tools.md

CLI tools guide

[[toc]]

Remote PeerTube CLI

peertube-cli is a tool that communicates with a PeerTube instance using its REST API. It can be launched from a remote server/computer to easily upload videos, manage plugins, redundancies etc.

Installation

Ensure you have node installed on your system:

node --version # Should be >= 16.x

Then install the CLI:

sudo npm install -g @peertube/peertube-cli

CLI wrapper

The wrapper provides a convenient interface to the following sub-commands.

Usage: peertube-cli [command] [options]

Options:
  -v, --version                     output the version number
  -h, --help                        display help for command

Commands:
  auth                              Register your accounts on remote instances to use them with other commands
  upload|up [options]               Upload a video on a PeerTube instance
  redundancy|r                      Manage instance redundancies
  plugins|p                         Manage instance plugins/themes
  get-access-token|token [options]  Get a peertube access token
  help [command]                    display help for command

The wrapper can keep track of instances you have an account on. We limit to one account per instance for now.

peertube-cli auth add -u 'PEERTUBE_URL' -U 'PEERTUBE_USER' --password 'PEERTUBE_PASSWORD'
peertube-cli auth list
┌──────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┐
│ instance                     │ login                        │
├──────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│ 'PEERTUBE_URL'               │ 'PEERTUBE_USER'              │
└──────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────┘

You can now use that account to execute sub-commands without feeding the --url, --username and --password parameters:

peertube-cli upload <videoFile>
peertube-cli plugins list
...

peertube-cli upload

You can use this script to upload videos directly from the CLI.

Videos will be publicly available after transcoding (you can see them before that in your account on the web interface).

cd ${CLONE}
peertube-cli upload --help

peertube-cli plugins

Install/update/uninstall or list local or NPM PeerTube plugins:

cd ${CLONE}
peertube-cli plugins --help
peertube-cli plugins list --help
peertube-cli plugins install --help
peertube-cli plugins update --help
peertube-cli plugins uninstall --help

peertube-cli plugins install --path /my/plugin/path
peertube-cli plugins install --npm-name peertube-theme-example

peertube-cli redundancy

Manage (list/add/remove) video redundancies:

To list your videos that are duplicated by remote instances:

peertube-cli redundancy list-remote-redundancies

To list remote videos that your instance duplicated:

peertube-cli redundancy list-my-redundancies

To duplicate a specific video in your redundancy system:

peertube-cli redundancy add --video 823

To remove a video redundancy:

peertube-cli redundancy remove --video 823

PeerTube runner

PeerTube supports VOD/Live transcoding and VOD transcription (PeerTube >= 6.2) by a remote PeerTube runner.

The runner communicates with the PeerTube instance using HTTP and WebSocket and doesn't need to have a public IP. So you can run a runner on a classic server, a non-public server or even on your own computer!

You can read the admin documentation on how to use PeerTube runners on https://docs.joinpeertube.org/admin/remote-runners

Runner installation

Ensure you have node, ffmpeg and ffprobe installed on your system:

node --version # Should be >= 16.x
ffprobe -version # Should be >= 4.3
ffmpeg -version # Should be >= 4.3

If you want to use video transcription:

pip install whisper-ctranslate2 # or pipx install whisper-ctranslate2 depending on your distribution

Then install the CLI:

sudo npm install -g @peertube/peertube-runner

Configuration

The runner uses env paths like ~/.config, ~/.cache and ~/.local/share directories to store runner configuration or temporary files.

Multiple PeerTube runners can run on the same OS by using the --id CLI option (each runner uses its own config/tmp directories):

peertube-runner [commands] --id instance-1
peertube-runner [commands] --id instance-2
peertube-runner [commands] --id instance-3

You can change the runner configuration (jobs concurrency, ffmpeg threads/nice, whisper engines/models, etc.) by editing ~/.config/peertube-runner-nodejs/[id]/config.toml.

The runner TOML config template consists of:

[jobs]
# How much concurrent jobs the runner can execute in parallel
concurrency = 2

[ffmpeg]
# How much threads a ffmpeg process can use
# 0 -> let ffmpeg automatically choose
threads = 0
nice = 20

[transcription]
# Choose between "openai-whisper" or "whisper-ctranslate2"
# Engine binary has to be installed manually (unlike the PeerTube instance that can install whisper automatically)
engine = "whisper-ctranslate2"
# Optional whisper binary path if not available in global path
enginePath = "/var/prunner/.local/pipx/venvs/whisper-ctranslate2/bin/whisper-ctranslate2"
# Whisper model: "tiny", "base", "small", "medium", "large-v2" or "large-v3"
model = "large-v2"

# Registered instances are saved in the config file
[[registeredInstances]]
url = "..." # URL of the instance
runnerToken = "..." # Shared runner token secret
runnerName = "..." # Runner name declared to the PeerTube instance

[[registeredInstances]]
url = "..."
runnerToken = "..."
runnerName = "..."

