# Experimental features of go-ipfs This document contains a list of experimental features in go-ipfs. These features, commands, and APIs aren't mature, and you shouldn't rely on them. Once they reach maturity, there's going to be mention in the changelog and release posts. If they don't reach maturity, the same applies, and their code is removed. Subscribe to https://github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/issues/3397 to get updates. When you add a new experimental feature to go-ipfs or change an experimental feature, you MUST please make a PR updating this document, and link the PR in the above issue. - [ipfs pubsub](#ipfs-pubsub) - [Client mode DHT routing](#client-mode-dht-routing) - [go-multiplex stream muxer](#go-multiplex-stream-muxer) - [Raw leaves for unixfs files](#raw-leaves-for-unixfs-files) - [ipfs filestore](#ipfs-filestore) - [ipfs urlstore](#ipfs-urlstore) - [BadgerDB datastore](#badger-datastore) - [Private Networks](#private-networks) - [ipfs p2p](#ipfs-p2p) - [p2p http proxy](#p2p-http-proxy) - [Circuit Relay](#circuit-relay) - [Plugins](#plugins) - [Directory Sharding / HAMT](#directory-sharding--hamt) - [IPNS PubSub](#ipns-pubsub) - [QUIC](#quic) - [AutoRelay](#autorelay) - [TLS 1.3 Handshake](#tls-13-as-default-handshake-protocol) - [Strategic Providing](#strategic-providing) - [Graphsync](graphsync) --- ## ipfs pubsub ### State experimental, default-disabled. ### In Version 0.4.5 ### How to enable run your daemon with the `--enable-pubsub-experiment` flag. Then use the `ipfs pubsub` commands. ### gossipsub Gossipsub is a new, experimental routing protocol for pubsub that should waste less bandwidth than floodsub, the current pubsub protocol. It's backward compatible with floodsub so enabling this feature shouldn't break compatibility with existing IPFS nodes. You can enable gossipsub via configuration: `ipfs config Pubsub.Router gossipsub` ### Message Signing As of 0.4.18, go-ipfs signs all pubsub messages by default. For now, it doesn't *reject* unsigned messages but it will in the future. You can turn off message signing (not recommended unless you're using a private network) by running: `ipfs config Pubsub.DisableSigning true` You can turn on strict signature verification (require that all messages be signed) by running: `ipfs config Pubsub.StrictSignatureVerification true` (this last option will be set to true by default and eventually removed entirely) ### Road to being a real feature - [ ] Needs more people to use and report on how well it works - [ ] Needs authenticating modes to be implemented - [ ] needs performance analyses to be done --- ## Client mode DHT routing Allows the dht to be run in a mode that doesn't serve requests to the network, saving bandwidth. ### State experimental. ### In Version 0.4.5 ### How to enable run your daemon with the `--routing=dhtclient` flag. ### Road to being a real feature - [ ] Needs more people to use and report on how well it works. - [ ] Needs analysis of effect it has on the network as a whole. --- ## go-multiplex stream muxer Adds support for using the go-multiplex stream muxer alongside (or instead of) yamux and spdy. This multiplexer is far simpler, and uses less memory and bandwidth than the others, but is lacking on congestion control and backpressure logic. It is available to try out and experiment with. ### State Stable ### In Version 0.4.5 ### How to enable To make it the default stream muxer, set the environment variable `LIBP2P_MUX_PREFS` as follows: ``` export LIBP2P_MUX_PREFS="/mplex/6.7.0 /yamux/1.0.0 /spdy/3.1.0" ``` --- ## Raw Leaves for unixfs files Allows files to be added with no formatting in the leaf nodes of the graph. ### State experimental. ### In Version master, 0.4.5 ### How to enable Use `--raw-leaves` flag when calling `ipfs add`. ### Road to being a real feature - [ ] Needs more people to use and report on how well it works. --- ## ipfs filestore Allows files to be added without duplicating the space they take up on disk. ### State experimental. ### In Version master, 0.4.7 ### How to enable Modify your ipfs config: ``` ipfs config --json Experimental.FilestoreEnabled true ``` Then restart your IPFS node to reload your config. Finally, when adding files with ipfs add, pass the --nocopy flag to use the filestore instead of copying the files into your local IPFS repo. ### Road to being a real feature - [ ] Needs more people to use and report on how well it works. - [ ] Need to address error states