Rookparcel 1.2.5

Rookparcel 1.2.5 is PaTorrent 1.2.0 under its new name, with a new icon, the Postal Rook. There are no new features. Settings, torrents, profiles and portable folders from PaTorrent are taken over at the first start.

Rookparcel is a lean BitTorrent client in the spirit of µTorrent 2.2.1: small single-file binaries, a native look, low RAM and CPU use, and an interface that stays responsive with tens of thousands of torrents. The engine is our own Rust port of libtorrent-rasterbar 2.0.11; nothing is linked.

New since 1.2.0

• The name. PaTorrent is now Rookparcel: rookparcel.exe, rookparcel-gtk and rookparcel-nox, the app id io.github.balls0fsteel.Rookparcel, the repository Balls0fSteel/Rookparcel and the website https://balls0fsteel.github.io/Rookparcel/. GitHub forwards the old repository's links; the old website address no longer answers.
• The icon. The Postal Rook: a rook in a postal cap on a stamp, drawn by hand for 16 to 32 px. On Windows, Linux, macOS, the Web UI and the website.
• Taking over PaTorrent. At its first start Rookparcel moves PaTorrent's folders (%APPDATA%\PaTorrent, ~/.config/patorrent and ~/.local/share/patorrent, ~/Library/Application Support/PaTorrent) to the new name and renames patorrent.ini to rookparcel.ini, every profile included; the paths in the settings follow. A portable folder with a patorrent.ini is taken over where it is. On Windows, .torrent and magnet associations, the Default apps entry and "Start with Windows" move to Rookparcel. On Linux, the desktop and autostart entries move; on macOS, the login item. While a PaTorrent still runs on a folder, Rookparcel leaves it alone and says so: close PaTorrent first.
• The Windows setup removes an installed PaTorrent, then installs Rookparcel.
• Peer ID -RP1014-, and the client name Rookparcel/1.2.5 towards trackers and peers.
• Fix: a Web UI login that comes in after another guess got its address banned is answered "banned" (403), not "Fails.".

Downloads

SHA256SUMS has every file's checksum.

Platform	File	What is inside
Windows 10 / 11, x64, installer	rookparcel-1.2.5-windows-x64-setup.exe	rookparcel.exe (the GUI) and rookparcel-nox.exe (the headless daemon), installed with a Start menu entry and an uninstaller
Windows 10 / 11, x64, portable	rookparcel-1.2.5-windows-x64.zip	the same two programs; statically linked, nothing to install
Linux desktop, x86_64 or aarch64	Rookparcel-1.2.5-<arch>.AppImage	the GTK 4 GUI with its libraries bundled (needs glibc 2.39 or newer: Ubuntu 24.04, Fedora 40, Debian 13 or later)
Linux desktop, Flatpak	Rookparcel-1.2.5-<arch>.flatpak	the GTK 4 GUI on the GNOME 51 runtime (installed from Flathub)
Linux, plain binaries	rookparcel-1.2.5-linux-<arch>.tar.gz	rookparcel-gtk, rookparcel-nox, the desktop entry and the systemd units; they use the system's GTK 4 (4.12 or newer) and OpenSSL 3, as on Ubuntu 24.04
Linux server, headless	rookparcel-nox-1.2.5-<arch>.AppImage	rookparcel-nox with OpenSSL bundled
macOS, Apple silicon	Rookparcel-1.2.5-arm64.dmg	Rookparcel.app: the GTK 4 GUI with its libraries bundled (macOS 15 or newer)
macOS, headless	rookparcel-nox-1.2.5-macos-<arch>.tar.gz	rookparcel-nox for Apple silicon (arm64, macOS 11+) and Intel (x86_64, macOS 10.14+)

Coming from PaTorrent

PaTorrent does not offer this update by itself (its update check read the old website), so install Rookparcel by hand once. Close PaTorrent first.

• Windows, installed. Run the Rookparcel setup. It removes PaTorrent; the first start of Rookparcel takes over its settings and torrents.

