This document has six sections: 1. the basic API for how to programmatically control your tahoe node 2. convenience methods 3. safety and security issues 4. features for controlling your tahoe node from a standard web browser 5. debugging and testing features 6. XML-RPC (coming soon) 1. the basic API for how to programmatically control your tahoe node a. connecting to the tahoe node Writing "8123" into $NODEDIR/webport causes the node to run a webserver on port 8123. Writing "tcp:8123:interface=127.0.0.1" into $NODEDIR/webport does the same but binds to the loopback interface, ensuring that only the programs on the local host can connect. This is the value that gets written into $NODEDIR/webport when a Tahoe node is created. Using "ssl:8123:privateKey=mykey.pem:certKey=cert.pem" would run an SSL server. See twisted.application.strports for more details. This webport can be set when the node is created by passing a --webport option to the 'tahoe create-client' command. By default, the node listens on port 8123, on the loopback (127.0.0.1) interface. b. file names The node provides some small number of "virtual drives". In the 0.5 release, this number is two: the first is the global shared vdrive, the second is the private non-shared vdrive. We will call the global one "global", and we will refer to the second one by "$PRIVATE_VDRIVE_URI", to show that to use it you have to insert the specific URI for that private vdrive. For the purpose of this document, let us assume that the vdrives currently contain the following directories and files: global/ global/Documents/ global/Documents/notes.txt $PRIVATE_VDRIVE_URI/ $PRIVATE_VDRIVE_URI/Pictures/ $PRIVATE_VDRIVE_URI/Pictures/tractors.jpg $PRIVATE_VDRIVE_URI/Pictures/family/ $PRIVATE_VDRIVE_URI/Pictures/family/bobby.jpg Within the webserver, there is a tree of resources. The top-level "vdrive" resource gives access to files and directories in all of the user's virtual drives. For example, the URL that corresponds to notes.txt would be: http://localhost:8123/vdrive/global/Documents/notes.txt and the URL for tractors.jpg would be: http://localhost:8123/uri/$PRIVATE_VDRIVE_URI/Pictures/tractors.jpg In addition, each directory has a corresponding URL. The Pictures URL is: http://localhost:8123/uri/$PRIVATE_VDRIVE_URI/Pictures Note that all filenames are assumed to be UTF-8 encoded, so "resume.doc" (with an acute accent on both E's) would be accessed with: http://localhost:8123/uri/$PRIVATE_VDRIVE_URI/r%C3%A9sum%C3%A9.doc The filenames inside upload POST forms are interpreted using whatever character set was provided in the conventional '_charset' field, and defaults to UTF-8 if not otherwise specified. The JSON representation of each directory contains native unicode strings. Tahoe directories are specified to contain unicode filenames, and cannot contain binary strings that are not representable as such. c. URIs From the "URIs" chapter in architecture.txt, recall that each file and directory has a unique "URI". This is a string which provides a secure reference to the file or directory: if you know the URI, you can retrieve (and possibly modify) the object. If you don't know the URI, you cannot access the object. A separate top-level namespace ("uri/" instead of "vdrive/") is used to access to files and directories directly by URI, rather than by going through the pathnames in the vdrive. For example, this identifies a file or directory: http://localhost:8123/uri/$URI And this identifies a file or directory named "tractors.jpg" in a subdirectory "Pictures" of the identified directory: http://localhost:8123/uri/$URI/Pictures/tractors.jpg In the following examples, "$URL" is a shorthand for a URL like the ones above, either with "vdrive/" and a vdrive name as the top level and a sequence of slash-separated pathnames following, or with "uri/" as the top level, followed by a URI, optionally followed by a sequence of slash-separated pathnames. Now, what can we do with these URLs? By varying the HTTP method (GET/PUT/POST/DELETE) and by appending a type-indicating query argument, we control what we want to do with the data and how it should be presented. d. examining files or directories GET $URL?t=json out: json description of $URL This returns machine-parseable information about the indicated file or directory in the HTTP response body. The JSON always contains a list, and the first element of the list is always a flag that indicates whether the referenced object is a file or a directory. If it is a file, then the information includes file size and URI, like this: GET $FILEURL?t=json : [ 'filenode', { 'ro_uri': file_uri, 'size': bytes, 'metadata': {'ctime': 1202777696.7564139, 'mtime': 1202777696.7564139, }, } ] If it is a directory, then it includes information about the children of this directory, as a mapping from child name to a set of data about the child (the same data that would appear in a corresponding GET?t=json of the child itself). The child entries also include metadata about each child, including creation- and modification- timestamps. The output looks like this: GET $DIRURL?t=json : [ 'dirnode', { 'rw_uri': read_write_uri, 'ro_uri': read_only_uri, 'children': [ 'foo.txt': [ 'filenode', { 'ro_uri': uri, 'size': bytes, 'metadata': { 'ctime': 1202777696.7564139, 'mtime': 1202777696.7564139, }, } ], 'subdir': [ 'dirnode', { 'rw_uri': rwuri, 'ro_uri': rouri, 'metadata': { 'ctime': 1202778102.7589991, 'mtime': 1202778111.2160511, }, } ], ] } ] In the above example, note how 'children' is a dictionary in which the keys are child names and the values depend upon whether the child is a file or a directory. The value is mostly the same as the JSON representation