and failure conditions - [ ] Need to write docs on usage, advantages, disadvantages - [ ] Need to merge utility commands to aid in maintenance and repair of filestore --- ## ipfs urlstore Allows ipfs to retrieve blocks contents via a URL instead of storing it in the datastore ### State experimental. ### In Version master, v0.4.17 ### How to enable Modify your ipfs config: ``` ipfs config --json Experimental.UrlstoreEnabled true ``` And then add a file at a specific URL using `ipfs urlstore add ` ### Road to being a real feature - [ ] Needs more people to use and report on how well it works. - [ ] Need to address error states and failure conditions - [ ] Need to write docs on usage, advantages, disadvantages - [ ] Need to implement caching - [ ] Need to add metrics to monitor performance --- ## Private Networks It allows ipfs to only connect to other peers who have a shared secret key. ### State Experimental ### In Version master, 0.4.7 ### How to enable Generate a pre-shared-key using [ipfs-swarm-key-gen](https://github.com/Kubuxu/go-ipfs-swarm-key-gen)): ``` go get github.com/Kubuxu/go-ipfs-swarm-key-gen/ipfs-swarm-key-gen ipfs-swarm-key-gen > ~/.ipfs/swarm.key ``` To join a given private network, get the key file from someone in the network and save it to `~/.ipfs/swarm.key` (If you are using a custom `$IPFS_PATH`, put it in there instead). When using this feature, you will not be able to connect to the default bootstrap nodes (Since we aren't part of your private network) so you will need to set up your own bootstrap nodes. First, to prevent your node from even trying to connect to the default bootstrap nodes, run: ```bash ipfs bootstrap rm --all ``` Then add your own bootstrap peers with: ```bash ipfs bootstrap add ``` For example: ``` ipfs bootstrap add /ip4/104.236.76.40/tcp/4001/p2p/QmSoLV4Bbm51jM9C4gDYZQ9Cy3U6aXMJDAbzgu2fzaDs64 ``` Bootstrap nodes are no different from all other nodes in the network apart from the function they serve. To be extra cautious, You can also set the `LIBP2P_FORCE_PNET` environment variable to `1` to force the usage of private networks. If no private network is configured, the daemon will fail to start. ### Road to being a real feature - [ ] Needs more people to use and report on how well it works - [ ] More documentation --- ## ipfs p2p Allows tunneling of TCP connections through Libp2p streams. If you've ever used port forwarding with SSH (the `-L` option in OpenSSH), this feature is quite similar. ### State Experimental ### In Version master, 0.4.10 ### How to enable The `p2p` command needs to be enabled in the config: ```sh > ipfs config --json Experimental.Libp2pStreamMounting true ``` ### How to use **Netcat example:** First, pick a protocol name for your application. Think of the protocol name as a port number, just significantly more user-friendly. In this example, we're going to use `/x/kickass/1.0`. ***Setup:*** 1. A "server" node with peer ID `$SERVER_ID` 2. A "client" node. ***On the "server" node:*** First, start your application and have it listen for TCP connections on port `$APP_PORT`. Then, configure the p2p listener by running: ```sh > ipfs p2p listen /x/kickass/1.0 /ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/$APP_PORT ``` This will configure IPFS to forward all incoming `/x/kickass/1.0` streams to `127.0.0.1:$APP_PORT` (opening a new connection to `127.0.0.1:$APP_PORT` per incoming stream. ***On the "client" node:*** First, configure the client p2p dialer, so that it forwards all inbound connections on `127.0.0.1:SOME_PORT` to the server node listening on `/x/kickass/1.0`. ```sh > ipfs p2p forward /x/kickass/1.0 /ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/$SOME_PORT /p2p/$SERVER_ID ``` Next, have your application open a connection to `127.0.0.1:$SOME_PORT`. This connection will be forwarded to the service running on `127.0.0.1:$APP_PORT` on the remote machine. You can test it with netcat: ***On "server" node:*** ```sh > nc -v -l -p $APP_PORT ``` ***On "client" node:*** ```sh > nc -v 127.0.0.1 $SOME_PORT ``` You should now see that a connection has been established and be able to exchange messages between netcat instances. (note that depending on your netcat version you may need to drop the `-v` flag) **SSH example** **Setup:** 1. A "server" node with peer ID `$SERVER_ID` and running ssh server on the default port. 2. A "client" node. _you can get `$SERVER_ID` by running `ipfs id -f "\n"`_ ***First, on the "server" node:*** ```sh ipfs p2p