The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20060613094322/http://www.bittorrent.com:80/versionnotes.html

Version Notes

  • 2006-05-02: 4.9.2-beta released for Windows, Linux
    Changes in this release:
    • completely new UI
    • smart download/queuing behavior
    • smart seeding behavior
    • torrent priority system
    • detailed progress bar and "piece bar" progress bar
    • better save location management ("incomplete" and "finished" locations)
    • automatic bandwidth management
    • download rate control
    • transfer rate graphs
    • choose which files to download first from a torrent
    • better error handling and reporting
    • fast extensions (see bittorrent.org)
    • torrent "title" support (see bittorrent.org)
    • multiple tracker support
    • encryption support
    • Zeroconf ("Rendezvous") local discovery
    • sparse files
    • threaded Disk IO
    • translation update system
    • now using wxWidgets instead of GTK on Windows, GUI is now native and should be a lot more stable
    • removed support for Python 2.2
    • lots of bug fixes

  • 2006-02-08: 4.4.1 released for OS X
    Changes in this release:
    • Fixed kernel panics on OS X 10.3
    • Universal Plug and Play port forwarding is not yet supported on OS X 10.3.
    • Fixed the console log spew on OS X 10.4.

  • 2006-02-02: 4.4.1 released for Windows
    Changes in this release:
    • no longer violates Windows hardware DEP
    • Windows installer no longer says "Could not initialize plugins directory"

  • 2006-02-02: 4.4.0 released for OSX
    Changes in this release:
    • all bugfixes and improvements from BitTorrent 4.3 Beta

  • 2006-01-31: 4.4.0 released for Windows and *nix
    Changes in this release:
    • all bugfixes and improvements from BitTorrent 4.3 Beta
    • memory leak fix
    • adding Hebrew and Icelandic to the list of complete languages

  • 2006-01-24: 4.3.6 released for OSX
    Changes in this release:
    • all improvements and bugfixes from 4.3.6 for Windows and *nix
    • use kqueuereactor; should be a speed improvement

  • 2006-01-23: 4.3.6 released for Windows and *nix
    Changes in this release:
    • new icons
    • twisted 1.3 support
    • two fixes to list.remove(x): x not in list bug
    • report failure to stop a torrent to the user
    • status light respects empty list
    • use struct.pack instead of slices; should be a speed improvement
    • another BadStatusLine bug fix
    • no global upload rate bug fix
    • more 'Invalid Menu Handle' cases fixed
    • Python 2.2 compatibility fixes
    • --upnp config and command-line option
    • various minor Windows bugfixes

  • 2006-01-06: 4.3.5 released for Windows and *nix
    Changes in this release:
    • version check now will upgrade across minor beta versions
    • new signal-strength metaphor status light
    • IPC bug fixes
    • tracker drops pid file; FreeBSD initscript
    • fix for the long-standing XP SP2 connection rate
    • fix for fastresume error messages
    • prevent use of well-known port range (< 1024)
    • auto-update launches installer in silent mode
    • a number of small bug fixes

  • 2005-12-23: 4.3.5 released for OSX
  • 2005-12-19: 4.3.4 released for Windows and *nix
    Changes in this release:
    • Null byte IPC hack
    • status light state machine improved
    • a number of small bug fixes

  • 2005-12-16: 4.3.3 released for Windows and *nix
    Changes in this release:
    • Use DDE for IPC under Windows
    • Status light only goes to NAT-ted state after five minutes of network activity with no remote peers
    • Now remembers window size and position across invocations, support for --geometry command line argument
    • Only set window title and system tray tooltip if they are different
    • All bug fixes from 4.2.2

  • 2005-12-16: 4.2.2 released for Windows and *nix
    Changes in this release:
    • Fix "Invalid Menu Handle" when upgrading from old versions of BitTorrent
    • Bug fix to Romanian translation
    • Fixed very subtle bug in automatic seeding code
    • Bug fix to launchmany-curses under Python 2.2

  • 2005-12-09: 4.3.2 released for Windows and *nix
    Changes in this release:
    • Fixed bug:
      Gdk-ERROR **: file gdkgc-win32.c: line 966 (gdk_win32_hdc_get): should not be reached aborting...
    • All windows have correct BitTorrent icons
    • Better URL parsing for UPnP
    • Fix gzip support broken by --bind bug fix patch
    • Removed criminally idiotic error handling code

  • 2005-12-05: 4.3.1 released for Windows and *nix
    Changes in this release:
    • Included Twisted support accidentally omitted in previous beta which allows UPnP to work
    • Command line options for testing auto-update

  • 2005-12-02: 4.3.0 released for OSX
    Changes in this release:
    • All improvements in 4.3.0 for Windows and *nix included, see below

