Bencoding values for the BitTorrent protocol is explained in a Wikipedia article on Bencoding or in the more general BitTorrent protocol page.

Briefly, there are four types :

• byte strings : [string length encoded in base ten ASCII]:[string data] ;
• integers : i[integer encoded in base ten ASCII]e ;
• lists : l[bencoded values]e ;
• and dictionaries : d[bencoded string][bencoded element]e.

Byte strings can be strings represented as byte strings (such as the description of the exchanged data), as well as an array of bytes (such as a hash). Representing them with the .Net strings can thus lead to errors. Hence we shall keep the byte array representation.

Integers can be longs, hence we represent them with int64.

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