BitTorrent (software)

This article is about the original BitTorrent client. For bittorrent clients in general, see List of BitTorrent clients.

BitTorrent client

File:BitTorrent v6.0.3.png
Developer(s)	BitTorrent, Inc.
Written in	C++ (6.0 and later)
Operating system	Cross-platform 6.0 and later: Windows
Available in	multilingual (49)
Type	Peer-to-peer
License	Proprietary (6.0 and later)
Website	www.bittorrent.com

BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer program developed by Bram Cohen and BitTorrent, Inc. used for uploading and downloading files via the BitTorrent protocol. BitTorrent was the first client written for the protocol. It is often nicknamed Mainline by developers denoting its official origins.

History

Version 4.20 of the client was dubbed Allegro by BitTorrent Inc., in reference to protocol extensions developed by the company to accelerate download performance and ISP manageability.

Since version 6.0, the BitTorrent client is a rebranded version of µTorrent. As a result, it is no longer open source, and this version of the program is currently only available for Windows and Mac OS X 10.5.x.

Prior to version 6.0, BitTorrent was written in Python, and was free software. The source code for versions 4.x and 5.x are released under the BitTorrent Open Source License, a modified version of the Jabber Open Source License. Versions up to and including 3.4.2 were distributed under the MIT license. Version 5.3 was relicensed under the GPL.

Features

The BitTorrent client enables a user to search for and download torrent files using a built-in search box ("Search for torrents") in the main window, which opens the BitTorrent torrent search engine page with the search results in the user's default web browser.

The current client enables a range of features, including multiple parallel downloads. BitTorrent has several statistical, tabular and graphical views that allow a person to see what events are happening in the background. A host of views offer information on the number of peers and seeds which are present, from how much data is being downloaded to how much data is being uploaded. It has an automatic recovery system which checks all data that has been handled after an improper shutdown, such as a power failure. It also intermediates peering between itself, source file servers ("trackers") and other clients, thereby yielding great distribution efficiencies. The client also enables users to create and share torrent files.

See also

• Comparison of BitTorrent Clients
• BitTorrent client

External links

• Official Website