Soulseek 6.4.1

Soulseek.NET

A .NET Standard client library for the Soulseek network.

Quick Start

Install from NuGet.

Connect to a Soulseek server

var client = new SoulseekClient();
await client.ConnectAsync("Username", "Password");

Search for something

IEnumerable<SearchResponse> responses = await Client.SearchAsync(SearchQuery.FromText("some search"));

Note: SearchAsync accepts a SearchQuery with the constructor SearchQuery(string query, IEnumerable<string> exclusions, int? minimumBitrate, int? minimumFileSize, int? minimumFilesInFolder, bool isVBR, bool isCBR), allowing all of the options provided by the official client.

SearchResponse has the following shape:

int FileCount
IReadOnlyCollection<File> Files
int LockedFileCount
IReadOnlyCollection<File> LockedFiles
int FreeUploadSlots
long QueueLength
int Token
int UploadSpeed
string Username

File has a number of properties; you'll need for Filename and Size for downloading.

Download a file

byte[] file = await Client.DownloadAsync(username: "some username", filename: "some fully qualified filename", size: 42);

OR (ideally)

var fs = new FileStream("c:\downloads\local filename", FileMode.Create);
await Client.DownloadAsync(username: "some username", filename: "some fully qualified filename", outputStream: fs, size: 42);

Note: Download to a stream where possible to reduce memory overhead.

Documentation

The external interface of the library is sparse and well documented; the best resource is the code itself. Of particular interest:

• ISoulseekClient
• SoulseekClientOptions
• SearchOptions
• TransferOptions

Excluded Search Phrases

Starting around the beginning of 2024, the Soulseek server has begun sending a list of 'excluded search phrases' as a way to restrict content exchanged on the network and appease copyright trolls.

This list of phrases is delivered in the event ExcludedSearchPhrassReceived, and it is my expectation that any outgoing search results must be filtered to exclude files that contain any of the excluded phrases in the path or filename.

I appreciate everyone's cooperation and commitment to ensuring the long term health of the Soulseek network.

Example Web Application

Note that the example application as been superseded by slskd and will no longer be maintained.

Included is a small web application which serves as an example.

It's important to note that there are currently no controls over uploads; anything you share can be downloaded by any number of people at any given time. With this in mind, consider sharing a small number of files from the example.

It's also important to note that some displays in the application poll the daemon for updates; this is inefficient, and you really shouldn't use this application over a mobile data connection.

Running with Docker

A Docker image containing the application can be pulled from jpdillingham/slsk-web-example.

A minimal run would look like:

docker run -i \
    -p 5000:5000 \
    -v <path/to/downloads>:/var/slsk/download \
    -v <path/to/shared>:/var/slsk/shared \
    -e "SLSK_USERNAME=<your username>" \
    -e "SLSK_PASSWORD=<your password>" \
    jpdillingham/slsk-web-example:latest

The application will then be accessible on port 5000 (e.g. http://localhost:5000). With this configuration the application won't be able to accept incoming connections and won't connect to the distributed network. You may receive limited search results and users won't find your files via search. Other users may have difficulty browsing your shares.

The full set of options is as follows:

docker run -i \
    -p 5000:5000 \
    -p 50000:50000 \
    -v <path/to/downloads>:/var/slsk/download \
    -v <path/to/shared>:/var/slsk/shared \
    -e "SLSK_USERNAME=<your username>" \
    -e "SLSK_PASSWORD=<your password>" \
    -e "SLSK_LISTEN_PORT=50000" \
    -e "SLSK_CONNECT_TIMEOUT=5000" \
    -e "SLSK_INACTIVITY_TIMEOUT=15000" \
    -e "SLSK_READ_BUFFER_SIZE=16384" \
    -e "SLSK_WRITE_BUFFER_SIZE=16384" \
    -e "SLSK_ENABLE_DNET=true" \
    -e "SLSK_DNET_CHILD_LIMIT=10" \
    -e "SLSK_DIAGNOSTIC=Info" \
    -e "SLSK_SHARED_CACHE_TTL=3600000" \
    -e "SLSK_ENABLE_SECURITY=true" \
    -e "SLSK_SECURITY_TOKEN_TTL=604800000" \
    -e "SLSK_ROOM_MESSAGE_LIMIT=250" \
    -e "SLSK_BASE_PATH=/"
    jpdillingham/slsk-web-example:latest

With this configuration the application will listen on port 50000 and will connect to the distributed network, allowing up to 10 child connections. The application shouldn't have any trouble connecting provided you've forwarded port 50000 properly, and will receive and respond to distributed search requests.

If SLSK_ENABLE_SECURITY is true, you will be prompted to log in. Supply the values you specified for the SLSK_USERNAME and SLSK_PASSWORD fields. Setting this option to false will disable the prompt.

If you would like to run the application behind a reverse proxy, set SLSK_BASE_PATH to your proxied path.

For convenience, two scripts, run and start, have been included in examples/Web/bin for running the example interactively and as a daemon, respectively.

Running without Docker

The example application is split into two projects; a .NET 5.0 WebAPI and a React application bootstrapped with create-react-app. If you'd like to run these outside of Docker you'll need to start both applications; dotnet run for the API and yarn|npm start for the React application. You can connect to http://localhost:3000, or the API serves Swagger UI at http://localhost:5000/swagger.

A build script included in the bin directory of the example which will build the React app, copy the static files to the wwwroot directory of the API, build the API, then attempt to build the Docker image.

See also

References

• Nicotine+ (most up to date)
• SoulseekProtocol - Museek+
• Soulseek Protocol Documentation (mirrored)

Alternative Clients and Libraries

Much of Soulseek.NET was made possible by the work of others. The following resources were used as a reference:

• nicotine-plus
• livelook by @misterhat
• museek-plus by @eLvErDe
• slsk-client by @f-hj.