Run the server

In a shell

You need to run the runner in server mode first so it can run transcoding jobs of registered PeerTube instances:

peertube-runner server

You can also decide which kind of job the runner can execute with --enable-job <type> option. This way you can have one dedicated runner for transcription tasks (on a GPU machine for example) and another one for transcoding tasks.

# Only transcription tasks
peertube-runner server --enable-job video-transcription
# Only VOD transcoding tasks
peertube-runner server --enable-job vod-web-video-transcoding --enable-job vod-hls-transcoding --enable-job vod-audio-merge-transcoding
# Only "studio" transcoding
peertube-runner server --enable-job video-studio-transcoding
# Only "live" transcoding
peertube-runner server --enable-job live-rtmp-hls-transcoding

As a Systemd service

If your OS uses systemd, you can also configure a service so that the runner starts automatically.

To do so, first create a dedicated user. Here, we are calling it prunner, but you can choose whatever name you want. We are using /srv/prunner as his home dir, but you can choose any other path.

useradd -m -d /srv/prunner -s /bin/bash -p prunner prunner

::: info Note If you want to use /home/prunner, you have to set ProtectHome=false in the systemd configuration (see below). :::

Now, you can create the /etc/systemd/system/prunner.service file (don't forget to adapt path and user/group names if you changed it):

[Unit]
Description=PeerTube runner daemon
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
Environment=NODE_ENV=production
User=prunner
Group=prunner
ExecStart=peertube-runner server
WorkingDirectory=/srv/prunner
SyslogIdentifier=prunner
Restart=always

; Some security directives.
; Mount /usr, /boot, and /etc as read-only for processes invoked by this service.
ProtectSystem=full
; Sets up a new /dev mount for the process and only adds API pseudo devices
; like /dev/null, /dev/zero or /dev/random but not physical devices. Disabled
; by default because it may not work on devices like the Raspberry Pi.
PrivateDevices=false
; Ensures that the service process and all its children can never gain new
; privileges through execve().
NoNewPrivileges=true
; This makes /home, /root, and /run/user inaccessible and empty for processes invoked
; by this unit. Make sure that you do not depend on data inside these folders.
ProtectHome=true
; Drops the sys admin capability from the daemon.
CapabilityBoundingSet=~CAP_SYS_ADMIN

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

:::info Note You can add the parameter --id instance-1 on the ExecStart line, if you want to have multiple instances. You can then create multiple separate services. They can use the same user and path. :::

Finally, to enable the service for the first time:

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable prunner.service
systemctl restart prunner.service

Next time, if you need to start/stop/restart the service:

systemctl stop prunner.service
systemctl start prunner.service
systemctl restart prunner.service

You can also check the status (and last logs):

systemctl status prunner.service

To edit the runner configuration: juste edit the /srv/prunner/.config/peertube-runner-nodejs/default/config.toml file, and restart the service (this file will be created when the runner starts for the first time).

If you are using the --id parameter, you can change specific configuration by editing the file /srv/prunner/.config/peertube-runner-nodejs/[id]/config.toml.

::: info For every peertube-runner commands described below, you have to run them as the prunner user. So for example, to call the list-registered command: sudo -u prunner peertube-runner list-registered. Otherwise the script will read the wrong configuration and cache files, and won't work as expected. :::

Register

Then, you can register the runner to process transcoding job of a remote PeerTube instance:

::: code-group

peertube-runner register --url http://peertube.example.com --registration-token ptrrt-... --runner-name my-runner-name

sudo -u prunner peertube-runner register --url http://peertube.example.com --registration-token ptrrt-... --runner-name my-runner-name

:::

The runner will then use a websocket connection with the PeerTube instance to be notified about new available transcoding jobs.

Unregister

To unregister a PeerTube instance:

::: code-group

peertube-runner unregister --url http://peertube.example.com --runner-name my-runner-name

sudo -u prunner peertube-runner unregister --url http://peertube.example.com --runner-name my-runner-name

:::

List registered instances

::: code-group

peertube-runner list-registered

sudo -u prunner peertube-runner list-registered

:::

Update the runner package

You can check if there is a new runner version using:

sudo npm outdated -g @peertube/peertube-runner

Package                    Current  Wanted  Latest  Location                                Depended by
@peertube/peertube-runner    0.0.6   0.0.7   0.0.7  node_modules/@peertube/peertube-runner  lib

To update the runner:

# Update the package
sudo npm update -g @peertube/peertube-runner
# Check that the version changed (optional)
sudo npm list -g @peertube/peertube-runner
# Restart the service (if you are using systemd)
sudo systemctl restart prunner.service

Server tools

Server tools are scripts that interact directly with the code of your PeerTube instance. They must be run on the server, in peertube-latest directory.

