Opentracker
Encyclopedia
opentracker is a free
(licensed as beerware
) BitTorrent peer tracker software (a special kind of HTTP or UDP server software) that is designed to be fast and to have a low consumption of system resources.
s.) Several instances of the software may be run in a cluster, with all of them synchronizing with each other. Besides the Hypertext Transfer Protocol
(HTTP) opentracker may also be connected to via User Datagram Protocol
(UDP), which creates less than half of the tracker traffic HTTP creates. It supports IPv6
, gzip
compression of full scrapes, and blacklist
s of torrents. Because there have already been cases of people being accused of copyright violation by the fact that their IP address was listed on a BitTorrent tracker, opentracker may mix in random IP address numbers for the purpose of plausible deniability
.
and based on the library libowfat that manages network connections.
For some new functionality like the UDP support with IPv6 or the syncing of several instances of BitTorrent tracker software, new extensions to the BitTorrent protocol were made.
switched from their selfmade software Hypercube to opentracker in the end of 2007.
The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation uses it to distribute their own TV shows.
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
(licensed as beerware
Beerware
Beerware is a somewhat tongue-in-cheek term for software released under a very relaxed license. It provides the end user with the right to use a particular program .-Description:...
) BitTorrent peer tracker software (a special kind of HTTP or UDP server software) that is designed to be fast and to have a low consumption of system resources.
Features
OpenTracker runs several times faster than older tracker implementations and requires less memory. (For example, it runs fine with the limited resources of many embedded systemEmbedded system
An embedded system is a computer system designed for specific control functions within a larger system. often with real-time computing constraints. It is embedded as part of a complete device often including hardware and mechanical parts. By contrast, a general-purpose computer, such as a personal...
s.) Several instances of the software may be run in a cluster, with all of them synchronizing with each other. Besides the Hypertext Transfer Protocol
Hypertext Transfer Protocol
The Hypertext Transfer Protocol is a networking protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web....
(HTTP) opentracker may also be connected to via User Datagram Protocol
User Datagram Protocol
The User Datagram Protocol is one of the core members of the Internet Protocol Suite, the set of network protocols used for the Internet. With UDP, computer applications can send messages, in this case referred to as datagrams, to other hosts on an Internet Protocol network without requiring...
(UDP), which creates less than half of the tracker traffic HTTP creates. It supports IPv6
IPv6
Internet Protocol version 6 is a version of the Internet Protocol . It is designed to succeed the Internet Protocol version 4...
, gzip
Gzip
Gzip is any of several software applications used for file compression and decompression. The term usually refers to the GNU Project's implementation, "gzip" standing for GNU zip. It is based on the DEFLATE algorithm, which is a combination of Lempel-Ziv and Huffman coding...
compression of full scrapes, and blacklist
Blacklist
A blacklist is a list or register of entities who, for one reason or another, are being denied a particular privilege, service, mobility, access or recognition. As a verb, to blacklist can mean to deny someone work in a particular field, or to ostracize a person from a certain social circle...
s of torrents. Because there have already been cases of people being accused of copyright violation by the fact that their IP address was listed on a BitTorrent tracker, opentracker may mix in random IP address numbers for the purpose of plausible deniability
Plausible deniability
Plausible deniability is, at root, credible ability to deny a fact or allegation, or to deny previous knowledge of a fact. The term most often refers to the denial of blame in chains of command, where upper rungs quarantine the blame to the lower rungs, and the lower rungs are often inaccessible,...
.
Technology
It runs completely in RAM, accounting for much of its speed advantage over other tracker software. It is written in CC (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
and based on the library libowfat that manages network connections.
For some new functionality like the UDP support with IPv6 or the syncing of several instances of BitTorrent tracker software, new extensions to the BitTorrent protocol were made.
Usage
The world's largest tracker at The Pirate BayThe Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay is a Swedish website which hosts magnet links and .torrent files, which allow users to share electronic files, including multimedia, computer games and software via BitTorrent...
switched from their selfmade software Hypercube to opentracker in the end of 2007.
The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation uses it to distribute their own TV shows.