torrent-discovery

torrent-discovery

Discover BitTorrent and WebTorrent peers

This module bundles bittorrent-dht and bittorrent-tracker clients and exposes a single API for discovering BitTorrent peers via both discovery methods.

features

• simple API
• find peers from trackers and the DHT
• automatically announces, so other peers can discover us
• can start finding peers with just an info hash, before full metadata is available

This module also works in the browser with browserify. In that context, it discovers WebTorrent (WebRTC) peers.

install

npm install torrent-discovery

api

discovery = new Discovery(opts)

Create a new peer discovery instance. Required options are:

{
  peerId: '', // as utf8 string or Buffer
  port: 0     // torrent client port (only required in node)
}

Optional options are:

{
  announce: [],  // force list of announce urls to use (from magnet uri)
  dht: true,     // use dht? optionally, this can be an `opts` object, or a DHT instance to use (can be reused for multiple torrents)
  dhtPort: 0,    // custom listen port for the DHT instance (not used if DHT instance is given via `opts.dht`)
  tracker: true, // use trackers? optionally, this can be an `opts` object
}

See the documentation for bittorrent-dht and bittorrent-tracker for information on what options are available via the opts object.

This module automatically handles announcing on intervals, for maximum peer discovery.

discovery.setTorrent(infoHashOrTorrent)

When you learn the infoHash (hex string) of the torrent, call this method to begin searching for peers.

Later, when you get the full torrent metadata (parsed via parse-torrent), call this method again to ensure more accurate tracker stats (because we now know the torrent length).

discovery.updatePort(port)

When the port that the torrent client is listening on changes, call this method to reannounce to the tracker and DHT with the new port.

discovery.stop()

Destroy and cleanup the DHT and tracker instances.

events

discovery.on('peer', function (peer) {})

Emitted whenever a new peer is discovered.

In node, peer is a string in the form 12:34:56:78:4000.

In the browser, peer is an instance of simple-peer, a small wrapper around a WebRTC peer connection.

discovery.on('dhtAnnounce', function () {})

Emitted whenever an announce message has been sent to the DHT.

discovery.on('warning', function (err) {})

Emitted when there is a non-fatal DHT or tracker error, like an inaccessible tracker server. Useful for logging. This is non-fatal.

discovery.on('error', function (err) {})

Emitted when there is a fatal, unrecoverable DHT or tracker error.

license

MIT. Copyright (c) Feross Aboukhadijeh.