Kubo
IPFS (Interplanetary File System) is a protocol for peer-to-peer file-sharing. Kubo (formerly go-ipfs) is one of the reference implementations[1] and is available as Gentoo package.
Installation
Emerge
root #
emerge --ask net-p2p/kubo
Additional software
Major browsers like Chrome, Chromium and Firefox support IPFS through the IPFS companion extension.
Configuration
Initialization
Before the first run, the ipfs repository must be initialized:
root #
su -s /bin/sh -c "ipfs init -e" ipfs
User
When using the default service files, the IPFS daemon is started as the ipfs system user. If a regular user wants to interact with the system daemon, the ipfs CLI must be configured to call its API, instead of trying to run in offline mode for the current user:
/ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/5001
Profiles
Preset configuration profiles can be applied while the daemon is running, or during initialization. For example when a daemon needs to be optimized for a server environment during initialization:
root #
su -s /bin/sh -c "ipfs init -e --profile server" ipfs
Similar on a running daemon:
user $
ipfs config profile apply server
Files
- $IPFS_PATH/config - Dynamic location.
- /var/lib/ipfs/.ipfs/config - System daemon configuration file.
- ~/.ipfs/config - User daemon configuration file.
The config file is JSON formatted and is read during start-up of the daemon or in offline mode. It is not read when ipfs is invoked in CLI mode. The configuration can be edited online with:
user $
ipfs config edit
Service
openrc
Add the ipfs daemon to the default runlevel so it'll start on system boot:
root #
rc-update add ipfs default
Start it now:
root #
rc-service ipfs start
systemd
Start and enable the systemd service:
root #
systemctl start ipfs.service
root #
systemctl enable ipfs.service
Check the log output for warnings or errors:
root #
journalctl -u ipfs.service
Usage
Invocation
user $
ipfs --help
USAGE ipfs - Global p2p merkle-dag filesystem. SYNOPSIS ipfs [--config=<config> | -c] [--debug | -D] [--help] [-h] [--api=<api>] [--offline] [--cid-base=<base>] [--upgrade-cidv0-in-output] [--encoding=<encoding> | --enc] [--timeout=<timeout>] <command> ... OPTIONS -c, --config string - Path to the configuration file to use. -D, --debug bool - Operate in debug mode. --help bool - Show the full command help text. -h bool - Show a short version of the command help text. -L, --local bool - Run the command locally, instead of using the daemon. DEPRECATED: use --offline. --offline bool - Run the command offline. --api string - Use a specific API instance (defaults to /ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/5001). --cid-base string - Multibase encoding used for version 1 CIDs in output. --upgrade-cidv0-in-output bool - Upgrade version 0 to version 1 CIDs in output. --enc, --encoding string - The encoding type the output should be encoded with (json, xml, or text). Default: text. --stream-channels bool - Stream channel output. --timeout string - Set a global timeout on the command. SUBCOMMANDS BASIC COMMANDS init Initialize local IPFS configuration add <path> Add a file to IPFS cat <ref> Show IPFS object data get <ref> Download IPFS objects ls <ref> List links from an object refs <ref> List hashes of links from an object DATA STRUCTURE COMMANDS dag Interact with IPLD DAG nodes files Interact with files as if they were a unix filesystem block Interact with raw blocks in the datastore TEXT ENCODING COMMANDS cid Convert and discover properties of CIDs multibase Encode and decode data with Multibase format ADVANCED COMMANDS daemon Start a long-running daemon process mount Mount an IPFS read-only mount point resolve Resolve any type of name name Publish and resolve IPNS names key Create and list IPNS name keypairs dns Resolve DNS links pin Pin objects to local storage repo Manipulate the IPFS repository stats Various operational stats p2p Libp2p stream mounting filestore Manage the filestore (experimental) NETWORK COMMANDS id Show info about IPFS peers bootstrap Add or remove bootstrap peers swarm Manage connections to the p2p network dht Query the DHT for values or peers ping Measure the latency of a connection diag Print diagnostics bitswap Inspect bitswap state pubsub Send and receive messages via pubsub TOOL COMMANDS config Manage configuration version Show IPFS version information update Download and apply go-ipfs updates commands List all available commands log Manage and show logs of running daemon Use 'ipfs <command> --help' to learn more about each command. ipfs uses a repository in the local file system. By default, the repo is located at ~/.ipfs. To change the repo location, set the $IPFS_PATH environment variable: export IPFS_PATH=/path/to/ipfsrepo EXIT STATUS The CLI will exit with one of the following values: 0 Successful execution. 1 Failed executions. For more information about each command, use: 'ipfs <subcmd> --help'
Troubleshooting
receive buffer size
When the configured system maximum buffer size is too small, the following log message will be present during daemon start:
root #
journalctl -u ipfs.service
... failed to sufficiently increase receive buffer size (was: 208 kiB, wanted: 2048 kiB, got: 416 kiB). See https://github.com/lucas-clemente/quic-go/wiki/UDP-Receive-Buffer-Size for details.
The maximum buffer size can be increased by[2]:
root #
sysctl -w 'net.core.rmem_max=2500000'
net.core.rmem_max = 2500000
root #
echo "net.core.rmem_max=2500000" > /etc/sysctl.d/40-ipfs.conf
Removal
Unmerge
root #
emerge --ask --depclean --verbose net-p2p/kubo
Cleanup
Delete the ipfs datastore, configuration and log files:
root #
rm -rv /var/lib/ipfs/.ipfs
External resources
- concepts - learn more about the IPFS protocol.
- working with go – list of go-ipfs resources.
- IPFS companion - browser extensions.