A simple BitTorrent client built in Python with a GUI interface for practicing Python and exploring how peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing works.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Features
• Requirements
• Installation
• Usage
• How It Works
• Future Enhancements
• Contributing
• License

Introduction

This project is a Python-based BitTorrent client developed to understand the fundamentals of the BitTorrent protocol. It enables users to connect to peers, perform the BitTorrent handshake, and download pieces of a file through the protocol. The client also comes with a GUI for better interaction.

Features

• Connects to peers and performs BitTorrent handshakes.
• Downloads and saves pieces of a file from multiple peers.
• Displays download progress through a graphical user interface (GUI).
• Error handling for peer connection issues.

Requirements

• Python 3.7 or higher
• bencodepy for reading and decoding torrent files
• tkinter for the graphical user interface
• Basic knowledge of Python and networking concepts

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/remoomer1408/rtorrent.git
   cd your-repo-name

2. Create a virtual environment:

   python -m venv venv

3. Activate the virtual environment:

   • On Windows:

     venv\Scripts\activate

   • On macOS/Linux:

     source venv/bin/activate

4. Install the required packages:

   pip install bencodepy

Usage

1. Run the client:

   python gui_client.py

2. Select a .torrent file** and start the download process.

How It Works

• Torrent Parsing: The client reads a .torrent file using bencodepy to extract metadata such as info_hash, file name, and piece length.
• Peer Connection: The client connects to peers using the extracted information and performs the handshake.
• Download: Pieces of the file are requested and downloaded concurrently from different peers using threads.
• Progress Update: A tkinter-based GUI displays the progress of the download.

Future Enhancements

• Implement support for magnet links.
• Add peer exchange (PEX) for improved peer discovery.
• Enhance the GUI with more detailed statistics and controls.

Contributing Contributions are welcome! If you'd like to contribute, please fork the repository, make your changes, and submit a pull request.

License This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the(LICENSE) file for more details.