Transmission can't open torrent files created by itself

[Fernando Muñoz]

Binary package hint: transmission

I was creating a torrent file to share some documents, I used transmission, and it created a .torrent file which I tried to open in order to seed the torrent. Transmission showed an error saying that it wasn't a valid torrent file.

Transmission 1.06 (5136) from 8.04 beta

I tried using one of the public trackers at http://www.mininova.org/upload

What should do: produce a working torrent
What it does: produces a torrent that loads with error"Failed to load torrent file: ((torrent path)) : not a valid torrent file

[Fernando Muñoz (fmunozs)]

Forgot to add, I tried to open it on Deluge, and it seemed to work but I still couldn't seed the torrent.

[BrandonTomlinson (druke)]

I can duplicate this bug easily, however I am also leaving all the tracker info blank, doesn't a torrent require a tracker?

[Fernando Muñoz (fmunozs)]

I tried using one of the public trackers at http://www.mininova.org/upload but it still doesnt work. I tried several stuff, creating torrent for a single file, for a directory, ticking the 'private' checkbox, however, when I try to open it on transmission, it still claims its an invalid torrent file.

[Fernando Muñoz (fmunozs)]

Sorry for spam, forgot to say that I'm using Transmission 1.06 (5136) from 8.04 beta.

[BrandonTomlinson (druke)]

confirmed and sent to the transmission team

[Charles Kerr (charlesk)]

I can't reproduce this in 1.06 or in 1.10 beta 1.

Brandon's comment is correct, that you have to fill in the announce field. Probably the "New Torrent" dialog should refuse to create a torrent until a URL is filled in there, but that deserves its own ticket since Fernando says he did provide a URL.

Fernando: please give me specific steps on what I need to reproduce this, such as saying exactly what you filled in for all the different fields in the "New Torrent" dialog. Also if you could create a torrent for something shared (such as a hello-world.txt file, or an untarred transmission-1.06 snapshot) so I can follow in your footsteps exactly, that would help.

Also importantly, please attach the invalid torrent file that 1.06 created for you.

[Fernando Muñoz (fmunozs)]

Apparently, I was copying and pasting the URL of the tracker wrongly, It was including a '# ' at the beginning of it, I noticed this by opening the torrent file with an hex editor. I wasn't able to notice it while creating the torrent because there was some scrolling on the textbox due to the lenght of the URL. So this bug can be closed, sorry for the trouble. However, as charles said, two new tickets should be opened, first one to avoid transmission creating torrent files with empty/invalid tracker urls, and other one to make deluge notices the user about invalid trackers on torrent files.

[Charles Kerr (charlesk)]

Upstream ticket: http://trac.transmissionbt.com/ticket/814

I didn't add this via the "Also Effects" link above because I don't know if the Ubuntu team wants to use this ticket, or close it out and create a new one. It's all the same to me.

[Jorg Pitts (jorgpitts)]

Looking at the upstream ticket, it seems that the bug is fixed upstream now.
Maybe backport the fix because it looks like it was fixed for transmission 1.10 not 1.06.

[Charles Kerr (charlesk)]

This was fixed for transmission 1.20, not 1.06...

[Tuomas Aavikko (taavikko)]

Workaround if using specified download folder. Adding new torrent with tracker field filled.
Move/copy the file to download folder, then it should start seeding.

[Kevin (kevin64-deactivatedaccount)]

Fixed in Intrepid