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Show HN: I wrote a new BitTorrent tracker in Elixir

(github.com)
394 points dahrkael | 1 comments | 19 Jun 25 22:49 UTC | HN request time: 0.207s | source

Hello everyone!

I'm currently in a journey to learn and improve my Elixir and Go skills (my daily job uses C++) and looking through my backlog for projects to take on I decided Elixir is the perfect language to write a highly-parallel BitTorrent tracker. So I have spent my free time these last 3 months writing one! Now I think it has enough features to present it to the world (and a docker image to give it a quick try).

I know some people see trackers as relics of the past now that DHT and PEX are common but I think they still serve a purpose in today's Internet (purely talking about public trackers). That said there is not a lot going on in terms of new developments since everyone just throws opentracker in a vps a calls it a day (honorable exceptions: aquatic and torrust).

I plan to continue development for the foreseeable future and add some (optional) esoteric features along the way so if anyone currently operates a tracker please give a try and enjoy the lack of crashes.

note: only swarm_printout.ex has been vibe coded, the rest has all been written by hand.

Show context
vivzkestrel ◴[20 Jun 25 03:50 UTC] No.44324563[source]▶
- how did you start - did you refer to other projects - how long did it take - how much functionality do you think works compared to say qbittorrent?
replies(2): >>44325049 #>>44325860 #
lionkor ◴[20 Jun 25 05:44 UTC] No.44325049[source]▶
it's a tracker, not a torrenting client.
replies(1): >>44325338 #
NooneAtAll3 ◴[20 Jun 25 06:56 UTC] No.44325338[source]▶
what does tracker mean?
replies(1): >>44325368 #
devoutsalsa ◴[20 Jun 25 07:01 UTC] No.44325368[source]▶
A torrent tracker is basically the world’s most antisocial matchmaking service that knows who has what files but refuses to actually store anything itself, like that friend who always knows where the party is but never hosts one. When your BitTorrent client asks “hey who’s got that Linux ISO,” the tracker dumps a list of IP addresses faster than a startup pivoting after their Series A falls through. Your client then connects to these strangers (seeders with complete files and leechers still downloading) and starts exchanging data while the tracker pretends nothing happened. It’s like Tinder but for file sharing, except everyone’s anonymous and probably downloading something weird at 3am.
replies(1): >>44325509 #
vjerancrnjak ◴[20 Jun 25 07:36 UTC] No.44325509[source]▶
not anonymous at all, while interacting with the tracker can be done with https, all of the communication between peers is unencrypted.
replies(2): >>44325642 #>>44326328 #
1. immibis ◴[20 Jun 25 10:24 UTC] No.44326328[source]▶
There's an optional encryption extension, with no BEP because the BitTorrent company (which issues BEPs) is ideologically opposed to encryption.