1 = The Tahoe CLI commands =
3 Tahoe provides a single executable named "tahoe", which can be used to create
4 and manage client/server nodes, manipulate the virtual drive, and perform
5 several debugging/maintenance tasks.
7 This executable lives in the source tree at "bin/tahoe". Once you've done a
8 build (by running "make"), bin/tahoe can be run in-place: if it discovers
9 that it is being run from within a Tahoe source tree, it will modify sys.path
10 as necessary to use all the source code and dependent libraries contained in
13 If you've installed Tahoe (using "make install", or by installing a binary
14 package), then the tahoe executable will be available somewhere else, perhaps
15 in /usr/bin/tahoe . In this case, it will use your platform's normal
16 PYTHONPATH search paths to find the tahoe code and other libraries.
18 == CLI Command Overview ==
20 The "tahoe" tool provides access to three categories of commands.
22 * node management: create a client/server node, start/stop/restart it
23 * vdrive manipulation: list files, upload, download, delete, rename
24 * debugging: unpack cap-strings, examine share files
26 To get a list of all commands, just run "tahoe" with no additional arguments.
27 "tahoe --help" might also provide something useful.
29 Running "tahoe --version" will display a list of version strings, starting
30 with the "allmydata" module (which contains the majority of the Tahoe
31 functionality) and including versions for a number of dependent libraries,
32 like Twisted, Foolscap, pycryptopp, and zfec.
36 "tahoe create-client [NODEDIR]" is the basic make-a-new-node command. It
37 creates a new directory and populates it with files that will allow the
38 "tahoe start" command to use it later on. This command creates nodes that
39 have client functionality (upload/download files), web API services
40 (controlled by the 'webport' file), and storage services (controlled by
41 "no_storage" and the like).
43 NODEDIR defaults to ~/.tahoe/ , and newly-created clients default to
44 publishing a web server on port 8123 (limited to the loopback interface, at
45 127.0.0.1, to restrict access to other programs on the same host). All of the
46 other "tahoe" subcommands use corresponding defaults.
48 "tahoe create-introducer [NODEDIR]" is used to create the Introducer node.
49 This node provides introduction services and nothing else. When started, this
50 node will produce an introducer.furl, which should be published to all
53 "tahoe create-key-generator [NODEDIR]" is used to create a special
54 "key-generation" service, which allows a client to offload their RSA key
55 generation to a separate process. Since RSA key generation takes several
56 seconds, and must be done each time a directory is created, moving it to a
57 separate process allows the first process (perhaps a busy webapi server) to
58 continue servicing other requests. The key generator exports a FURL that can
59 be copied into a client node to enable this functionality.
61 "tahoe start [NODEDIR]" will launch a previously-created node. It will launch
62 the node into the background, using the standard Twisted "twistd"
63 daemon-launching tool.
65 "tahoe run [NODEDIR]" will start a previous-created node in the foreground.
66 Some platforms are unable to run a daemon in the background: this command
67 provides a way to use a tahoe node on such platforms.
69 "tahoe stop [NODEDIR]" will shut down a running node.
71 "tahoe restart [NODEDIR]" will stop and then restart a running node. This is
72 most often used by developers who have just modified the code and want to
73 start using their changes.
76 == Virtual Drive Manipulation ==
78 [NOTE: This is a work-in-progress: none of this actually works yet].
81 These commands let you exmaine a Tahoe virtual drive, providing basic
82 list/upload/download/delete/rename/mkdir functionality. They can be used as
83 primitives by other scripts. Most of these commands are fairly thin wrappers
86 By default, all vdrive-manipulation commands look in ~/.tahoe/ to figure out
87 which Tahoe node they should use. When the CLI command uses webapi calls, it
88 will use ~/.tahoe/node.url for this purpose: a running Tahoe node that
89 provides a webapi port will write its URL into this file. If you want to use
90 a node on some other host, just create ~/.tahoe/ and copy that node's webapi
91 URL into this file, and the CLI commands will contact that node instead of a
94 These commands also use ~/.tahoe/private/root_dir.cap to figure out which
95 directory they ought to use a starting point. This is explained in more
98 === Root Directories ===
100 As described in architecture.txt, the Tahoe distributed filesystem consists
101 of a collection of directories and files, each of which has a "read-cap" or a
102 "write-cap" (also known as a URI). Each directory is simply a table that maps
103 a name to a child file or directory, and this table is turned into a string
104 and stored in a mutable file. The whole set of directory and file "nodes" are
105 connected together into a directed graph.
107 To treat this collection of dirnodes as a regular filesystem, you just need
108 to choose a starting point: some specific directory that you refer to as your
109 "root directory". We then refer to everything that can be reached from this
110 starting point as your "personal filesystem". The "ls" command would list the
111 contents of this root directory, the "ls dir1" command would look inside the
112 root for a child named "dir1" and list its contents, "ls dir1/subdir2" would
113 look two levels deep, etc. Note that there is no real global "root"
114 directory, but instead each user's personal filesystem has a root that they
115 use as a starting point for all their operations.
117 In fact, each tahoe node remembers a list of starting points, named
118 "aliases", in a file named ~/.tahoe/private/aliases . These are short strings
119 that stand for a directory read- or write- cap. The default starting point
120 uses an alias named "tahoe:", and for backwards compatibility can be stored
121 in a file named ~/.tahoe/private/root_dir.cap .
