2007-04-20 00:30:06 +00:00
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2007-04-19 20:55:13 +00:00
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Allmydata, Inc. [1], provider of the "Allmydata" consumer backup product, is
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pleased announce the first public release of "Tahoe", an open source
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decentralized storage mesh.
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The source code that we are releasing is the current working prototype for
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2007-04-19 21:05:20 +00:00
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Allmydata's next-generation product. This prototype is not recommended for
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storage of confidential data nor for data which is not otherwise backed up,
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but it is already implements a functional decentralized storage mesh and is
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useful for experimentation, prototyping, and extension.
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2007-04-19 20:55:13 +00:00
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2007-04-20 00:30:06 +00:00
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INSTALLATION
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2007-04-19 20:55:13 +00:00
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2007-04-20 03:53:01 +00:00
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This release of Tahoe passes all unit tests on Linux/x86, Linux/amd64,
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Mac/Intel, Mac/PPC, Windows, and Cygwin.
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2007-04-19 20:55:13 +00:00
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2007-04-19 21:09:15 +00:00
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To install, download the tarball [2], untar it, cd into the resulting
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directory, and follow the directions in the README [3].
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2007-04-19 20:55:13 +00:00
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2007-04-20 00:30:06 +00:00
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USAGE
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2007-04-20 03:53:19 +00:00
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Once installed, create a "client node" as described in the README. Instruct
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this client node to connect to a specific "introducer node" by means of
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config files in the client node's working directory. To join a public mesh,
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copy in the .furl files for that mesh. To create a private mesh, run your
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own introducer, and copy the .furl files from there.
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2007-04-20 00:30:06 +00:00
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Each client node runs a local webserver (enabled by writing the desired port
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2007-04-20 03:53:19 +00:00
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number into a file called 'webport'). The front page of this webserver shows
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2007-04-20 00:30:06 +00:00
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the node's status, including which introducer is being used and which other
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2007-04-20 03:53:19 +00:00
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nodes are connected. Links from the status page lead to others that give
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2007-04-20 00:30:06 +00:00
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access to a shared virtual filesystem, in which each directory is represented
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2007-04-20 03:53:19 +00:00
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by a separate page. Each directory page shows a list of the files available
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2007-04-20 00:30:06 +00:00
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there, with download links, and forms to upload new files.
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2007-04-19 20:55:13 +00:00
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2007-04-20 00:30:06 +00:00
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Other ways to access the filesystem are planned, as well as other structures
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than the single globally-shared namespace implemented by this release: please
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see the roadmap.txt for some rough details.
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2007-04-19 20:55:13 +00:00
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2007-04-20 00:30:06 +00:00
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HACKING AND COMMUNITY
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2007-04-19 20:55:13 +00:00
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2007-04-20 00:30:06 +00:00
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Please join the mailing list [4] to discuss the ideas behind Tahoe and
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2007-04-19 20:55:13 +00:00
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extensions of and uses of Tahoe. Patches that extend and improve Tahoe are
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gratefully accepted -- roadmap.txt [5] shows the next improvements that we
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plan to make. You can browse the revision control history, source code, and
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2007-04-19 21:11:00 +00:00
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issue tracking at the Trac instance [6]. Please note the buildbot results
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2007-04-19 20:55:13 +00:00
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page [7], which show how Tahoe builds and passes unit tests on each checkin,
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and the code coverage results [8] and percentage-covered graph [9], which
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show how much of the Tahoe source code is currently exercised the test suite.
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2007-04-20 00:30:06 +00:00
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LICENCE
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2007-04-19 20:55:13 +00:00
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Tahoe is offered under the GNU General Public License (v2). It also comes
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with the added permission that, in the case that you are obligated to release
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a derived work under this licence (as per section 2.b of the GPLv2), you may
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delay the fulfillment of this obligation for up to 12 months.
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2007-04-20 00:30:06 +00:00
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NETWORK ARCHITECTURE
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2007-04-19 20:55:13 +00:00
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Each peer maintains a connection to each other peer. A single distinct
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server called an "introducer" is used to discover other peers with which to
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connect.
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To store a file, the file is encrypted and erasure coded, and each resulting
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share is uploaded to a different peer. The secure hash of the encrypted file
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and the encryption key are packed into a URI, knowledge of which is necessary
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and sufficient to recover the file.
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To fetch a file, starting with the URI, a subset of shares is downloaded from
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peers, the file is reconstructed from the shares, and then decrypted.
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2007-04-20 00:30:06 +00:00
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A single distinct server called a "vdrive server" maintains a global share
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mapping from pathnames/filenames to URIs.
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2007-04-19 20:55:13 +00:00
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We are well aware of the limitations of decentralization and scalability
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inherent in this prototype. In particular, the completely-connected property
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of the mesh and the requirement of a single distinct introducer and vdrive
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server limits the possible size of the mesh. We have plans to loosen these
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limitations (see roadmap.txt [5]). Currently it should be noted that the
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mesh already depends as little as possible on the accessibility and
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2007-04-19 21:16:48 +00:00
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correctness of the introduction server and the vdrive server. Also note that
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the choice of which servers to use is easily configured.
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2007-04-19 20:55:13 +00:00
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2007-04-20 00:30:06 +00:00
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SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE
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2007-04-19 20:55:13 +00:00
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Tahoe is a "from the ground-up" rewrite, inspired by Allmydata's existing
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consumer backup service, written in Python.
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It uses the Foolscap library [10] which provides a remote object protocol
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inspired by the capability-secure "E" programming language [11]. Foolscap
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2007-04-19 21:11:00 +00:00
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allows us to express the intended behavior of the distributed mesh directly
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2007-04-19 20:55:13 +00:00
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in object-oriented terms while relying on a well-engineered, secure transport
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layer.
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The underlying networking is provided by the Twisted library [12].
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Computationally intensive operations are performed in native compiled code,
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such as the "zfec" library for fast erasure coding (also available
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separately: [13]).
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[1] http://allmydata.com
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[2] http://allmydata.com/source/tahoe-0.1.0-0-UNSTABLE.tar.bz2
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[3] http://allmydata.com/source/tahoe/README
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[4] https://postman.allmydata.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tahoe XYZ Zandr or someone: right URL?
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[5] http://allmydata.com/source/tahoe/roadmap.txt
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2007-04-20 03:11:21 +00:00
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[6] http://allmydata.org/trac
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[7] http://allmydata.org/buildbot
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[8] http://allmydata.org/test-coverage
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[9] http://allmydata.org/test-coverage-graph
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2007-04-19 20:55:13 +00:00
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[10] http://twistedmatrix.com/trac/wiki/FoolsCap
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[11] http://erights.org/
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[12] http://twistedmatrix.com/
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[13] http://allmydata.com/source/zfec
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