Getting Started
Introduction
Cross-seeding is the term used for downloading a torrent from one tracker and then using that data to seed across different trackers. Generally, this is not against the rules, but you should always check and abide by your trackers' rules.
Since you already have the torrent's files, this results in zero download and instant seeding. This is a great way to build ratio (especially on your new trackers) and contribute to the torrenting community.
Now we will install cross-seed
and run our first search.
Installation
with Docker (recommended)
docker run crossseed/cross-seed --version
with npm
Requires node 16 or greater.
npm install -g cross-seed
cross-seed --version
with yarn
Requires node 16 or greater.
yarn global add cross-seed
cross-seed --version
with Unraid
In Unraid, you can install cross-seed
from Docker Hub with the Community
Applications app. Check out the Unraid guide for details.
Running your first search
Docker users can skip ahead to Scaling Up.
To get started, you can use CLI.
For CLI commands, a basic example is below:
# one liner
cross-seed search --torrent-dir /path/to/dir/with/.torrent/files --output-dir . --torznab https://localhost/prowlarr/1/api?apikey=12345
# readable
cross-seed search \
--torrent-dir /path/to/dir/with/torrent/files \ # folder containing .torrent files
-o . \ # any directory, cross-seed will put its output torrents here
--torznab https://localhost/prowlarr/1/api?apikey=12345 # any valid torznab link, separated by spaces
If you were lucky, you've already got your first cross-seed in your current directory!
cross-seed
, by default, is particular about the contents of torrents you feed
it. It will ignore torrents with non-video files in them, and it will ignore
torrents that look like single episodes.
Use these command line flags to override the default:
--include-episodes --include-non-videos
These command line arguments are always configurable in the config.js file (generated with gen-config). You won't have to specify them if they are set unless you wish to override the settings temporarily.
Below we will cover the configuration process.
Scaling Up
Searching like the above is nice, but it's pretty manual and not very useful in practice. In this section, we'll set up a configuration file. A configuration file is not necessary to use cross-seed, but it makes things a lot easier.
without Docker
Create and edit your config file
Start by running the following command.
cross-seed gen-config
After that, you will find an autogenerated config file at
~/.cross-seed/config.js
or AppData\Local\cross-seed\config.js
. Open this file
in your editor of choice, and start editing.
The config file uses JavaScript syntax. Each option in the config (and each element in a list) must be separated by a comma, and make sure to wrap your strings in "quotation marks" or array (multiple strings) objects in []'s
The only required options are torznab
,
torrentDir
, and
outputDir
.
There are many other config options available that you should thoroughly look through to achieve your desired results.
Once you've finished with your config file, the following command can get you started running a full scan of your torrent directory!
cross-seed search
with Docker
Set up your container
With Docker, any paths that you would provide as command-line arguments or in the config file should stay hardcoded. Instead, you can mount volumes to the Docker container.
/config
- config dir (this follows a common Docker convention)/torrents
- your torrent input dir- usually set to your rTorrent session dir, Deluge state dir, Transmission torrents dir, or your qBittorrent BT_backup dir
/cross-seeds
- the output dir. People sometimes point this at a watch folder. If you use
Create or open your existing docker-compose.yml
file and add the cross-seed
service:
version: "2.1"
services:
cross-seed:
image: crossseed/cross-seed
container_name: cross-seed
user: 1000:1000 # optional but recommended
volumes:
- /path/to/config/folder:/config
- /path/to/rtorrent_sess:/torrents:ro # note that this volume can and should be mounted read-only
- /path/to/output/folder:/cross-seeds
- /path/to/torrent/data:/data # this is optional dataDir path (for data-based matching) - will need to mirror your torrent client's path (like Arr's do)
command: search
Create a config file
When you run the container the first time, it will create a config file at
/config/config.js
. Open this file in your favorite editor. Since you've
already configured your volume mappings, the only required config option is
torznab
.
There are many other config options available that you should thoroughly look through to achieve your desired results.
Once you set that up, you can run your Docker container and it should get started running through a full scan of your torrent directory!
Next Steps
cross-seed
has two subcommands: search
and daemon
.