NAME

       bittorrent-downloader - download files using a scatter-gather network

SYNOPSIS

       btdownloadheadless [ option ... ] URL
       btdownloadheadless [ option ... ] filename
       btdownloadcurses [ option ... ] URL
       btdownloadcurses [ option ... ] filename
       btdownloadgui [ option ... ] URL
       btdownloadgui [ option ... ] filename

DESCRIPTION

       This   manual   page  documents  briefly  the  btdownloadheadless,  btdownloadcurses,  and
       btdownloadgui commands.  This manual page was written for the Debian distribution  because
       the original program does not have a manual page.

       These  are  all  programs  that allow a user to download files using bittorrent, a peer to
       peer, scatter-gather network protocol.  They all have the same options.

OPTIONS

       These programs follow the usual GNU command line syntax, with long options  starting  with
       two dashes (`-').  A summary of options is included below.

       --responsefile filename
              treat  filename as a file which the server reponse was stored in. If this option is
              used, no filename or URL should be present on the command line.

       --url url
              retrieve the torrent info file from url.  If this option is used,  no  filename  or
              URL should be present on the command line.

       -i ip | --ip ip
              report ip as your IP to the tracker

       --bind ip
              bind to ip instead of the default

       --minport portnum
              set  portnum  as  the  minimum port to listen on, counts up if unavailable (default
              6881)

       --maxport portnum
              set portnum as the maximum port to listen on (default 6889)

       --saveas filename
              store the downloaded file to filename, instead of querying user (gui) or using  the
              filename stored in the torrent info file

       --max_uploads num
              Only allow num uploads at once (default 4)

       --max_upload_rate kbytes
              maximum rate to upload at in kilobytes, 0 means no limit (default 0)

       --keepalive_interval secs
              pause secs seconds between sending keepalives (default 120.0)

       --download_slice_size bytes
              query for bytes bytes per request (default 32768)

       --request_backlog num
              keep num requests in a single pipe at once (default 5)

       --max_message_length bytes
              set  bytes  to  the  maximum  length  prefix encoding you'll accept over the wire -
              larger values get the connection dropped (default 8388608)

       --timeout secs
              wait secs before closing sockets which nothing has been recieved on (default 300.0)

       --timeout_check_interval secs
              check whether connections have timed out every secs seconds (default 60.0)

       --max_slice_length bytes
              requests from peers larger than bytes bytes are ignored (default 131072)

       --max_rate_recalculate_interval secs
              connections that pause longer than secs seconds are  given  reduced  rate  (default
              15.0)

       --max_rate_period secs
              set  secs  to  the  maximum  amount  of  time  to  guess  the current rate estimate
              represents (default 20.0)

       --upload_rate_fudge secs
              set the time equivalent of writing to kernel-level TCP buffer to secs (default 5.0)

       --display_interval secs
              update displayed information every secs seconds (default 0.1)

       --rerequest_interval secs
              request more peers every secs seconds (default 300)

       --min_peers num
              do not rerequest if we have num peers already (default 20)

       --http_timeout secs
              wait secs seconds before assuming a http connection has timed out (default 60)

       --snub_time secs
              wait secs seconds for data to come in over a connection before assuming it's  semi-
              permanently choked (default 30.0)

       --spew  1 | 0
              whether to display diagnostic info to stdout.  This option is not useful when using
              btdownloadcurses or btdownloadgui. (default 0)

       --max_initiate num
              stop initiating new connections when we have num peers (default 40)

       --check_hashes  1 | 0
              whether to check hashes on disk (defaults to 1)

       --report_hash_failures  1 | 0
              whether to report to the user that hash failuers occur  (non-fatal,  common  error)
              (default 0)

       --rarest_first_priority_cutoff num
              the  number of peers which need to have a piece before other partials take priority
              over rarest first (default 3)

SEE ALSO

       bttrack(1), btmakemetafile(1), btlaunchmany(1).

       More information on the BitTorrent protocol used for distributing files  is  available  at
       http://bitconjurer.org/BitTorrent/protocol.html

       You  will  also  find a full description on the advantages of the protocol in the academic
       paper     Incentives     Build     Robustness     in     BitTorrent      available      at
       http://bitconjurer.org/BitTorrent/bittorrentecon.pdf

AUTHOR

       This  manual  page  was  written  by  Michael Janssen <jamuraa@debian.org>, for the Debian
       GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others).

                                           Sep 24 2003                   BITTORRENT-DOWNLOADER(1)