of the child object (except that directories do not recurse -- the "children" entry of the child is omitted, and the directory view includes the metadata that is stored on the directory edge). Then the rw_uri field will be present in the information about a directory if and only if you have read-write access to that directory, e. downloading a file GET $URL out: file contents or dir metadata options: save= - If true add header "Content-Disposition: attachment" If the indicated object is a file, then this simply retrieves the contents of the file. The file's contents are provided in the body of the HTTP response. If the indicated object a directory, then this returns an HTML page, intended to be displayed to a human by a web browser, which contains HREF links to all files and directories reachable from this directory. These HREF links do not have a t= argument, meaning that a human who follows them will get pages also meant for a human. It also contains forms to upload new files, and to delete files and directories. These forms use POST methods to do their job. You can add the "save=true" argument, which adds a 'Content-Disposition: attachment' header to prompt most web browsers to save the file to disk rather than attempting to display it. A filename (from which a MIME type can be derived, for use in the Content-Type header) can be specified using a 'filename=' query argument. This is especially useful if the $URL does not end with the name of the file (e.g. if it ends with the URI of the file instead). This filename is also the one used if the 'save=true' argument is set. For example: GET http://localhost:8123/uri/$TRACTORS_URI?filename=tractors.jpg f. uploading a file PUT http://localhost:8123/uri in: file contents out: file write cap Upload a file, using the data from the HTTP request body, and returning the resulting URI as the HTTP response body. This does not make the file visible from the virtual drive -- to do that, see section 1.h. below, or the convenience method in section 2.a.. POST http://localhost:8123/uri?t=upload This action also uploads a file without attaching it to a virtual drive directory, but can be used from an HTML form. The response is an HTML page that describes the results of the upload, including the resulting URI (but also including information about which peers were used, etc). If a when_done=URL argument is provided, the reponse is a redirect to the given URL instead of the upload-results page. POST http://localhost:8123/uri?t=upload&mutable=true This action also uploads a file without attaching it to a virtual drive directory, but creates a mutable file (SSK) instead of an immutable one. The response contains the new URI that was created. PUT http://localhost:8123/uri?mutable=true This second form also accepts data from the HTTP request body, but creates a mutable file (SSK) instead of an immutable one (CHK). The response contains the new URI that was created. g. creating a new directory PUT http://localhost:8123/uri?t=mkdir in: (nothing) out: directory write cap Create a new empty directory and return its URI as the HTTP response body. This does not make the newly created directory visible from the virtual drive, but you can use section 1.h. to attach it, or the convenience method in section 2.XXX. POST http://localhost:8123/uri?t=mkdir in: (nothing) out: directory write cap Just like the equivalent PUT form, but this can be called from an HTML form. POST http://localhost:8123/uri?t=mkdir&redirect_to_result=true in: (nothing) out: redirects to the /uri/$NEWDIRURI page This also creates an unlinked directory, but instead of returning the URI as a string, this form will return an HTTP Redirect that takes you to the new directory's HTML page, just as if you had directed your browser to /uri/$NEWDIRURI . If you bookmark this page, you'll be able to get back to the directory again in the future. This method is the recommended way to create a new root directory. There is a "Create Directory" button on the Welcome page to invoke this action. h. attaching a file or directory as the child of an extant directory PUT $URL?t=uri in: child cap out: the same child cap options: replace= - If true, overwrite existing contents. This attaches a child (either a file or a directory) to the given directory $URL is required to indicate a directory as the second-to-last element and the desired filename as the last element, for example: PUT http://localhost:8123/uri/$URI_OF_SOME_DIR/Pictures/tractors.jpg PUT http://localhost:8123/uri/$URI_OF_SOME_DIR/tractors.jpg PUT http://localhost:8123/uri/$PRIVATE_VDRIVE_URI/Pictures/tractors.jpg (Note that a URI_OF_SOME_DIR and a PRIVATE_VDRIVE_URI are each just separate URIs, and there is nothing special about the latter except that it is useful to put all of the user's top-level files and directories into one place, so we choose to use that particular directory to be the user's main directory.) The URI of the child is provided in the body of the HTTP request, and this same URI is returned in the response body. There is an optional "?replace=" param whose value can be "true", "t", "1", "false", "f", or "0" (case-insensitive), and which defaults to "true". If the indicated directory already contains the given child name, then if replace is true then the value of that name is changed to be the new URI. If replace is false then an HTTP 409 "Conflict" error is returned. This can be used to attach a shared directory (a directory that other people can read or write) to the vdrive. Intermediate directories, if any, are created on-demand. i. removing a name from a directory DELETE $URL This removes the given name from the given directory. $URL is required to