Docker Ace Stream server

An Ace Stream server Docker image.

• Overview
• Building
• Usage
• Reference

Overview

What this provides:

• Dockerized Ace Stream server (version 3.1.49) running under Debian 8 (Jessie) slim.
• Bash script to start server and present HTTP API endpoint to host.
• Python playback script playstream.py instructing server to:
  • Commence streaming of a given program ID.
  • ...and optionally start a compatible media player (such as VLC) to view stream.

Since a single HTTP endpoint exposed from the Docker container controls the server and provides the output stream, this provides one of the easier methods for playback of Ace Streams on traditionally unsupported operating systems such as macOS.

Building

To build Docker image:

$ ./build.sh

Alternatively pull the Docker Hub image:

$ docker pull magnetikonline/acestream-server:3.1.49_debian_8.11

Usage

Start the server via:

$ ./run.sh

For Linux hosts the alternative run-tmpfs.sh is recommended, mounting the cache directory into a temporary based tmpfs file system. This saves thrashing of the file system as stream contents is written to disk - which does not seem possible to disable via server launch arguments.

Server will now be available from http://127.0.0.1:6878:

$ curl http://127.0.0.1:6878/webui/api/service?method=get_version
# {"result": {"code": 3014900, "platform": "linux", "version": "3.1.49"}, "error": null}

A program ID can be started with playstream.py:

$ ./playstream.py --help
usage: playstream.py [-h] --ace-stream-pid HASH [--player PLAYER] [--progress]
                     [--server HOSTNAME] [--port PORT]

Instructs server to commence a given program ID. Will optionally execute a
local media player once playback has started.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --ace-stream-pid HASH
                        program ID to stream
  --player PLAYER       media player to execute once stream active
  --progress            continue to output stream statistics (connected
                        peers/transfer rates) every 2 seconds
  --server HOSTNAME     server hostname, defaults to 127.0.0.1
  --port PORT           server HTTP API port, defaults to 6878

For example, to stream PROGRAM_ID and send playback to vlc when ready:

$ ./playstream.py \
    --ace-stream-pid PROGRAM_ID \
    --player /usr/bin/vlc \
    --progress

Awaiting successful connection to stream
Waiting... [Peers: 5 // Down: 80KB // Up: 0KB]
Waiting... [Peers: 40 // Down: 343KB // Up: 4KB]
Ready!

Playback available at [http://127.0.0.1/XXXX]
Starting media player...

Streaming... [Peers: 18 // Down: 467KB // Up: 16KB]

Send Ctrl + C to exit.

Reference

• Binary downloads: https://wiki.acestream.org/Download
• Ubuntu install notes: https://wiki.acestream.org/Install_Ubuntu
• HTTP API usage: https://wiki.acestream.org/Engine_HTTP_API
• playstream.py routines inspired by: https://github.com/jonian/acestream-launcher