Vincenzo

Vincenzo is a BitTorrent client with vim-like keybindings and a terminal based UI.

Introduction

Vincenzo aims to be a fast, lightweight, and multi-platform client.

Another goal is for users to be able to use the library to create any other kind of software, that is powered by the BitTorrent protocol.

The official UI binary is very niched, targeting a very specific type of user: someone who loves using the terminal, and vim keybindings. Altough users could create other UIs using the library.

Vincenzo offers 3 binaries and 1 library:

• vcz - Main binary with both UI and daemon.
• vcz_ui - UI binary.
• vczd - Daemon binary.
• vincenzo - Library

Features

• Multi-platform.
• Multithreaded. One OS thread specific for I/O.
• Async I/O with tokio.
• Communication with daemon using CLI flags, TCP messages or remotely via UI binary.
• Detached daemon from the UI.
• Support for magnet links.

How to use

Downloading a torrent using the main binary (the flags are optional and could be omitted in favour of the configuration file).

vcz -d "/tmp/download_dir" -m "<magnet link here>" -q

Configuration

The binaries read a toml config file. It is located at the default config folder of your OS.

• Linux: ~/.config/vincenzo/config.toml
• Windows: C:\Users\Alice\AppData\Roaming\Vincenzo\config.toml
• MacOS: /Users/Alice/Library/Application Support/Vincenzo/config.toml

Default config file:

download_dir = "/home/alice/Downloads"
# default
daemon_addr = "127.0.0.1:3030"

Daemon and UI binaries

Users can control the Daemon by using CLI flags that work as messages.

Let's say on one terminal you initiate the daemon: vczd. Or spawn as a background process so you can do everything on one terminal: vczd &.

And you open a second terminal to send messages to the daemon, add a torrent: vczd -m "magnet:..." and then print the stats to stdout vczd --stats.

You can also run the UI binary (maybe remotely from another machine) to control the Daemon: vcz_ui --daemon-addr 127.0.0.1:3030.

CLI flags of Daemon

Usage: vczd [OPTIONS]

Options:
      --daemon-addr <DAEMON_ADDR>    The Daemon will accept TCP connections on this address
  -d, --download-dir <DOWNLOAD_DIR>  The directory in which torrents will be downloaded
  -m, --magnet <MAGNET>              Download a torrent using it's magnet link, wrapped in quotes
  -q, --quit-after-complete          If the program should quit after all torrents are fully downloaded
  -s, --stats                        Print all torrent status on stdout
  -h, --help                         Print help
  -V, --version                      Print version

Supported BEPs

• BEP 0003 - The BitTorrent Protocol Specification
• BEP 0009 - Extension for Peers to Send Metadata Files
• BEP 0010 - Extension Protocol
• BEP 0015 - UDP Tracker Protocol
• BEP 0023 - Tracker Returns Compact Peer Lists

Roadmap

• Initial version of UI.
  
• Download pipelining.
  
• Endgame mode.
  
• Pause and resume torrents.
  
• Separate main binary into 3 binaries and 1 library.
  
• Cache bytes to reduce the number of writes on disk.
  
• Change piece selection strategy.
  
• Choking algorithm.
  
• Anti-snubbing.
  
• Resume torrent download from a file.
  
• Select files to download.
  
• Support streaming of videos/music on MPV.
  

Donations

I'm working on this alone, if you enjoy my work, please consider a donation here.