QBittorrent

Last updated
qBittorrent
Original author(s) Christophe Dumez [1]
Developer(s) Sledgehammer999, Chocobo1, glassez, pmzqla and others [2]
Initial releaseMay 16, 2006;18 years ago (2006-05-16) [3]
Stable release
5.0.2 [4]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg / 17 November 2024;25 days ago (17 November 2024)
Repository
Written in C++ (Qt), [5] Python
Operating system Cross-platform: FreeBSD, Linux, macOS, OS/2, Windows
Platform ARM, x86, x64
Available in≈70 languages [6]
List of languages
Default UI: English

≥ 99% translated: Basque, Catalan, Chinese (Taiwan), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Galician, German, Hebrew, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian

Contents

≥ 50% translated: Belarusian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Chinese (Hong Kong), Finnish, French, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian (Latvia), Malay (Malaysia), Norwegian Bokmål, Occitan (post 1500), Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish

≥ 10% translated: Croatian, Esperanto, Arabic, Armenian, English (Australia), English (United Kingdom), Georgian, Hindi (India), Icelandic, Latgalian, Uzbek (Latin), Vietnamese
Type BitTorrent client
License GPLv3+ [7] with OpenSSL linking exception
Website www.qbittorrent.org OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

qBittorrent is a cross-platform free and open-source BitTorrent client written in native C++. It relies on Boost, OpenSSL, zlib, Qt 6 toolkit and the libtorrent-rasterbar library (for the torrent back-end), with an optional search engine written in Python. [8] [9]

History

QBittorent Mascot Qbittorrent mascot.png
QBittorent Mascot

qBittorrent was originally developed in March 2006 by Christophe Dumez, [1] from the University of Technology of Belfort-Montbéliard (UTBM).

It is currently developed by contributors worldwide and is funded through donations, [10] led by Sledgehammer999 from Greece, who became project maintainer in June 2013. [11]

Along with the 4.0.0 release a new logo for the project was unveiled. [12] [13]

In February 2023, a security vulnerability affecting versions 4.5.0 and 4.5.1 was discovered in the Web UI running on Windows systems. This vulnerability enabled unauthenticated access to all files on the host computer via a path traversal bug. [14] This issue has been patched in version 4.5.2, which was released to the public on February 23, 2023. [15]

Features

Some of the features present in qBittorrent include:

Versions

qBittorrent is cross-platform, available on many operating systems, including: FreeBSD, Linux, macOS, OS/2 (including ArcaOS and eComStation), [16] Windows.

As of July 2017, SourceForge statistics indicate that the most popular qBittorrent version of all supported platforms, 81% of downloads were for Windows computers. [17]

As of May 2020, FossHub statistics indicate qBittorrent as the second most downloaded software with over 75 million downloads. [18]

Packages for different Linux distributions are available, though most are provided through official channels via various distributions. [15]

qBittorrent Enhanced is a fork of qBittorrent intended for blocking leeching clients such as Xunlei. It is hosted on GitHub.[ citation needed ]

Reception

In 2012, Ghacks suggested qBittorrent as a great alternative to μTorrent, for those put off by its controversial adware and bundleware changes. [19]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shareaza</span> Peer-to-peer file sharing application

Shareaza is a peer-to-peer file sharing client running under Microsoft Windows which supports the Gnutella, Gnutella2 (G2), eDonkey, BitTorrent, FTP, HTTP and HTTPS network protocols and handles magnet links, ed2k links, and the now deprecated gnutella and Piolet links. It is available in 30 languages.

BitTorrent, also referred to simply as torrent, is a communication protocol for peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P), which enables users to distribute data and electronic files over the Internet in a decentralized manner. The protocol is developed and maintained by Rainberry, Inc., and was first released in 2001.

