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Package detail

bittorrent-tracker

webtorrent38.4kMIT11.2.1

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

bittorrent, p2p, peer, peer-to-peer, stream, torrent, tracker, wire

readme

bittorrent-tracker ci npm downloads javascript style guide

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

tracker visualization

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

A BitTorrent tracker is a web service which responds to 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 swarm.

This module is used by WebTorrent.

features

  • Includes client & server implementations
  • Supports all mainstream tracker types:
  • Supports ipv4 & ipv6
  • Supports tracker "scrape" extension
  • Robust and well-tested
  • Tracker statistics available via web interface at /stats or JSON data at /stats.json

Also see bittorrent-dht.

Tracker stats

Screenshot

install

npm install bittorrent-tracker

usage

client

To connect to a tracker, just do this:

import Client from 'bittorrent-tracker'

const requiredOpts = {
  infoHash: new Buffer('012345678901234567890'), // hex string or Buffer
  peerId: new Buffer('01234567890123456789'), // hex string or Buffer
  announce: [], // list of tracker server urls
  port: 6881 // torrent client port, (in browser, optional)
}

const optionalOpts = {
  // RTCPeerConnection config object (only used in browser)
  rtcConfig: {},
  // User-Agent header for http requests
  userAgent: '',
  // Custom webrtc impl, useful in node to specify [wrtc](https://npmjs.com/package/wrtc)
  wrtc: {},
  getAnnounceOpts: function () {
    // Provide a callback that will be called whenever announce() is called
    // internally (on timer), or by the user
    return {
      uploaded: 0,
      downloaded: 0,
      left: 0,
      customParam: 'blah' // custom parameters supported
    }
  },
  // Proxy options (used to proxy requests in node)
  proxyOpts: {
      // For WSS trackers this is always a http.Agent
      // For UDP trackers this is an object of options for the Socks Connection
      // For HTTP trackers this is either an undici Agent if using Node16 or later, or http.Agent if using versions prior to Node 16, ex:
      // import Socks from 'socks'
      // proxyOpts.socksProxy = new Socks.Agent(optionsObject, isHttps)
      // or if using Node 16 or later
      // import { socksDispatcher } from 'fetch-socks'
      // proxyOpts.socksProxy = socksDispatcher(optionsObject)
      socksProxy: new SocksProxy(socksOptionsObject),
      // Populated with socksProxy if it's provided
      httpAgent: new http.Agent(agentOptionsObject),
      httpsAgent: new https.Agent(agentOptionsObject)
  },
}

const client = new Client(requiredOpts)

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()

// provide parameters to the tracker
client.update({
  uploaded: 0,
  downloaded: 0,
  left: 0,
  customParam: 'blah' // custom parameters supported
})

// 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.downloaded)
})

server

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

import { Server } from 'bittorrent-tracker'
// Or import Server from 'bittorrent-tracker/server'

const server = new Server({
  udp: true, // enable udp server? [default=true]
  http: true, // enable http server? [default=true]
  ws: true, // enable websocket server? [default=true]
  stats: true, // enable web-based statistics? [default=true]
  trustProxy: false, // enable trusting x-forwarded-for header for remote IP [default=false]
  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 in `params`.

    // This example only allows one torrent.

    const allowed = (infoHash === 'aaa67059ed6bd08362da625b3ae77f6f4a075aaa')
    if (allowed) {
      // If the callback is passed `null`, the torrent will be allowed.
      cb(null)
    } else {
      // If the callback is passed an `Error` object, the torrent will be disallowed
      // and the error's `message` property will be given as the reason.
      cb(new Error('disallowed torrent'))
    }
  }
})

// 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

  // HTTP
  const httpAddr = server.http.address()
  const httpHost = httpAddr.address !== '::' ? httpAddr.address : 'localhost'
  const httpPort = httpAddr.port
  console.log(`HTTP tracker: http://${httpHost}:${httpPort}/announce`)

  // UDP
  const udpAddr = server.udp.address()
  const udpHost = udpAddr.address
  const udpPort = udpAddr.port
  console.log(`UDP tracker: udp://${udpHost}:${udpPort}`)

  // WS
  const wsAddr = server.ws.address()
  const wsHost = wsAddr.address !== '::' ? wsAddr.address : 'localhost'
  const wsPort = wsAddr.port
  console.log(`WebSocket tracker: ws://${wsHost}:${wsPort}`)

})


// start tracker server listening! Use 0 to listen on a random free port.
const port = 0
const hostname = "localhost"
server.listen(port, hostname, () => {
  // Do something on listening...
})

// 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.

multi scrape

Scraping multiple torrent info is possible with a static Client.scrape method:

import Client from 'bittorrent-tracker'
// Or import Client from 'bittorrent-tracker/client'

Client.scrape({ announce: announceUrl, infoHash: [ infoHash1, infoHash2 ]}, function (err, results) {
  results[infoHash1].announce
  results[infoHash1].infoHash
  results[infoHash1].complete
  results[infoHash1].incomplete
  results[infoHash1].downloaded

  // ...
})
`

command line

Install bittorrent-tracker globally:

$ npm install -g bittorrent-tracker

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]

  If no --http, --udp, or --ws option is supplied, all tracker types will be started.

