
Baretorrent: minimalist open-source Bittorrent client - soundsop
http://baretorrent.org/
======
jasonkester
This is an interesting space to watch. Over the years, we've seen the cycle
happen half a dozen times, where the dominant Bittorrent client gets too big,
bloated, and spywarish so somebody introduces a new one with an intentionally
silly name meant to evoke just how tiny, pico, µ, (or in this case bare) it is
and how it will never ever bloat out like that thing it replaced.

Then it starts adding features. Then it starts getting big. Then somebody
starts offering enough ad money that maybe the idea of a tiny little banner ad
isn't such a bad idea after all. Then a few years go by, somebody discovers a
rootkit in the installer for the 300mb version 4.2.1.12, and gets annoyed
enough to once again implement the protocol in 22kb, name it "scrunchyTorrent"
and release it.

It's quite fascinating.

~~~
lbenes
Both qBittorrent and deluge both already fill this open source, minimalistic
libtorrent space. There's actually over 20 other GUIs for libtorrent.[1] I've
tried most of them and we don't need yet another µtorrent 1.6 imitator based
on libtorrent.

We needs more developers to help optimize the libtorrent library so it can
download as fast as utorrent and help fix some of the core bugs and memory
leaks. In addition, there is still no open source replacement for Bittorrent
Sync or streaming torrents. Yes, some clients allow sequential downloading,
but this is bad for the health of the swarm.

Like most open source projects, it's easy to find GUI developers and hard to
find volunteers to work on the difficult problems.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libtorrent#Applications](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libtorrent#Applications)

~~~
steeve
I'm using rasterbar's libtorrent for a project of mine and I find it already
downloads as fast as uTorrent (likely because it implements uTP).

------
fsckin
I haven't found anything better than using Transmission[0] as a daemon and
Transmission Remote GUI[1] for the adding/removing/management.

I can manage the downloads from any internet capable device from basically
anywhere.

Adding CouchPotato[2] and a branch of SickBeard[3] to the mix make it
brilliantly easy to download just about anything, automatically, without
searching for anything other than the specific title that I'm looking for.

[0] [http://www.transmissionbt.com/](http://www.transmissionbt.com/)

[1] [https://code.google.com/p/transmisson-remote-
gui/](https://code.google.com/p/transmisson-remote-gui/)

[2] [https://couchpota.to/](https://couchpota.to/)

[3] [https://github.com/xbianonpi/Sick-Beard-
TPB](https://github.com/xbianonpi/Sick-Beard-TPB)

~~~
steeve
If you're in to XBMC and Raspberry Pi's, allow me to introduce you to a
project I've been working on: [http://www.xbmchub.com/forums/general-video-
addon-discussion...](http://www.xbmchub.com/forums/general-video-addon-
discussion/13153-%5Balpha%5D-xbmctorrent-torrent-streaming-xbmc.html)

NB: New major release which fixes most of Raspberry Pi issues is scheduled for
tonight.

~~~
etherealG
Thank you so much. I've been looking for this exact thing for years, but never
had the time to make it myself.

~~~
steeve
Major new release yesterday night. Check out the link :)

------
beefsack
Undoubtedly many of you know of it already, but Transmission
([http://www.transmissionbt.com/](http://www.transmissionbt.com/)) is an
amazing, lightweight Bittorrent client which includes a web interface and
things like scheduling. It's included by default in many Linux distros.

~~~
BHSPitMonkey
The headless daemon works great on a Raspberry Pi, too (assuming the Pi has
some storage to use). Transmission-remote-gtk used as a client for it is
heavenly.

~~~
mcrider
Or the remote-transmission chrome plugin, or setting up transmission to watch
a dropbox folder for torrents, etc. -- lots of great ways to interact with the
transmission daemon.

~~~
Ecio78
I use the headless transmission daemon on a 25$ Seagate Dockstar (hacked to
Debian) and command it via

-Chrome plugin on my main computer + webUI on other computers (or for additional commands)

-Transdroid Android client on my Nexus phone and tablet

Almost perfect (almost because sometimes there are some minor glitches)

~~~
BHSPitMonkey
I found two non-torrent-related Android apps called "Transdroid" and one
called "Transdrone". Is that the one you use?

