CouchPotato Movie Downloader [HTPC-CP]
Note
These directions are way out of date. Do not use these! I have since switched to a different process or tool since writing this particular article, but keeping it up for posterities sake, until I can properly replace it.
What have I changed to you ask? Anything building I’ve tried switching over to Ansible to handle in a much more programatic way. Others might be tools that I just don’t use at all anymore, due to changing DNS hosts.
CouchPotato is a web program, built on python, specifically tailored towards automating Movie Downloads, either through public or private torrent sites or using Usenet Services.
I honestly don’t even use CouchPotato anymore, as it became a huge process hog and super slow to do everything. I personally use Radarr Movie Downloader.
Shoutout
First, I’d like to go ahead and say that I wouldn’t have been able to learn as much as I have as quickly or easily without the help of HTPCGuide’s CP-HowTo.
They are an amazing site, they are slowly getting larger, and they are the real, awesome source.
Base Requirements
First, lets install the basic required programs to help run all-the-things
sudo apt-get install git-core libffi-dev libssl-dev zlib1g-dev libxslt1-dev libxml2-dev python python-pip python-dev build-essential -y
sudo pip install --upgrade lxml cryptography pyopenssl
Note
When running pip with sudo, that then installs those specified programs globally, so the entire system has access.
If you are using a more shared environment - where your pip install might interfere with another users python programs - its best to invoke virtualenv from within the directory you are going to save and run the main CouchPotato program from.
This creates a virtual-like environment for installing your python programs within JUST that directory. So, if there are differing versions elsewhere, they wont clash.
Currently, I am not using virtualenv, so that is currently outside the scope of this document.
Clone the Repo
Now, to really kick things off, we’re going to first clone the github repo, as this is the - well, only way right now - to install and run the software.
But, the other big plus to this is that for running updates, not only does the program have the ability to simply run git pull or what have you from within itself, but if that isn’t pulling a fresher update due to other various settings it has, YOU are able to go in and just run git pull on the CouchPotato directory.
Which, is why…
Note
I keep all of my cloned git repos inside of one, singular directory:
~/git
This way, I don’t have to hunt all over my system for where my repo’s are and it makes it easier to keep them updated. Then, I symlink the library to wherever either the developer wants/requires it or where is easiest.
The other way of handing this is to clone your PROGRAMS into the /opt directory - so /opt/couchpotato, /opt/NzbDrone, /opt/plexpy and so on. Then clone your working repos for projects into ~/git/[repo]
Now, onto the cloning:
git clone https://github.com/RuudBurger/CouchPotatoServer ~/git/couchpotato
sudo ln -s ~/git/couchpotato /opt/couchpotato
Which, again, your other option is to:
git clone https://github.com/RuudBurger/CouchPotatoServer /opt/couchpotato
Note
See User Management for notes on adjusting user permissions with regards to programs and allowing the web access to your machines.
Test if it Works
Now, we’ll run the python program just within the Command Line output, which shows all the text output, including any errors and what not.
sudo python /opt/couchpotato/CouchPotato.py
This will run only as long as you allow it directly inside the terminal, and it will also give each step that the program runs, so you can see if it gives any errors or what else might need to be changed.
Then, to stop the CL output and control, hit ctrl-C to quit the program.
Copy/Edit Default File
Note
The /etc/default is generally where a lot of programs like to keep their default settings files. Its a nice, centrally located spot that init or systemctl program files can reference when wanting a central place that a user can amend different settings, like the user that is running the program, or the directory location of different files.
So, we want to copy over the defaut /etc/default file from the github location, and then make any necessary changes.
sudo cp /opt/couchpotato/init/ubuntu.default /etc/default/couchpotato
sudo nano /etc/default/couchpotato
The below code field is not the entire file, but rather just an excerpt of items of interest.
# COPY THIS FILE TO /etc/default/couchpotato
# Accepted variables with default values -if any- in parentheses:
# username to run couchpotato under (couchpotato)
CP_USER=couchpotato
# directory of CouchPotato.py (/opt/couchpotato)
CP_HOME=/opt/couchpotato
# directory of couchpotato's db, cache and logs (/var/opt/couchpotato)
CP_DATA=/var/opt/couchpotato
# full path of couchpotato.pid (/var/run/couchpotato/couchpotato.pid)
CP_PIDFILE=/var/run/couchpotato.pid
# full path of the python binary (/usr/bin/python)
PYTHON_BIN=/usr/bin/pythonCP_USERwould be the system account we created earlier.CP_HOMEis where it runs fromCP_DATAis where it stores files like the metadata for your movie directory. This one I like to have stored on a mounted, shared drive. This way, if I ever need to reinstall CouchPotato, or the VM fraks up and needs to be spun fresh, the big time stuff is saved elsewhere. So, mine is/media/sf_Ext1/shared/couchpotato
Copy or Edit the init.d File
Now, if you’re running Ubuntu, the ./init/ubuntu script gets copied and amended thusly:
sudo cp /opt/couchpotato/init/ubuntu /etc/init.d/couchpotato
sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/couchpotato
sudo update-rc.d couchpotato defaults
So the chmod +x makes the file executable - instead of running a bash script as bash ./script.sh, when you chmod +x it, you’re able to just say ./script and remove the .sh from the file name as well. Then, the system pulls the language from the first line, #!/bin/bash or #!/bin/sh etc.
Then, the update-rc.d inputs the startup script into the actual upstart, startup system, telling ubuntu to run it on boot - if the script wants that.
Then, you can run sudo service couchpotato start, and so long as it doesn’t output errors, you can now access it at http://127.0.0.1:5050
I will have reverse-proxying stuff posted in the future, but for now you can look at HTPCGuides as they have a lot of those specific how-to’s.