Post subject: Moving to additional trackers (Software to test within!)
Emulator Coder
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
We're thinking of adding additional trackers to our torrent files. Having more trackers will keep things torrenting well even if our server has issues, as well as make our files more shareable, and perhaps more popular with torrent search engines. As an added bonus, some external trackers support IPv6 whereas ours currently doesn't. To assist such a transfer, I created a program to modify the tracker list in an existing torrent. Once we deem it bug-free, we'll run it on our entire torrent set (as well as on new torrents added, so publishers don't need to go crazy with trackers lists). Windows Version Linux AMD64 Version On first run, this is printed:
> torrent speedygonzales-tas-ilari.mkv.torrent

announce: "http://tracker.tasvideos.org:6969/announce"
created by: "mktorrent 1.0"
creation date: 1332462070
info:
 length: 86319099
 name: "speedygonzales-tas-ilari.mkv"
 piece length: 262144
 pieces: [data]
url-list: "http://www.archive.org/download/SnesSpeedyGonzalesLosGatosBandidosIn2327.42ByIlari/speedygonzales-tas-ilari.mkv"
The file gets updated immediately, so be sure to back it up before using. Upon second use, you can see the changes performed:
> torrent speedygonzales-tas-ilari.mkv.torrent

announce: "http://tracker.tasvideos.org:6969/announce"
announce-list: "http://tracker.tasvideos.org:6969/announce" "http://tracker.istole.it:80/announce" "http://tracker.ccc.de/announce" "http://tracker.openbittorrent.com/announce" "http://tracker.publicbt.com/announce"
created by: "mktorrent 1.0"
creation date: 1332462070
info:
 length: 86319099
 name: "speedygonzales-tas-ilari.mkv"
 piece length: 262144
 pieces: [data]
url-list: "http://www.archive.org/download/SnesSpeedyGonzalesLosGatosBandidosIn2327.42ByIlari/speedygonzales-tas-ilari.mkv"
Another example set:
> torrent aweekofgarfield-tas-goofydylan8.mp4.torrent

announce: "http://tracker.tasvideos.org:6969/announce"
comment: "Primary Encode"
created by: "uTorrent/3130"
creation date: 1340940702
encoding: "UTF-8"
info:
 file-duration: 570
 file-media: 0
 length: 12254660
 name: "aweekofgarfield-tas-goofydylan8.mp4"
 piece length: 16384
 pieces: [data]
 profiles:
  acodec: ""
  height: 224
  vcodec: ""
  width: 298
url-list: "http://archive.org/download/Goofydylan8sNesAWeekOfGarfieldIn0802.81/aweekofgarfield-tas-goofydylan8.mp4"
> torrent aweekofgarfield-tas-goofydylan8.mp4.torrent

announce: "http://tracker.tasvideos.org:6969/announce"
announce-list: "http://tracker.tasvideos.org:6969/announce" "http://tracker.istole.it:80/announce" "http://tracker.ccc.de/announce" "http://tracker.openbittorrent.com/announce" "http://tracker.publicbt.com/announce"
comment: "Primary Encode"
created by: "uTorrent/3130"
creation date: 1340940702
encoding: "UTF-8"
info:
 file-duration: 570
 file-media: 0
 length: 12254660
 name: "aweekofgarfield-tas-goofydylan8.mp4"
 piece length: 16384
 pieces: [data]
 profiles:
  acodec: ""
  height: 224
  vcodec: ""
  width: 298
url-list: "http://archive.org/download/Goofydylan8sNesAWeekOfGarfieldIn0802.81/aweekofgarfield-tas-goofydylan8.mp4"
I need two things tested. 1) Ensure the modified torrent file is good, works in your favorite torrent program. 2) The automatically added trackers are being contacted. Even better if you can test that peers are being shared via them. Lastly, I'd appreciate any comments and insights you may offer. Edit: Guga & DeHackEd caught an issue with the tracker list. Application has been updated to fix it, redownload. This application now also deletes private markers.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Post subject: Re: Moving to additional trackers (Software to test within!)
Emulator Coder, Skilled player (1113)
Joined: 5/1/2010
Posts: 1217
Nach wrote:
This application now also deletes private markers.
Deleting private marker needs torrent replace, it is not doable as torrent edit, like adding additional trackers or webseeds. The reason is that the private marker is authenticated with torrent hash, which can't be modified without completely replacing the torrent. In contrast, trackers or webseeds are not authenticated, so those can be freely rewritten. The old and new torrent will not be compatible with each other (but if one has file from old torrent, the new torrent process will immediately jump to 100%, because only target file contents matter there).
Emulator Coder
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
Okay, I can comment out the removal of private markers for the time being. Edit: Files updated. Now private is not removed by default. However you can remove it if you use -p. Meaning: "torrent -p <torrent>".
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Joined: 4/30/2008
Posts: 89
Location: Northeast Kansas USA, GMT -06:00
You didn't bother including a readme file? What other parameters can be had for this command-line tool? Will it enable DHT on a torrent that initially doesn't have DHT set for it?
Emulator Coder, Site Developer, Former player
Joined: 11/6/2004
Posts: 833
DHT == !private
Emulator Coder
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
New version uploaded.
Usage: torrent <parameters> <torrent>