Parse logs

To parse PeerTube last log file:

::: code-group

cd /var/www/peertube/peertube-latest
sudo -u peertube NODE_CONFIG_DIR=/var/www/peertube/config NODE_ENV=production npm run parse-log -- --level info

cd /var/www/peertube-docker
docker compose exec -u peertube peertube npm run parse-log -- --level info

:::

--level is optional and could be info/warn/error

You can also remove SQL or HTTP logs using --not-tags (PeerTube >= 3.2):

::: code-group

cd /var/www/peertube/peertube-latest
sudo -u peertube NODE_CONFIG_DIR=/var/www/peertube/config NODE_ENV=production npm run parse-log -- --level debug --not-tags http sql

cd /var/www/peertube-docker
docker compose exec -u peertube peertube npm run parse-log -- --level debug --not-tags http sql

:::

Regenerate video thumbnails

Regenerating local video thumbnails could be useful because new PeerTube releases may increase thumbnail sizes:

::: code-group

cd /var/www/peertube/peertube-latest
sudo -u peertube NODE_CONFIG_DIR=/var/www/peertube/config NODE_ENV=production npm run regenerate-thumbnails

cd /var/www/peertube-docker
docker compose exec -u peertube peertube npm run regenerate-thumbnails

:::

Add or replace specific video file

You can use this script to import a video file to replace an already uploaded file or to add a new web compatible resolution to a video. PeerTube needs to be running. You can then create a transcoding job using the web interface if you need to optimize your file or create an HLS version of it.

::: code-group

cd /var/www/peertube/peertube-latest
sudo -u peertube NODE_CONFIG_DIR=/var/www/peertube/config NODE_ENV=production npm run create-import-video-file-job -- -v [videoUUID] -i [videoFile]

cd /var/www/peertube-docker
docker compose exec -u peertube peertube npm run create-import-video-file-job -- -v [videoUUID] -i [videoFile]

:::

Move video files from filesystem to object storage

Use this script to move all video files or a specific video file to object storage.

::: code-group

cd /var/www/peertube/peertube-latest
sudo -u peertube NODE_CONFIG_DIR=/var/www/peertube/config NODE_ENV=production npm run create-move-video-storage-job -- --to-object-storage -v [videoUUID]

cd /var/www/peertube-docker
docker compose exec -u peertube peertube npm run create-move-video-storage-job -- --to-object-storage -v [videoUUID]

:::

The script can also move all video files that are not already in object storage:

::: code-group

cd /var/www/peertube/peertube-latest
sudo -u peertube NODE_CONFIG_DIR=/var/www/peertube/config NODE_ENV=production npm run create-move-video-storage-job -- --to-object-storage --all-videos

cd /var/www/peertube-docker
docker compose exec -u peertube peertube npm run create-move-video-storage-job -- --to-object-storage --all-videos

:::

Move video files from object storage to filesystem

PeerTube >= 6.0

Use this script to move all video files or a specific video file from object storage to the PeerTube instance filesystem.

::: code-group

cd /var/www/peertube/peertube-latest
sudo -u peertube NODE_CONFIG_DIR=/var/www/peertube/config NODE_ENV=production npm run create-move-video-storage-job -- --to-file-system -v [videoUUID]

cd /var/www/peertube-docker
docker compose exec -u peertube peertube npm run create-move-video-storage-job -- --to-file-system -v [videoUUID]

:::

The script can also move all video files that are not already on the filesystem:

::: code-group

cd /var/www/peertube/peertube-latest
sudo -u peertube NODE_CONFIG_DIR=/var/www/peertube/config NODE_ENV=production npm run create-move-video-storage-job -- --to-file-system --all-videos

cd /var/www/peertube-docker
docker compose exec -u peertube peertube npm run create-move-video-storage-job -- --to-file-system --all-videos

:::

Update object storage URLs

PeerTube >= 6.2

Use this script after you migrated to another object storage provider so PeerTube updates its internal object URLs (a confirmation will be demanded first).

PeerTube must be stopped.

