Referencing the same files in 2 different torrents

[irreverent]

Hi there,

I am a member of 2 private trackers that I wish to share the same files on. To this end, I need to create 2 different torrents with different announce URLs that both reference the same set of source files on my hard drive. I need these to both seed from the same source files simultaneously. I've run into trouble trying to figure out how to do this. So far, this is what I have tried.

1: Created torrent for Tracker A using its announce url. Pointed Transmission at the folder I wanted to create a torrent of. Uploaded that to the private tracker, downloaded the torrent it created and then added this to Transmission. Transmission dutifully scanned my downloads folder and auto-added this new torrent when it detected it, verified local data 100%, and applied the group rules I had set up (one group for each tracker). So far, so good.

2: Now I try to do the same thing for Tracker B. I get as far as downloading the new torrent that Tracker B created, but this time Transmission does not add it to my queue. If I try to manually add it, Transmission says that there is already a copy of that file in the queue (which I assume to be the Tracker A torrent).

3: Tried again, this time renaming the torrent to make it unique from the first. Still the same problem. It seems that no matter how I name the torrent file itself, Transmission recognises the torrent based on the name of the folder/file that it was pointed to during the torrent creation process.

the only workaround I've found so far is to create an entirely unique set of source files in a different folder, and to use them for the creation of the second torrent. This seems hugely inefficient and resource-hungry, especially considering the size and number of files that I want to share across both trackers.

I'm probably being really dumb because I imagine people do this all the time, but I can't figure out for the life of me an effective way to achieve what I'm trying to do.

If anybody could point me in the right direction I'd be very very grateful!

Thanks in advance!!

[Rolcol]

Transmission checks for torrent duplicates by looking at their hashes. If they're the same, it will reject it. Transmission can't share to multiple private trackers because the bittorrent spec specifies that private torrents must only be shared with peers obtained from the tracker only. Transmission 1.80 will allow multiple tracker announce but only for public torrents.

[irreverent]

Thanks for the reply. So I guess the workaround to this would be to modify the hash between the two in some way, by adding a null file of some description to the folder?

[metaclam]

Any other thoughts on this? I also want to do what OP proposed. We're talking about creating separate torrent files for the same data, each with a different and unique tracker URl. That doesn't violate any bittorrent spec, but transmission apparently cannot handle this? it would seem it should be rejected only if the hashes are the same AND (the trackers are the same OR overlap, which I take it is not possible anyway for private torrents).