🪈 benpipe

A simple util to convert between json and bencode.

📦 install

pip install benpipe

▶️ use

cat file.json | benpipe
cat file.torrent | benpipe
benpipe --to-json < file.torrent
benpipe --to-bencode < file.json

Benpipe accepts recoverable non-canonical bencode, but always writes canonical bencode with dictionary keys sorted as raw bytes. Structurally invalid input is rejected with a non-zero exit status.

Binary data and unusual dictionaries

UTF-8 byte strings become ordinary JSON strings. Other byte strings use a tagged object:

{"__benpipe_bytes__": "/w=="}

Dictionaries with binary or duplicate keys use an ordered list of key-value pairs, preserving information that a JSON object cannot represent:

{"__benpipe_dict__": [["key", 1], ["key", 2]]}

Objects that naturally match either tag are escaped through the dictionary representation, so conversion remains lossless.

🔗 Links

• 🐱 github
• 🐍 pypi
• 🏠 home
• 📖 pydoc