Script to clear finished torrents from transmission-daemon

transmission_remove_finished.sh

#!/bin/bash

# Clears finished downloads from Transmission.
# Version: 1.1
#
# Newest version can always be found at:
# https://gist.github.com/pawelszydlo/e2e1fc424f2c9d306f3a
#
# Server string is resolved in this order:
# 1. TRANSMISSION_SERVER environment variable
# 2. Parameters passed to this script
# 3. Hardcoded string in this script (see below).

# Server string: "host:port --auth username:password"
SERVER="host:port --auth user:pass"

# Which torrent states should be removed at 100% progress.
DONE_STATES=("Seeding" "Stopped" "Finished" "Idle")

# Get the final server string to use.
if [[ -n "$TRANSMISSION_SERVER" ]]; then
    echo -n "Using server string from the environment: "
    SERVER="$TRANSMISSION_SERVER"
elif [[ "$#" -gt 0 ]]; then
    echo -n "Using server string passed through parameters: "
    SERVER="$*"
else
    echo -n "Using hardcoded server string: "
fi
echo "${SERVER: : 10}(...)"  # Truncate to not print auth.

# Use transmission-remote to get the torrent list from transmission-remote.
TORRENT_LIST=$(transmission-remote $SERVER --list | sed -e '1d' -e '$d' | awk '{print $1}' | sed -e 's/[^0-9]*//g')

# Iterate through the torrents.
for TORRENT_ID in $TORRENT_LIST
do
    INFO=$(transmission-remote $SERVER --torrent "$TORRENT_ID" --info)
    echo -e "Processing #$TORRENT_ID: \"$(echo "$INFO" | sed -n 's/.*Name: \(.*\)/\1/p')\"..."
    # To see the full torrent info, uncomment the following line.
    # echo "$INFO"
    PROGRESS=$(echo "$INFO" | sed -n 's/.*Percent Done: \(.*\)%.*/\1/p')
    STATE=$(echo "$INFO" | sed -n 's/.*State: \(.*\)/\1/p')
 
    # If the torrent is 100% done and the state is one of the done states.
    if [[ "$PROGRESS" == "100" ]] && [[ "${DONE_STATES[@]}" =~ "$STATE" ]]; then
        echo "Torrent #$TORRENT_ID is done. Removing torrent from list."
        transmission-remote $SERVER --torrent "$TORRENT_ID" --remove
    else
        echo "Torrent #$TORRENT_ID is $PROGRESS% done with state \"$STATE\". Ignoring."
    fi
done

FYI, for anyone that lands here from google, but is looking for a solution for dockerized transmission - such as Haugene's awesome transmission/openvpn docker - Here's a solution that worked for me...

First create the script itself that will live inside the container and name it something recognizable. I used remove_finished_torrents. Don't worry about the environment variables yet.

#!/bin/bash
transmission-remote --auth $tmpUser:$tmpPass -l | awk '$2 == "100%" && (( $9 == "Stopped" || $9 == "Finished" )){ system("transmission-remote --auth $tmpUser:$tmpPass -t " $1 " --remove") }'

Then copy that file over to the container. It's probably best to copy it somewhere that will get mounted every time the container restarts and won't get wiped by any container updates from the maintainers. I have a local storage volume that gets mounted to /shared at container startup. (You can find [CONTAINER_ID] by running docker ps and looking for the container you recognize as your transmission client)

User@HostMachine:~$ docker cp ~/remove_finished_torrents [CONTAINER_ID]:/shared/

Next, jump into your container and make sure the remove_finished_torrents script has the correct ownership & permissions. Because of how mine is setup, I made the script owned & only executable by root.

User@HostMachine:~$ docker exec -it [CONTAINER_ID] /bin/bash
root@a0b1c2d3e4f5:/# chown root:root /shared/remove_finished_torrents
root@a0b1c2d3e4f5:/# chmod 774 /shared/remove_finished_torrents
root@a0b1c2d3e4f5:/# exit

Finally, outside the container, on the host, make another short script that cron will call. For my purposes, I have a cleanup script that runs daily from my cron. It looks something like this:

#!/bin/bash
HAUGENE_ID=`/usr/bin/docker ps | grep "haugene" | awk '{print $1}'`
docker exec -e tmpUser=$RPC_U -e tmpPass=$RPC_P $HAUGENE_ID /shared/remove_finished_torrents

