Parse a torrent file (bdecode) in Python without any 3rd party libraries and provide methods to access the following attributes

• tracker url,
• creation date,
• name of the client that created the torrent, and
• for each file in the torrent ** name, length and checksum of the file (getting checksum is not implemented yet)

I was asked to write this as part of an interview process.

Resources that I used to understand Torrent file structure:

• http://fileformats.wikia.com/wiki/Torrent_file
• http://wiki.theory.org/BitTorrentSpecification
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bencode
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torrent_file

The following stream of characters in the torrent file "d8:announce33:http://jip.cs.vu.nl:6969/announce13:creation datei1147934820e4:infod6:lengthi445866736e4:name24:Elephants_Dream_1024.avi12:piece lengthi262144e6:pieces34020:"

is transformed into {'creation date': 1147934820, 'announce': 'http://jip.cs.vu.nl:6969/announce', 'info': {'length': 44 5866736, 'piece length': 262144, 'name': 'Elephants_Dream_1024.avi', 'pieces':

• http://pypi.python.org/pypi/BitTorrent-bencode/5.0.8
• http://wiki.theory.org/Decoding_bencoded_data_with_python
• http://effbot.org/zone/bencode.htm