~~~
Ecio78
This is the app: [http://www.transdroid.org/](http://www.transdroid.org/) it's
not on the Google App store (It has been removed) so you have to download the
APK from their site and install it (enabling non trusted sources on the phone)
There's also a companion Search app, it should be this one:
[http://code.google.com/p/transdroid-
search/](http://code.google.com/p/transdroid-search/)

~~~
BHSPitMonkey
It appears that Transdrone is a build of Transdroid with search and RSS
removed.

~~~
Ecio78
You're right: [http://www.transdroid.org/2013/10/17/trans-
what/](http://www.transdroid.org/2013/10/17/trans-what/)

------
kristopolous
rtorrent is great too.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RTorrent](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RTorrent)
I put it in a screen session and detach and log out ...

~~~
agumonkey
I wish it had just a little more polish on the UX side of things (sometimes it
lags and doesnt say why), I know there are patches, I just wonder why they're
not mainstream. Also an emacsy keyboard interface would be pure awesomeness.

~~~
blueblob
You can change the bindings for keys. I think Pyroscope is what you are
talking about for the plugin? Archlinux provides rtorrent-pyro in the AUR
which you could use without patching.

~~~
agumonkey
I wasn't even aware of the pyroscope project, but it seems it's an integration
of many patches including those I've seen. Thanks a lot.

------
Kelet
I've been using Baretorrent for a while now. It's a great torrent client if
you don't need a lot of features such as automatic RSS downloading, although
technically there is a plugin system if one did want to implement that :).
It's worth noting that there is a small bug regarding duplicate torrent
entries in the current version that may or may not effect you[1]. It is easily
avoidable and soon to be fixed. The author of the software is very responsive
on his forums if you have feature requests or encounter any bugs.

[1]
[http://baretorrent.org/forum/thread.html?id=40](http://baretorrent.org/forum/thread.html?id=40)

------
orik
How does it compare to Deluge? [http://deluge-torrent.org/](http://deluge-
torrent.org/)

~~~
tux1968
Deluge has the killer feature of being able to run in client-server mode. You
can leave a persistent instance running on one machine and connect to it in
adhoc fashion from say your laptop.

To accomplish this with baretorrent or other simple gui client, you have to
run it in some vm or make it accessible with remote desktop/X windows. Even
then, there is no facility (which Deluge does provide) to click a torrent link
in your local browser and have it initiate a download on your remote server-
instance.

For a real barebones non-gui option, rtorrent tui client with tmux detachable
text session is quite workable even though it too lacks the advanced features
provided by Deluge.

EDIT: Baretorrent does offer an extension that allows you to remotely add a
torrent, but doesn't give you a full local client as Deluge does.

~~~
johnchristopher
> For a real barebones non-gui option, rtorrent tui client with tmux
> detachable text session is quite workable even though it too lacks the
> advanced features provided by Deluge.

I prefer aria2c for this. Much more agile than rtorrent or deluge-cli if you
like the terminal. You can have one instance of the app per torrent, each in
its own screen or tmux and it's up-to-date regarding torrent protocol. It also
supports RPC but the few webUI I found aren't really good. I was using solely
that until I needed to select a few files in a torrent that held thousands.
The deluge GUI was more practical to do that.

edit: to be honest, one of the primary reason I drove off away from rtorrent
was that I could never remember the key bindings correctly and setting a ratio
per torrent to stop sharing wasn't possible easily.

------
1337biz
The problem for me is with new Torrent clients that they must gain approval by
private trackers. There is so much ratio cheating going on that unless they
are whitelisted it is pointless to get banned by private tracker for using
them.

Private trackers are the only reason why I am still using torrents as there
are some super specialized small communities around that share otherwise
incredibly difficult to get material.

~~~
gizmo686
Can't this be solved by spoofing the user agent (or equivalent) of a white-
listed client?

~~~
_wmd
This can be detected fairly easily, and guarantees no appeal when you get
caught

------
e12e
Always nice to have a simple alternative now that uTorrent is dead (well, as
the product/app it once was anyway).

Looking briefly at the code, it appears to be c++ (which is fine) -- but also
entirely without tests? Or did I miss something?

~~~
mcdougall
I'm the baretorrent developer.

> it appears to be c++ (which is fine)

It also supports python extensions.

> but also entirely without tests? Or did I miss something?

You did not, but I'm up to a point where this is becoming very difficult to
manage without unit testing, and it slows down and reduces the quality of my
releases. I'm actively using baretorrent on debian and developing it on
windows, but my tests on osx are limited. It also became a complex system much
quicker than I anticipated (like most systems do).

Automated tests will come soon.

