hi all. i want to scrape a tracker. Here's what I mean. How's the best way for a PHP newb to do this? http_get? it's on shared host so I'm limited on what functions to use. thanks for any tips!

i've got the regex pretty much figured out once i get the text response but i want to make sure i'm heading in the right direction.

Not sure if this helps but this is what i use on http://www.dreamtorrentz.com

// controll if client can handle gzip
if ($GZIP_ENABLED)
{
if (stristr($_SERVER["HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING"],"gzip") && extension_loaded('zlib') && ini_get("zlib.output_compression") == 0)
{
if (ini_get('output_handler')!='ob_gzhandler')
{
ob_start("ob_gzhandler");
}
else
{
ob_start();
}
}
else
{
ob_start();
}
}
// end gzip controll

error_reporting(0);

// connect to db
if ($GLOBALS["persist"])
$conres=mysql_pconnect($dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpass) or show_error("Tracker errore - mysql_connect: " . mysql_error());
else
$conres=mysql_connect($dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpass) or show_error("Tracker errore - mysql_connect: " . mysql_error());

mysql_select_db($database) or show_error("Tracker errore - $database - ".mysql_error());

if (isset($_GET["pid"])) $pid = $_GET["pid"];
else $pid = "";

if (strpos($pid, "?"))
{
$tmp = substr($pid , strpos($pid , "?"));
$pid = substr($pid , 0,strpos($pid , "?"));
$tmpname = substr($tmp, 1, strpos($tmp, "=")-1);
$tmpvalue = substr($tmp, strpos($tmp, "=")+1);
$_GET[$tmpname] = $tmpvalue;
}

$usehash = false;

$pid = AddSlashes($pid);

// if private announce turned on and PID empty string or not send by client
if (($pid=="" || !$pid) && $PRIVATE_SCRAPE)
show_error("Sorry. Private scrape is ON and PID system is required");


if (isset($_GET["info_hash"]))
{
// support for multi-scrape
// more info @ http://wiki.depthstrike.com/index.php/P2P:Programming:Trackers:PHP:Multiscrape
foreach (explode("&", $_SERVER["QUERY_STRING"]) as $item)
{
if (substr($item, 0, 10) == "info_hash=")
{
$ihash=urldecode(substr($item,10));

if (strlen($ihash) == 20)
$ihash = bin2hex($ihash);
else if (strlen($ihash) == 40)
if (!verifyHash($ihash)) continue; //showError(INVALID_INFO_HASH);
else
continue; // showError(INVALID_INFO_HASH);

$newmatches[]=$ihash;
}
}

if (get_magic_quotes_gpc())
//$info_hash = stripslashes($_GET["info_hash"]);
$info_hash = stripslashes(join($newmatches,"','"));
else
// $info_hash = $_GET["info_hash"];
$info_hash = join($newmatches,"','");

$info_hash = strtolower("('$info_hash')");
$usehash = true;
}

if ($usehash)
// $query = mysql_query("SELECT info_hash, filename FROM namemap WHERE external='no' AND info_hash=\"$info_hash\"");
$query = mysql_query("SELECT info_hash, filename FROM namemap WHERE external='no' AND info_hash IN $info_hash");
else
$query = mysql_query("SELECT info_hash, filename FROM namemap WHERE external='no'");

$namemap = array();
while ($row = mysql_fetch_row($query))
$namemap[$row[0]] = $row[1];

if ($usehash)
$query = mysql_query("SELECT summary.info_hash, summary.seeds, summary.leechers, summary.finished FROM summary LEFT JOIN namemap ON namemap.info_hash=summary.info_hash WHERE namemap.external='no' AND summary.info_hash IN $info_hash") or show_error("Database error. Cannot complete request.");
else
$query = mysql_query("SELECT summary.info_hash, summary.seeds, summary.leechers, summary.finished FROM summary LEFT JOIN namemap ON namemap.info_hash=summary.info_hash WHERE namemap.external='no' ORDER BY summary.info_hash") or show_error("Database error. Cannot complete request.");


$result="d5:filesd";

while ($row = mysql_fetch_row($query))
{
$hash = hex2bin($row[0]);
$result.="20:".$hash."d";
$result.="8:completei".$row[1]."e";
$result.="10:downloadedi".$row[3]."e";
$result.="10:incompletei".$row[2]."e";
if (isset($namemap[$row[0]]))
$result.="4:name".strlen($namemap[$row[0]]).":".$namemap[$row[0]];
$result.="e";
}

$result.="ee";

echo $result;

mysql_close();