123 The Tahoe CLI commands use the same filename syntax as scp and rsync, an
124 optional "alias:" prefix, followed by the pathname or filename. Many commands
125 have arguments which supply a default tahoe: alias if you don't provide one
126 yourself, but it is always safe to supply the alias. Some commands (like
127 "tahoe cp") use the lack of an alias to mean that you want to refer to a
128 local file, instead of something from the tahoe virtual filesystem. Another
129 way to indicate this is to start the pathname with a dot, slash, or tilde.
131 When you're dealing with your own personal filesystem, the "tahoe:" alias is
132 all you need. But when you want to refer to something that isn't yet in your
133 virtual drive, you need to refer to it by its URI. The way to do that is to
134 add an alias to it, with the "tahoe add-alias" command. Once you've added an
135 alias, you can use that alias as a prefix to the other commands.
137 The best way to get started with Tahoe is to create a node, start it, then
138 use the following command to create a new directory and set it as your
141 tahoe add-alias tahoe `tahoe mkdir`
143 After that you can use "tahoe ls tahoe:" and "tahoe cp local.txt tahoe:",
144 and both will refer to the directory that you've just created.
146 === Command Syntax Summary ===
148 tahoe add-alias alias cap
151 tahoe mkdir [alias:]path
152 tahoe ls [alias:][path]
153 tahoe put [localfrom:-]
154 tahoe put [localfrom:-] [alias:]to
155 tahoe get [alias:]from [localto:-]
156 tahoe cp [-r] [alias:]frompath [alias:]topath
157 tahoe rm [alias:]what
158 tahoe mv [alias:]from [alias:]to
159 tahoe ln [alias:]from [alias:]to
161 === Command Examples ===
165 This creates a new empty unlinked directory, and prints its write-cap to
166 stdout. The new directory is not attached to anything else.
168 tahoe add-alias work DIRCAP
170 This create an alias "work:" and configures it to use the given directory
171 cap. Once this is done, "tahoe ls work:" will list the contents of this
172 directory. Use "tahoe add-alias tahoe DIRCAP" to set the contents of the
173 default "tahoe:" alias.
177 This displays a table of all configured aliases.
182 This both create a new empty directory and attaches it to your root with the
190 All four list the root directory of your personal virtual filesystem.
194 This lists a subdirectory of your filesystem.
198 tahoe put /tmp/file.txt
201 These upload the local file into the grid, and prints the new read-cap to
202 stdout. The uploaded file is not attached to any directory.
204 tahoe put file.txt uploaded.txt
205 tahoe put file.txt tahoe:uploaded.txt
207 These upload the local file and add it to your root with the name
210 tahoe cp file.txt tahoe:uploaded.txt
211 tahoe cp file.txt tahoe:
212 tahoe cp file.txt tahoe:/
213 tahoe cp ./file.txt tahoe:
215 These upload the local file and add it to your root with the name
218 tahoe cp tahoe:uploaded.txt downloaded.txt
219 tahoe cp tahoe:uploaded.txt ./downloaded.txt
220 tahoe cp tahoe:uploaded.txt /tmp/downloaded.txt
221 tahoe cp tahoe:uploaded.txt ~/downloaded.txt
223 This downloads the named file from your tahoe root, and puts the result on
224 your local filesystem.
226 tahoe cp tahoe:uploaded.txt work:stuff.txt
228 This copies a file from your tahoe root to a different virtual directory,
229 set up earlier with "tahoe add-alias work DIRCAP".
231 tahoe rm uploaded.txt
232 tahoe rm tahoe:uploaded.txt
234 This deletes a file from your tahoe root.
236 tahoe mv uploaded.txt renamed.txt
237 tahoe mv tahoe:uploaded.txt tahoe:renamed.txt
239 These rename a file within your tahoe root directory.
241 tahoe mv uploaded.txt work:
242 tahoe mv tahoe:uploaded.txt work:
243 tahoe mv tahoe:uploaded.txt work:uploaded.txt
245 These move a file from your tahoe root directory to the virtual directory
246 set up earlier with "tahoe add-alias work DIRCAP"
252 "tahoe find-shares STORAGEINDEX NODEDIRS.." will look through one or more
253 storage nodes for the share files that are providing storage for the given
256 "tahoe catalog-shares NODEDIRS.." will look through one or more storage nodes
257 and locate every single share they contain. It produces a report on stdout
258 with one line per share, describing what kind of share it is, the storage
259 index, the size of the file is used for, etc. It may be useful to concatenate
260 these reports from all storage hosts and use it to look for anomalies.
262 "tahoe dump-share SHAREFILE" will take the name of a single share file (as
263 found by "tahoe find-shares") and print a summary of its contents to stdout.
264 This includes a list of leases, summaries of the hash tree, and information
265 from the UEB (URI Extension Block). For mutable file shares, it will describe
266 which version (seqnum and root-hash) is being stored in this share.
268 "tahoe dump-cap CAP" will take a URI (a file read-cap, or a directory read-
269 or write- cap) and unpack it into separate pieces. The most useful aspect of
270 this command is to reveal the storage index for any given URI. This can be
271 used to locate the share files that are holding the encoded+encrypted data