MacTorrent - BitTorrent for Mac OS 9

[Knezzen]

New version out! 0.2.1

Get it here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/mactorrent/

Biggest thing is that the flickering of the peer list is gone.
Other than this we got some new icons (specifically made for MacTorrent by IIO) and general speed improvements.

Download and enjoy! And as usual; any feedback is greatly appriciated!

[Mat]

Horray! Happy new year to everybody.

The client got real smooth in the meantime. Great!
The only bug I could find is, that my Mac cannot close the client at shutdown. The computer waits with shutdown until I close it manually. Don´t know how this is done usually, but there are not many programs out there which block the OS at shutting down.

[Knezzen]

New version out! 0.2.2
Get it at the usual place: http://mactorrent.sourceforge.net

New in this release:
*Fixed a bug which sometimes didn't change the torrents status to "seeding" once the torrent was done downloading
*Fixed a bug which added "ghost lines" in the file list
*Fixed a bug where the "Remove" button would crash the client
*Fixed a bug that disabled the "Inject Peer" function
*Better peer list populating code
*Readded the log function
*Redded the "bitfield" to see avaliable and downloaded torrent pieces
*Updated and refined GUI elements

And as allways, I'm greatful of any feedback and help (thanks again IIO and Mat!)

[Knezzen]

So I still work on this from time to time. Will probably make a new release in the next few weeks if all goes well. Also moving the sources to Github now that MacRenix gives me Git capabilities from within Mac OS 9.2.2.

Could a mod or admin move this thread to the "Application Development & Programming in the Classic Mac OS" forum?
I think it's a more suitable place for it

[IIO]

we should start using it for our OS9 CDs.

[Jubadub]

What a sweet project, this one! I only saw it now. Will be downloading and using it ASAP! Thanks Knezzen! Inspiring work!

[Knezzen]

What a sweet project, this one! I only saw it now. Will be downloading and using it ASAP! Thanks Knezzen! Inspiring work!

Thanks for the kind words, Jubadub!

[Jubadub]

I'm making some plans to use MacTorrent here and there these days to assist me with some things, and then it just occured to me: does MacTorrent support downloading files that are bigger than 2 GB?

The reason I ask is because, while Mac OS 9 supports ginormous files (2 TB max?), Mac OS 8.6 and earlier is famously limited to a mere 2 GB at best, so no DVD images, let alone Blu-Ray ones etc.. Yet, MacTorrent presumably has Mac OS 8 support.

Under Mac OS 9.2.2, does MacTorrent 0.2.2 Classic support such big files surpassing 2 GB?

Regardless, this is still incredibly useful software and I will be using it one way or another.

[IIO]

when i am not mistaken, there can be no file size limit for p2p transfer protocols, since they do not transfer files as such.
i also haven not seen ftp protocols (such as ftp or hotline) causing that yet, but that does not mean much because i probably have not transferred much files bigger than CDs in these times.

[Jubadub]

when i am not mistaken, there can be no file size limit for p2p transfer protocols, since they do not transfer files as such.
i also haven not seen ftp protocols (such as ftp or hotline) causing that yet, but that does not mean much because i probably have not transferred much files bigger than CDs in these times.

I can confirm FTP works fine, yes, at least using Fetch 4.0.3. But AFP wouldn't work IIRC, I forgot it it errors out or truncates the file at 2GB, even though Mac OS 9 supports it.

Or so that's how it would behave when copying files to Mac OS 9 over AFP.

[Knezzen]

I think you're mixing things up a bit, Jubadub. Mac OS has no file size limit, but the filesystem has. HFS+ (or Macintosh Extended) which came with Mac OS 8.1 has support for files up to 8EB (exabyte) in size, but the older filesystem HFS (or Macintosh Standard) only has support for files up to 2GB in size.

I have only tested MacTorrent with HFS+ formatted drives and downloading big files (like a ISO file of a DVD) on Mac OS 8.6 works fine

[Jubadub]

@Knezzen Yes, I understand the "real" limits come from the file systems, but there's also handling of the file system done by the OS and other programs. Now, I nearly never use Mac OS 8.6, so I cannot say this from experience, but my source for the claim comes from Apple's now-defunct (and hard-to-find) docs:

https://web.archive.org/web/20191214061219/https://support.apple.com/kb/TA21924?locale=en_US

It talks of HFS+ size limits and other data, and how it applies to both Mac OS 8 and 9, but there is a footnote for the file size limit:

"Maximum file size   2 terabytes (3)"

[...]

"3) Under Mac OS 9. Mac OS 8 only supports file sizes of up to 2 GB in size."

Of course, Apple could be wrong. Or, also possibly, maybe I misunderstood the implications: rather than being unable of handling anything at all above 2GBs, maybe Apple simply meant file copying from within the Finder with regards to this limit? If so, that could very well mean any app running under 8.6 would have no issue working with files greater than 2 GB, as long as they are "properly HFS+ aware".

Similarly, Apple put up another one of these pages for such limits across various Mac OS X versions: https://web.archive.org/web/20190408213105/https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201711

[IIO]

the claim totally makes sense: 8.0 only supports HFS, so you can only write files >2GB, and that means that you can only download <2GB even though the program can do more.

[Jubadub]

the claim totally makes sense: 8.0 only supports HFS, so you can only write files >2GB, and that means that you can only download <2GB even though the program can do more.

No, it doesn't: the footnote states "3) Under Mac OS 9.", with a full stop right after saying "9", meaning anything that is not 9 is excluded.

When they clarify the 2 GB limit afterwards, they also word it as "Mac OS 8", as opposed to "Mac OS 8.0". They could have said "8.x", but notice they also don't say "9.x", so they seem to be referring to the entire Mac OS 8 family. If they were referring to the fact Mac OS 8(.0) does not support HFS+, they most likely would have said exactly that, rather than wording things the way they did.

They seem to specify OS subversions when necessary, too: e.g. in the OS X link I gave above, file size limit in OS X 10.5.2 = 16 TB, but in 10.5.3+ = nearly 8 EB.

In any case... I'm glad to know that MacTorrent can handle all those big files. And I'm surprised to learn that Mac OS 8.6 has had no issues with that! I always avoided it, in part due to this claim, but now I certainly wouldn't mind giving it a spin. If only we could coerce it to run on a Mac mini G4... *wink wink*

[Knezzen]

I have a machine with Mac OS 8.1 and HFS+, so I might test that one as well.