How to Install aria2 on CentOS 7

aria2 is a lightweight, multi-protocol download manager that supports HTTP(S), FTP, BitTorrent, and Metalink protocols. It’s particularly useful for resumable downloads, parallel connections, and command-line automation.

Prerequisites

You’ll need root or sudo access. This guide covers CentOS 7, CentOS Stream, and Rocky Linux 8+. For older systems still on CentOS 7, package availability may be limited, so building from source is an alternative.

Installation from EPEL

The simplest approach is installing aria2 from the EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) repository.

First, enable EPEL:

sudo dnf install epel-release

On CentOS 7, use:

sudo yum install epel-release

Then install aria2:

sudo dnf install aria2

Or on CentOS 7:

sudo yum install aria2

Verify the installation:

aria2c --version

Building from Source

If EPEL packages aren’t available or you need a newer version, build aria2 from source:

sudo dnf groupinstall "Development Tools"
sudo dnf install openssl-devel libxml2-devel zlib-devel sqlite-devel

Download the latest release from the aria2 GitHub releases page:

cd /tmp
wget https://github.com/aria2/aria2/releases/download/release-1.36.0/aria2-1.36.0.tar.gz
tar xzf aria2-1.36.0.tar.gz
cd aria2-1.36.0
./configure --prefix=/usr/local
make
sudo make install

Verify the installation:

/usr/local/bin/aria2c --version

Basic Usage

Download a single file:

aria2c https://example.com/largefile.iso

Download with multiple connections (faster):

aria2c -x 5 https://example.com/largefile.iso

Download multiple URLs from a file:

aria2c -i download_list.txt

Resume a partial download:

aria2c -c https://example.com/largefile.iso

Set output directory and filename:

aria2c -d /home/user/downloads -o myfile.iso https://example.com/largefile.iso

Using aria2 as a Daemon (RPC Server)

aria2 can run as a daemon with RPC control for automation:

mkdir -p ~/.config/aria2
cat > ~/.config/aria2/aria2.conf << EOF
# Listen on localhost:6800
rpc-listen-all=false
rpc-listen-addr=127.0.0.1
rpc-listen-port=6800
EOF

Start the daemon:

aria2c --conf-path=~/.config/aria2/aria2.conf -D

Use an RPC client like webui-aria2 to control downloads through a web interface.

Configuration File

Create a persistent configuration at ~/.config/aria2/aria2.conf:

# Number of parallel connections
max-concurrent-downloads=5
max-connection-per-server=4

# Timeout
connect-timeout=120

# Output directory
dir=/home/user/downloads

# Log file
log-level=notice
log=/home/user/.aria2/aria2.log

Run aria2 with your config:

aria2c --conf-path=~/.config/aria2/aria2.conf [URLs]

Troubleshooting

If downloads fail, check connectivity and verify the URL. Enable debug logging:

aria2c --log-level=debug --log=/tmp/aria2-debug.log https://example.com/file

For permission errors when writing to directories, ensure the user running aria2 has write access to the download directory.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

If you encounter problems during installation, check these common solutions:

Ensure your system packages are up to date before installing new software
Check for conflicting packages that might prevent installation
Verify network connectivity if downloading packages from external repositories
Review system logs in /var/log/ for detailed error messages

Verification Steps

After installation, verify everything is working correctly by checking the installed version and running basic functionality tests. Most command-line tools respond to the –version or -v flag to display their version information.

Keeping Your Installation Updated

Regularly update your system to receive security patches and bug fixes. On Fedora, use dnf update. On Ubuntu and Debian, use apt update followed by apt upgrade. For software installed via language-specific package managers like pip, npm, or gem, check their respective update commands.

Related Linux Commands

These related commands are often used alongside the tools discussed in this article:

man command-name – Read the manual page for any command
which command-name – Find the location of an executable
rpm -qa or dpkg -l – List installed packages
journalctl -u service-name – Check service logs
ss -tulpn – List listening ports and services

Quick Reference

This article covered the essential concepts and commands for the topic. For more information, consult the official documentation or manual pages. The key takeaway is to understand the fundamentals before applying advanced configurations.

Practice in a test environment before making changes on production systems. Keep notes of what works and what does not for future reference.