ref: c57c8919e303aaad512a5e603f60d4be22d6afea
dir: /sys/man/1/torrent/
.TH TORRENT 1 .SH NAME torrent \- bittorrent client .SH SYNOPSIS .B ip/torrent [ .B -d ] [ .B -v ] [ .B -p ] [ .B -m .I mtpt ] [ .B -t .I tracker-url ] [ .B -w .I webseed-url ] [ .B -s ] [ .B -c ] [ .B -i .I peer-id ] [ .B -A .I user-agent ] [ .I file ] .SH DESCRIPTION BitTorrent is a protocol for efficient file distribution over the internet. Files are split into small pieces that are then downloaded by clients in random order. As soon as a client completes a piece, it makes the piece available for others to download. .PP To find other clients (peers), a tracker-server is contacted. .PP Before files can be transmitted, a torrent-file needs to be created describing the pieces of the files and other meta-data like network addresses of the trackers. .PP This is done with the .B -c option. If provided, .I torrent reads the file given at the final .I file argument (or standard-input when omitted) and writes a torrent file to standard-output and exits. A .I tracker-url should be given with the .B -t option in that case. A list of trackers can be obtained on the web, see the examples below. .PP If the files in the torrent are also available from a url, a .I webseed-url can be passed with the .B -w option. If .I webseed-url ends with a slash, the filename, from the torrent, concatenated with the url forms the target url. .PP Without the .B -c option, .I torrent downloads the files that are described in the torrent-file given by the .I file argument to the current working directory. If no .I file is given, the torrent is read from standard-input. .PP Normally, the program exits immediately after all pieces have been completed. The .B -s option causes it to keep running and serve the remaining clients (also known as seeding). .PP Trackers use a subset of the HTTP protocol, so an alternative .IR webfs (4) mountpoint can be given with the .B -m option (defaults to .BR /mnt/web ). .PP The .B -v option causes .I torrent to list the files in the torrent-file before downloading. .PP The .B -d option produces verbose debug output to standard-error. .PP To monitor the download progress, the .B -p option can be given to cause the completed and total number of pieces written as a line of text to standard-output in one second intervals. .PP The .B -i option allows you to set the 20-byte .I peer-id that is sent to trackers and peers. If less than 20 bytes, the .I peer-id will be padded on the right with random ASCII numbers. The .B -A option allows setting the http .I user-agent string that is used to contact the tracker. These options are useful to fool trackers that filter clients based on the .I peer-id or .I user-agent . .SH EXAMPLES Create new torrent file .EX ip/torrent -t http://exodus.desync.com/announce \\ -c 9atom.iso >9atom.torrent .EE .LP Download the latest iso file of the distribution .EX cd /tmp hget http://r-36.net/9front/9front.iso.bz2.torrent | \\ ip/torrent -pv | \\ aux/statusbar 'download...' .EE .LP Get list of public alive trackers to choose from .EX hget http://www.trackon.org/api/live .EE .LP .SH SOURCE .B /sys/src/cmd/ip/torrent.c .SH "SEE ALSO" .IR hget (1), .IR webfs (4) .SH HISTORY .I Torrent first appeared in 9front (October, 2011).