How to Install bittorrent-tracker on NetBSD

In this tutorial, we will be installing bittorrent-tracker on NetBSD. Bittorrent-tracker is a fork of Node.js' bittorrent-tracker that was created specifically for WebTorrent.

Prerequisites

Before we can begin the installation process, make sure that you have the following:

• NetBSD installed on your system
• Node.js and NPM package manager installed
• Admin access to your system

Step 1: Install Dependencies

To begin, we need to install the dependencies required for bittorrent-tracker. Use the following command to install them:

sudo pkgin install \
  gcc git ca-certificates \
  build-essentials \
  python27 gdown \
  nodejs npm

This command installs the essential build tools, Python 2.7, Node.js and NPM, Git, and the Gdown utility for downloading files from Google Drive.

Step 2: Clone the Repository

Next, we need to clone the bittorrent-tracker repository. To do that, download the latest stable release using the following command:

git clone https://github.com/webtorrent/bittorrent-tracker.git

This command creates a copy of the bittorrent-tracker repository on your local system.

Step 3: Install Dependencies for bittorrent-tracker

After cloning the repository, navigate to the downloaded folder and install the required dependencies using NPM.

cd bittorrent-tracker
npm install

This command installs all the required dependencies for bittorrent-tracker.

Step 4: Configure bittorrent-tracker

Now, we need to configure bittorrent-tracker to start listening for connections. For that, create a configuration file config.js in the bittorrent-tracker directory with the following contents:

module.exports = {
  udp: {
    enabled: false,
  },
  http: {
    enabled: true,
    host: '127.0.0.1',
    port: 8000,
  },

  ws: {
    enabled: true,
    host: '127.0.0.1',
    port: 8000,
  },

  stats: {
    // whether to enable the server stats page at `/stats`
    enabled: true,
  },

  trustProxy: false,
  trustFlexGet: false,
  sendWithDetails: false,
  base: '/tracker/',
  memoryCache: {
    max: 1000,
    maxAge: 1000 * 60 * 10,
  },
}

You can change the port value for http and ws to any port that you'd like to use.

Step 5: Start bittorrent-tracker

After completing the previous steps, you are now ready to start bittorrent-tracker. Use the following command to start it:

node ./bin/bittorrent-tracker --http --ws --trust-proxy config.js

This command starts both the HTTP and WebSocket server using the configuration from config.js.

Step 6: Test the Installation

To test the installation, you can use a BitTorrent client like qBittorrent and add a new tracker by entering http://127.0.0.1:8000/announce in the "Tracker" field.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we learned how to install and configure bittorrent-tracker on NetBSD. You can now use bittorrent-tracker to set up your own BitTorrent tracker and start sharing files among your friends!

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