-Allmydata, Inc. [1], provider of the "Allmydata" consumer backup product, is
-pleased to announce the first public release of "Tahoe", a secure,
-distributed storage grid with a free-software licence.
+NEW VERSION RELEASED
+
+We are pleased to announce the release of version 0.3.0 of Allmydata-Tahoe, a
+secure, decentralized storage grid under a free-software licence. This is
+the follow-up to v0.2 which was released May 2, 2007 (see [1]).
+
+Since then we've made several improvements, including:
+
+ * fix IP address configuration so that you can run a node behind a firewall
+ or NAT box (ticket #22)
+
+ * better packaging, build process, command-line, documentation (tickets #8,
+ #21, #23, #35, #46, #51)
+
+ * handle the loss of peers during the upload process by uploading to the
+ remaining peers (ticket #17)
+
+ * display size of files (ticket #37) (thanks to Faried Nawaz)
+
+ * private storage -- upload a file without publishing its decryption key
+ (ticket #33) (thanks to Faried Nawaz)
+
+ * add Merkle-Tree authentication on ciphertext and on plaintext (ticket #64)
+
+ * enable SSL encryption on the connection between web browser and node
+ (ticket #55)
+
+ * improved unit tests including memory-usage tests
+
+ * faster unit tests (ticket #20)
+
+ * upgrade to a newer version of Foolscap, the remote object protocol
+
+
+For complete details (there are other improvements that are not in the above
+list), see this web page which shows all ticket changes, repository checkins,
+and wiki changes from May 3 to today: [2].
+
+Allmydata-Tahoe v0.3 is incompatible with v0.2 due to the upgrade of Foolscap
+and due to the new Merkle-Tree authentication.
+
+
+WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?
The source code that we are releasing is the current working prototype for
-Allmydata's next-generation product. This release is targeted at hackers who
-are willing to use a minimal, text-oriented web user interface.
+Allmydata's next-generation product. This release is targeted at hackers and
+users who are willing to use a minimal, text-oriented web user interface.
-This prototype is not recommended for storage of confidential data nor for
-data which is not otherwise backed up, but it already implements a functional
-distributed storage grid and is useful for experimentation, prototyping, and
-extension.
+This software is not yet recommended for storage of highly confidential data
+nor for important data which is not otherwise backed up, but it is useful for
+experimentation, prototyping, and extension.
+
+This release of Allmydata-Tahoe marks the first version which is be suitable
+for Use Case #2: "groups of friends who want to share backup and
+file-sharing" (see the wiki page "UseCases": [3]). It is easy to set up a
+private grid which is securely shared among a specific, limited set of
+friends. Files uploaded to this shared grid will be available to all
+friends, even when some of the computers are unavailable.
LICENCE
INSTALLATION
-This release of Tahoe works and passes all unit tests on Linux/x86,
-Linux/amd64, Mac/Intel, Mac/PPC, Windows-native, and Cygwin.
+This release of Tahoe works on Linux/x86, Linux/amd64, Mac/Intel, Mac/PPC,
+Windows-native, and Cygwin.
-To install, download the tarball [2], untar it, go into the resulting
-directory, and follow the directions in the README [3].
+To install, download the tarball [4], untar it, go into the resulting
+directory, and follow the directions in the README [5].
USAGE
Other ways to access the filesystem are planned, as well as other structures
than the single globally-shared namespace implemented by this release: please
-see the roadmap.txt [5] for some rough details.
+see the roadmap.txt [6] for some rough details.
HACKING AND COMMUNITY
-Please join the mailing list [4] to discuss the ideas behind Tahoe and
+Please join the mailing list [7] to discuss the ideas behind Tahoe and
extensions of and uses of Tahoe. Patches that extend and improve Tahoe are
gratefully accepted -- roadmap.txt shows the next improvements that we plan
to make. You can browse the revision control history, source code, and issue
-tracking at the Trac instance [6]. Please see the buildbot [7], which shows
+tracking at the Trac instance [8]. Please see the buildbot [9], which shows
how Tahoe builds and passes unit tests on each checkin, and the code coverage
-results [8] and percentage-covered graph [9], which show how much of the
+results [10] and percentage-covered graph [11], which show how much of the
Tahoe source code is currently exercised by the test suite.
