NAME
btpd - BitTorrent Protocol Daemon
SYNOPSIS
btpd [-d dir] [-p port] [OPTIONS...]
DESCRIPTION
Btpd is a utility for sharing files over the BitTorrent network
protocol. It runs in daemon mode, thus needing no controlling terminal
or gui. Instead, the daemon is controlled by btcli, its control
utility, or other programs capable of sending commands and queries on
the control socket.
btpd consists of the following programs:
btpd - The bittorrent client.
btcli - Command line interface to btpd.
btinfo - Shows information from a torrent file.
All programs accept the --help option.
OPTIONS
-d dir The path for the btpd directory. Default is $HOME/.btpd.
-p n, --port n
Listen at port n. Default is 6881.
--help [mode]
Show this text or help for the specified mode.
-4 Use IPv4. If given in conjunction with -6, both versions are
used.
-6 Use IPv6. By default IPv4 is used. Unfortunately enabling both
IPv6 and IPv4 in btpd is less useful than it should be. The
problem is that some sites have trackers for both versions and
it's likely that the IPv6 one, which probably has less peers,
will be used in favour of the IPv4 one.
--bw-in n
Limit incoming BitTorrent traffic to n kB/s. Default is 0 which
means unlimited.
--bw-out n
Limit outgoing BitTorrent traffic to n kB/s. Default is 0 which
means unlimited.
--empty-start
Start btpd without any active torrents.
--ip addr
Let the tracker distribute the given address instead of the one
it sees btpd connect from.
--ipcprot mode
Set the protection mode of the command socket. The mode is
specified by an octal number. Default is 0600.
--logfile file
Where to put the logfile. By default it's put in the btpd dir.
--max-peers n
Limit the amount of peers to n.
--max-uploads n
Controls the number of simultaneous uploads. The possible
values are:
n < -1 : Choose n >= 2 based on --bw-out (default).
n = -1 : Upload to every interested peer.
n = 0 : Dont't upload to anyone.
n > 0 : Upload to at most n peers simultaneously.
--no-daemon
Keep the btpd process in the foregorund and log to std{out,err}.
This option is intended for debugging purposes.
--prealloc n
Preallocate disk space in chunks of n kB. Default is 2048. Note
that n will be rounded up to the closest multiple of the torrent
piece size. If n is zero no preallocation will be done.
STARTING BTPD
To start btpd with default settings you only need to run it. However,
there are many useful options you may want to use. To see a full list
run btpd --help. If you didn't specify otherwise, btpd starts with the
same set of active torrents as it had the last time it was shut down.
btdp will store information and write its log in $HOME/.btpd. Therefore
it needs to be able to write there during its execution. You can
specify another directory via the -d option or the $BTPD_HOME variable.
It is recommended to specifiy the maximum number of uploads. Bittorrent
employs a tit for tat algorithm, so uploading at good rates allows for
downloading. Try to find a balance between uploads/outgoing bandwidth
and the number of active torrents.
Note: You should only need one instance of btpd regardless of how many
torrents you want to share.
EXAMPLES
Start btpd with all options set to their default values.
$ btpd
Start btpd as above, but with torrent data in the directory
/var/torrents
$ btpd -d /var/torrents
Start btpd and make it listen on port 12345, limit outgoing bandwidth
to 200kB/s, limit the number of peers to 40 and not start any torrents
that were active the last time btpd was shut down.
$ btpd -p 12345 --bw-out 200 --max-peers 40 --empty-start
TROUBLESHOOTING
If btpd has shut down for some unknown reason, check the logfile for
possible clues.
BUGS
Known bugs are listed at http://github.com/queueRAM/btpd/issues
Before submitting a bug report, please verify that you are running the
latest version of btpd.
AUTHORS
Current maintainers:
- Marq Schneider <queueRAM@gmail.com>
Past contributors:
- Richard Nyberg <btpd@murmeldjur.se>
SEE ALSO
btcli(1) btinfo(1)