indicate a directory as the second-to-last element and the name to remove from that directory as the last element, just as in section 1.g.. Note that this does not actually delete the resource that the name points to from the tahoe grid -- it only removes this name in this directory. If there are other names in this directory or in other directories that point to the resource, then it will remain accessible through those paths. Even if all names pointing to this resource are removed from their parent directories, then if someone is in possession of the URI of this resource they can continue to access the resource through the URI. Only if a person is not in possession of the URI, and they do not have access to any directories which contain names pointing to this resource, are they prevented from accessing the resource. (This behavior is very similar to the way hardlinks and anonymous files work in traditional unix filesystems). 2. convenience methods a. uploading a file and attaching it to the vdrive PUT $URI in: file contents out: file write cap statuses: 200 - File updated. [FIXME: Is this true yet?] 201 - File created. [FIXME: Is this true yet?] Upload a file and link it into the the vdrive at the location specified by $URI. The last item in the $URI must be a filename, and the second-to-last item must identify a directory. It will create intermediate directories as necessary. The file's contents are taken from the body of the HTTP request. For convenience, the HTTP response contains the URI that results from uploading the file, although the client is not obligated to do anything with the URI. According to the HTTP/1.1 specification (rfc2616), this should return a 200 (OK) code when modifying an existing file, and a 201 (Created) code when creating a new file. (TODO: as of 0.5, the web server only returns 200, never 201). To use this, run 'curl -T localfile http://localhost:8123/vdrive/global/newfile' 3. safety and security issues -- names vs. URIs The vdrive provides a mutable filesystem, but the ways that the filesystem can change are limited. The only thing that can change is that the mapping from child names to child objects that each directory contains can be changed by adding a new child name pointing to an object, removing an existing child name, or changing an existing child name to point to a different object. Obviously if you query tahoe for information about the filesystem and then act upon the filesystem (such as by getting a listing of the contents of a directory and then adding a file to the directory), then the filesystem might have been changed after you queried it and before you acted upon it. However, if you use the URI instead of the pathname of an object when you act upon the object, then the only change that can happen is when the object is a directory then the set of child names it has might be different. If, on the other hand, you act upon the object using its pathname, then a different object might be in that place, which can result in more kinds of surprises. For example, suppose you are writing code which recursively downloads the contents of a directory. The first thing your code does is fetch the listing of the contents of the directory. For each child that it fetched, if that child is a file then it downloads the file, and if that child is a directory then it recurses into that directory. Now, if the download and the recurse actions are performed using the child's name, then the results might be wrong, because for example a child name that pointed to a sub-directory when you listed the directory might have been changed to point to a file (in which case your attempt to recurse into it would result in an error and the file would be skipped), or a child name that pointed to a file when you listed the directory might now point to a sub-directory (in which case your attempt to download the child would result in a file containing HTML text describing the sub-directory!). If your recursive algorithm uses the uri of the child instead of the name of the child, then those kinds of mistakes just can't happen. Note that both the child's name and the child's URI are included in the results of listing the parent directory, so it isn't any harder to use the URI for this purpose. In general, use names if you want "whatever object (whether file or directory) is found by following this name (or sequence of names) when my request reaches the server". Use URIs if you want "this particular object". 4. features for controlling your tahoe node from a standard web browser a. uri redirect GET http://localhost:8123/uri?uri=$URI This causes a redirect to /uri/$URI, and retains any additional query arguments (like filename= or save=). This is for the convenience of web forms which allow the user to paste in a URI (obtained through some out-of-band channel, like IM or email). Note that this form merely redirects to the specific file or directory indicated by the URI: unlike the GET /uri/$URI form, you cannot traverse to children by appending additional path segments to the URL. b. web page offering rename GET $URL?t=rename-form&name=$CHILDNAME This provides a useful facility to browser-based user interfaces. It returns a page containing a form targetting the "POST $URL t=rename" functionality described below, with the provided $CHILDNAME present in the 'from_name' field of that form. I.e. this presents a form offering to rename $CHILDNAME, requesting the new name, and submitting POST rename. c. POST forms POST $URL t=upload name=childname (optional) file=newfile This instructs the node to upload a file into the given directory. We need this because forms are the only way for a web browser to upload a