# Torrents

In torrenting, a .torrent is a file that BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing programs use to download content, such as videos, music, games, or documents, over the Internet. It contains metadata that describes the to-be-downloaded content and tells BitTorrent where to download the content from, specifying the name, file size, and folder structure of the content.

# Preface

There are a few things to keep in mind before creating a torrent:

Newer clients and tools allow you to make three types of .torrent files: v1, Hybrid, and v2. You should always use v1 when creating torrents, as most public/private trackers do not support Hybrid or v2 as these are relatively new
Do not create a torrent of a directory containing a single file. Instead, make a torrent of the file itself

# Pieces

When creating a torrent, the file is cut into several, smaller pieces, which are then put together by a peer's torrent client to create the final result. These pieces are low in size and are used to facilitate peer-to-peer sharing, allowing for downloading and uploading to be much faster and seamless. However, there are some things to keep note of when setting the pieces for your torrent:

Creating too small pieces can cause more protocol overhead, bigger torrent files, longer hashing times, and possibly higher load on the CPU and drive
Creating too large pieces can slow down piece distribution
Older torrent clients do not support piece sizes greater than 16 MiB. Greater piece sizes are only a concern for torrents above ~5 TiB
Most clients automatically pick too small piece sizes. dottorrent-gui is an exception, as it aims for 1000-1500 pieces during creation

We recommend targeting 1000 pieces, with 16 MiB being the upper limit. A quick reference is below:

Torrent Size	Piece Size
2 to 4 GiB	4 MiB
4 to 8 GiB	8 MiB
8 to ∞ GiB	16 MiB

# Trackers

If you plan on sharing your torrent to the public, you'll need to set tracker URLs in order to communicate with other peers. Below is a few popular public trackers to use when creating your torrent:

http://nyaa.tracker.wf:7777/announce
http://anidex.moe:6969/announce
udp://open.stealth.si:80/announce
udp://tracker.opentrackr.org:1337/announce
udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969/announce
udp://exodus.desync.com:6969/announce

# Creating

There are several tools you can use to make a torrent:

torf-cli ❤️ Recommended Cross-Platform CLI
dottorrent-gui Windows GUI
mktorrent Linux CLI
qBittorrent Cross-Platform GUI
torrenttools Cross-Platform CLI

# torf-cli

torf-cli is a cross-platform CLI application for creating torrents.

See the torf-cli docs for advanced features like profiles.

torf --max-piece-size 16 ^
-t http://nyaa.tracker.wf:7777/announce,^
http://anidex.moe:6969/announce,^
udp://open.stealth.si:80/announce,^
udp://tracker.opentrackr.org:1337/announce,^
udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969/announce,^
udp://exodus.desync.com:6969/announce ^
"D:\path\to\root\directory"

for /d %X in (*) do torf --max-piece-size 16 ^
-t http://nyaa.tracker.wf:7777/announce,^
http://anidex.moe:6969/announce,^
udp://open.stealth.si:80/announce,^
udp://tracker.opentrackr.org:1337/announce,^
udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969/announce,^
udp://exodus.desync.com:6969/announce ^
"%X"

for %X in (*.mkv) do torf --max-piece-size 16 ^
-t http://nyaa.tracker.wf:7777/announce,^
http://anidex.moe:6969/announce,^
udp://open.stealth.si:80/announce,^
udp://tracker.opentrackr.org:1337/announce,^
udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969/announce,^
udp://exodus.desync.com:6969/announce ^
"%X"

torf --max-piece-size 16 \
-t http://nyaa.tracker.wf:7777/announce,\
http://anidex.moe:6969/announce,\
udp://open.stealth.si:80/announce,\
udp://tracker.opentrackr.org:1337/announce,\
udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969/announce,\
udp://exodus.desync.com:6969/announce \
"New Folder"

for dir in ./*/; do torf --max-piece-size 16 \
-t http://nyaa.tracker.wf:7777/announce,\
http://anidex.moe:6969/announce,\
udp://open.stealth.si:80/announce,\
udp://tracker.opentrackr.org:1337/announce,\
udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969/announce,\
udp://exodus.desync.com:6969/announce \
"$dir"; done

for file in *.mkv; do torf --max-piece-size 16 \
-t http://nyaa.tracker.wf:7777/announce,\
http://anidex.moe:6969/announce,\
udp://open.stealth.si:80/announce,\
udp://tracker.opentrackr.org:1337/announce,\
udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969/announce,\
udp://exodus.desync.com:6969/announce \
"$file"; done

By default, torf-cli heavily biases 8 MiB piece size in situations where 16 MiB would be more suitable. We recommend performing the following edit to more aggressively target 1000 pieces:

Go to your torf-cli install location (e.g. %localappdata%\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\torf)
Open _torrent.py using your text editor and replace lines 723-728:

        elif size <= 16 * 2**30: # 16 GiB / 1024 pieces = 16 MiB max
            pieces = size / 1024
        elif size <= 32 * 2**30: # 32 GiB / 2048 pieces = 16 MiB max
            pieces = size / 2048
        elif size <= 64 * 2**30: # 64 GiB / 2048 pieces = 32 MiB max
            pieces = size / 2048

# dottorrent-gui

dottorrent-gui is a Windows GUI application for creating torrents.

