DebTorrent Release 0.1.2

Today I have released the next version of DebTorrent. It’s
been over a month since the last release, which means there are lots
of new features in this one.

This is also the first release that I consider actually useable, as it
now listens for HTTP requests from APT for packages to download, and
feeds the downloaded packages back to APT. It also includes a backup
HTTP downloader that will use a Debian mirror to download packages
from, only when no peers can be found that have them. This means your
download always works, even if you’re an early adopter (which I hope
you are) and there aren’t that many peers available. Finally, the
larger packages have now been split into multiple pieces, which makes
downloading them much more efficient.

Here’s the changelog:

* Add proxying capability to listen for HTTP requests from APT

* Add caching for all files downloaded

* Add automatic starting of torrents when Packages files are
downloaded

* Modify startup to initialize all torrent downloads to download
nothing

* Add automatic enabling of files to download based on requests from
APT

* Add a backup HTTP download from a mirror when no peers can be found
for a package

* Modify torrent creation to break large packages into multiple
pieces based on the information from

http://merkel.debian.org/~ajt/extrapieces/

(thanks to aj for most of this)

* Add download status information available from

http://localhost:9988/

* Add lots more documentation

I’ve already started work on the next release, which will include
almost no new features, but will be much easier (I hope) to use. It
will also be distributed in a .deb binary format for the first time,
and (again I hope) be available in the Debian archive. Here are the
plans I’ve come up with for the steps to complete for the next
release:

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