BTFS – mount any .torrent file or magnet link as directory
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2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderThis is effectively what IPFS is, but IPFS takes it to the next level by using the equivalent of torrent files for subdirectories within the mounted torrent files, so you can "traverse" entire networks of the pretty-much-a-torrent files without first having to download and mount them. And like, you could implement similar functionality here by having torrent files that contain files named .torrent have those files be treated as directories, but at that point IPFS is going to be much…
So is there a server program to partner this with? Something that acts as a torrent file builder, tracker and simple file server for the torrent? I can imagine in a large org you could store a gigantic quantity of public data on a server that creates a torrent whenever the data changes, serves the.torrent file over http and also acts as a tracker. You could wrap the FUSE client in some basic logic that detects newer torrents on the…
Reminds me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InterPlanetary_File_System
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 3
- Total points
- 1127
- Total comments
- 264
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-01-02 | BitTorrent file systemFirst breakout | matt2000 | 231 | 33 |
| 2020-06-19 | BTFS – mount any .torrent file or magnet link as directoryBest thread | cab404 | 510 | 121 |
| 2024-04-16 | BTFS: BitTorrent FilesystemLatest 20+ point return | pyinstallwoes | 386 | 110 |