------
shomyo
> minimalist open-source Bittorrent client

Total Installed Size: 40.79 MiB

nope

~~~
mcdougall
I never claimed to be minimalist in size, only in features. Most of the stuff
that gets installed is to support python extensions.

------
tuananh
The UI on OSX is not pretty but decent.

There's problem with less well-known client is that private trackers may not
allow them which make it useless for users who use those trackers.

~~~
mcdougall
> The UI on OSX is not pretty but decent.

At least it's native instead of GTK. I'm not a osx user, although I understand
the desire to have pretty and consistent user interfaces. My problem is that
I'm limited by what wxWidgets makes available on its cocoa port, and not all
widgets are available. This is why the toolbar looks out of place.

As soon as wxWidgets gets more widgets, I'll make it look better.

> private trackers may not allow them

Yep, but that's a policy of private trackers, and not something I can easily
overcome. I'm not sure whining in the public forums would give me anything
except rants. The only way this can be fixed is by people using baretorrent
and asking their favorite private tracker to support it.

------
Jallal
Regardless of the quality of the software, I really like the privacy page. Too
much sites says they care about our privacy, but they use every trick to track
their users (with google analytics, ad agency trackers, ip log without any
clear policy, fingerprinting, etc.). I have no assurance the author does what
he claims to do, but at least, such policies are a step in the good direction.
For other sites, requestpolicy still manage to do a good job.

------
microcolonel
Use Transmission, it fits the bill and is a more mature implementation.

Also has a nicer GUI as far as I'm concerned(although I no longer use the GUI
frontend).

------
ollybee
It uses libtorrent which is excellent There is a list of libtorrent based
projects here:
[http://www.libtorrent.org/projects.html](http://www.libtorrent.org/projects.html)

It's not clear form the site how this is different from any of the other gui
based liborrent software such as qtorrent or halite. Does anyone know if this
has any unique features?

~~~
mcdougall
I'll be adding a list of features on the website soon.

------
laurent123456
It doesn't seem to work in OS X 10.8, it starts then closes immediately. Also
the choice of wxWIdgets for a new app is quite unfortunate, I think Qt is
generally easier to develop with and to make it work on different platforms.

The idea of a minimalist cross-platform and open source Bittorrent client is
great though, I really wish there was some good alternative to replace
uTorrent.

~~~
mcdougall
> It doesn't seem to work in OS X 10.8, it starts then closes immediately.

I'm opening a bug report for this. I didn't check 10.8 yet.

> Also the choice of wxWIdgets for a new app is quite unfortunate, I think Qt
> is generally easier to develop with and to make it work on different
> platforms.

wxWidgets is the only toolkit I know of that uses native widgets on all
platforms. Other toolkits draw things manually, although some (such as Qt) are
getting better at integrating with the graphics and metrics of individual
platforms.

Using wxWidgets was a deliberate decision that I made early in the process.

------
Marwy
Does it have categories/labels? Priorities? There absolutely needs to be a
features list on the homepage.

~~~
mcdougall
> Does it have categories/labels?

No.

> Priorities?

Yes.

> There absolutely needs to be a features list on the homepage.

Will do.

------
mariusmg
While most of us have multi TB drives, it's still a bit "wrong" to see that
the "minimalist" clients have +25 MB install kits while utorrent 2.2.1 is
still rocking in 300 kb. Just saying...

~~~
mcdougall
baretorrent is not "small", it's simple. Most of its size comes from wxWidgets
and python, which are there for the extensions. Linking statically to all the
libraries and ditching python could probably reduce the size by an order of
magnitude.

------
chj
You can't call 20MB+ download minimalistic, can you?

------
cfreeman
Is utorrent really that bad? I'm still using it and it still works fine for
me. I just disable any of the stupid new features they add and move on.

------
wooptoo
This is good for Windows. On Mac/Linux we have Transmission (which is quite
small, fast and not bloated) and rtorrent for the minimalists.

~~~
jclos
The Windows port for Transmission is actually quite good in my opinion
([http://sourceforge.net/projects/trqtw/](http://sourceforge.net/projects/trqtw/))

------
steeve
Personally using qBittorrent (on both Mac and Windows), and I'm really
satisfied so far.

------
voltagex_
Anyone know how this compares to qbittorrent?

------
gcb0
Minimalist... Yet not a UNIX program

If you see the changelog, feature creep already started.. Sorting, etc. all
that could have been piped to a specialized program.

People never learn.

------
alg0rith
Does it have RSS feeds?