listen /x/ssh /ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/22 ``` ***Then, on "client" node:*** ```sh ipfs p2p forward /x/ssh /ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/2222 /p2p/$SERVER_ID ``` You should now be able to connect to your ssh server through a libp2p connection with `ssh [user]@127.0.0.1 -p 2222`. ### Road to being a real feature - [ ] Needs more people to use and report on how well it works / fits use cases - [ ] More documentation - [ ] Support other protocols (e.g, Unix domain sockets, WebSockets, etc.) --- ## p2p http proxy Allows proxying of HTTP requests over p2p streams. This allows serving any standard HTTP app over p2p streams. ### State Experimental ### In Version master, 0.4.19 ### How to enable The `p2p` command needs to be enabled in the config: ```sh > ipfs config --json Experimental.Libp2pStreamMounting true ``` On the client, the p2p HTTP proxy needs to be enabled in the config: ```sh > ipfs config --json Experimental.P2pHttpProxy true ``` ### How to use **Netcat example:** First, pick a protocol name for your application. Think of the protocol name as a port number, just significantly more user-friendly. In this example, we're going to use `/http`. ***Setup:*** 1. A "server" node with peer ID `$SERVER_ID` 2. A "client" node. ***On the "server" node:*** First, start your application and have it listen for TCP connections on port `$APP_PORT`. Then, configure the p2p listener by running: ```sh > ipfs p2p listen --allow-custom-protocol /http /ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/$APP_PORT ``` This will configure IPFS to forward all incoming `/http` streams to `127.0.0.1:$APP_PORT` (opening a new connection to `127.0.0.1:$APP_PORT` per incoming stream. ***On the "client" node:*** Next, have your application make a http request to `127.0.0.1:8080/p2p/$SERVER_ID/http/$FORWARDED_PATH`. This connection will be forwarded to the service running on `127.0.0.1:$APP_PORT` on the remote machine (which needs to be a http server!) with path `$FORWARDED_PATH`. You can test it with netcat: ***On "server" node:*** ```sh > echo -e "HTTP/1.1 200\nContent-length: 11\n\nIPFS rocks!" | nc -l -p $APP_PORT ``` ***On "client" node:*** ```sh > curl http://localhost:8080/p2p/$SERVER_ID/http/ ``` You should now see the resulting HTTP response: IPFS rocks! ### Custom protocol names We also support the use of protocol names of the form /x/$NAME/http where $NAME doesn't contain any "/"'s ### Road to being a real feature - [ ] Needs p2p streams to graduate from experiments - [ ] Needs more people to use and report on how well it works / fits use cases - [ ] More documentation --- ## Circuit Relay Allows peers to connect through an intermediate relay node when there is no direct connectivity. ### State Experimental ### In Version master, 0.4.11 ### How to enable The relay transport is enabled by default, which allows peers to dial through a relay and listens for incoming relay connections. The transport can be disabled by setting `Swarm.DisableRelay = true` in the configuration. By default, peers don't act as intermediate nodes (relays). This can be enabled by setting `Swarm.EnableRelayHop = true` in the configuration. Note that the option needs to be set before online services are started to have an effect; an already online node would have to be restarted. ### Basic Usage: To connect peers QmA and QmB through a relay node QmRelay: - Both peers should connect to the relay: `ipfs swarm connect /transport/address/p2p/QmRelay` - Peer QmA can then connect to peer QmB using the relay: `ipfs swarm connect /p2p/QmRelay/p2p-circuit/p2p/QmB` Peers can also connect with an unspecific relay address, which will try to dial through known relays: `ipfs swarm connect /p2p-circuit/p2p/QmB` Peers can see their (unspecific) relay address in the output of `ipfs swarm addrs listen` ### Road to being a real feature - [ ] Needs more people to use it and report on how well it works. - [ ] Advertise relay addresses to the DHT for NATed or otherwise unreachable peers. - [ ] Active relay discovery for specific relay address advertisement. We would like advertised relay addresses to designate specific relays for efficient dialing. - [ ] Dialing priorities for relay addresses; arguably, relay addresses should have lower priority than direct dials. ## Plugins ### In Version 0.4.11 ### State Experimental Plugins allow adding functionality without the need to recompile the daemon. ### Basic Usage: See [Plugin