ruTorrent not keeping/reading settings for listen port


May 25, 2018
Hey guys,

I was in the rtorrent IRC and they recommended I post here for assistance. I just setup rTorrent + ruTorrent on my server and, for the most part, it looks like things are great with one exception: ruTorrent is not holding/reading settings for the listen port. First, let me post my rtorrent.rc:

# This is an example resource file for rTorrent. Copy to
# uncomment the options you wish to enable.
# Based on original .rtorrent.rc file from
# Modified by Lemonberry for rtGui
# This assumes the following directory structure:

#min_peers = 40
max_peers = 100

min_peers_seed = -1
max_peers_seed = -1

# Maximum number of simultanious uploads per torrent.
max_uploads = 50

download_rate = 0
upload_rate = 0

# Default directory to save the downloaded torrents.
directory = /media/Mimir_Public/Incomplete

# Default session directory. Make sure you don't run multiple instance
# of rtorrent using the same session directory. Perhaps using a
# relative path?
session = /home/nick/.session

# deleted.
schedule = watch_directory,5,5,load_start=/media/Mimir_Public/DL
schedule = untied_directory,5,5,stop_untied=

# Close torrents when diskspace is low. */
schedule = low_diskspace,5,60,close_low_diskspace=100M

# Stop torrents when reaching upload ratio in percent,
# when also reaching total upload in bytes, or when
# reaching final upload ratio in percent.
#schedule = ratio,60,60,stop_on_ratio=100,200M,2000

on_finished = move_complete,"execute=mv,-u,$d.get_base_path=,/media/Mimir_Public/Complete/ ;d.set_directory=/media/Mimir_Public/Complete/"

# The ip address reported to the tracker.
#ip =
#ip =

# The ip address the listening socket and outgoing connections is
# bound to.
#bind =
#bind =

# Port range to use for listening.
port_range = 55995-56000

port_random = yes

scgi_port =

#check_hash = no

#use_udp_trackers = no

#schedule = ip_tick,0,1800,ip=rakshasa
#schedule = bind_tick,0,1800,bind=rakshasa

# allow_incoming, try_outgoing, require, require_RC4, enable_retry, prefer_plaintext
# The example value allows incoming encrypted connections, starts unencrypted
# outgoing connections but retries with encryption if they fail, preferring
# plaintext to RC4 encryption after the encrypted handshake
encryption = allow_incoming,enable_retry,prefer_plaintext

dht = auto

# UDP port to use for DHT.
dht_port = 6881

# Enable peer exchange (for torrents not marked private)
peer_exchange = no


# Example of scheduling commands: Switch between two ip's every 5
# seconds.
#schedule = "ip_tick1,5,10,ip=torretta"
#schedule = "ip_tick2,10,10,ip=lampedusa"

# Remove a scheduled event.
#schedule_remove = "ip_tick1"

You can see here that I have it using the port range of 55995-56000, which I have forwarded in my router. However, ruTorrent is defaulting to 55995-65535, as seen here:

if I manually change it to 55995-56000 and restart the server the setting reverts back to 55995-65535. If I set it to not randomize the port then set it to 55995 and reboot the server, the same thing happens. I have a feeling this is in a config file somewhere that I am missing, but at this point I am at a loss as to where this could be. TIA for the help!


May 25, 2018
I am beginning to wonder if this is a permissions issue. I will keep looking in to the issue, but I would love to hear what you guys think!

EDIT: So I added my user to the www-data group, but the settings still will not take. :S

For reference, here is the ls -ld output of the settings folder:

drwxrwxrwx 6 www-data www-data 4096 Mar 27 08:59 settings/
It looks like the setting in question is stored in the rtorrent.dat file. Is that file static, or is it newly created each time apache starts?


May 25, 2018
You can close this thread. I deleted rutorrent and rtorrent and went with transmission because I couldn't get rutorrent to work as intended.


May 25, 2018
maybe rutorrent shows wrong settings, did u test it with a random torrent, to see which ports a really used?