bittorrent-tracker

Simple, robust, BitTorrent tracker (client & server) implementation

Node.js implementation of a BitTorrent tracker, client and server.

A BitTorrent tracker is an HTTP service which responds to GET requests from BitTorrent clients. The requests include metrics from clients that help the tracker keep overall statistics about the torrent. The response includes a peer list that helps the client participate in the torrent.

This module is used by WebTorrent.

features

includes client & server implementations
supports HTTP & UDP trackers (BEP 15)
supports tracker "scrape" extension
robust and well-tested (comprehensive test suite, and used by WebTorrent and peerflix)
supports ipv4 & ipv6

Also see bittorrent-dht.

install

npm install bittorrent-tracker

usage

client

To connect to a tracker, just do this:

var Client = require('bittorrent-tracker')
var parseTorrent = require('parse-torrent')
var fs = require('fs')

var torrent = fs.readFileSync(__dirname + '/torrents/bitlove-intro.torrent')
var parsedTorrent = parseTorrent(torrent) // { infoHash: 'xxx', length: xx, announce: ['xx', 'xx'] }

var peerId = new Buffer('01234567890123456789')
var port = 6881

var client = new Client(peerId, port, parsedTorrent)

client.on('error', function (err) {
  // fatal client error!
  console.log(err.message)
})

client.on('warning', function (err) {
  // a tracker was unavailable or sent bad data to the client. you can probably ignore it
  console.log(err.message)
})

// start getting peers from the tracker
client.start()

client.on('update', function (data) {
  console.log('got an announce response from tracker: ' + data.announce)
  console.log('number of seeders in the swarm: ' + data.complete)
  console.log('number of leechers in the swarm: ' + data.incomplete)
})

client.once('peer', function (addr) {
  console.log('found a peer: ' + addr) // 85.10.239.191:48623
})

// announce that download has completed (and you are now a seeder)
client.complete()

// force a tracker announce. will trigger more 'update' events and maybe more 'peer' events
client.update()

// stop getting peers from the tracker, gracefully leave the swarm
client.stop()

// ungracefully leave the swarm (without sending final 'stop' message)
client.destroy()

// scrape
client.scrape()

client.on('scrape', function (data) {
  console.log('got a scrape response from tracker: ' + data.announce)
  console.log('number of seeders in the swarm: ' + data.complete)
  console.log('number of leechers in the swarm: ' + data.incomplete)
  console.log('number of total downloads of this torrent: ' + data.incomplete)
})

server

To start a BitTorrent tracker server to track swarms of peers:

var Server = require('bittorrent-tracker').Server

var server = new Server({
  udp: true, // enable udp server? [default=true]
  http: true, // enable http server? [default=true]
  ws: true, // enable websocket server? [default=true]
  filter: function (infoHash, params, cb) {
    // Blacklist/whitelist function for allowing/disallowing torrents. If this option is
    // omitted, all torrents are allowed. It is possible to interface with a database or
    // external system before deciding to allow/deny, because this function is async.

    // It is possible to block by peer id (whitelisting torrent clients) or by secret
    // key (private trackers). Full access to the original HTTP/UDP request parameters
    // are available n `params`.

    // This example only allows one torrent.

    var allowed = (infoHash === 'aaa67059ed6bd08362da625b3ae77f6f4a075aaa')
    cb(allowed)

    // In addition to returning a boolean (`true` for allowed, `false` for disallowed),
    // you can return an `Error` object to disallow and provide a custom reason.
  })
})

// Internal http, udp, and websocket servers exposed as public properties.
server.http
server.udp
server.ws

server.on('error', function (err) {
  // fatal server error!
  console.log(err.message)
})

server.on('warning', function (err) {
  // client sent bad data. probably not a problem, just a buggy client.
  console.log(err.message)
})

server.on('listening', function () {
  // fired when all requested servers are listening
  console.log('listening on http port:' + server.http.address().port)
  console.log('listening on udp port:' + server.udp.address().port)
})

// start tracker server listening! Use 0 to listen on a random free port.
server.listen(port, hostname, onlistening)

// listen for individual tracker messages from peers:

server.on('start', function (addr) {
  console.log('got start message from ' + addr)
})

server.on('complete', function (addr) {})
server.on('update', function (addr) {})
server.on('stop', function (addr) {})

// get info hashes for all torrents in the tracker server
Object.keys(server.torrents)

// get the number of seeders for a particular torrent
server.torrents[infoHash].complete

// get the number of leechers for a particular torrent
server.torrents[infoHash].incomplete

// get the peers who are in a particular torrent swarm
server.torrents[infoHash].peers

The http server will handle requests for the following paths: /announce, /scrape. Requests for other paths will not be handled.

command line

Easily start a tracker server:

$ bittorrent-tracker
http server listening on 8000
udp server listening on 8000
ws server listening on 8000

Lots of options:

$ bittorrent-tracker --help
  bittorrent-tracker - Start a bittorrent tracker server

  Usage:
      bittorrent-tracker

  Options:
      -p, --port [number]     change the port [default: 8000]
          --trust-proxy       trust 'x-forwarded-for' header from reverse proxy
          --interval          tell clients to announce on this interval (ms)
          --http              enable http server [default: true]
          --udp               enable udp server [default: true]
          --ws                enable ws server [default: false]
      -q, --quiet             only show error output
      -s, --silent            show no output
      -v, --version           print the current version

  Please report bugs!  https://github.com/feross/bittorrent-tracker/issues

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