In dottorrent-gui, select the file type under Input path and locate the file/directory of your torrent. Alternatively, you may drag-and-drop the desired file/directory into the box
Add your tracker URLs under Seeding. There should be one tracker URL per line
Under Torrent options, select the piece size based on the size of your torrent

Creating a torrent for a directory

# mktorrent

mktorrent is a Linux CLI application for creating torrents.

In mktorrent, piece size is passed as -l n, where n is a power of 2, making the piece size equal to 2^(n) bytes.

n	Piece Size
`22`	4 MiB
`23`	8 MiB
`24`	16 MiB

mktorrent -v -l 24 \
-a http://nyaa.tracker.wf:7777/announce \
-a http://anidex.moe:6969/announce \
-a udp://open.stealth.si:80/announce \
-a udp://tracker.opentrackr.org:1337/announce \
-a udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969/announce \
-a udp://exodus.desync.com:6969/announce \
"D:\path\to\root\directory"

for dir in ./*/; do mktorrent -v -l 24 \
-a http://nyaa.tracker.wf:7777/announce \
-a http://anidex.moe:6969/announce \
-a udp://open.stealth.si:80/announce \
-a udp://tracker.opentrackr.org:1337/announce \
-a udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969/announce \
-a udp://exodus.desync.com:6969/announce \
"$dir"; done

for file in *.mkv; do mktorrent -v -l 24 \
-a http://nyaa.tracker.wf:7777/announce \
-a http://anidex.moe:6969/announce \
-a udp://open.stealth.si:80/announce \
-a udp://tracker.opentrackr.org:1337/announce \
-a udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969/announce \
-a udp://exodus.desync.com:6969/announce \
"$file"; done

# qBittorrent

qBittorrent is a cross-platform GUI torrent client which can also create torrents.

In qBittorrent, go to the top bar and click on Tools -> Torrent Creator
Under Select file/folder to share -> Path, paste in the file/directory location of your torrent. Alternatively, you can search for it using the Select file/Select folder buttons or dragging them into the [Drag and drop area]
Under Settings, select the piece size based on the size of your torrent
Under Fields -> Tracker URLS, paste in the trackers

Line breaks after each tracker URL are necessary when creating the torrent.

Creating a torrent for a directory

# torrenttools

torrenttools is a cross-platform CLI application for creating torrents.

See the torrenttools docs for advanced features like named trackers and tracker groups.

torrenttools create -l 16MiB ^
-a http://nyaa.tracker.wf:7777/announce ^
http://anidex.moe:6969/announce ^
udp://open.stealth.si:80/announce ^
udp://tracker.opentrackr.org:1337/announce ^
udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969/announce ^
udp://exodus.desync.com:6969/announce ^
"D:\path\to\root\directory"

for /d %X in (*) do torrenttools create -l 16MiB ^
-a http://nyaa.tracker.wf:7777/announce ^
http://anidex.moe:6969/announce ^
udp://open.stealth.si:80/announce ^
udp://tracker.opentrackr.org:1337/announce ^
udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969/announce ^
udp://exodus.desync.com:6969/announce ^
"%X"

for %X in (*.mkv) do torrenttools create -l 16MiB ^
-a http://nyaa.tracker.wf:7777/announce ^
http://anidex.moe:6969/announce ^
udp://open.stealth.si:80/announce ^
udp://tracker.opentrackr.org:1337/announce ^
udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969/announce ^
udp://exodus.desync.com:6969/announce ^
"%X"

torrenttools create -l 16MiB \
-a http://nyaa.tracker.wf:7777/announce \
http://anidex.moe:6969/announce \
udp://open.stealth.si:80/announce \
udp://tracker.opentrackr.org:1337/announce \
udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969/announce \
udp://exodus.desync.com:6969/announce \
"New Folder"

for dir in ./*/; do torrenttools create -l 16MiB \
-a http://nyaa.tracker.wf:7777/announce \
http://anidex.moe:6969/announce \
udp://open.stealth.si:80/announce \
udp://tracker.opentrackr.org:1337/announce \
udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969/announce \
udp://exodus.desync.com:6969/announce \
"$dir"; done

for file in *.mkv; do torrenttools create -l 16MiB \
-a http://nyaa.tracker.wf:7777/announce \
http://anidex.moe:6969/announce \
udp://open.stealth.si:80/announce \
udp://tracker.opentrackr.org:1337/announce \
udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969/announce \
udp://exodus.desync.com:6969/announce \
"$file"; done