# How To Start Tahoe-LAFS

This is how to run a Tahoe client or a complete Tahoe grid. First you have to install the Tahoe software, as documented in install.html.

The tahoe executable in the `bin` directory is used to create, start, and stop nodes. Each node lives in a separate base directory, in which there is a configuration file named `tahoe.cfg`. Nodes read and write files within this base directory.

A grid consists of a set of nodes, computers running the tahoe code, each of these nodes functions as in one of the following roles:

Storage Nodes (or Server Nodes)
  are the computers that actually store the data in a grid.
Client Nodes
  talk to the storage nodes to put files onto the grid and get them back off again.
Introducer Node
  is responsible for getting everybody talking to each other.

If you're getting started we recommend you try connecting to the the public test grid as you only need to create a client node. When you want to create your own grid you'll need to create the introducer and an initial storage nodes.

To construct a client node, run "`path-to-the-tahoe-bin-directory/tahoe create-client`", which will create `~/.tahoe` to be the node's base directory. Acquire a copy of the `introducer.furl` from the introducer and put it into this directory, then use "`path-to-the-tahoe-bin-directory/tahoe run`". After that, the node should be off and running. The first thing it will do is connect to the introducer and get itself connected to all other nodes on the grid. By default, a node will serve as a storage node, meaning that it offers its disk space to other nodes. To configure other behavior, see configuration.txt.

To construct an introducer, create a new base directory for it (the name of the directory is up to you), cd into it, and run "`path-to-the-tahoe-bin-directory/tahoe create-introducer .`". Now run the introducer using "`tahoe start .`". After it starts, it will write a file named `introducer.furl` in that base directory. This file contains the URL the other nodes must use in order to connect to this introducer.

The "`tahoe run`" command above will run the node in the foreground. On Unix, you can run it in the background instead by using the "`tahoe start`" command. To stop a node started in this way, use "`tahoe stop`". `tahoe --help` gives a summary of all commands.

See configuration.txt for more details about how to configure tahoe.

## A note about firewalls

If your node is behind a firewall or NAT device and want other clients to connect to it then you'll need to open a port in your firewall. To do that you'll need to know which port tahoe is listening on as, by default, it listens on an arbitrary port number. To tell tahoe to listen to a fixed port, open the `~/.tahoe/tahoe.cfg` file in your favourite text editor and changing the `tub.port` line to something like the following:

    tub.port = 8098

This tells tahoe to always listen on port 8098 of your computer. The next issue is that your computer may be behind a NATing router and isn't directly connected to the internet but goes through a router to get out. If that's the case then you'll need to set the `tub.location` option so that tahoe tells the introducer where you're really listening:

    tub.location = myserver.mydomain.org:8098

or probably more likely

    tub.location = 123.456.789.012:8098

The configuration.txt file contains more details

## Do Stuff With It

Now you have a decentralized filesystem. See using.html for instructions about how to interact with it.