install rtorrent failed using yum install rtorrent in CentOS

Question

I want to install rtorrent as a client (NOT SeedBox). I tried the following command:

yum install rtorrent

I get following message:

Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * base: centos.mirror.iweb.ca
 * extras: centos.mirror.iweb.ca
 * updates: centos.mirror.netelligent.ca
Excluding Packages in global exclude list
Finished
Setting up Install Process
No package rtorrent available.
Nothing to do

I think it's because I do not have rtorrent at my repository. What should I do to add rtorrent to my repository? I tried yum update without any success.

Answer 1

The reason you can't find it in the stock RPM repository that comes with CentOS is that rtorrent is traditionally a desktop application even though it is command line based. CentOS is a close of Red Had Enterprise Linux which does not include applications like rtorrent. A quick search online and I couldn't find any third party repositories for CentOS that included rtorrent.

My personal suggestion is to use Fedora, which is still based on the Red Hat architecture but includes a much wider range of packages including rtorrent.

Answer 2

Because you did not mention it, I am assuming you are on CentOS 5.

An old version of rtorrent can be found in the EPEL repository. I looked up the package here and found rtorrent version 0.7.8. The current version number is 0.8.7. The Fedora Project has instructions on installing the EPEL repository here.

If you want the latest version, you will need to compile it from source from their website.