  • 2005-12-02: 4.3.0 released for Windows and *nix
    Changes in this release:
    • UPnP support (experimental)
    • System tray icon on Windows (experimental)
    • Start at startup on Windows
    • start minimizied
    • Internationalized installer
    • Massive code reorganization in bittorrent.py
    • All GTK 2.4 compatibility code removed, use GTK 2.6 or greater
    • Auto-update won't migrate across different minor version numbers
    • Improved file list (disabled)
    • New internal state file format, storing save_as in torrent_config
    • Many string changes and internationalization additions
    • Fix for obscure --bind command line bug

  • 2005-12-02: 4.2.1 released for Windows and *nix
    Changes in this release:
    • Japanese and Korean language support included
    • "Invalid menu handle" bug fixed
    • Auto-update now prompts to launch the installer if you quit and restart the client
    • Installer now creates desktop shortcut
    • Language can now be chosen from the settings window (requires restart)
    • A number of very minor bug fixes

  • 2005-11-21: 4.2.0 released for Windows and *nix
    Changes in this release:
    • First stable release of the 4.1 Beta series, incorporates all features and improvements from 4.1
    • Two microscopic bug fixes:
      • Fix rare bug when opening trackerless torrent files
      • Removed extraneous print statement

  • 2005-11-15: 4.1.8 released on all platforms
    Changes in this release:
    • Verified translations
    • New status light icons
    • Various OSX client bug fixes
    • OSX client auto-update
    • Trackerless bug fixes
    • Many small bug fixes

  • 2005-11-01: 4.1.7 released on all platforms
    Changes in this release:
    • Maximum upload rate slider works again
    • Language chooser UI
    • Limiting the available languages to sufficently complete translations
    • Ignoring various irrelevant error messages
    • Python 2.2 compatibility fixes
    • (Un)installer no longer removes all files in BitTorrent program directory
    • Various l10n related bug fixes
    • Using peer ID as user-agent
    • Faster peer list
    • Using zurllib
    • Improved peer identification
    • Improved installer
    • Many, many bug fixes
    Mac specific changes:
    • Fixed memory leaks
    • Much less CPU consumption
    • Fixed drawing problems

  • 2005-10-12: 4.1.6 released for Windows & *nix
    Changes in this release:
    • Upload rate bug fix
    • Debian installer bug fix

  • 2005-10-11: 4.1.5 released for Windows & *nix
    Changes in this release:
    • Removed donation nagging
    • TCP Stack flaking out bug fixed, using Twisted
    • Controlsocket issues reduced
    • Global status light (stopped,running,firewalled)
    • Uses language based on Windows language settings
    • Vastly improved installer
    • Automatic XP firewall registration
    • External drag-and-drop of files (and URLs under GTK/X11 only)
    • Improved search box / upload slider GUI and layout
    • (Re)seeded torrents seed forever by default
    • Bug fix to time remaining display on (re)seeded torrents
    • Improved peer identification
    • Icon size/transparency fixes under Windows
    • Startup time on trackerless torrents greatly improved
    • Blank screen startup bug should be fixed
    • Numerous small bug fixes on Windows

  • 2005-08-17: 4.0.4 released for Windows & *nix
    Changes in this release:
    • Added fraud warning to installer
    • Windows filesystem encoding bug fixes
    • GTK file chooser bug fix
    • Potential TCP stack flaking out fix
    • RPM building bug fix
    • Usage message printing bug fix

  • 2005-08-15: 4.1.4 released for Windows & *nix
    Changes in this release:
    • Search box in client
    • Renamed most BitTorrent command line scripts:
      • btdownloadgui.py ⇒ bittorrent.py
      • btdownloadheadless.py ⇒ bittorrent-console.py
      • btdownloadcurses.py ⇒ bittorrent-curses.py
      • btmaketorrentgui.py ⇒ maketorrent.py
      • btmaketorrent.py ⇒ maketorrent-console.py
      • btlaunchmany.py ⇒ launchmany-console.py
      • btlaunchmanycurses.py ⇒ launchmany-curses.py
      • bttrack.py ⇒ bittorrent-tracker.py
      • btreannounce.py ⇒ changetracker-console.py
      • btrename.py =× REMOVED, use maketorrent*.py
      • btshowmetainfo.py ⇒ torrentinfo-console.py
    • Version check uses HTTP
    • Auto-update under Windows
    • Open torrent by URL
    • Non-Latin/Unicode accelerator keys now work
    • Improved installer with fraud warning
    • Windows filesystem encoding bug fixes
    • Queue can now seed individual or all torrents forever
    • An open log window prevents error messages from appearing
    • Potential TCP stack flaking out fix
    • RPM building bug fix
    • Usage message printing bug fix
    • Some code cleanup
    • A number of small bug fixes to the GUI and the trackerless code

  • 2005-07-14: 4.0.3 released for Windows & *nix
    Changes in this release:
    • Identify trackerless torrent files
    • Not saving pause/play state across invocations of the GUI
    • Small fixes to windows installer and corrupt config file recovery
    • A number of small bug fixes

