go-ipfs development

This is a simple description of where the codebase stands.

There are multiple subpackages:

bitswap - the block exchange
blocks - handles dealing with individual blocks and sharding files
blockservice - handles getting and storing blocks
cmd/ipfs - cli ipfs tool - the main entrypoint atm
config - load/edit configuration
core - the core node, joins all the pieces
fuse/readonly - mount /ipfs as a readonly fuse fs
importer - import files into ipfs
merkledag - merkle dag data structure
path - path resolution over merkledag data structure
peer - identity + addresses of local and remote peers
routing - the routing system
routing/dht - the DHT default routing system implementation
swarm - connection multiplexing, many peers and many transports
util - various utilities

What's done:

merkle dag data structure
path resolution over merkle dag
local storage of blocks
basic file import/export (ipfs add, ipfs cat)
mounting /ipfs (try {cat, ls} /ipfs/<path>)
multiplexing connections (tcp atm)
peer addressing
dht - impl basic kademlia routing
bitswap - impl basic block exchange functionality
crypto - building trust between peers in the network
block splitting on import - Rabin fingerprints, etc

What's in progress:

ipns - impl /ipns obj publishing + path resolution
expose objects to the web at http://ipfs.io/<path>

What's next:

version control - commit like data structure
more...

Cool demos

A list of cool demos to work towards

boot a VM from an image in ipfs
boot a VM from a filesystem tree in ipfs
publish static websites directly from ipfs
expose objects to the web at http://ipfs.io/<path>
mounted auto-committing versioned personal dropbox
mounted encrypted personal/group dropbox
mounted {npm, apt, other pkg manager} registry
open a video on ipfs, stream it in
watch a video with a topology of 1 seed N leechers (N ~100)
more in section 3.8 in the paper