Opentracker

For the open source versions of BeOS' desktop management tools, see OpenTracker.

Opentracker is a free (licensed as beerware) BitTorrent peer tracker software (a special kind of HTTP or UDP server software) that is designed to be fast and to have a low consumption of system resources.

opentracker

Developer(s)	Dirk Engling ("erdgeist")
Repository	erdgeist.org/gitweb/opentracker
Written in	C
Operating system	Unix-like (Linux, BSD, ...)
Size	~95 KiB
Type	BitTorrent tracker
License	Beerware
Website	erdgeist.org/arts/software/opentracker/

Features

Several instances of opentracker may be run in a cluster, with all of them synchronizing with each other. Besides the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) opentracker may also be connected to via User Datagram Protocol (UDP), which creates less than half of the tracker traffic HTTP creates.^[1] It supports IPv6, gzip compression of full scrapes, and blacklists of torrents. Because there have already been cases of people being accused of copyright violation by the fact that their IP address was listed on a BitTorrent tracker,^[2] opentracker may mix in random IP address numbers^[3][4] for the purpose of plausible deniability.

Technology

It runs completely in RAM, accounting for much of its speed advantage over other tracker software. It is written in C and based on the library libowfat that manages network connections. For some new functionality like the UDP support with IPv6^[5] or the syncing of several instances of BitTorrent tracker software, new extensions to the BitTorrent protocol were made.

Adoption

The world's largest tracker at The Pirate Bay switched from their selfmade software Hypercube to opentracker in the end of 2007.^[6]

The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation uses it to distribute their own TV shows.^[7]

Popular public torrent trackers opentrackr^[8][9] and coppersurfer^[4] are known to use opentracker.

See also

• Comparison of BitTorrent tracker software

References

1. "UDP tracker protocol". XBT Tracker. March 19, 2006. Archived from the original on July 27, 2010. Retrieved June 1, 2009.
2. Maurer, Ben (February 7, 2007). "Big Media DMCA Notices: Guilty until proven innocent". Archived from the original on March 9, 2009. Retrieved June 1, 2009.
3. "Perfect Deniability | Stories from an Opentracker". opentracker.blog.h3q.com. Archived from the original on December 26, 2023. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
4. "Open torrent tracker coppersurfer". February 10, 2019. Archived from the original on October 22, 2020. Retrieved April 21, 2024.
5. Engling, Dirk ("erdgeist") (December 28, 2007). "The IPv6 situation". Archived from the original on February 4, 2013. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
6. Van Der Sar, Ernesto (December 8, 2007). "The Pirate Bay Now Running on Opentracker". TorrentFreak. Archived from the original on January 31, 2010. Retrieved June 1, 2009.
7. Eirik Solheim (March 8, 2009). "Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation sets up its own bittorrent tracker". Archived from the original on February 3, 2013. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
8. "OpenTrackr.org - Free to use torrent tracker". February 10, 2019. Archived from the original on April 3, 2024. Retrieved April 21, 2024.
9. "OpenTrackr on Twitter". February 10, 2019.

Further reading

• WaRlOrD (February 12, 2010). "Installing opentracker + mrtg install + Tcp stack tweaking debian". Archived from the original on March 17, 2012. Retrieved January 8, 2013.

External links

• Official website
• Stories from an Opentracker (blog)
• Git repository
• 24c3: Tracker fahrn – lecture of the software author at the 24th Chaos Communication Congress