Don't forget to make it executable:
User@HostMachine:~$ sudo chmod +x cleanup

If you're wondering about tmpUser, tmpPass, and the RPC variables: I have my transmission rpc login/pass set through /etc/environment. What I'm doing in this last script is taking the variables already setup - $RPC_U and $RPC_P - and passing them to temporary variables inside the transmission docker container - tmpUser and tmpPass. You can just as easily alter this by doing -e tmpUser="MyActualUsername" -e tmpPass="MyActualPassword" or omit the 2 environment flags entirely from this script and hardcode your user/pass into the original remove_finished_torrents script by changing the 2 instances of $tmpUser:$tmpPass to MyActualUsername:MyActualPassword.

I would definitely recommend leaving in the HAUGENE_ID line (change the variable name to whatever you like) just to make the next command easier to read. Of course, if you use a different docker image instead of haugene/transmission-openvpn, you'll need to change "haugene" to something maybe "transmission" or "linuxserver/transmission" if that's what you use so that grep & awk can correctly match your container id. Remember your container id will change ever time you restart it, that's why this line is so crucial.

My cleanup script just sits in the home dir and user's crontab references it:

User@HostMachine:~$ crontab -l
0 4 * * * /home/User/cleanup>/home/User/clean.log

It runs at 4am local time everyday and redirects STOUT from the script to a clean.log file.

This might seem a little convoluted, having one script on the docker container and one script called from the host machine's cron to trigger the docker script, but it works great for how I have my server setup with usernames & passwords living in environment variables outside the container. The magic of finding the finished torrents and removing them is really in that one line from the first script, so that could be easily adapted to someone else's situation.

I worked out this solution using OP's script, as well as this one, and this comment

FYI, for anyone that lands here from google, but is looking for a solution for dockerized transmission - such as Haugene's awesome transmission/openvpn docker - Here's a solution that worked for me...

Thanks a lot ! That was exactly what is was looking for !

FYI, for anyone that lands here from google, but is looking for a solution for dockerized transmission - such as Haugene's awesome transmission/openvpn docker - Here's a solution that worked for me...

Thank you, this is perfect.

I am very happy that you find my script useful. I have updated it a bit.
If you find any issues or have any wishes about the functionality you would like to see added, please let me know!

for me.. it's not working properly.
i'm using Transmission 2.94 (d8e60ee44f) on synology NAS.

error message
line 33: transmission-remote: command not found

error message
line 33: transmission-remote: command not found

This script only automates the "transmission-remote", which you need to have. On linux (Debian at least) this comes from the "transmission-cli" package. I tried a quick google search about how to get it on Synology NAS, but without luck.

It comes packaged in the Transmission app if you downloaded through the Package Manager. Can find it in /usr/local/transmission/bin

Does this script delete only the finished torrents or it deletes the downloaded data also?

Does this script delete only the finished torrents or it deletes the downloaded data also?

It only removes the transmission download. It does not touch the files.

Does this script delete only the finished torrents or it deletes the downloaded data also?

If you modify "transmission-remote $SERVER --torrent "$TORRENT_ID" --remove" you can change so it also removes the files :)

Running this script manually from the terminal, I get an error:

transmission_remove_finished.sh: 18: transmission_remove_finished.sh: Syntax error: "(" unexpected<

Any idea what I may be doing wrong?

#!/bin/bash
HAUGENE_ID=`/usr/bin/docker ps | grep "haugene" | awk '{print $1}'`
docker exec -e tmpUser=$RPC_U -e tmpPass=$RPC_P $HAUGENE_ID /shared/remove_finished

Most likely it was:

/shared/remove_finished_torrents

The script also applies to Transmission (vanilla):

#!/bin/bash
TRANSMISSION_ID=`/usr/bin/docker ps | grep "transmission" | awk '{print $1}'`
docker exec -e tmpUser=$RPC_U -e tmpPass=$RPC_P $TRANSMISSION_ID /shared/remove_finished_torrents

PS. For me it was crontab -e

Most likely it was:

/shared/remove_finished_torrents

Good catch. This was a typo. I just corrected it in the original comment.

The script also applies to Transmission (vanilla):

Glad it works for you. I've had this script running on my setup for roughly 2 years without issue.

PS. For me it was crontab -e

Ah yes, I copied the terminal output after the fact (crontab -l) rather than document how to actually edit it. 🙃