The Invisible Internet Project (I2P) is an anonymous network layer that allows for censorship-resistant, peer-to-peer communication. Anonymous connections are achieved by encrypting the user's traffic, and sending it through a volunteer-run network of roughly 55,000 computers distributed around the world. Given the high number of possible paths the traffic can transit, a third party watching a full connection is unlikely. The software that implements this layer is called an "I2P router", and a computer running I2P is called an "I2P node". I2P is free and open sourced, and is published under multiple licenses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BitComet</span> BitTorrent, FTP and HTTP client

BitComet is a cross-protocol BitTorrent, HTTP and FTP client written in C++ for Microsoft Windows and available in 52 different languages. Its first public release was version 0.28. The current BitComet logo has been used since version 0.50.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magnet URI scheme</span> Scheme that defines the format of magnet links

Magnet is a URI scheme that defines the format of magnet links, a de facto standard for identifying files (URN) by their content, via cryptographic hash value rather than by their location.

BitTorrent is a proprietary adware BitTorrent client developed by Bram Cohen and Rainberry, Inc. used for uploading and downloading files via the BitTorrent protocol. BitTorrent was the first client written for the protocol. It is often nicknamed Mainline by developers denoting its official origins. Since version 6.0 the BitTorrent client has been a rebranded version of μTorrent. As a result, it is no longer open source. It is currently available for Microsoft Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android. There are currently two versions of the software, "BitTorrent Classic" which inherits the historical version numbering, and "BitTorrent Web", which uses its own version numbering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KTorrent</span> Free and open source BitTorrent client

KTorrent is a BitTorrent client that is part of the KDE Gear.

File sharing is a method of distributing electronically stored information such as computer programs and digital media. This article contains a list and comparison of file sharing applications; most of them make use of peer-to-peer file sharing technologies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transmission (BitTorrent client)</span> BitTorrent client

Transmission is a BitTorrent client which features a variety of user interfaces on top of a cross-platform back-end. Transmission is free software licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, with parts under the MIT License.

Protocol encryption (PE), message stream encryption (MSE) or protocol header encrypt (PHE) are related features of some peer-to-peer file-sharing clients, including BitTorrent clients. They attempt to enhance privacy and confidentiality. In addition, they attempt to make traffic harder to identify by third parties including internet service providers (ISPs). However, encryption will not protect one from DMCA notices from sharing illegal content, as one is still uploading material and the monitoring firms can merely connect to the swarm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metalink</span> File format that describes one or more computer files available for download

Metalink is an extensible metadata file format that describes one or more computer files available for download. It specifies files appropriate for the user's language and operating system; facilitates file verification and recovery from data corruption; and lists alternate download sources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tribler</span> Peer-to-peer filesharing software and protocol

Tribler is an open source decentralized BitTorrent client which allows anonymous peer-to-peer by default. Tribler is based on the BitTorrent protocol and uses an overlay network for content searching. Due to this overlay network, Tribler does not require an external website or indexing service to discover content. The user interface of Tribler is very basic and focused on ease of use instead of diversity of features. Tribler is available for Linux, Windows, and OS X.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vuze</span> BitTorrent client

Vuze is a BitTorrent client used to transfer files via the BitTorrent protocol. Vuze is written in Java, and uses the Azureus Engine. In addition to downloading data linked to .torrent files, Azureus allows users to view, publish and share original DVD and HD quality video content. Content is presented through channels and categories containing TV shows, music videos, movies, video games, series and others.

The following is a general comparison of BitTorrent clients, which are computer programs designed for peer-to-peer file sharing using the BitTorrent protocol.

libtorrent

libtorrent is an open-source implementation of the BitTorrent protocol. It is written in and has its main library interface in C++. Its most notable features are support for Mainline DHT, IPv6, HTTP seeds and μTorrent's peer exchange. libtorrent uses Boost, specifically Boost.Asio to gain its platform independence. It is known to build on Windows and most Unix-like operating systems.

Micro Transport Protocol is an open User Datagram Protocol-based (UDP-based) variant of the BitTorrent peer-to-peer file sharing protocol intended to mitigate poor latency and other congestion control problems found in conventional BitTorrent over Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), while providing reliable, ordered delivery.

