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The Ubuntu 20.04 package transmission-cli says:

This package contains a (deprecated) stand-alone command-line client, transmission-remote to interface with transmission-daemon and tools to create, edit and inspect torrent files.

And indeed, looking at the transmission-cli package, I see it includes a /usr/bin/transmission-remote

On the other hand, the Transmission project github says:

Prior to development of transmission-remote, the standalone client transmission-cli was created. Limited to a single torrent at a time, transmission-cli is deprecated and exists primarily to support older hardware dependent upon it. In almost all instances, transmission-remote should be used instead.

So which is it? Is transmission-remote deprecated, or not? And what is it's relation to transmission-cli? In addition, looking on the web I find a transmission-remote-cli in 16.04, though it's not in the 20.04 repos.

I just want a CLI interface to Transmission so I can do some scripting. Can someone please clear up what I'm looking at here?

Edit: To put it simply, I'd like to get clear if the transmission-remote that the transmission project github page says replaced transmission-cli is the same as the transmission-remote in the Ubuntu 20.04 package named transmission-cli.

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  • transmission-remote Has been and is still working … usage example
    – Raffa
    Commented Jun 8, 2021 at 17:32
  • @Raffa - I'm trying to work out if the transmission-remote that the transmission project github page says replaced transmission-cli is the same as the transmission-remote in the Ubuntu 20.04 package named transmission-cli. Are you clear on this? I added the question to the OP.
    – Diagon
    Commented Jun 8, 2021 at 19:37
  • 2
    @Raffa Deprecated does not mean that it doesn't work, it means it's no longer supported, so if there are program breaking bugs, they will no longer be fixed.
    – Davidw
    Commented Jun 9, 2021 at 0:04

2 Answers 2

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transmission-cli is a very simple CLI utility with no TUI/Ncurses interface. It's for entering single commands that interact with the Transmission Daemon. This should be suitable for scripting purposes, but the package is deprecated.

transmission-remote is a CLI utility included in the Transmission package. Similar to transmission-cli, this should be suitable for scripting purposes, but this package is still updated.

transmission-remote-cli is a TUI (text user interface) application with an actual user interface for navigating and working with torrents. However, this package is also deprecated.

For more recent forks of a TUI package, you should look at one of these:

  • stig - looks like development is ongoing, but is in alpha state
  • tremc - looks like development is slow, but may be more stable
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  • Thanks, artur. I've used stig forever and it's fantastic! I'll have a look at tremc, too. What I'm not clear on is if the new CLI client transmission-remote, as mentioned on the project github page, is the same as the one included in the transmission-cli Ubuntu package.
    – Diagon
    Commented Jun 8, 2021 at 19:52
  • I agree it's pretty confusing since the names are so similar. I've updated my post to also include transmission-remote.
    – Artur Meinild
    Commented Jun 9, 2021 at 5:35
  • 1
    Artur - thanks, but actually ... transmission-remote is in the transmission-cli package! There's the confusion.... Edit: Ok, it seems muru has dug up the answer to the issue. I've upvoted yours because it's a great answer, but accepted his as he was able to go diggin in the code.
    – Diagon
    Commented Jun 9, 2021 at 6:54
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The description of the package was written ten years ago. The text in the README, however, was added only four years ago. It's safe to say that the description needs to be updated. You might want to file a bug (probably with Debian as well) to get it updated and clarified.

Note that transmission-remote-cli is a separate project. The transmission README is talking about transmission-remote (source file utils/remote.c) from the same repo, which is indeed present in Ubuntu 20.04 (and other current versions).

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  • Thanks muru. Are you clear if the transmission-remote in the 20.04 package transmission-cli is the transmission-remote that the transmission project github page says has replaced transmission-cli?
    – Diagon
    Commented Jun 8, 2021 at 19:41
  • @Diagon yes. You can compare the source code of the transmission-remote manpage with the actual Ubuntu manpage. Also see the commit moving the transmission-remote files to utils, which make it pretty clear that utils/remote.c is transmission-remote. (Also, apologies, some of the links in my post were broken - I fixed them now.)
    – muru
    Commented Jun 9, 2021 at 2:12
  • Ok, I swear that some day soon I'm absolutely going to learn git and github so I can dig up things like this. Too many times I've had to learn that the real documentation is the code.
    – Diagon
    Commented Jun 9, 2021 at 6:52

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