How to automatically download items in an RSS feed using BiglyBT
If you’ve ever helped on a large software project by donating bandwidth, or you’re a TV/movie/comic pirate, chances are you’ve set up an RSS subscription and have been clicking links to download and seed the project.
Here’s the quick way to do it automatically on a desktop client. I didn’t find a quick and dirty tutorial that had current info, so I’m making one. Total time for setup should be about two minutes.
In BiglyBT there’s a plugin you can add called RSS Feed Scanner (tools, plugins, get plugins, find it on the page. Click the link on the left to install or do it yourself.)
Install, on the left side of BiglyBT you’ll now see RSSFeed Scanner, click that. Click options.
Click the little + to add an RSS Feed URL.
Add the URL of your RSS software feed and name it something like .
When your RSS feed populates you’ll probably have multiple items you’re interested in auto downloading or proactively seeding. For these purposes we’re going to pick an RSS feed of some Linux distros and say I want to support/download/torrent/seed everything Sparkylinux.
Side note, I have nothing to do with Sparkylinux, this is just what popped up in the distrowatch Linux torrents RSS feed.
Going to right click on any of the file names I’m interested in, choose “Create Filter”
The plugin will do pretty good at guessing what you want, especially if you’re dealing with show titles and such, but it’s not great at guessing software versioning. Change the Name field to whatever you want, and in this case I’m going to say I only am interested in “Sparkylinux” in the filter as I want to torrent and seed ongoing anything in the project.
Choose the directory you want to save your torrents in, make sure active/enabled are checked, you can test a couple of different filenames if you want to make sure they pass or fail based on your filters. Assuming all is set up correctly the next time the RSS feed reloads (typically 15 minutes unless you choose reload,) it will start downloading and then seeding.
Right clicking the RSS feed in the Status tab will allow you to refresh the RSS feed with your new filters and have them tested/executed immediately. No waiting 15 minutes for a fail for you.
You can create multiple filters, and if you’re up for some Regex action you can create fairly complex wildcards.
Now you’re well on your way to actively supporting your favorite software developer, or actively auto pirating. Choice is yours, be nice.
