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Still no support for webtorrents, making it impossible to use it for helping to lighten the load of my favorite peertube VODs :(

verisimilitudes 4y ago
I like how expecting real torrent clients to bend over for the WWW is in any way considered to be a reasonable stance.
tecleandor 4y ago
Seems like that libtorrent support for webtorrent would be helpful for that. That was done recently in https://github.com/arvidn/libtorrent/pull/4123 https://github.com/arvidn/libtorrent/pull/4123, merged to master, but hasn't been released yet. Per the master changelog, that should be soon, I guess... https://github.com/arvidn/libtorrent/blob/master/ChangeLog https://github.com/arvidn/libtorrent/blob/master/ChangeLog
- RealStickman_ 4y ago
  I might be wrong, but afaik transmission doesn't use libtorrent. It's using their own libtransmission.
  - tecleandor 4y ago
    That's true, I didn't express it clearly, but someone was proposing/suggesting libtorrent for the webtorrent part in a github issue.
cassepipe 4y ago
Could you explain what it is why it would be nice to have ?
- londons_explore 4y ago
  Webtorrent is a modification to the bittorrent protocol to allow it to be used from a web browser with no plugins/extensions. It's built on top of WebRTC. Webtorrent and regular torrents can exist of the same file, but crucially, at least some small percentage of the people in the network have to support both webtorrent and regular torrent to act as a kind of bridge between the two. If this isn't the case, you might have a webtorrent user who has the file, and a regular torrent user who wants the file, but the two people can't connect to eachother because they're talking different protocols, so the file won't be delivered.
  - cassepipe 4y ago
    So where would transmission support come into play ? In being able to recognize files that include both web and regular torrent ? Or in being to transparently talk to web clients from transmission ? Both ?
    - londons_explore 4y ago
      > In being able to recognize files that include both web and regular torrent The actual .torrent file is the same for both, so it already has support there. > Or in being to transparently talk to web clients from transmission This. Currently if all peers who have the data of a torrent are webtorrent clients, then transmission won't be able to download that file. Most importantly, the webtorrent ecosystem is still small, and browser-based webtorrent-only clients suffer because frequently they can't get the file data they need because all the other peers only talk the original-torrent protocol.
    - MayeulC 4y ago
      Well, webtorrents are just regular torrents using websockets as a transport mechanism, since you can't just have raw sockets from a browser sandbox. If it supported these as a transport mechanism, transmission would be able to communicate with torrent clients that run in the browser, making the potential number of peers much higher (both for swarms that are mostly in-browser, and for those that have a majority of traditional clients). It would be very useful for seeding peertube videos from transmission, for instance, which was the quoted use-case.
- lynguist 4y ago
  Webtorrent allows you to download torrents from a stock iPhone: you use a JavaScript interpreter from the app store (that is allowed as per the app store guidelines, same for Python interpreter), then just run Webtorrent that works in JavaScript only. Like that I downloaded a lot of things while outside.
  - capableweb 4y ago
    Wait, you're not allowed to run anything using the BitTorrent protocol on iOS? I never had the need myself, but I just assumed it would be allowed, because there is no reasonable explanation you wouldn't. Like the whole protocol is banned from the AppStore?
    - daveidol 4y ago
      Sadly yes
    - KoftaBob 4y ago
      I just recently ranted about this exact thing in an Ask HN thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32767277 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32767277
- momentoftop 4y ago
  As soon as it lands in transmission, I will start seeding my favourite peertube videos 24/7, and I hope others will do the same. Unless peertube videos are typically being seeded like this, I'm sceptical of the platform.
remram 4y ago
Which clients do have support for webtorrent?
- xd1936 4y ago
  Many! https://webtorrent.io/faq https://webtorrent.io/faq Notable ones include Libtorrent[1], Peertube[2], and their own Webtorrent Desktop[3]. 1. https://github.com/arvidn/libtorrent/issues/223 https://github.com/arvidn/libtorrent/issues/223 2. https://peertube-viewer.com/posts/2021-02-20-peertube-viewer-and-webtorrent/ https://peertube-viewer.com/posts/2021-02-20-peertube-viewer... 3. https://webtorrent.io/desktop/ https://webtorrent.io/desktop/
  - remram 4y ago
    I meant torrent client programs, not libraries or websites.

