Bencode


A node library for encoding and decoding bencoded data,
according to the BitTorrent specification.

Index

- About BEncoding
- Installation
- Usage
- API

About BEncoding

from Wikipedia:

Bencode (pronounced like B encode) is the encoding used by the peer-to-peer
file sharing system BitTorrent for storing and transmitting loosely structured data.

It supports four different types of values:
- byte strings
- integers
- lists
- dictionaries

Bencoding is most commonly used in torrent files.
These metadata files are simply bencoded dictionaries.

Install with npm

``
npm install bencode
`

Usage

`javascript
import bencode from 'bencode'
`

You can also use node-bencode with browserify to be able to use it in a lot of modern browsers.

$3

`javascript

var data = {
string: 'Hello World',
integer: 12345,
dict: {
key: 'This is a string within a dictionary'
},
list: [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 'string', 5, {} ]
}

var result = bencode.encode( data )

`

NOTE As of bencode@0.8.0, boolean values will be cast to integers (false -> 0, true -> 1).

#### Output

`
d4:dictd3:key36:This is a string within a dictionarye7:integeri12345e4:listli1ei2ei3ei4e6:stringi5edee6:string11:Hello Worlde
`

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`javascript
var data = Buffer.from('d6:string11:Hello World7:integeri12345e4:dictd3:key36:This is a string within a dictionarye4:listli1ei2ei3ei4e6:stringi5edeee')
var result = bencode.decode( data )
`

#### Output

`javascript
{
string: ,
integer: 12345,
dict: {
key:
},
list: [ 1, 2, 3, 4, , 5, {} ]
}
`

Automagically convert bytestrings to strings:

`javascript
var result = bencode.decode( data, 'utf8' )
`

#### Output

`javascript
{
string: 'Hello World',
integer: 12345,
dict: {
key: 'This is a string within a dictionary'
},
list: [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 'string', 5, {} ]
}
`

API

The API is compatible with the abstract-encoding specification.

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> Buffer | Array | String | Object | Number | Boolean __data__
> Buffer __buffer__
> Number __offset__

Returns Buffer

$3

> Buffer __data__
> Number __start__
> Number __end__
> String __encoding__

If encoding is set, bytestrings are
automatically converted to strings.

Returns Object | Array | Buffer | String | Number

$3

> Buffer | Array | String | Object | Number | Boolean` __value__