From: Brian Warner Date: Fri, 9 May 2008 19:36:19 +0000 (-0700) Subject: docs/CLI.txt: provide an overview of bin/tahoe subcommands X-Git-Tag: allmydata-tahoe-1.1.0~137 X-Git-Url: https://git.rkrishnan.org/components/%22news.html/provisioning?a=commitdiff_plain;h=e2af2decdc6794de9852726ddd01bbd889f5ab8f;p=tahoe-lafs%2Ftahoe-lafs.git docs/CLI.txt: provide an overview of bin/tahoe subcommands --- diff --git a/docs/CLI.txt b/docs/CLI.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..0b1e731d --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/CLI.txt @@ -0,0 +1,102 @@ += The Tahoe CLI commands = + +Tahoe provides a single executable named "tahoe", which can be used to create +and manage client/server nodes, manipulate the virtual drive, and perform +several debugging/maintenance tasks. + +This executable lives in the source tree at "bin/tahoe". Once you've done a +build (by running "make"), bin/tahoe can be run in-place: if it discovers +that it is being run from within a Tahoe source tree, it will modify sys.path +as necessary to use all the source code and dependent libraries contained in +that tree. + +If you've installed Tahoe (using "make install", or by installing a binary +package), then the tahoe executable will be available somewhere else, perhaps +in /usr/bin/tahoe . In this case, it will use your platform's normal +PYTHONPATH search paths to find the tahoe code and other libraries. + +== CLI Command Overview == + +The "tahoe" tool provides access to three categories of commands. + + * node management: create a client/server node, start/stop/restart it + * vdrive manipulation: list files, upload, download, delete, rename + * debugging: unpack cap-strings, examine share files + +To get a list of all commands, just run "tahoe" with no additional arguments. +"tahoe --help" might also provide something useful. + +Running "tahoe --version" will display a list of version strings, starting +with the "allmydata" module (which contains the majority of the Tahoe +functionality) and including versions for a number of dependent libraries, +like Twisted, Foolscap, pycryptopp, and zfec. + +== Node Management == + +"tahoe create-client [NODEDIR]" is the basic make-a-new-node command. It +creates a new directory and populates it with files that will allow the +"tahoe start" command to use it later on. This command creates nodes that +have client functionality (upload/download files), web API services +(controlled by the 'webport' file), and storage services (controlled by +"no_storage" and the like). + +NODEDIR defaults to ~/.tahoe/ , and newly-created clients default to +publishing a web server on port 8123 (limited to the loopback interface, at +127.0.0.1, to restrict access to other programs on the same host). All of the +other "tahoe" subcommands use corresponding defaults. + +"tahoe create-introducer [NODEDIR]" is used to create the Introducer node. +This node provides introduction services and nothing else. When started, this +node will produce an introducer.furl, which should be published to all +clients. + +"tahoe create-key-generator [NODEDIR]" is used to create a special +"key-generation" service, which allows a client to offload their RSA key +generation to a separate process. Since RSA key generation takes several +seconds, and must be done each time a directory is created, moving it to a +separate process allows the first process (perhaps a busy webapi server) to +continue servicing other requests. The key generator exports a FURL that can +be copied into a client node to enable this functionality. + +"tahoe start [NODEDIR]" will launch a previously-created node. It will launch +the node into the background, using the standard Twisted "twistd" +daemon-launching tool. + +"tahoe run [NODEDIR]" will start a previous-created node in the foreground. +Some platforms are unable to run a daemon in the background: this command +provides a way to use a tahoe node on such platforms. + +"tahoe stop [NODEDIR]" will shut down a running node. + +"tahoe restart [NODEDIR]" will stop and then restart a running node. This is +most often used by developers who have just modified the code and want to +start using their changes. + + +== Virtual Drive Manipulation == + +TODO + +== Debugging == + +"tahoe find-shares STORAGEINDEX NODEDIRS.." will look through one or more +storage nodes for the share files that are providing storage for the given +storage index. + +"tahoe catalog-shares NODEDIRS.." will look through one or more storage nodes +and locate every single share they contain. It produces a report on stdout +with one line per share, describing what kind of share it is, the storage +index, the size of the file is used for, etc. It may be useful to concatenate +these reports from all storage hosts and use it to look for anomalies. + +"tahoe dump-share SHAREFILE" will take the name of a single share file (as +found by "tahoe find-shares") and print a summary of its contents to stdout. +This includes a list of leases, summaries of the hash tree, and information +from the UEB (URI Extension Block). For mutable file shares, it will describe +which version (seqnum and root-hash) is being stored in this share. + +"tahoe dump-cap CAP" will take a URI (a file read-cap, or a directory read- +or write- cap) and unpack it into separate pieces. The most useful aspect of +this command is to reveal the storage index for any given URI. This can be +used to locate the share files that are holding the encoded+encrypted data +for this file.