file (browsers do not know how to do PUT or DELETE). The file's contents and the new child name will be included in the form's arguments. This can only be used to upload a single file at a time. To avoid confusion, name= is not allowed to contain a slash (a 400 Bad Request error will result). The response is the file read-cap (URI) of the resulting file. POST $URL t=upload name=childname (optional) mutable="true" file=newfile This instructs the node to upload a file into the given directory, using a mutable file (SSK) rather than the usual immutable file (CHK). As a result, further operations to the same $URL will not cause the identity of the file to change. The response is the file write-cap (URI) of the resulting mutable file. POST $URL t=overwrite file=newfile This is used to replace the existing (mutable) file's contents with new ones. It may only be used when $URL refers to a mutable file, as created by POST $URL?t=upload&mutable=true, or PUT /uri?t=mutable . The name associated with the uploaded file is ignored. TODO: rethink this, it's kind of weird. POST $URL t=mkdir name=childname This instructs the node to create a new empty directory. The name of the new child directory will be included in the form's arguments. POST $URL t=uri name=childname uri=newuri This instructs the node to attach a child that is referenced by URI (just like the PUT $URL?t=uri method). The name and URI of the new child will be included in the form's arguments. POST $URL t=delete name=childname This instructs the node to delete a file from the given directory. The name of the child to be deleted will be included in the form's arguments. POST $URL t=rename from_name=oldchildname to_name=newchildname This instructs the node to rename a child within the given directory. The child specified by 'from_name' is removed, and reattached as a child named for 'to_name'. This is unconditional and will replace any child already present under 'to_name', akin to 'mv -f' in unix parlance. POST $URL t=check This triggers the FileChecker to determine the current "health" of the given file, by counting how many shares are available. The results will be displayed on the directory page containing this file. 5. debugging and testing features GET $URL?t=download&localfile=$LOCALPATH GET $URL?t=download&localdir=$LOCALPATH The localfile= form instructs the node to download the given file and write it into the local filesystem at $LOCALPATH. The localdir= form instructs the node to recursively download everything from the given directory and below into the local filesystem. To avoid surprises, the localfile= form will signal an error if $URL actually refers to a directory, likewise if localdir= is used with a $URL that refers to a file. This request will only be accepted from an HTTP client connection originating at 127.0.0.1 . This request is most useful when the client node and the HTTP client are operated by the same user. $LOCALPATH should be an absolute pathname. This form is only implemented for testing purposes, because of a trivially easy attack: any web server that the local browser visits could serve an IMG tag that causes the local node to modify the local filesystem. Therefore this form is only enabled if you create a file named 'webport_allow_localfile' in the node's base directory. PUT $NEWURL?t=upload&localfile=$LOCALPATH PUT $NEWURL?t=upload&localdir=$LOCALPATH This uploads a file or directory from the node's local filesystem to the vdrive. As with "GET $URL?t=download&localfile=$LOCALPATH", this request will only be accepted from an HTTP connection originating from 127.0.0.1 . The localfile= form expects that $LOCALPATH will point to a file on the node's local filesystem, and causes the node to upload that one file into the vdrive at the given location. Any parent directories will be created in the vdrive as necessary. The localdir= form expects that $LOCALPATH will point to a directory on the node's local filesystem, and it causes the node to perform a recursive upload of the directory into the vdrive at the given location, creating parent directories as necessary. When the operation is complete, the directory referenced by $NEWURL will contain all of the files and directories that were present in $LOCALPATH, so this is equivalent to the unix commands: mkdir -p $NEWURL; cp -r $LOCALPATH/* $NEWURL/ Note that the "curl" utility can be used to provoke this sort of recursive upload, since the -T option will make it use an HTTP 'PUT': curl -T /dev/null 'http://localhost:8123/vdrive/global/newdir?t=upload&localdir=/home/user/directory-to-upload' This form is only implemented for testing purposes, because any attacker's web server that a local browser visits could serve an IMG tag that causes the local node to modify the local filesystem. Therefore this form is only enabled if you create a file named 'webport_allow_localfile' in the node's base directory. GET $URL?t=manifest Return an HTML-formatted manifest of the given directory, for debugging. 6. XMLRPC (coming soon) http://localhost:8123/xmlrpc This resource provides an XMLRPC server on which all of the previous operations can be expressed as function calls taking a "pathname" argument. This is provided for applications that want to think of everything in terms of XMLRPC. listdir(vdrivename, path) -> dict of (childname -> (stuff)) put(vdrivename, path, contents) -> URI get(vdrivename, path) -> contents mkdir(vdrivename, path) -> URI put_localfile(vdrivename, path, localfilename) -> URI get_localfile(vdrivename, path, localfilename) put_localdir(vdrivename, path, localdirname) # recursive get_localdir(vdrivename, path, localdirname) # recursive put_uri(vdrivename, path, URI) etc..