Debian – CLI tool to parse/read and show the metadata from a torrent file

bittorrentdebianlinux

I downloaded a torrent file http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/stretch_di_rc1/amd64/bt-cd/debian-stretch-DI-rc1-amd64-netinst.iso.torrent

Now I want to parse/read it so that I can find out things like –

a. Which software was used to create the torrent file ?

b. The size of the iso image, the size and number of pieces

c. Number of trackers which the iso image.

All of which is meta-data.

I guess I'm looking for what mediainfo is for a media file –

[$] mediainfo Big_Buck_Bunny_small.ogv                                                                                              
General
ID                                       : 30719 (0x77FF)
Complete name                            : Big_Buck_Bunny_small.ogv
Format                                   : Ogg
File size                                : 2.65 MiB
Duration                                 : 1 min 19 s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 280 kb/s
Writing application                      : ffmpeg2theora-0.25
SOURCE_OSHASH                            : cc9e38e85baf7573

Video
ID                                       : 20319 (0x4F5F)
Format                                   : Theora
Duration                                 : 1 min 19 s
Bit rate                                 : 212 kb/s
Nominal bit rate                         : 238 kb/s
Width                                    : 240 pixels
Height                                   : 134 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate                               : 24.000 FPS
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.275
Stream size                              : 2.01 MiB (76%)
Writing library                          : Xiph.Org libtheora 1.1 20090822 (Thusnelda)

Audio
ID                                       : 13221 (0x33A5)
Format                                   : Vorbis
Format settings, Floor                   : 1
Duration                                 : 1 min 19 s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 48.0 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 465 KiB (17%)
Writing library                          : libVorbis 20090709 (UTC 2009-07-09)

Is there something similar ? I am looking for a CLI tool .

Best Answer

transmission has a tool for that

$ transmission-show debian-stretch-DI-rc1-amd64-netinst.iso.torrent 
Name: debian-stretch-DI-rc1-amd64-netinst.iso
File: debian-stretch-DI-rc1-amd64-netinst.iso.torrent

GENERAL

  Name: debian-stretch-DI-rc1-amd64-netinst.iso
  Hash: 13d51b233d37965a7137dd65858d73c5a2e7ded4
  Created by: 
  Created on: Fri Jan 13 12:29:09 2017
  Comment: "Debian CD from cdimage.debian.org"
  Piece Count: 1184
  Piece Size: 256.0 KiB
  Total Size: 310.4 MB
  Privacy: Public torrent

TRACKERS

  Tier #1
  http://bttracker.debian.org:6969/announce

FILES

  debian-stretch-DI-rc1-amd64-netinst.iso (310.4 MB)

Another one would be intermodal which besides showing metadata can also create and verify it: https://rodarmor.com/blog/intermodal

Related Solutions

BitTorrent – Is There a Tool to View a Torrent File?

btshowmetainfo, formerly included in the BitTorrent distribution but now largely installed with BitTornado (a fork of the BitTorrent 3.x codebase), does just that.

$ btshowmetainfo amd64cd-5.1.2.iso.torrent 
btshowmetainfo 20030621 - decode BitTorrent metainfo files

metainfo file.: amd64cd-5.1.2.iso.torrent
info hash.....: e30c05f2330ba4869eefb90bf5978a505303b235
file name.....: amd64cd-5.1.2.iso
file size.....: 253325312 (966 * 262144 + 94208)
announce url..: http://tracker.netbsd.org:6969/announce

Create torrent with files from different directories from CLI

The easiest way to do this, that I know of, is to create a single directory containing symlinks to the different files or directories you would like to add to the torrent.

Add symlinks to a parent directory
cd ~/Shared/parent-dir/
ln -s /path/to/file
ln -s /path/to/dir

Create your torrent
Testing with transmission-create, you can create a new torrent using this source folder and each symlink will be traversed.

transmission-create ~/Shared/parent-dir/

There is no way to store the full filepath in a torrent's meta info for files that are not descendants of parent-dir. When a peer downloads the multi-file torrent, a directory is created using name of the torrent that is found in its meta info. This directory is used as the top most parent directory for all files included in the meta info.

Here is the output of the meta info for a torrent I have called bt-symlinks.torrent. Notice how only paths to files are stored in the meta info and they always begin with the name(infile)1 used as their top most2 directory3.

transmission-show bt-symlinks.torrent

Name: bt-symlinks
File: .torrent

GENERAL

  Name: bt-symlinks
  Hash: 35af9b734284f9259763defe6095424fe3b79b42
  Created by: Transmission/2.82 (14160)
  Created on: Sat Dec 27 12:04:59 2014
  Piece Count: 2357
  Piece Size: 64.00 KiB
  Total Size: 154.4 MB
  Privacy: Public torrent

TRACKERS

FILES

  bt-symlinks/bt-symlinks.torrent (57.40 kB)
  bt-symlinks/gifs/Bill-Cosby-Jell-o-GIF.gif (810.3 kB)
  bt-symlinks/gifs/Firefly_Lantern_Animation_by_ProdigyBombay.gif (485.2 kB)
  bt-symlinks/gifs/L-cake.gif (455.2 kB)
  bt-symlinks/gifs/L-sweets.gif (871.0 kB)
  bt-symlinks/gifs/Metroid (NES) Music - Kraids Hideout.mp4 (4.16 MB)
  bt-symlinks/gifs/Phantasy Star II_Mother Brain.gif (530.5 kB)

Best Answer

Related Solutions

BitTorrent – Is There a Tool to View a Torrent File?

Create torrent with files from different directories from CLI

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