CLI tools guide ​

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 >= 5.2 supports VOD or Live transcoding by a remote PeerTube 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

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 etc) by editing ~/.config/peertube-runner-nodejs/[id]/config.toml.

Run the server ​

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

peertube-runner server

Register ​

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

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:

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

List registered instances ​

peertube-runner list-registered

Server tools ​

Server tools are scripts that interect 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:

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):

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:

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.

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.

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:

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.

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:

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

Generate storyboard ​

PeerTube >= 6.0

Use this script to generate storyboard of a specific video:

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:

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 storage ​

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

cd /var/www/peertube/peertube-latest
sudo systemctl stop peertube && sudo -u peertube NODE_CONFIG_DIR=/var/www/peertube/config NODE_ENV=production 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).

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:

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:

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:

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:

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