How to Install, Configure and Run Flexget

Introduction

FlexGet is a multi-purpose automation tool for content like torrents, ~~NZBS,~~NZBs, podcasts, comics, series, movies, etc and is able to handle different kinds of sources like RSS feeds, HTML pages and CSV files. This allows you to integrate and create powerful automation between your downloaders, organizers and your media servers.

This guide shows you the following:

Install FlexGet to your seedbox slot

Create your first FlexGet configuration

Running FlexGet

Scheduling your FlexGet tasks

Upgrading and Removing FlexGet

Installation of Flexget via python's virtual environment

Creating a virtualPython environment

Virtual Environment

First, login to your seedbox's SSH
- For more information on how to access your seedbox's SSH, visit this guide to learn more.
Create a python virtual environment by running the command below
- This creates a folder named flexget and it includes the prerequisites needed to run python apps locally.
- This is much recommended because it is isolated from the rest of the server and can be easily deleted and recreated if needed.

python3 -m venv ~/flexget/

Installation

To install, navigate to your created folder by doing

cd flexget

Then, install flexget by running the following command

"$HOME"/flexget/bin/pip3 install flexget

Then make a symbolic link of the ~~flexget~~FlexGet binary by running the following command.
- This allows you to call ~~flexget~~FlexGet whenever you are in your SSH

ln -s ~/flexget/bin/flexget ~/bin/flexget

Configuring Flexget

FlexGet

Creating config.yml

Here, we will now create your first ~~flexget~~FlexGet YAML. Start by creating ~~flexget'~~FlexGet's config folder by running the following command

mkdir -p ~/.config/flexget

Navigate to your created folder by doing

cd ~/.config/flexget

Create a config.yml with the ~~following:~~following

nano config.yml

Editing config.yml

In this part, depending on what you want to achieve your configuration may vary but take note that:

Flexget config uses YAML. Indentation and spacing is critical so take care when writing your config.
YAML uses spaces, not tabs.

For this example, I'll be configuring ~~flexget~~FlexGet to monitor RSS feeds every minute and filters out the results using regex I set. Those that are accepted in my regex will be fed directly to deluge for it to download. The config is shown below.

# Example YAML Config
tasks:
  test-1:
    rss:
      url: https://rss.to/any/f4lt3r-h4h4
      all_entries: no
    regexp:
      accept:
        - .*1080p.*
      deluge:
        host: 127.0.0.1
        port: 11123
        username: xan
        password: somepassword
        label: flexget

# YAML config with explanation
tasks: # A flexgetFlexGet config's main component are tasks, so we start here.

  test-1: # This is the first task. Here, we name our first task "test-1"
     
# Now, we will now add plugins. There are three main types of plugins we normally want in a task in order: an input, a  filter, and an output.

    rss: # This is an example of an input plugin, the first one to run in a task. This tells flexgetFlexGet where do you want it to look for things. In this example, we tell to look into rss feeds.

      url: https://rss.to/any/f4lt3r-h4h4

      all_entries: no # This entry tells flexgetFlexGet to have each entry only created on the first run it is seen.
     
    regexp: # This is an example of a filter plugin. This tells flexgetFlexGet which of the entries the input plugin has that you want. Here, we're using the regexp plugin to filter out entries that you want using regex.

      accept:
        - .*1080p.* # Here, we tell flexgetFlexGet to accept all torrents with the word 1080p in it.
     
# TL;DR regex I used is .*, which matches any characters, including line breaks. I added it in the start and the end of 1080p.
# You may refer to https://regexr.com/ to help you learn and build your own regex.
     
    deluge: # This is an output plugin. This is to tell flexgetFlexGet what do with those things you want. Here, I want to use Deluge as my torrent client. Before I run this tho, I need to install another instance of deluge for flexgetFlexGet by running "$HOME"/flexget/bin/pip3 install deluge-client && ln -s ~/flexget/bin/deluge-client ~/bin/deluge-client. You'll only need this to communicate to your actual Deluge installation (The one you installed via UCP). Your preferred torrent client's setup may vary so you may look up to flexget'FlexGet's wiki for that.
      
      host: 127.0.0.1
      port: 11123
      username: xan
      password: somepassword
      label: flexget

After that, save your work with CTRL + O, press ENTER then CTRL + X.
To check if you config is correctly formatted and configured, you may have to do the following commands:

flexget check to check the config file for any errors
flexget --testtest execute execute to test run your configuration.