::: code-group

cd /var/www/peertube/peertube-latest
sudo -u peertube NODE_CONFIG_DIR=/var/www/peertube/config NODE_ENV=production npm run update-object-storage-url -- --from 'https://region.old-s3-provider.example.com' --to 'https://region.new-s3-provider.example.com'

cd /var/www/peertube-docker
docker compose exec -u peertube peertube npm run update-object-storage-url -- --from 'https://region.old-s3-provider.example.com' --to 'https://region.new-s3-provider.example.com'

:::

Cleanup remote files

PeerTube >= 6.2

Use this script to recover disk space by removing remote files (thumbnails, avatars...) that can be re-fetched later by your PeerTube instance on-demand:

cd /var/www/peertube/peertube-latest
sudo -u peertube NODE_CONFIG_DIR=/var/www/peertube/config NODE_ENV=production npm run house-keeping -- --delete-remote-files

cd /var/www/peertube-docker
docker compose exec -u peertube peertube npm run house-keeping -- --delete-remote-files

:::

Generate storyboard

PeerTube >= 6.0

Use this script to generate storyboard of a specific video:

::: code-group

cd /var/www/peertube/peertube-latest
sudo -u peertube NODE_CONFIG_DIR=/var/www/peertube/config NODE_ENV=production npm run create-generate-storyboard-job -- -v [videoUUID]

cd /var/www/peertube-docker
docker compose exec -u peertube peertube npm run create-generate-storyboard-job -- -v [videoUUID]

:::

The script can also generate all missing storyboards of local videos:

::: code-group

cd /var/www/peertube/peertube-latest
sudo -u peertube NODE_CONFIG_DIR=/var/www/peertube/config NODE_ENV=production npm run create-generate-storyboard-job -- --all-videos

cd /var/www/peertube-docker
docker compose exec -u peertube peertube npm run create-generate-storyboard-job -- --all-videos

:::

Prune filesystem/object storage

Some transcoded videos or shutdown at a bad time can leave some unused files on your storage. To delete these files (a confirmation will be demanded first):

::: code-group

cd /var/www/peertube/peertube-latest
sudo -u peertube NODE_CONFIG_DIR=/var/www/peertube/config NODE_ENV=production npm run prune-storage

cd /var/www/peertube-docker
docker compose exec -u peertube peertube npm run prune-storage

:::

Update PeerTube instance domain name

Changing the hostname is unsupported and may be a risky operation, especially if you have already federated. If you started PeerTube with a domain, and then changed it you will have invalid torrent files and invalid URLs in your database. To fix this, you have to run the command below (keep in mind your follower instances will NOT update their URLs).

::: code-group

cd /var/www/peertube/peertube-latest
sudo -u peertube NODE_CONFIG_DIR=/var/www/peertube/config NODE_ENV=production npm run update-host

cd /var/www/peertube-docker
docker compose exec -u peertube peertube npm run update-host

:::

Reset user password

To reset a user password from CLI, run:

::: code-group

cd /var/www/peertube/peertube-latest
sudo -u peertube NODE_CONFIG_DIR=/var/www/peertube/config NODE_ENV=production npm run reset-password -- -u target_username

cd /var/www/peertube-docker
docker compose exec -u peertube peertube npm run reset-password -- -u target_username

:::

Install or uninstall plugins

The difference with peertube plugins CLI is that these scripts can be used even if PeerTube is not running. If PeerTube is running, you need to restart it for the changes to take effect (whereas with peertube plugins CLI, plugins/themes are dynamically loaded on the server).

To install/update a plugin or a theme from the disk:

::: code-group

cd /var/www/peertube/peertube-latest
sudo -u peertube NODE_CONFIG_DIR=/var/www/peertube/config NODE_ENV=production npm run plugin:install -- --plugin-path /local/plugin/path

cd /var/www/peertube-docker
docker compose exec -u peertube peertube npm run plugin:install -- --plugin-path /local/plugin/path

:::

From NPM:

::: code-group

cd /var/www/peertube/peertube-latest
sudo -u peertube NODE_CONFIG_DIR=/var/www/peertube/config NODE_ENV=production npm run plugin:install -- --npm-name peertube-plugin-myplugin

cd /var/www/peertube-docker
docker compose exec -u peertube peertube npm run plugin:install -- --npm-name peertube-plugin-myplugin

:::

To uninstall a plugin or a theme:

::: code-group

cd /var/www/peertube/peertube-latest
sudo -u peertube NODE_CONFIG_DIR=/var/www/peertube/config NODE_ENV=production npm run plugin:uninstall -- --npm-name peertube-plugin-myplugin

cd /var/www/peertube-docker
docker compose exec -u peertube peertube npm run plugin:uninstall -- --npm-name peertube-plugin-myplugin

:::