In node.js, the webtorrent package only connects to normal TCP/UDP peers, not WebRTC peers. If you want to connect to all types of peers, including WebRTC peers, from node.js, you need to use this package (webtorrent-hybrid).
Previous versions (0.x) of this package used wrtc, a WebRTC implementation via native extensions, the current one is based on electron-webrtc (which in turn uses electron-prebuilt) for better compatibility. It creates a hidden Electron process (which is based on Chromium, so WebRTC support is great!) and communicates with that process to enable WebRTC in Node.js. This adds a lot of overhead, so we are looking forward to using a pure JavaScript implementation, like perhaps Node-RTCPeerConnection when it's ready.
To run this package on a headless server execute the provided script or follow these instructions.
The current version of webtorrent-hybrid requires an screen as the headless electron expects one. In case that you are running in a screenless environment you must use a virtual screen such as xvfb. You must first install it and run it. For Debian based OSs:
sudo apt-get install xvfb
export DISPLAY='0:99'
Xvfb :99 -screen 0 1024x768x24 > /dev/null 2>&1 &For Centos/rhel:
sudo yum install xorg-x11-server-Xvfb
export DISPLAY='0:99'
Xvfb :99 -screen 0 1024x768x24 > /dev/null 2>&1 &Also, if you're running webtorrent-hybrid in a node.js project, you can start Xvfb within your app:
npm install xvfb
var Xvfb = require('xvfb')
var xvfb = new Xvfb()
xvfb.startSync()
Webtorrent = require('webtorrent-hybrid')To install WebTorrent:
npm install webtorrent-hybridTo install a webtorrent-hybrid command line program, run:
npm install webtorrent-hybrid -gwebtorrent-hybrid has the same command line interface (CLI) and module API as
webtorrent. Just require('webtorrent-hybrid')
instead of require('webtorrent').
See the WebTorrent docs.
MIT. Copyright (c) Feross Aboukhadijeh.