-NEW VERSION RELEASED -- Allmydata-Tahoe version 0.6.1
+ANNOUNCING: Allmydata-Tahoe version 0.7
-We are pleased to announce the release of version 0.6.1 of
-allmydata.org "Tahoe", a secure, decentralized storage grid under a
-free-software licence. This is the successor to v0.6, which was
-released September 24, 2007 (see [1]). This release focusses on
-packaging, documentation, and usability improvements.
+We are pleased to announce the release of version 0.7 of allmydata.org
+"Tahoe".
-Since v0.6 we've made the following changes:
+Tahoe is a secure, decentralized, fault-tolerant filesystem. All of
+the source code is available under a Free Software, Open Source
+licence (or two).
- * Make the command-line tool it automatically stash its state in a
- directory ("~/.tahoe" by default), and make it automatically get
- the capability to access your private vdrive from the state
- directory. (ticket #120)
+This filesystem is encrypted and distributed over multiple peers in
+such a way that it continues to work correctlly even when some of the
+peers are unavailable, malfunctioning, or malicious.
- * Add the "tahoe mv" command. (ticket #162)
+This is the successor to Allmydata-Tahoe v0.6.1, which was released
+October 15, 2007 [1].
- * Rewrite the README and add README.win32 to make it clearer which
- steps are required to build from source. (ticket #148)
+This release adds decentralized, encrypted directories and mutable
+files, making it the first release of Tahoe in which no part of the
+filesystem is centralized. It also adds a FUSE interface, allowing
+you to access a distributed Tahoe grid as if it were a normal local
+filesystem.
- * Establish port 8123 as the default web port on localhost so that
- people can share full URLs that start with
- "http://localhost:8123/".
-
- * Update webapi.txt [2] to reflect the security fix from ticket #98.
-
- * Add more automated performance measurements and graphs on the
- Performance page [3].
-
- * Rename the command-line tool from "allmydata-tahoe" to "tahoe".
- (ticket #155)
-
-We also improved numerous small issues in packaging, documentation,
-usability, testing, and source code maintenance. For complete
-details, see this web page which shows all the changes we made between
-the last release and this one: [4].
-
-Allmydata.org Tahoe v0.6.1 is compatible with Allmydata.org Tahoe
-v0.6.
+This is also the first release to be offered under a novel open source
+licence which allows people to redistributed proprietary derivatives
+of Tahoe for a limited time.
WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?
-With Tahoe, you can store your files in a distributed way across a set
-of computers, such that if some of the computers fail, you can
-retrieve your data from the remaining computers. You can also
-securely share your files with other users.
+With Tahoe, you can distribute your filesystem across a set of
+computers, such that if some of the computers fail or turn out to be
+malicious, the filesystem continues to work from the remaining
+computers. You can also share your files with other users, using a
+strongly encrypted, capability-based access control scheme.
-This release is targeted at hackers and users who are willing to use a
-text-oriented web user interface, or a command-line user interface.
-(Or a RESTful API. Just telnet to localhost and type HTTP requests to
-get started.)
+This release is targeted at hackers and smart users who are willing to
+use a web user interface, a command-line user interface, or a FUSE
+interface. (Or a RESTful API. Just telnet to localhost and type HTTP
+requests to get started.)
Because this software is new, it is not yet recommended for storage of
-highly confidential data nor for important data which is not otherwise
-backed up. Given that caveat, this software works and there are no
-major known security flaws which would compromise confidentiality or
-data integrity. (For a current description of all known security
-issues and an overview of Tahoe's security properties, please see the
-Security web page: [5].)
+highly confidential data nor for valuable data which is not otherwise
+backed up. However, it works well in practice, it comes with extensive
+unit tests, and there are no known security flaws which would
+compromise confidentiality or data integrity. (For a current
+description of all known security issues and an overview of Tahoe's
+security properties, please see the Security web page: [2].)
-This release of Tahoe is suitable for the "friendnet" use case [6].
-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. It is also easy to encrypt individual files and
-directories so that only designated recipients can read them.
+This release of Tahoe is suitable for the "friendnet" use case [3] --
+it is easy to create a filesystem spread over the computers of you
+and your friends so that you can share files and disk space with one
+another.
LICENCE
-Tahoe is offered under the GNU General Public License (v2 or later),
-with the added permission that, if you become obligated to release a
-derived work under this licence (as per section 2.b), you may delay
-the fulfillment of this obligation for up to 12 months. If you are
-obligated to release code under section 2.b of this licence, you are
-obligated to release it under these same terms, including the 12-month
-grace period clause.
-
-
-INSTALLATION
-
-Tahoe works on Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, Cygwin, and Solaris. For
-installation instructions please see the README [7].
-
-
-USAGE - web interface
-
-Once installed, create a "client node". Instruct this client node to
-connect to a specific "introducer node" by means of config files in
-the client node's working directory. To join a grid, copy in the
-.furl files for that grid. To create a private grid, run your own
-introducer, and copy its .furl files. See the README for step-by-step
-instructions.
-
-Each client node can run a local webserver (enabled by writing the
-desired port number into a file called 'webport'). The welcome page
-of this webserver shows the node's status, including which introducer
-is being used and which other nodes are connected.
+You may use this package under the GNU General Public License, version
+2 or, at your option, any later version. See the file "COPYING.GPL"
+for the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2.
