Editing BitComet (section)

=== Padding files ===
Starting with version 0.85 (from early 2007), BitComet added a non-standard option to its torrent maker that ensures that no two data files in a multi-file torrent occupy the same BitTorrent "piece." To accomplish this, BitComet includes in the torrent a collection of empty "padding" files which houses the remainder of each file's last "piece". While these files are transparent to BitComet users, they damage the performance of other clients, because peers must devote resources and bandwidth to the padding files, with no benefit to the non-BitComet users. These files can constitute up to 10% of the total data transferred, creating a substantial drain on the swarm.<ref name="TorrentFreak">{{Cite web
| url=http://torrentfreak.com/bitcomet-pollutes-bittorrent-with-junk-data/
| title=BitComet Pollutes BitTorrent with Junk Data
| date=2007-08-23
| author=Ernesto
| publisher=TorrentFreak
| access-date=August 24, 2007
| archive-date=2007-08-24
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070824150123/http://torrentfreak.com/bitcomet-pollutes-bittorrent-with-junk-data/
| url-status=live
}}</ref> BitComet developers added this feature to allow support of a feature called Long-Term Seeding in which the BitComet client can download files from other BitComet clients who have an identical file but not from the same torrent.  It also allows the downloading of individual files from other non torrent sources like ED2K links. The addition of the padding file ensures that a complete version of the file can be obtained rather than being unable to complete the relevant file or last "piece"  <ref name="Bitcoment Wiki">{{Cite web
| url=http://wiki.bitcomet.com/align_file_to_piece_boundary
| title=align_file_to_piece_boundary [BitComet Wiki]
| access-date=May 13, 2015
| archive-date=May 12, 2015
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512043305/http://wiki.bitcomet.com/Align_File_to_Piece_Boundary
| url-status=live
}}</ref>

Creation of padding files has been enabled by default since version 0.85, and as of version 1.36 is still enabled by default.{{citation needed|date=May 2008}}