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Linux Seedbox

Learn how to install Unpackerr on your linux shell without root.

  1. Download and extract a binary from the releases page.
  2. Rename the file to unpackerr and make it executable: chmod +x unpackerr
  3. Download the example config file, or generate one.
  4. Edit config file to suit your needs: nano unpackerr.conf
  5. Put both on your Linux shell server, in an ~/unapckerr/ folder.
  6. Run Unpackerr in the background, screen is the easiest way to do so.
Archive Access

Unpackerr requires write access to your download location. Make sure you set the path variables correctly in the configuration. Even if they're set incorrectly Unpackerr makes a best effort attempt to locate your downloads. If it can't find your downloads, then the path or paths variables need to be adjusted.

Here's a simple script that automates the above steps. You should take some time to understand how screen works if you use this solution. Please read and understand what the script does before running it.

#!/bin/bash

# Get the latest release tag from GitHub API.
TAG=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/Unpackerr/unpackerr/releases/latest | \
  grep "tag_name" | cut -d '"' -f 4)

# Check system architecture and assign it to ARCH variable.
ARCH="$(uname -m)"
if [ "$ARCH" = "x86_64" ]; then
  ARCH="amd64"
elif [ "$ARCH" = "aarch64" ]; then
  ARCH="arm64"
elif [ "$ARCH" = "armv7l" ]; then
  ARCH="arm"
fi

# Construct the download URL.
URL="https://github.com/Unpackerr/unpackerr/releases/download/$TAG/unpackerr.${ARCH}.linux.gz"

# Download and extract the binary.
mkdir -p $HOME/unpackerr
wget $URL -O - | gunzip > $HOME/unpackerr/unpackerr
chmod 0755 $HOME/unpackerr/unpackerr

# Download the example config file from the same tag.
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Unpackerr/unpackerr/$TAG/examples/unpackerr.conf.example \
  -O $HOME/unpackerr/unpackerr.conf
chmod 0600 $HOME/unpackerr/unpackerr.conf

# This opens nano, so you may edit unpackerr.conf to suit your needs.
# Set a starr app url and api key, and a log file at minimum.
# "~/unpackerr/unpackerr.log" is a good path for a log file.
nano $HOME/unpackerr/unpackerr.conf

# Set up a screen session to run unpackerr in the background.
screen -dmS unpackerr $HOME/unpackerr/unpackerr -c $HOME/unpackerr/unpackerr.conf

# Add a cron job to start the screen session on reboot.
# Note: This adds the job to the current user's crontab.
# You'll need to manually remove it if you want to stop it later.
(crontab -l 2>/dev/null; \
  echo "@reboot screen -dmS unpackerr $HOME/unpackerr/unpackerr -c $HOME/unpackerr/unpackerr.conf") | \
  crontab -

After you run this script, and exit nano, Unpackerr will be running in the background. If you're not familiar with screen, here's a quick primer:

  • Run screen -r to re-attach Unpackerr's screen to your terminal.
  • After you're satisfied with it, press ctrl+a then d to detach (and put it back into the background).
  • Reminder that all commands inside a screen session begin with ctrl+a.
  • To make Unpackerr exit, re-attach it and press ctrl+c.

The above script also adds a crontab to start Unpackerr on reboot. Run crontab -l to list all crontabs and verify that Unpackerr's exists. Run crontab -r to remove all crontabs and crontab -e to edit them.