-Links from the welcome page lead to other pages that give access to a
-virtual filesystem, in which each directory is represented by a
-separate page. Each directory page shows a list of the files
-available there, with download links, and forms to upload new files.
+You may use this package under the Transitive Grace Period Public
+Licence, version 1.0. The Transitive Grace Period Public Licence says
+that you may distribute proprietary derived works of Tahoe without
+releasing the source code of that derived work for up to twelve
+months, after which time you are obligated to release the source code
+of the derived work under the Transitive Grace Period Public Licence.
+See the file "COPYING.TGPPL.html" for the terms of the Transitive
+Grace Period Public Licence, version 1.0.
-USAGE - command-line interface
+(You may choose to use this package under the terms of either licence,
+at your option.)
-Run "tahoe ls [VIRTUAL PATH NAME]" to list the contents of a virtual
-directory. Run "tahoe get [VIRTUAL FILE NAME] [LOCAL FILE NAME]" to
-download a file. Run "tahoe put [LOCAL FILE NAME] [VIRTUAL FILE
-NAME]" to upload a file. Run "tahoe rm [VIRTUAL PATH NAME]" to unlink
-a file or directory in the virtual drive. Run "tahoe --help" to learn
-about more commands.
-USAGE - other
+INSTALLATION
-You can control the filesystem through the RESTful web API [2]. Other
-ways to access the filesystem are planned: please see the
-roadmap.txt [8] for some plans.
+Tahoe works on Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, Cygwin, and Solaris. For
+installation instructions please see "doc/install.html" [4].
HACKING AND COMMUNITY
-Please join the mailing list [9] to discuss the ideas behind Tahoe and
-extensions of and uses of Tahoe. Patches that extend and improve
-Tahoe are gratefully accepted -- roadmap.txt [8] shows the next
-improvements that we plan to make and CREDITS [10] lists the names of
-people who've contributed to the project. The wiki Dev page [11]
-collects various hacking resources including revision history
-browsing, automated test results, automated performance tests, graphs
-of how many people are using the public test grid for how many files,
-and more.
-
-
-NETWORK ARCHITECTURE
-
-Each peer maintains a connection to each other peer. A single
-distinct server called an "introducer" is used to discover other peers
-with which to connect.
-
-To store a file, the file is encrypted and erasure coded, and each
-resulting share is uploaded to a different peer. The secure hash of
-the encrypted file and the encryption key are packed into a URI,
-knowledge of which is necessary and sufficient to recover the file.
-
-To fetch a file, starting with the URI, a subset of shares is
-downloaded from peers, the file is reconstructed from the shares, and
-then decrypted.
-
-A single distinct server called a "vdrive server" maintains a global
-mapping from pathnames/filenames to URIs.
-
-We are aware of certain limitations on 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 already
-depends as little as possible on the accessibility and correctness of
-the introduction server and the vdrive server. Also note that the
-choice of which servers to use is easily configured -- you can set up
-a private grid for you and your friends as easily as connecting to our
-public test grid.
-
-
-SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE
-
-Tahoe is a "from the ground-up" rewrite, inspired by Allmydata's
-existing consumer backup service as well as by its ancestor Mojo
-Nation. It is primarily written in the Python programming language.
-
-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 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]).
+Please join us on the mailing list [5] to discuss uses of Tahoe.
+Patches that extend and improve Tahoe are gratefully accepted --
+roadmap.txt [6] shows the next improvements that we plan to make and
+CREDITS [7] lists the names of people who've contributed to the
+project. The wiki Dev page [8] contains resources for hackers.
SPONSORSHIP
-Tahoe is sponsored by Allmydata, Inc. [16], a provider of consumer
+Tahoe is sponsored by Allmydata, Inc. [9], a provider of consumer
backup services. Allmydata, Inc. contributes hardware, software,
ideas, bug reports, suggestions, demands, and money (employing several
allmydata.org Tahoe hackers and allowing them to spend part of their
Zooko O'Whielacronx
on behalf of the allmydata.org team
-October 15, 2007
-Boulder, Colorado
-
-
-[1] http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/browser/relnotes.txt?rev=1346
-[2] http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/browser/docs/webapi.txt?rev=1428
-[3] http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/wiki/Performance
-[4] http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/timeline?from=2007-10-15&daysback=21&changeset=on&milestone=on&ticket=on&ticket_details=on&wiki=on
-[5] http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/wiki/Security
-[6] http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/wiki/UseCases
-[7] http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/browser/README?rev=1424
-[8] http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/browser/roadmap.txt
-[9] http://allmydata.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tahoe-dev
-[10] http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/browser/CREDITS?rev=1424
-[11] http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/wiki/Dev
-[12] http://foolscap.lothar.com/trac
-[13] http://erights.org/
-[14] http://twistedmatrix.com/
-[15] http://pypi.python.org/pypi/zfec
-[16] http://allmydata.com
+January 7, 2008
+San Francisco, California
+
+
+[1] http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/browser/relnotes.txt?rev=1346
+[2] http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/wiki/Security
+[3] http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/wiki/UseCases
+[4] http://allmydata.org/source/tahoe/trunk/docs/install.html
+[5] http://allmydata.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tahoe-dev
+[6] http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/browser/roadmap.txt
+[7] http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/browser/CREDITS?rev=1424
+[8] http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/wiki/Dev
+[9] http://allmydata.com
projects / tahoe-lafs / tahoe-lafs.git / commitdiff