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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: 0.297s | 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
TheJoeMan ◴[20 Jun 25 13:11 UTC] No.44327403[source]▶
Could you please clarify what DHT and PEX are? I'm having trouble searching "tracker PEX".
replies(2): >>44327470 #>>44328225 #
atmosx ◴[20 Jun 25 14:47 UTC] No.44328225[source]▶
DHT (Distributed Hash Table) and PEX (Peer Exchange) let torrent clients find peers without centralised trackers. Hence, you don't need a central place / public tracker anymore
replies(1): >>44328273 #
Thaxll ◴[20 Jun 25 14:52 UTC] No.44328273[source]▶
You still need a central server though...
replies(2): >>44328943 #>>44328959 #
LtdJorge ◴[20 Jun 25 15:56 UTC] No.44328959[source]▶
If you are connected to the DHT network, you don’t. Unless you mean for DNS and such.
replies(1): >>44328985 #
perching_aix ◴[20 Jun 25 15:58 UTC] No.44328985[source]▶
No, they mean specifically that in order to connect to such a network, you need to hit some specific central nodes first.
replies(1): >>44329166 #
LtdJorge ◴[20 Jun 25 16:12 UTC] No.44329166[source]▶
The bootstrap nodes. But those don't _need_ to be centralized, even if they have historically been to some degree. There coul be millions.
replies(2): >>44329242 #>>44334328 #
1. perching_aix ◴[21 Jun 25 03:49 UTC] No.44334328[source]▶
You still need to have a list of a subset of them, and you just have to trust they connect you to the "same network", to the extent that even makes sense, no?