OpenTracker Docker image

Opentracker is a open and free bittorrent tracker. It aims for minimal resource usage and is intended to run at any GNU/Linux system. Currently it is deployed as an open and free tracker instance.

About this OpenTracker image

First of all, this tracker is compiled to use a hash whitelist, so only hashes stored on whitelist.txt are going to be served.

How to run it

Follow these steps to enable your torrent hashes:

1. Open whitelist.txt file and paste your torrents info_hashes into. One hash per line.

   Example whitelist.txt:

   0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef01234567
   890123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef012345
   

2. Copy those files, opentracker.conf and whitelist.txt, into a folder.

Replace in the docker run command below, the full path of the folder where you store the opentracker.conf and whitelist.txt:

docker run -d --name opentracker -p 6969:6969/udp -p 6969:6969/tcp -v /PATH/CONFIG_FILES/:/etc/opentracker/ fortu/opentracker

Now the bittorrent tracker is running and serving only the torrents that you want. If you want to add more torrents to your tracker, just stop the container, add the new hash to the whitelist.txt and start the container back.

Your tracker URL will be something like this:

http://[YOUR PUBLIC IP OR DOMAIN]:6969/announce

udp://[YOUR PUBLIC IP ORDOMAIN]:6969/announce

By default in the opentracker.conf file the TCP and UDP protocols are enabled. So you can use any of two urls. be sure that you have your firewall/NAT configured to recieve any request from the 6969 port in this case.

Also you can customize some configuration of the tracker by editing opentracker.conf file. For example, change the port 6969 by another one, force only the TCP or UDP protocols, enable stats and how to access to them etc.

Customize the docker image

This docker image is build "as is", only to use with a whitelist of hashes as a personal bittorrent tracker. But you can build your own image if you want a totally open bittorrent tracker with a blacklist of hashes. This is usefull if you recieve a DMCA mail with a list of hashes that are infringing the copyright law.

Follow this steps to build your own public and open bittorrent tracker:

1. Clone the proyect:

git clone https://github.com/FoRTu/docker-opentracker.git

2. Open the Makefile file and comment out the line below:

#FEATURES+=-DWANT_ACCESSLIST_WHITE

3. Now uncomment the following lines:

FEATURES+=-DWANT_ACCESSLIST_BLACK
FEATURES+=-DWANT_COMPRESSION_GZIP
FEATURES+=-DWANT_COMPRESSION_GZIP_ALWAYS
FEATURES+=-DWANT_FULLSCRAPE

4. Save changes and close the file.

5. Staying in the same folder of the Dockerfile, run the build command:

docker build --no-cache=true -t myopentracker .

6. Create a blacklist.txt file within a folder and copy there the opentracker.conf file too. This folder should be accessible by the container once we run it.

7. Open the opentracker.conf file you just have copyed to change configuration.

8. Comment out the whitlist configuration line:

#access.whitelist /etc/opentracker/whitelist.txt

9. Uncomment the blacklist configuration line:

access.blacklist /etc/opentracker/blacklist.txt

10. You can change the listen port and the protocol you want to use in the tracker. For example in this case I'm going to enable only UDP protocol, instead both TCP & UDP, and change the port to 2571 . This will requiered to comment out the next line:

#listen.tcp_udp 0.0.0.0:6969

And add the next line below:

listen.udp 0.0.0.0:2571

11. Is possible to enable the stats and the way of access to its. First of all is to enable it by uncommenting the next line and if you want haide or obfuscte the stats, just change the path too. In this case mytrackerstats:

access.stats_path mytrackerstats

13. If someone tries to access your tracker using it as a website, they can be redirected to an url. Just change the last line and type the website you want to redirect them to:

tracker.redirect_url http://www.TheWebSite.com/

14. Save changes and close the file.

15. Now you can run the next docker run command taking account of the changes you have done previously. You have to change the port number and the protocol you have define and the full path of the folder where you placed the blacklist.txt and the opentracker.conffiles, were you have changed the configuration.

docker run -d --name opentracker -p 2571:2571/udp -v /PATH/CONFIG_FILES/:/etc/opentracker/ myopentracker

Now your bittorrent tracker is running and listening on the TCP/IP port and the protocol you have define. The only thing you have todo is to add the URL of your tracker to your torrent files or magnet links, and the tracker will start to serve it.

If you choose only UDP protocol and the 2571 port, the URL of the tracker will be like this:

udp:\\[PUBLIC IP OR DOMAIN]:2571/announce

But if you choose only the TCP or the both options, TCP & UDP, the url will be like this one:

http:\\[PUBLIC IP OR DOMAIN]:2571/announce

Is very important to open the port you have define on the configuration file in your firewall or make the necessary changes if you are behind a NAT. If you don't do it the requests that arrives from the internet won't be able to forward to your tracker.

If you had enable the stats you can access to them by any browser just typing the correct url. Be account to change port and the path you define in the configuration file:

http://[PUBLIC IP O DOMAIN]:[PORT]/[PATH]?mode=everything

For example:

http://192.168.58.63:2571/mytrackerstats?mode=everything

That's it!

You can find more information on the opentracker project website: https://erdgeist.org/arts/software/opentracker/

Thanks & Donations

Best wishes to the creators of opentracker! opentracker is beerware so feel free to donate those guys a drink ;-)

Thanks to Sascha Brendel for create the image I have forked.