A single distinct server called a "vdrive server" maintains a global mapping
from pathnames/filenames to URIs.
-We are well aware of the limitations of decentralization and scalability
-inherent in this prototype. In particular, the completely-connected property
+We are acutely aware of the limitations of decentralization and scalability
+inherent in this version. In particular, the completely-connected property
of the grid and the requirement of a single distinct introducer and vdrive
server limits the possible size of the grid. We have plans to loosen these
limitations (see roadmap.txt). Currently it should be noted that the grid
SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE
Tahoe is a "from the ground-up" rewrite, inspired by Allmydata's existing
-consumer backup service. It is primarily written in Python.
+consumer backup service. It is primarily written in the Python programming
+language.
-Tahoe is based on the Foolscap library [10] which provides a remote object
-protocol inspired by the capability-secure "E" programming language [11].
+Tahoe is based on the Foolscap library [12] which provides a remote object
+protocol inspired by the capability-secure "E" programming language [13].
Foolscap allows us to express the intended behavior of the distributed grid
directly in object-oriented terms while relying on a well-engineered, secure
transport layer.
-The underlying networking is provided by the Twisted library [12].
-Computationally intensive operations are performed in native compiled code,
-such as the "zfec" library for fast erasure coding (also available
-separately: [13]).
-
-
-[1] http://allmydata.com
-[2] http://allmydata.org/source/tahoe/tahoe-0.2.0-0-UNSTABLE.tar.gz
-[3] http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/browser/README
-[4] http://allmydata.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tahoe-dev
-[5] http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/browser/roadmap.txt
-[6] http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe
-[7] http://allmydata.org/buildbot
-[8] http://allmydata.org/tahoe-figleaf/figleaf/
-[9] http://allmydata.org/tahoe-figleaf-graph/hanford.allmydata.com-tahoe_figleaf.html
-[10] http://twistedmatrix.com/trac/wiki/FoolsCap
-[11] http://erights.org/
-[12] http://twistedmatrix.com/
-[13] http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/browser/src/zfec
+The network layer is provided by the Twisted library [14]. Computationally
+intensive operations are performed in native compiled code, such as the
+"zfec" library for fast erasure coding (also available separately: [15]).
+
+Tahoe is sponsored by Allmydata, Inc. [16], a provider of consumer backup
+services. Allmydata, Inc. contributes hardware, software, ideas, bug
+reports, suggestions, demands, and money (employing several Allmydata-Tahoe
+hackers and allowing them to spend part of their work time on the
+next-generation, free-software project). We are eternally grateful!
+
+
+Zooko O'Whielacronx
+on behalf of the Allmydata-Tahoe team
+June 11, 2007
+San Francisco
+
+
+[1] http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/browser/relnotes.txt?rev=686
+[2] http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/timeline?from=06%2F11%2F2007&daysback=39&changeset=on&milestone=on&ticket=on&wiki=on&update=Update
+[3] http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/wiki/UseCases
+[4] http://allmydata.org/source/tahoe/tahoe-0.3.tar.gz
+[5] http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/browser/README?rev=748
+[6] http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/browser/roadmap.txt
+[7] http://allmydata.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tahoe-dev
+[8] http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe
+[9] http://allmydata.org/buildbot
+[10] http://allmydata.org/tahoe-figleaf/figleaf/
+[11] http://allmydata.org/tahoe-figleaf-graph/hanford.allmydata.com-tahoe_figleaf.html
+[12] http://twistedmatrix.com/trac/wiki/FoolsCap
+[13] http://erights.org/
+[14] http://twistedmatrix.com/
+[15] http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/browser/src/zfec
+[16] http://allmydata.com
+
projects / tahoe-lafs / tahoe-lafs.git / commitdiff