verisimilitudes 4y ago

I like how expecting real torrent clients to bend over for the WWW is in any way considered to be a reasonable stance.

tecleandor 4y ago

Seems like that libtorrent support for webtorrent would be helpful for that. That was done recently in https://github.com/arvidn/libtorrent/pull/4123 https://github.com/arvidn/libtorrent/pull/4123, merged to master, but hasn't been released yet. Per the master changelog, that should be soon, I guess... https://github.com/arvidn/libtorrent/blob/master/ChangeLog https://github.com/arvidn/libtorrent/blob/master/ChangeLog

RealStickman_ 4y ago
I might be wrong, but afaik transmission doesn't use libtorrent. It's using their own libtransmission.
- tecleandor 4y ago
  That's true, I didn't express it clearly, but someone was proposing/suggesting libtorrent for the webtorrent part in a github issue.

cassepipe 4y ago

Could you explain what it is why it would be nice to have ?

londons_explore 4y ago
Webtorrent is a modification to the bittorrent protocol to allow it to be used from a web browser with no plugins/extensions. It's built on top of WebRTC. Webtorrent and regular torrents can exist of the same file, but crucially, at least some small percentage of the people in the network have to support both webtorrent and regular torrent to act as a kind of bridge between the two. If this isn't the case, you might have a webtorrent user who has the file, and a regular torrent user who wants the file, but the two people can't connect to eachother because they're talking different protocols, so the file won't be delivered.
- cassepipe 4y ago
  So where would transmission support come into play ? In being able to recognize files that include both web and regular torrent ? Or in being to transparently talk to web clients from transmission ? Both ?
  - londons_explore 4y ago
    > In being able to recognize files that include both web and regular torrent The actual .torrent file is the same for both, so it already has support there. > Or in being to transparently talk to web clients from transmission This. Currently if all peers who have the data of a torrent are webtorrent clients, then transmission won't be able to download that file. Most importantly, the webtorrent ecosystem is still small, and browser-based webtorrent-only clients suffer because frequently they can't get the file data they need because all the other peers only talk the original-torrent protocol.
  - MayeulC 4y ago
    Well, webtorrents are just regular torrents using websockets as a transport mechanism, since you can't just have raw sockets from a browser sandbox. If it supported these as a transport mechanism, transmission would be able to communicate with torrent clients that run in the browser, making the potential number of peers much higher (both for swarms that are mostly in-browser, and for those that have a majority of traditional clients). It would be very useful for seeding peertube videos from transmission, for instance, which was the quoted use-case.
lynguist 4y ago
Webtorrent allows you to download torrents from a stock iPhone: you use a JavaScript interpreter from the app store (that is allowed as per the app store guidelines, same for Python interpreter), then just run Webtorrent that works in JavaScript only. Like that I downloaded a lot of things while outside.
- capableweb 4y ago
  Wait, you're not allowed to run anything using the BitTorrent protocol on iOS? I never had the need myself, but I just assumed it would be allowed, because there is no reasonable explanation you wouldn't. Like the whole protocol is banned from the AppStore?
  - daveidol 4y ago
    Sadly yes
  - KoftaBob 4y ago
    I just recently ranted about this exact thing in an Ask HN thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32767277 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32767277
momentoftop 4y ago
As soon as it lands in transmission, I will start seeding my favourite peertube videos 24/7, and I hope others will do the same. Unless peertube videos are typically being seeded like this, I'm sceptical of the platform.

remram 4y ago

Which clients do have support for webtorrent?

xd1936 4y ago
Many! https://webtorrent.io/faq https://webtorrent.io/faq Notable ones include Libtorrent[1], Peertube[2], and their own Webtorrent Desktop[3]. 1. https://github.com/arvidn/libtorrent/issues/223 https://github.com/arvidn/libtorrent/issues/223 2. https://peertube-viewer.com/posts/2021-02-20-peertube-viewer-and-webtorrent/ https://peertube-viewer.com/posts/2021-02-20-peertube-viewer... 3. https://webtorrent.io/desktop/ https://webtorrent.io/desktop/
- remram 4y ago
  I meant torrent client programs, not libraries or websites.