As soon as KTorrent starts downloading a file, the file is created at the target location. This makes it a little difficult to tell whether the file is complete without checking in KTorrent. Most programs mark incomplete files with a .part suffix; I think KTorrent should do this too. For multi-file torrents, each incomplete file should have the suffix, but the folder names should be unchanged. And of course KTorrent should keep seeding after the files are complete and renamed.

This would make it easy for users and programs to tell if files are completed. So if a photo gallery is being downloaded, and the user launches an image viewer, the image viewer would display only the complete images automatically. If a user use another application to share files downloaded by KTorrent, the file sharing application might be smart enough to skip the incomplete files, or downloaders would see that they are incomplete.

This can be confusing sometimes indeed, but it will break compatibility with other torrent clients if KT was to rename these files...

KTorrent would need to keep track of the file names specified in the torrent, be able to map the .part file names to original file names, and use the original names when communicating with other clients. Most of the work needs to be done in order to for KTorrent to rename the files back after they're finished too.

However, It just came to me that a problem could occur when a multi-file torrent contains both a "file" and a "file.part". Then if "file.part" is finished, and "file" is incomplete at the same time, the file names would clash. And it seems difficult to find a good and elegant solution for it.

But I still think it would be nice to be able to see if downloaded files are incomplete. An easier solution is to store files only in the temporary directory, and then moving them to the destination after they are finished.

KTorrent would need to keep track of the file names specified in the torrent, be able to map the .part file names to original file names, and use the original names when communicating with other clients.

Sorry for my confusing post. What I meant was, if you were to use partly downloaded files with other clients (import data to other client for example) you won't be able to do it if their names were changed. That's what I meant by compatibility with other clients.

Your suggestion stands though.

hagabaka wrote:However, It just came to me that a problem could occur when a multi-file torrent contains both a "file" and a "file.part". Then if "file.part" is finished, and "file" is incomplete at the same time, the file names would clash. And it seems difficult to find a good and elegant solution for it.

That would create problems, allthough checking if the name .part name is in use is an option.

But I still think it would be nice to be able to see if downloaded files are incomplete. An easier solution is to store files only in the temporary directory, and then moving them to the destination after they are finished.

We did that originally, but not many people liked this. If the temp dir and final location are at a different partition, copying over is not just a quick thing you can do, certainly when the files are big.