The following is a list of notable software for running a BitTorrent tracker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BTDigg</span> Search engine

BTDigg is the first Mainline DHT search engine. It participated in the BitTorrent DHT network, supporting the network and making correspondence between magnet links and a few torrent attributes which are indexed and inserted into a database. For end users, BTDigg provides a full-text database search via a Web interface. The Web part of its search system retrieved proper information by a user's text query. The Web search supported queries in European and Asian languages. The project name was an acronym of BitTorrent Digger. It went offline in June 2016, reportedly due to index spam. However in 2024 it appears to be back online but due to IP Filtering. A lot of IP Addresses cannot access btdig.com but they can access the tor link due to how tor works.

μTorrent Proprietary adware BitTorrent client

μTorrent, or uTorrent, is a proprietary adware BitTorrent client owned and developed by Rainberry, Inc. The "μ" in its name comes from the SI prefix "micro-", referring to the program's small memory footprint: the program was designed to use minimal computer resources while offering functionality comparable to larger BitTorrent clients such as Vuze or BitComet. μTorrent became controversial in 2015 when many users unknowingly accepted a default option during installation which also installed a cryptocurrency miner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tixati</span> BitTorrent client

Tixati is a proprietary Linux and Windows BitTorrent client written in C++. It has standalone and portable versions with each new client version.

References

  1. 1 2 "Authors file". qBittorrent.org. Archived from the original on 2019-02-17. Retrieved 2012-08-26.
  2. ↑ "Contributors to qbittorrent/QBittorrent". GitHub . Archived from the original on 2020-06-21. Retrieved 2019-07-01.
  3. ↑ "Oldest available changelog". GitHub . Archived from the original on 2019-02-17. Retrieved 2016-02-17.
  4. ↑ "release-5.0.2". 17 November 2024. Retrieved 18 November 2024.
  5. ↑ "qBittorrent", Analysis Summary, Ohloh, archived from the original on 2014-02-25, retrieved 2012-08-23
  6. 1 2 "Localization of qBittorrent". qBittorrent.org. Archived from the original on 2013-08-14. Retrieved 2012-08-23.
  7. ↑ "Copying file", qBittorrent.org, archived from the original on 2019-02-17, retrieved 2012-08-26
  8. ↑ qbittorrent/qBittorrent, qBittorrent project, 2022-05-22, archived from the original on 2022-05-22, retrieved 2022-05-22
  9. ↑ "qBittorrent/CONTRIBUTING.md". GitHub . 13 August 2022. Archived from the original on 22 May 2022. Retrieved 22 May 2022. Make sure you have python installed correctly (remember the search functionality requires a working python installation).
  10. ↑ "Team members", qBittorrent.org, archived from the original on 2013-08-19, retrieved 2012-09-25
  11. ↑ "qBittorrent is under a new maintainer". qBittorrent official forums. Archived from the original on 2019-06-09. Retrieved 2013-06-26.
  12. ↑ "Change qbittorrent logo. Issue #6467. by sledgehammer999 · Pull Request #6484 · qbittorrent/qBittorrent". GitHub. Archived from the original on 25 May 2021. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  13. ↑ "New Icon/Logo Proposal · Issue #6467 · qbittorrent/qBittorrent". GitHub. Archived from the original on 11 November 2020. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  14. ↑ "Web UI - apparent path traversal vulnerability · Issue #18618 · qbittorrent/qBittorrent". GitHub. Archived from the original on 2023-02-28. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
  15. 1 2 3 "News Releases". www.qbittorrent.org. Archived from the original on 2019-12-13. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  16. ↑ "Network / Networking / Internet applications". Archived from the original on 2020-09-18. Retrieved 2020-09-03.
  17. ↑ "Download Statistics: All Files". SourceForge. Archived from the original on 2016-10-11. Retrieved 2014-03-01.
  18. ↑ "FossHub Download Statistics: All Files". FossHub. Archived from the original on 2019-03-01. Retrieved 2019-02-10.
  19. ↑ Brinkmann, Martin (21 February 2012). "Looking For A uTorrent Alternative? Try qBittorrent". Ghacks . Archived from the original on 10 January 2017. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.