  • 2005-07-14: 4.1.3 released for Windows & *nix
    Changes in this release:
    • Many improvements to the trackerless torrent code
    • Multi rate limiter backend (not connected to the UI yet)
    • OSX client merged into the mainline client codebase
    • Improved btmaketorrent GUI
    • Modified some strings to make translation easier and added many new translations
    • Remove fastresume data as well as metainfo when a torrent is removed
    • Fixing bug when opening directory on OS without desktop manager
    • Not saving pause/play state across invocations of the GUI
    • CTRL+Click on cancel torrent button removes torrent without asking
    • Adding support for opening urls (on the command line) and deprecating --responsefile and --url in favor of autodetection
    • Temporary hack around controlsocket issues should prevent Could not send command: (10061, 'Connection refused') bug

  • 2005-06-06: 4.1.2 released for Windows & *nix
    Changes in this release:
    • Many improvements to the trackerless torrent code
    • Support for testing translations with --language command line option
    • Translations into Italian (Gianluca Palladini), Norwegian (Audun Einangen), and Brazillian Portuguese (Vandrei Cerqueira)
    • Window resizability bugs have been fixed
    • Vastly improved client identification code from Ed Savage-Jones
    • Small fixes to windows installer and corrupt config file recovery

  • 2005-05-23: 4.1.1 released for Windows & *nix
    Changes in this release:
    • Many, many improvements to the trackerless torrent code
    • Partial French language translation thanks to Adrien Frey
    • Adding information about trackerless operation in TRACKERLESS.txt
    • Support for torrent comment fields in the GUI
    • Lots of little bug fixes
    • Improvements to peer identification
    • Improvements to btmaketorrentgui.py
    • Proper fork() & exec() handling on *nix
    • Improved file saving behavior in btlaunchmany*.py

  • 2005-05-23: 4.0.2 released for Windows & *nix
    Changes in this release:
    • Opening a torrent that is already open in the GUI now has the correct behavior rather than raising an error
    • Backported --chop_max_allow_in from 4.1 to help fix TCP stack flaking out problem on Windows
    • Robustly handle config files corrupted by Windows
    • Better error messages when a torrent already meets seeding limits
    • File filters

  • 2005-05-17: 4.1.0 released on all platforms
    Changes in this release:
    • Trackerless support
    • Internationalization, a few translations are on their way
    • Integrate torrent creation into the UI
    • Fix for corrupted config files
    • Fix (hopefully) for TCP stack flaking out problem
    • Fix for seeding a torrent you created when there are other torrents in the queue
    • Fix error display for btdownloadheadless.py when there are lots of errors

  • 2005-05-01: 4.0.2 for OS X released.
    Changes in this release:
    • Works on Tiger
    • Fixed problem with non-English characters in the file name
    • Allows changing the port number if there's a problem on startup

  • 2005-04-01: 4.0.1 for OS X released.
  • 2005-03-25: 4.0.1 is now available.
    Changes since the last stable release:
    • Possible workaround for the "TCP stack flaking out" bug as a preference.
    • Preference option for the text color over the progress bar.
    • Fixed problem picking config file and save locations on Win98/ME.
    • Switched to GTK file save widgets to fix the problem of resuming multi-file torrents.
    • Bulk traffic flag was only being set on incoming connections.
    • Some tweaks to the interface and more informative error messages.
    • Fixes to installer, including location fixes for non-English users.
    • Fix for interface lockups after being minimized.
    • Fixed a couple tracebacks.
    • A few small tracker bugs fixed.
    • An item which belonged in the previous notes: Improvments to seed behaviour which addresses the problem for which super-seeding was created, but without the problems of super-seeding.

  • 2005-03-07: 4.0.0 is now available.
    Changes since the last stable release:
    • All new queue-based user interface
    • Many options are now modifiable from the interface, including upload rate
    • Lots of other interface improvements
    • Extra stats are visible, for those who like it
    • Remembers what it was doing across restarts
    • New .torrent maker "btmaketorrentgui" replaces "btcompletedir"
    • Better performance, as always
    • License has changed to the BitTorrent Open Source License
    • Torrent fields are correctly created and interpreted as utf8
    • Too many little things to list
    A few technical notes, for those interested:
    • Single port: launchmany can seed and client can download many files from a single port and thread
    • Interface now uses GTK instead of wxWidgets
    • BitTorrent packets are marked as bulk data to make traffic shaping easier

  • 2005-01-22: 3.9.1 beta is now available.
  • 2004-12-20: 3.9.0 beta, with a whole new interface, is now available on the download page.
  • 2004-04-04: 3.4.2, probably the last release before 3.5, is now out, download here.
  • 2004-03-11: 3.4.1, which fixes all the major problems in 3.4 and has yet even more tracker bandwidth savings, is now out.
  • 2003-09-24: Long awaited release 3.3 is out. Everybody please upgrade
  • 2003-09-24: New website launched

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