amuled — Headless Daemon

amuled is the headless version of aMule. It runs without any graphical interface and is designed for servers, NAS devices, or any machine where a GUI is unavailable or undesirable.

Overview

amuled is a fully featured aMule client with the GUI stripped out. Without the graphical layer it has significantly reduced memory and CPU requirements and can run without an X server entirely. It is controlled exclusively through remote interfaces:

• amulegui — graphical remote GUI (same interface as amule)
• amuleweb — browser-based HTTP interface
• amulecmd — command-line interface

All remote interfaces communicate with amuled through the External Connections (EC) protocol on TCP port 4712 (configurable).

Command-Line Options

amuled accepts the following options:

Short	Long	Description
-v	--version	Display the current version number and exit.
-h	--help	Display the list of options and exit.
-c <dir>	--config-dir=<dir>	Read the configuration from <dir> instead of the default ~/.aMule/.
-o	--log-stdout	Print log messages to stdout (ignored when the daemon forks to background).
-r	--reset-config	Reset the configuration to default values (the old config is backed up with a .backup suffix).
-e	--ec-config	Configure External Connections (EC) interactively.
-f	--full-daemon	Fork to background (daemonize). Without this flag amuled stays in the foreground.
-p <file>	--pid-file=<file>	After forking, write the daemon's PID to <file> so a service manager can track it.
-w <path>	--use-amuleweb=<path>	Specify the location of the amuleweb binary.
-i	--enable-stdin	Do not close stdin (closed by default).
-d	--disable-fatal	Don't catch fatal exceptions or block exit on assertions (useful under systemd / watchdog scripts).
-t <n>	--category=<n>	Set the category for passed eD2k links.
	--configure-autostart=on|off	Enable or disable starting amuled on user login, then exit.

One or more eD2k links may be passed as positional arguments to add them to the download queue.

nota

Do not set an excessively high MaxConnections value in amule.conf. The default is around 500 and amuled adapts the recommended maximum to your operating system's capabilities. Setting it far too high wastes resources and can degrade performance.

Installation

See Installation for pre-built packages, or Compilation to build amuled from source.

Configuration

First Run

Start amuled once with the --ec-config flag to configure External Connections interactively:

amuled --ec-config

Alternatively, run amuled once normally — it will create ~/.aMule/amule.conf with defaults — then quit and edit the file manually.

Key amule.conf Settings

The relevant section is [ExternalConnect]:

[ExternalConnect]
AcceptExternalConnections=1
ECPassword=56f491c56340a6fa5c158863c6bfb39f
ECPort=4712

Generating the ECPassword hash:

echo -n yourpassword | md5sum | cut -d ' ' -f 1

Copy the output (without trailing whitespace) into ECPassword.

To restrict connections to the local machine only, also set:

ECAddress=127.0.0.1

Starting amuled

By default amuled runs in the foreground. Add -o to print log messages to stdout:

amuled -o

Use -f to fork to the background (daemonize). When it forks, amuled detaches from the controlling terminal and closes stdin/stdout/stderr, so logging to stdout is disabled automatically. Combine it with -p to write a PID file that a service manager can track:

amuled -f -p /run/amuled/amuled.pid

nota

aMule creates a single-instance lock at ~/.aMule/muleLock to prevent a second instance from starting with the same configuration. This is not a manageable PID file — use -p if you need one.

Running as a System Service

On modern Linux distributions the init system is systemd, so that is the recommended way to run amuled unattended; Gentoo uses OpenRC instead.

tip

Many distributions package amuled with a ready-made service (for example Debian/Ubuntu's amule-daemon package). If you installed aMule through your package manager, use that service instead of writing your own.

systemd (modern Linux)

Create /etc/systemd/system/amuled.service:

[Unit]
Description=aMule Daemon
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=amule
ExecStart=/usr/bin/amuled -o -d
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

nota

Do not pass -f here. With Type=simple, systemd expects amuled to stay in the foreground; forking to background would make systemd lose track of the process. Run it in the foreground with -o so log messages go to the journal, and -d so it behaves well under the service manager. (If you prefer the classic forking style, use Type=forking, ExecStart=/usr/bin/amuled -f -p /run/amuled/amuled.pid and PIDFile=/run/amuled/amuled.pid instead.)

Enable and start:

systemctl enable amuled
systemctl start amuled

Replace User=amule with the name of a user that has already run amule or amuled once to generate a configuration.

Gentoo (OpenRC)

Save the following as /etc/init.d/amuled and make it executable (chmod 755 /etc/init.d/amuled):

#!/sbin/openrc-run

name="amuled"
description="aMule Daemon"
command="/usr/bin/amuled"
command_args="-o -d"
command_user="amule"        # A user that has run amule once to configure it.
command_background="yes"
pidfile="/run/amuled.pid"

depend() {
    need net
}

OpenRC runs amuled in the foreground (-o -d) and handles backgrounding and the PID file itself (command_background). Enable and start it with:

rc-update add amuled default
rc-service amuled start

Connecting Remotely

Once amuled is running with EC enabled, connect to it using any of the remote interfaces:

Interface	Command / URL
GUI	amulegui
Web	http://hostname:4711 (after starting amuleweb)
CLI	amulecmd -h hostname -p 4712 -P yourpassword

See the individual pages for amulegui, amuleweb, and amulecmd for full setup instructions.

To connect from another machine, make sure the EC port (and the amuleweb HTTP port, if used) is reachable: see Network Connectivity for the full list of ports and Firewall for how to open them.