Another BitTorrent Client (ABC)

The mktorrent package is required to build test code.

Installation

go install .

Usage

bittorrent-client <run>|<start>|<stop>|<remove>|<repair> [<add>|<info>|<parse> <path/to/file.torrent>]

• The following commands are supported:
  • run: Run client in the foreground
  • start: Run in the background
  • stop: Stop working in the background
  • remove: Remove a torrent from the client
  • repair: Remove corrupted pieces of data
  • add: Add a new torrent and select the files you want
  • info: Display information about the torrent (total size, # of files, etc.)
  • parse: Display the .torrent file parse tree

Features

• Parses Bencoded .torrent files and tracker responses
• Supports Bencoding structured data for serialization
• Parses and implements the peer message protocol
• Downloads single or multi-file torrents
• Checks existing data on disk and picks up from where you left off
• Web UI displays logs and progress

Supported BEPs (BitTorrent Enhancement Proposals)

• 3: Basic BitTorrent protocol (in progress)
• 23: Tracker Returns Compact Peer Lists

TODOs

• Test more than one torrent at a time
• Send keepalives
• Remove multiple torrents at once
• Blacklist misbehaving peers
• Stream bitfield changes to client
• Persist number of bytes uploaded
• Colored output for parse subcommand
• Add and remove torrents without restarting
• User-specified logging level, paths for downloads, path for config file
• Use already-written bencode package to generate .torrent files (instead of pobrn/mktorrent)

Optimizations

• Better piece download strategies (rarest first)
• Better peer selection strategies (optimistic unchoking)

Protocol

• Support the dictionary model for tracker responses listing available peers

Extensions

• DHT
• Peer Exchange