🚧 This is a work in progress . . .

tracker-servers

Tests, then emits an array of working tracker servers (HTTP, HTTPS, WS, WSS) from trackerslist.

After the initial test, tracker-servers will periodically re-test the list of known-good tracker servers based on the interval specified in opts.

Optionally add the array of working tracker servers to a specified DNS TXT record for a domain hosted by Cloudlfare. Since Cloudflare does not proxy signalling servers, TXT records are a great way to still make them available through DNS to clients.

How tracker testing works

Retrieves all HTTP, HTTPS, WS, and WSS trackers from trackerslist, and any trackers passed in via check in the opts object.
Pings the host address of each tracker and removes dead hosts
Attempts to send a fake torrent upload, followed by a fake torrent download to each tracker. If either upload or download fails, the tracker is added to the ignored array and emitted
Finally, Successful trackers are added to the trackers array and emitted

Install

Usage

opts

let opts = {
    interval: 3, // minutes [default = 3]
    console: true, // show status and results in the console [default = true]
    trackerslist: true, // get trackers to check from trackerslist [default = true]. If set to false, use custom list specified by `check` parameter
    recheck: false, // always recheck the trackers from trackerslist [default = false]
    ignore: // array of trackers to ignore
    [
        'wss://video.blender.org/tracker/socket',
        'wss://peertube.cpy.re/tracker/socket'
    ],
    check: // array of additional trackers to check. Required if `trackerslist` is set to false.
    [
        'https://ws.peer.ooo,
        'http://ws.peer.ooo,
        'wss://ws.peer.ooo',
        'ws://ws.peer.ooo'
    ],
    dns: true, // add record to dns using cloudflare. Must pass in the cloudflare object when true. [default = false]
    cloudflare: // optional cloudflare object. Required when dns = true
    {
        zone: 'abc123', // zone ID
        email: 'someone@example.com', // email address
        auth: 'abc123', // auth key
        subdomain: 'trackers' // subdomain to use for added/updated record
    },
}

Example

Retrieve the records from DNS

To use the records stored in DNS, query the TXT records for the domain. This can be performed by the server or the browser:

Server

const dns = require('dns')

let trackers = []

let resolve = dns.resolveTxt('trackers.peer.ooo', function (err, addresses, family) {
    addresses.forEach(element => {
        element.forEach(el => {
            trackers.push(el)
        })
    })
    console.log(trackers)
    // do something with the trackers array
    // perhaps pass into a webtorrent script to announce a new webtorrent or infohash
})

Browser

Browsers do not have the ability to query DNS by default, so we use the DoHjs library which allows us to use DNS over HTTPS for queries from the browser.

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/dohjs@latest/dist/doh.min.js"></script>
<script>

const resolver = new doh.DohResolver('https://1.1.1.1/dns-query')

let trackers = []
resolver.query('trackers.peer.ooo', 'TXT')
  .then(response => {
    response.answers.forEach(ans => {
        trackers.push(ans.data)
    })
    console.log(trackers)
    // do something with the trackers array
    // perhaps pass into a webtorrent script to fetch a webtorrent or infohash
  })
  .catch(err => console.error(err))
</script>

Demo

A working demo is running for the domain trackers.peer.ooo which can be tested in your webtorrent projects with the above server and browser code.

draeder / tracker-servers