[Debtorrent-devel] Early testing version available

[Cameron Dale]

Hi,

The debtorrent program is now ready for early
experimental-alpha-don't-tell-anyone testing. Woot!

It's obviously still in an early phase, but the first step (adding
variable-sized pieces) has been completed (I think). I'm currently
running the ftp.us.debian.org_debian_dists_stable_contrib_binary-i386_Packages
file and seeding it, so you can try downloading that one to see how it
works. If you want to play around, the tracker should accept any
dtorrent file, so you can test running your own seed and downloader
for other Packages files if you want (and know how).

I'm just looking for some early feedback on whether this is working or
not, so don't tell people about it yet. If it works for someone other
than me, then I'll consider it ready to release as version 0.1. Also,
any comments on how it works, or improvements to be made, are always
desired.

Here are the instructions, which are also available in the README.txt
file (and probably better formatted there):

To start testing DebTorrent, do the following:

1. Export the debtorrent source from subversion:

   svn export svn://svn.debian.org/svn/debtorrent/debtorrent/trunk debtorrent

2. Change into the debtorrent directory:

   cd debtorrent

3. Get a .dtorrent file:

   a) Choose one from the dtorrents directory

      You can view the contents of the file using the btshowmetainfo.py command

      To determine if the dtorrent has peers/seeds, go to

         http://dttracker.debian.net:6969

      and look for the info hash shown by btshowmetainfo.

   b) Or, create one using btmakemetafile from a Packages file:

      btmakemetafile.py http://dttracker.debian.net:6969/announce \
          /var/lib/apt/lists/<mirror>_debian_dists_<suite>_<section>_binary-<arch>_Packages
\
          --target test.dtorrent

      The recommended Packages file to use is from the stable suite (as it
      doesn't change much), and section contrib (as it's the smallest).

4. Start the download:

   btdownloadheadless.py test.dtorrent

   You can use some of the options to btdownloadheadless (to see them, run it
   without arguments) but most are untested, and some will break the download
   (e.g. alloc_type).


If you have any problems downloading, go to

   http://dttracker.debian.net:6969

to check if your torrent is active. If it is, but you still can't download,
or if you get errors from running any of the programs, please post the
problem/error to debtorrent-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org

Thanks,
Cameron