docs](./plugins.md) ### Road to being a real feature - [ ] Better support for platforms other than Linux - [ ] More plugins and plugin types - [ ] Feedback on stability ## Badger datastore ### In Version 0.4.11 Badger-ds is new datastore implementation based on https://github.com/dgraph-io/badger. ### Basic Usage ``` $ ipfs init --profile=badgerds ``` or install https://github.com/ipfs/ipfs-ds-convert/ and ``` [BACKUP ~/.ipfs] $ ipfs config profile apply badgerds $ ipfs-ds-convert convert ``` You can read more in the [datastore](./datastores.md#badgerds) documentation. ### Road to being a real feature - [ ] Needs more testing - [ ] Make sure there are no unknown major problems ## Directory Sharding / HAMT ### In Version 0.4.8 ### State Experimental Allows creating directories with an unlimited number of entries - currently size of unixfs directories is limited by the maximum block size ### Basic Usage: ``` ipfs config --json Experimental.ShardingEnabled true ``` ### Road to being a real feature - [ ] Make sure that objects that don't have to be sharded aren't - [ ] Generalize sharding and define a new layer between IPLD and IPFS --- ## IPNS pubsub ### In Version 0.4.14 ### State Experimental, default-disabled. Utilizes pubsub for publishing ipns records in real time. When it is enabled: - IPNS publishers push records to a name-specific pubsub topic, in addition to publishing to the DHT. - IPNS resolvers subscribe to the name-specific topic on first resolution and receive subsequently published records through pubsub in real time. This makes subsequent resolutions instant, as they are resolved through the local cache. Note that the initial resolution still goes through the DHT, as there is no message history in pubsub. Both the publisher and the resolver nodes need to have the feature enabled for it to work effectively. ### How to enable run your daemon with the `--enable-namesys-pubsub` flag; enables pubsub. ### Road to being a real feature - [ ] Needs more people to use and report on how well it works - [ ] Add a mechanism for last record distribution on subscription, so that we don't have to hit the DHT for the initial resolution. Alternatively, we could republish the last record periodically. ## QUIC ### In Version 0.4.18 ### State Experiment, disabled by default ### How to enable Modify your ipfs config: ``` ipfs config --json Experimental.QUIC true ``` For listening on a QUIC address, add it to the swarm addresses, e.g. `/ip4/0.0.0.0/udp/4001/quic`. ### Road to being a real feature - [ ] The IETF QUIC specification needs to be finalized. - [ ] Make sure QUIC connections work reliably - [ ] Make sure QUIC connection offer equal or better performance than TCP connections on real-world networks - [ ] Finalize libp2p-TLS handshake spec. ## AutoRelay ### In Version 0.4.19 ### State Experimental, disabled by default. Automatically discovers relays and advertises relay addresses when the node is behind an impenetrable NAT. ### How to enable Modify your ipfs config: ``` ipfs config --json Swarm.EnableAutoRelay true ``` Bootstrappers (and other public nodes) need to also enable the AutoNATService: ``` ipfs config --json Swarm.EnableAutoNATService true ``` ### Road to being a real feature - [ ] needs testing ## TLS 1.3 as default handshake protocol ### In Version 0.5.0 ### State Stable ## Strategic Providing ### State Experimental, disabled by default. Replaces the existing provide mechanism with a robust, strategic provider system. ### How to enable Modify your ipfs config: ``` ipfs config --json Experimental.StrategicProviding true ``` ### Road to being a real feature - [ ] needs real-world testing - [ ] needs adoption - [ ] needs to support all provided features - [X] provide nothing - [ ] provide roots - [ ] provide all - [ ] provide strategic ## GraphSync ### State Experimental, disabled by default. [GraphSync](https://github.com/ipfs/go-graphsync) is the next-gen graph exchange protocol for IPFS. When this feature is enabled, IPFS will make files available over the graphsync protocol. However, IPFS will not currently use this protocol to _fetch_ files. ### How to enable Modify your ipfs config: ``` ipfs config --json Experimental.GraphsyncEnabled true ``` ### Road to being a real feature - [ ] We need to confirm that it can't be used to DoS a node. The server-side logic for GraphSync is quite complex and, if we're not careful, the server might end up performing unbounded work when responding to a malicious request.