In my example, when you run it the first time, it may grab and download multiple torrents which may affect your tracker ratio. To mitigate this:



1. Remove the output plugins from your config 

2. Run `flexget executeexecute`

3. After it finishes put back the output plugins.


This will save the entries accepted so it won't download again in the future.
You may refer to https://flexget.com/FlexGet Configuration  for more information about making your own config as well as https://flexget.com/Cookbook  for some of the basic automation tasks that you can do with Flexget.


Running Flexget
Now, depending on your config you can either run it using cron or flexget'FlexGet's daemon mode.
Cron

Type in your SSH window: which flexget. Take note of the output. This is the absolute path of flexget. Here, the absolute path is /homexx/username/bin/flexget

usbdocs@lw975:~$ which flexget
/home7/usbdocs/bin/flexget
usbdocs@lw975:~$ 


Then type  crontab -e.

If it's your first time running this command, there would be an option asking for your text editor. Select the editor you want but I would suggest selecting 1






Since I want it to run every minute, I set it as * * * * * then the absolute path of flexget,FlexGet, which is /homexx/username/bin/flexget. Then the arguments of flexget which is   --cron execute. If we put it together, we get * * * * * /homexx/username/bin/flexget --cron execute




You may refer to https://crontab.guru/Crontab Guru  which is an quick and simple editor for cron schedule expressions.

If you don't want cron to message you whenever there's an error in flexgetFlexGet (which happens quite alot) and will flood your SSH inbox (accessible by typing mail in ssh), append > /dev/null 2>&1 right after execute



Save your work with CTRL + O, press ENTER then CTRL + X

Systemd/Daemon mode
For more information, please refer to https://flexget.com/Plugins/Daemon/schedulerFlexGet Scheduler. For running your own systemd services, refer to How to run your own services with systemd


Open up your flexgetFlexGet config and add the scheduler plugin before tasks

#YAMLYAML config with Scheduler Plugin
schedules:
  - tasks: [list, of, tasks]
    schedule:
      minute: X
      hour: X
      day: X
      day_of_week: X
      week: X
      month: X
      year: X
     
tasks:
  test-1:
    rss:
      url: https://rss.to/any/f4lt3r-h4h4
      all_entries: no
    regexp:
      accept:
        - .*1080p.*
    deluge:
      host: 127.0.0.1
      port: 11123
      username: xan
      password: somepassword
      label: flexget


Say, I want to run test-1 at 22:05, 22:45, 23:05, 23:45 everyday and test-2 every minute, you'll set it as it is below.below

Take note that the scheduler plugin also supports cron expressions.



schedules:
  - tasks: [test-1]
    schedule:
      minute: 5,45
      hour: 22,23
  - tasks: [test-2]
    interval:
      minute: 1

tasks:
  test-1:
    rss:
      url: https://rss.to/any/f4lt3r-h4h4
      all_entries: no
    regexp:
      accept:
        - .*1080p.*
    deluge:
      host: 127.0.0.1
      port: 11123
      username: xan
      password: somepassword
      label: flexget
  test-2:
    rss:
      url: https://rss.to/any/s4h3rz-d1cz
      all_entries: no
    regexp:
      accept:
        - .*2160p.*
    deluge:
      host: 127.0.0.1
      port: 11123
      username: xan
      password: somepassword
      label: flexget


Save your work with CTRL + O, press ENTER then CTRL + X
Then navigate to /homexx/username/.config/systemd/user/ by typing cd /homexx/username/.config/systemd/user/
Create a service file (nano flexget-daemon.service) and add the following:

[Unit]
Description=Flexget Daemon

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/homexx/xxxxx/bin/flexget daemon start
ExecStop=/homexx/xxxxx/bin/flexget daemon stop
ExecReload=/homexx/xxxxx/bin/flexget daemon reload

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target


Save your work with CTRL + O, press ENTER then CTRL + X
Run systemctl --user daemon-reload
Run systemctl --user enable --now flexget-daemon.service to immediately start the daemon and to automatically restart whenever the daemon crashed or if there's a server restart,restart
To check if the daemon is running, run flexget daemon status



Upgrading Flexget

To upgrade flexget,FlexGet, just run the following command:

"$HOME"/flexget/bin/pip3 install flexget --upgrade


Removing Flexget

To remove flexget,FlexGet, simply delete the flexget folder and your symbolic link.

rm -rfv ~/flexget
rm ~/bin/flexget