torrent-http-bridge

Work in progress.

Expose any URL over the bittorrent network.

WebTorrent based server that seeds files not located on the local filesystem but on remote URLs (the remote HTTP server must support byte range requests).

The server, also known as a torrent to http "bridge", announces the torrent's infohash on BitTorrent's DHT and whenever a peer tries downloading a file it knows about, it respond to requests by fetching parts of the remote URL using byte range requests and forward those responses to the peer using the Bittorrent protocol.

                     +-------------------------+
                     |       http server       |
                     |                         |
                     | http://domain/file.webm |
                     +-^-----------------------+
                       |
                       |     (1) seed http://domain/file.webm
     (7) byte range    |         with torrent file file.torrent
         requests      |      +  and infohash XYZ
                       |      |
                     +-v------v-+                    +-----+
                     |  bridge  +--------------------> DHT |
                     +-^------^-+   (2) i have XYZ   +-----+
                       |      |                         ^  |
     (6) request file  |      |(5) torrent metadata     |  |
         pieces        |      |                         |  |
                     +-v------v-+     (3) who has XYZ   |  |
                     |   peer   +-----------------------+  |
                     +----------+                          |
                           ^-------------------------------+
                                   (4) bridge has XYZ

install

npm install --save torrent-http-bridge

usage

const bridge = new HTTPBridge();

bridge.on('ready', () => {
  console.log('torrent port', bridge.torrentPort);
  console.log('node id', bridge.nodeIdHex);
  console.log('peer id', bridge.peerIdHex);

  // url: url to seed
  // parsedTorrent: torrent of the file to seed
  // see parse-torrent module
  bridge.seed(url, parsedTorrent, (err, torrent) => {
    if (err) exit(err);
    console.log('seeding', parsedTorrent.infoHash);
    torrent.on('dhtAnnounce', () => {
      console.log('dhtAnnounce');
    });
  });
});

test

npm test

./integration-test.sh