get RSS"