How to install bittorrent-tracker on POP! OS

Bittorrent-tracker is a lightweight HTTP(S) and UDP tracker implementation used for Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing. In this tutorial, I will guide you step-by-step on how to install bittorrent-tracker on POP! OS Latest.

Prerequisites

  • A POP! OS latest system
  • Access to terminal and sudo privileges
  • Basic knowledge of the Linux command-line interface

Step 1: Install Node.js

Bittorrent-tracker requires Node.js to be installed on your system. To install Node.js on your POP! OS system, follow the steps below:

  1. Open the terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard.

  2. Update the package list by running the following command:

sudo apt update
  1. Install curl to download NodeSource repository using the following command:
sudo apt install curl
  1. Download and add the NodeSource repository signing key using the following command:
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/gpgkey/nodesource.gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -
  1. Add the NodeSource repository to your system’s software repository list by running the following command:
echo "deb https://deb.nodesource.com/node_14.x focal main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nodesource.list
  1. Update the package list again:
sudo apt update
  1. Install Node.js and its dependencies using the following command:
sudo apt install nodejs

To verify that Node.js is installed, run the command below:

node -v

The output should be similar to:

v14.16.0

Step 2: Install bittorrent-tracker

Once Node.js is installed, you can install bittorrent-tracker using the npm package manager.

  1. Open the terminal and run the following command to install bittorrent-tracker:
sudo npm install -g bittorrent-tracker
  1. Verify that bittorrent-tracker is installed by running the following command:
bittorrent-tracker --version

You should see the version of bittorrent-tracker installed.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed bittorrent-tracker on your POP! OS system.

Step 3: Run bittorrent-tracker

Before running bittorrent-tracker, create a directory where you will store your torrents. You can create a directory named "torrents" in your home directory using the following command:

mkdir ~/torrents

Once the directory is created, you can run bittorrent-tracker using the following command:

bittorrent-tracker --http --udp --trust-proxy --port 8000 --path ~/torrents

Explanation of the above command:

  • --http: Enables the HTTP server for the tracker
  • --udp: Enables the UDP server for the tracker
  • --trust-proxy: Trusts the X-Forwarded-For header if it exists
  • --port: Specifies the port number on which the tracker should listen
  • --path: Specifies the directory where the torrents should be stored

You can replace the port number and path with your desired values.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, you have learned how to install bittorrent-tracker on your POP! OS Latest system. You have also learned how to start bittorrent-tracker and how to specify the path where the torrents will be stored. With bittorrent-tracker installed on your system, you can now have a fast and reliable P2P file sharing experience.