  Options:
    -p, --port [number]  change the port [default: 8000]
        --trust-proxy    trust 'x-forwarded-for' header from reverse proxy
        --interval       client announce interval (ms) [default: 600000]
        --http           enable http server
        --udp            enable udp server
        --ws             enable websocket server
    -q, --quiet          only show error output
    -s, --silent         show no output
    -v, --version        print the current version

license

MIT. Copyright (c) Feross Aboukhadijeh and WebTorrent, LLC.

changelog

11.2.1 (2025-01-19)

Bug Fixes

11.2.0 (2024-12-28)

Features

11.1.2 (2024-08-13)

Bug Fixes

11.1.1 (2024-07-01)

Performance Improvements

11.1.0 (2024-05-22)

Bug Fixes

Features

11.0.2 (2024-03-12)

Bug Fixes

  • parse-http: ignore announcements from peers with invalid announcement ports. (#513) (fe75272)

11.0.1 (2024-01-16)

Bug Fixes

11.0.0 (2023-10-31)

Features

BREAKING CHANGES

  • major: drop simple-get

  • perf: drop simple-get

  • feat: undici agent and socks

  • fix: undici as dev dependency

  • feat: require user passed proxy objects for http and ws

  • chore: include undici for tests

10.0.12 (2023-08-09)

Bug Fixes

  • deps: update dependency bencode to v4 (#487) (aeccf9c)

10.0.11 (2023-08-01)

Bug Fixes

10.0.10 (2023-06-16)

Performance Improvements

10.0.9 (2023-06-16)

Performance Improvements

10.0.8 (2023-06-07)

Bug Fixes

10.0.7 (2023-06-05)

Bug Fixes

10.0.6 (2023-05-27)

Bug Fixes

  • replace simple-peer with maintained one (#466) (3b2dedb)

10.0.5 (2023-05-27)

Bug Fixes

10.0.4 (2023-05-26)

Bug Fixes

10.0.3 (2023-05-25)

Performance Improvements

  • replace simple websocket with maintained one (#464) (3f01c29)

10.0.2 (2023-02-01)

Bug Fixes

10.0.1 (2022-12-07)

Bug Fixes

  • deps: update dependency bencode to v3 (#434) [skip ci] (926ceee)
  • deps: update dependency string2compact to v2 (#437) (9be843c)

10.0.0 (2022-12-05)

Features

BREAKING CHANGES

  • ESM only

  • feat: esm

  • fix: linter oops

9.19.0 (2022-06-01)

Features

  • events: Support of paused client event (#411) (ef76b3f)

9.18.6 (2022-05-11)

Bug Fixes

9.18.5 (2022-03-25)

Bug Fixes

9.18.4 (2022-03-06)

Bug Fixes

9.18.3 (2021-10-29)

Bug Fixes

9.18.2 (2021-09-02)

Bug Fixes

9.18.1 (2021-09-01)

Bug Fixes

9.18.0 (2021-08-20)

Features

  • add proxy support for tracker clients (#356) (ad64dc3)

9.17.4 (2021-07-22)

Bug Fixes

  • if websocket closed, don't produce a response (ca88435)

9.17.3 (2021-07-02)

Bug Fixes

  • auto update authors on version (b5ffc70)

9.17.2 (2021-06-15)

Bug Fixes

9.17.1 (2021-06-15)

Bug Fixes

  • add package-lock (0e486b0)
  • deps: update dependency bn.js to ^5.2.0 (2d36e4a)
  • deps: update dependency chrome-dgram to ^3.0.6 (a82aaaa)
  • deps: update dependency run-parallel to ^1.2.0 (fcf25ed)
  • deps: update dependency run-series to ^1.1.9 (fa2c33f)
  • deps: update dependency simple-websocket to ^9.1.0 (96fedbd)
  • deps: update dependency ws to ^7.4.5 (6ad7ead)
  • deps: update webtorrent (1e8d47d)
  • UDP url parsing (8e24a8c)