Is there a way to implement your own protocol using BEP 10?

[ajnavarro]

First of all, thank you for this amazing library.

I was trying to find an easy way to implement my own protocol using BEP 10, maybe implementing a simple interface and injecting it to the client, similar to webtorrent.

If that is something that is not implemented, I would love to help with it if is something wanted on the project.

Thanks!

[anacrolix]

Yes, it's very straightforward. But what is the purpose of your protocol? Are you looking for hooks to add your protocol to a client?

[SemiAccurate]

In a typical torrent implementation, you only add to the data you have downloaded. You don't complete a torrent and then throw pieces away. anacrolix/torrent supports this, meaning you can operate and download torrents that require more space than you have available. A common example is if you are streaming a large video, you can just download the parts you need while watching it.

Ah okay! So does that mean that in practice anacrolix/torrent is used mostly for streaming uses cases, unlike other torrent libs?

Is it the only torrent library that does that? Do you know of any others?

Supporting torrenting features unique to streaming is interesting and innovative, though I think you will find that peer-dependent things like BEP 54 lt_donthave aren't useful in practice, because you need others to also support it. If you're the only lib or client that does then you can't really use it or benefit from it. Hmm but also by throwing pieces away a lot it doesn't contribute to the health of the swarm therefore others might conclude it is not a good torrent citizen.

As an aside, I think what you meant by saying that how Reader works is a specific feature of anacrolix/torrent (in the other thread) is that it is unique as a streaming torrenting lib, compared to other torrent libraries, therefore offering specific features like the Reader interface which helps with streaming use cases.

[anacrolix]

Ah okay! So does that mean that in practice anacrolix/torrent is used mostly for streaming uses cases, unlike other torrent libs?

No it works fine for regular use too. It's also used in big crypto projects for whatever kind of prioritization they use, which can't be completely normal.

Is it the only torrent library that does that? Do you know of any others?

I'm pretty sure uTorrent have something similar for their streaming feature, although it's closed source. I think webtorrent have something too, I don't know how sophisticated it is.

Supporting torrenting features unique to streaming is interesting and innovative, though I think you will find that peer-dependent things like BEP 54 lt_donthave aren't useful in practice, because you need others to also support it. If you're the only lib or client that does then you can't really use it or benefit from it. Hmm but also by throwing pieces away a lot it doesn't contribute to the health of the swarm therefore others might conclude it is not a good torrent citizen.

As an implementation that supports streaming, anacrolix/torrent has gotten this far without needing it. I think you will find it benefits much less than you would expect. If the extension is not available, it only becomes an issue when a peer requests a piece you don't actually have. Disconnecting them, or rejecting their requests are perfectly adequate ways to handle this situation.

As an aside, I think what you meant by saying that how Reader works is a specific feature of anacrolix/torrent (in the other thread) is that it is unique as a streaming torrenting lib, compared to other torrent libraries, therefore offering specific features like the Reader interface which helps with streaming use cases.

Yes, Reader is an abstraction that makes using the streaming feature very idiomatic in Go. It would still work without streaming but would be awkward and annoying due to lack of prioritization.

[SemiAccurate]

Ah okay! So does that mean that in practice anacrolix/torrent is used mostly for streaming uses cases, unlike other torrent libs?

No it works fine for regular use too. It's also used in big crypto projects for whatever kind of prioritization they use, which can't be completely normal.

Big crypto projects? Odd. Which ones were you referring to? Curious, what do they use anacrolix/torrent for?

[anacrolix]

@SemiAccurate I think this is offtopic here. I'm not sure it's appropriate for me to discuss the projects.

[SemiAccurate]

@SemiAccurate I think this is offtopic here. I'm not sure it's appropriate for me to discuss the projects.

Oh sorry @anacrolix ! If these big crypto projects using your library are sensitive or not public knowledge then sure I don't care to know their names; I didn't think you worked in crypto.

Though what are the crypto projects using anacrolix/torrent for? Like why would they use your library - or even use torrenting libraries in general - if there's nothing among the features of your library that's special for their use cases. I didn't think blockchains used bittorrent protocol for anything.

(BTW If this is offtopic for this thread, I can transfer our discussion to the thread I recently started, which you just closed, asking for your input. LMK.)

[anacrolix]

@ajnavarro user BEP 10 hooks are available as of 8605abc. A higher level interface is in discussion elsewhere.