BitTorrent index

Not to be confused with BitTorrent tracker.

A BitTorrent index is an index of files potentially accessible via the BitTorrent protocol. Many BitTorrent websites act as both trackers and indexes.

Entries in BitTorrent indexes typically contain a textual description of the file, credits, a cryptographical identifier and a list of Internet hosts willing to transmit the file or coordinate the transmission, given said cryptographical identifier. The identifier can than be used to validate that the file received is the one described in the index.