Enable IPv6 Only Connections in Aria2 Ubuntu

This article provides a concise guide for Ubuntu users who need to configure the aria2 download utility to use IPv6 exclusively. It outlines the specific command-line flag required to enforce this setting and demonstrates how to apply it temporarily or permanently within the system configuration.

To enable IPv6 only for network connections in aria2, you must use the --ipv6-connection-only flag. When running aria2 from the terminal, append this option followed by true to ensure the downloader ignores IPv4 addresses.

aria2c --ipv6-connection-only=true [URL]

You can also shorten this command by omitting the value, as the presence of the flag implies true:

aria2c --ipv6-connection-only [URL]

For permanent configuration on Ubuntu, edit the aria2 configuration file located at ~/.aria2/aria2.conf or /etc/aria2/aria2.conf. Add the following line to the file to ensure all future downloads default to IPv6 only:

ipv6-connection-only=true

After saving the configuration file, restart any running aria2 sessions or daemons for the changes to take effect. This ensures that all network traffic initiated by aria2 will attempt to resolve hosts using IPv6 addresses exclusively.