• Windows, zip or portable. Unzip Rookparcel and start it. A portable PaTorrent folder: put rookparcel.exe beside patorrent.exe and start it there; delete the old exe afterwards.

• Linux AppImage, tarball; macOS. Start Rookparcel instead of PaTorrent, then delete PaTorrent. On macOS, drag PaTorrent.app to the Bin after Rookparcel has started once.

• Linux Flatpak. The new app id has its own sandbox folder, which Rookparcel cannot see into. Before the first start, copy PaTorrent's folders across (not yet tried on a real install):

  mkdir -p ~/.var/app/io.github.balls0fsteel.Rookparcel
  cp -a ~/.var/app/io.github.balls0fsteel.PaTorrent/config ~/.var/app/io.github.balls0fsteel.PaTorrent/data ~/.var/app/io.github.balls0fsteel.Rookparcel/
  flatpak uninstall --user io.github.balls0fsteel.PaTorrent

• patorrent-nox as a service. On Windows, rookparcel-nox service install with the same options replaces the PaTorrentNox service and moves %ProgramData%\PaTorrent. systemd and FreeBSD services move by hand: DAEMON.md.

• Remote control and scripts. A GUI and the rookparcel-nox it drives must both be 1.2.5 (remote protocol 16); a PaTorrent GUI is told to update. Scripts may keep sending X-Requested-With: PaTorrent.

First run

• Windows installer. Run the setup. It is not code-signed, so SmartScreen shows "Windows protected your PC": click More info > Run anyway. "Install for anyone using this computer" asks for administrator rights and shows "Unknown publisher". Settings and torrents are in %APPDATA%\Rookparcel.

• Windows zip. Unzip anywhere and start rookparcel.exe; SmartScreen warns as above. An empty rookparcel.ini next to the exe keeps settings and torrents beside it (portable mode).

• Linux AppImage. Run chmod +x Rookparcel-1.2.5-x86_64.AppImage, then start it. Without FUSE 2 on the system, start it with --appimage-extract-and-run. Settings are in ~/.config/rookparcel/gtk, torrents in ~/.local/share/rookparcel/gtk.

• Linux Flatpak. The bundle holds the application; the runtime comes from Flathub:

  flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists --user flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
  flatpak install --user Rookparcel-1.2.5-x86_64.flatpak
  flatpak run io.github.balls0fsteel.Rookparcel

• macOS. Drag Rookparcel.app to Applications. It is ad-hoc signed and not notarised, so Gatekeeper refuses it the first time: right-click (or Control-click) the app > Open, then click Open, or run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Rookparcel.app. The GUI is Apple silicon only; Intel Macs get rookparcel-nox.

• Headless. rookparcel-nox run --webui 8080 --webui-pass PASS starts the daemon with its Web UI and a qBittorrent-compatible Web API on port 8080. DAEMON.md describes services: systemd, FreeBSD rc.d, --daemon and Windows, one per profile if you like.

• Sonarr, Radarr, Prowlarr. Rookparcel is added as a qBittorrent download client. Existing entries that pointed at PaTorrent keep working with the same address and password.

Known limitations

• Everything in 1.2.0's limitations still applies.
• The takeover was checked on Windows with rookparcel-nox and a scratch settings folder (both the default and a named profile, a portable folder, a PaTorrent still running). Not yet tried: the GUIs over a real PaTorrent install, the setup over an installed PaTorrent, Linux, macOS and the Flatpak.
• Do not use it on private trackers yet. The client ID RP is not whitelisted anywhere.

Reporting problems

Open an issue with your platform, the file you used and what happened. For a crash or a stuck torrent, include the Logger tab or rookparcel-nox run --verbose output. For security problems, see SECURITY.md.

License

Rookparcel is free for noncommercial use under the PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0. Code ported from libtorrent remains under its BSD-3-Clause license; every download carries LICENSE.md and THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md. Rookparcel is an independent project, not affiliated with libtorrent, qBittorrent, µTorrent or BitTorrent, Inc.