NAME

Net::BitTorrent::Protocol - Packet utilities for the BitTorrent protocol

Synopsis

    use Net::BitTorrent::Protocol qw[:build parse_packet];

    # Tell them what we want...
    my $handshake = build_handshake(
        pack('C*', split('', '00000000')),
        pack('H*', 'ddaa46b1ddbfd3564fca526d1b68420b6cd54201'),
        'your-peer-id-in-here'
    );

    # And the inverse...
    my ($reserved, $infohash, $peerid) = parse_packet( $handshake );

Description

What would BitTorrent be without packets? TCP noise, mostly.

For similar work and links to the specifications behind these packets, move on down to the See Also section.

Exporting from Net::BitTorrent::Protocol

There are three tags available for import. To get them all in one go, use the :all tag.

:types

Packet types

For more on what these packets actually mean, see the BitTorrent Spec. This is a list of the currently supported packet types:

HANDSHAKE
KEEPALIVE
CHOKE
UNCHOKE
INTERESTED
NOT_INTERESTED
HAVE
BITFIELD
REQUEST
PIECE
CANCEL
PORT
SUGGEST
HAVE_ALL
HAVE_NONE
REJECT
ALLOWED_FAST
EXTPROTOCOL

:build

These create packets ready-to-send to remote peers. See Building Functions.

:parse

These are used to parse unknown data into sensible packets.

Building Functions

build_handshake ( RESERVED, INFOHASH, PEERID )

Creates an initial handshake packet. All parameters must conform to the BitTorrent spec:

RESEREVED: ...is the 8 byte string used to represent a client's capabilities for extensions to the protocol.
INFOHASH: ...is the 20 byte SHA1 hash of the bencoded info from the metainfo file.
PEERID: ...is 20 bytes.

build_keepalive ( )

Creates a keep-alive packet. The keep-alive packet is zero bytes, specified with the length prefix set to zero. There is no message ID and no payload. Peers may close a connection if they receive no packets (keep-alive or any other packet) for a certain period of time, so a keep- alive packet must be sent to maintain the connection alive if no command have been sent for a given amount of time. This amount of time is generally two minutes.

build_choke ( )

Creates a choke packet. The choke packet is fixed-length and has no payload.

See Also: http://tinyurl.com/NB-docs-choking - Choking and Optimistic Unchoking

build_unchoke ( )

Creates an unchoke packet. The unchoke packet is fixed-length and has no payload.

See Also: http://tinyurl.com/NB-docs-choking - Choking and Optimistic Unchoking

build_interested ( )

Creates an interested packet. The interested packet is fixed-length and has no payload.

build_not_interested ( )

Creates a not interested packet. The not interested packet is fixed-length and has no payload.

build_have ( INDEX )

Creates a have packet. The have packet is fixed length. The payload is the zero-based INDEX of a piece that has just been successfully downloaded and verified via the hash.

That is the strict definition, in reality some games may be played. In particular because peers are extremely unlikely to download pieces that they already have, a peer may choose not to advertise having a piece to a peer that already has that piece. At a minimum "HAVE suppression" will result in a 50% reduction in the number of HAVE packets, this translates to around a 25-35% reduction in protocol overhead. At the same time, it may be worthwhile to send a HAVE packet to a peer that has that piece already since it will be useful in determining which piece is rare.

A malicious peer might also choose to advertise having pieces that it knows the peer will never download. Due to this attempting to model peers using this information is a bad idea.

build_bitfield ( BITFIELD )

Creates a bitfield packet. The bitfield packet is variable length, where X is the length of the BITFIELD. The payload is a BITFIELD representing the pieces that have been successfully downloaded. The high bit in the first byte corresponds to piece index 0. Bits that are cleared indicated a missing piece, and set bits indicate a valid and available piece. Spare bits at the end are set to zero.

A bitfield packet may only be sent immediately after the handshaking sequence is completed, and before any other packets are sent. It is optional, and need not be sent if a client has no pieces or uses one of the Fast Extension packets: have all or have none.

build_request ( INDEX, OFFSET, LENGTH )

Creates a request packet. The request packet is fixed length, and is used to request a block. The payload contains the following information:

INDEX: ...is an integer specifying the zero-based piece index.
OFFSET: ...is an integer specifying the zero-based byte offset within the piece.
LENGTH: ...is an integer specifying the requested length.

Legacy Packets

The following packets are either part of the base protocol or one of the common extensions but have either been superseded or simply removed from the majority of clients. I have provided them here only for legacy support; they will not be removed in the future.

build_port ( PORT )

Creates a port packet.

See also: http://bittorrent.org/beps/bep_0003.html - The BitTorrent Protocol Specification

build_allowed_fast ( INDEX )

Creates an Allowed Fast packet.

uTorrent never advertises a fast set... why should we?