Parameters:
  -p     Remove private flag if found.
  -a     Insert/Replace announce list with TASVideos' and open trackers.
  -u     URL list has HTTPS converted to HTTP, and archive.org seeds corrected.
Usage by itself now only prints out information. You can choose to modify it by adding these parameters. Upon modification, before and after information is printed.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Emulator Coder
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
I just put out a new version. This new version in addition to recognizing url-list being an actual list, it can handle the field being a string too.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Site Admin, Skilled player (1254)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11475
Location: Lake Char­gogg­a­gogg­man­chaugg­a­gogg­chau­bun­a­gung­a­maugg
So I do
torrent -a -u <torrent filename>
on my file that was not webseeded, and it does get trackers added and starts webseeding! Not sure about any extra info, like on these trackers, but that's what I see right now: The https bug is being fixed, dunno what new bugs should I check for. Should we really use -p option?
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Emulator Coder
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
Ilari said -p could be problematic to run site wide. However, we can certainly automatically run it on new torrents as they're uploaded. If you guys deem it safe and no problems, I can add a full sweep of existing torrents with -u, and cause all new torrents uploaded to be ran through -u -p.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Joined: 2/3/2013
Posts: 320
Location: Germany
Nach wrote:
Ilari said -p could be problematic to run site wide. However, we can certainly automatically run it on new torrents as they're uploaded. If you guys deem it safe and no problems, I can add a full sweep of existing torrents with -u, and cause all new torrents uploaded to be ran through -u -p.
I believe Ilari meant, that the private marker can only be set at creation time (that is, you need the actual file to be torrented be present). Otherwise I don't see a problem with the -u option or your program for that matter. When in doubt, I suggest a backup be made first though. As a side-note I should add, that as of now at least rtorrent and KTorrent don't seem support webseeds at all. Deluge downloads from web seeds and recent versions (I tested 1.3.11) also download from https webseeds.
All syllogisms have three parts, therefore this is not a syllogism.
Emulator Coder
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
New version out. Now supports multiple torrent files at once, so you can use it en masse easily.
Usage: torrent <parameters> <torrent file 1> ... <torrent file N>

Parameters:
  -p     Remove private flag if found.
  -a     Insert/Replace announce list with TASVideos' and open trackers.
  -u     URL list has HTTPS converted to HTTP, and archive.org seeds corrected.
----
RGamma wrote:
I believe Ilari meant, that the private marker can only be set at creation time (that is, you need the actual file to be torrented be present).
No, you can change it on the fly, that's how the application works. What Ilari is saying is that changing that part of the torrent file makes trackers see the torrent differently, so those who are downloading with the old file and those downloading with the new file won't see each other as peers. However, using the option would not be an issue for newly uploaded torrents.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
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Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11475
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Nach wrote:
If you guys deem it safe and no problems, I can add a full sweep of existing torrents with -u, and cause all new torrents uploaded to be ran through -u -p.
I personally doubt any of us here would find problems with this program. And yes, if something is finally found, there must simply be a backup. As in, RUN THE FIX!
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Post subject: Welcome your new torrent modifying overlord to the site
Emulator Coder
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
Nach wrote:
I can add a full sweep of existing torrents with -u, and cause all new torrents uploaded to be ran through -u -p.
Done!
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Site Admin, Skilled player (1254)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11475
Location: Lake Char­gogg­a­gogg­man­chaugg­a­gogg­chau­bun­a­gung­a­maugg
Oh, thanks! Finally we're saved.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.