Sharing files one-off via http

[hackergrrl]

Hi y'all; brilliant work you're doing here! :wave:

I mentioned to @mafintosh on IRC that a common use case I have is to want to share a single file (or disparate set of files) with a friend. Sometimes that friend won't have dat installed, so it's nice when I can share it over HTTP. Here are two ways I go about doing this:

1. oldweb

ssh eight45.net 'mkdir /tmp/fun'
scp file1.png ~/dev/file2.js eight45.net:/tmp/fun
ssh eight45.net 'ecstatic /tmp/fun -p 9111`

From here I can tell my friend to go to http://eight45.net:9111/ to see the files I shared.

2. ipfs

ipfs add -w file1.png ~/dev/file2.js
added QmSJ1Upq9RXzi167LwVpTqdBwXoemf5YDv3XDARqbRLPKE file1.png
added QmcGA3wQ2uBMQcEK1ae7rfY1T62v35qVrHaGPTJUQbhyzD file2.js
added QmNyNKUsiGpHcXjRjQjE49nfN4ayMAqac7YwkHwCf8x5te

From here I can tell my friend to visit https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmNyNKUsiGpHcXjRjQjE49nfN4ayMAqac7YwkHwCf8x5te and they can access the files.

---

Maybe there are already ways to do this with dat that I don't know about, but here are the challenges I see:

1. dat share foo.png will create a dat for everything in the current directory. Having some way to make a transparent, ephemeral .dat directory for sharing a few ad-hoc files would be useful.
2. Some way for others to access the dat over http. IPFS makes everything accessible through its gateway on ipfs.io. Hashbase looks promising -- maybe permit anonymous use for small files?

[pfrazee]

Hey @noffle! 👋

A free public gateway wouldn't be too hard to build. Dat provides filesizes in the metadata prior to downloading the content, so you can easily apply a size limit and give it a short-lived cache.

Maybe we should build one into hashbase?

[hackergrrl]

The IPFS folks have been running a public gateway for years now, and it's been a huge asset to the community & I think contributed a lot to its growth. Would be very jazzed to see this in datland.

[creationix]

If I can, I'll throw together the idea I have in my head tonight:

• A new CLI tool dat-share maybe?
  • Same tool is used for both running the service and uploading to the service, and P2P transfers.
• Has local config file containing:
  • Auth codes and addresses to remote servers.
  • Auth codes to clients that local server allows uploads from.

[okdistribute]

We already have this on datproject.org/ but there is an issue where NATs aren't able to connect through the docker container. @jhand was working on it yesterday and might know more...

[creationix]

I wrote a quick tool that two parts.

The server listens on a TCP port for clients to connect. The protocol is simply the 32 byte key followed by hyperdrive replication protocol.

The server also has an HTTP server that handles requests on-demand from HTTP clients using @joehand's hyperdrive-http.

I want the server to create a sparse hyperdrive that replicates from the client over TCP on demand. When the client disconnects, I deregister the key from the http server.

The problem I'm getting is something is wrong with sparse mode and only the first file requested by a browser will download.

https://github.com/creationix/drop-dat/blob/master/drop-dat.js

[Fastidious]

@creationix that is excellent (drop-dat, I meant). That kind of simplicity is exactly what I was after, as I want to run that, without relying on third part servers. Would love to see some systemd init script, to run a server permanently!

[edsilv]

I agree with @noffle that an ipfs.io-style public gateway would be a great asset for the community. datbase.org only seems to give you a preview, not the raw data.

What are the barriers to setting one up?

[pfrazee]

There are dat gateways on github. Just have to shoulder the cost. It also has problems with URLs not working right

On May 26, 2018, at 10:00 AM, Edward Silverton notifications@github.com wrote:

I agree with @noffle that an ipfs.io-style public gateway would be a great asset for the community. datbase.org only seems to give you a preview, not the raw data.

What are the barriers to setting one up?

— You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or mute the thread.

[hackergrrl]

What if there was a configurable size cap on the gateways? Most times I just want to share small files, not big datasets.

[edsilv]

Could you use nginx rate-limiting too?

On Sat, 26 May 2018, 15:55 Stephen Whitmore, notifications@github.com wrote:

What if there was a configurable size cap on the gateways? Most times I just want to share small files, not big datasets.

— You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/datproject/dat/issues/871#issuecomment-392284537, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABRceRbJKreqgOSp_RO5vxe2b49ogfs3ks5t2bM5gaJpZM4PuVBe .

[pfrazee]

It's up to whoever runs one. We decided to do the hashbase model where it's always connected to your personal resource usage, and that's how we manage it. (We should make it a little easier/faster to add dats on hashbase so that you could get the benefit of a gateway.)

[edsilv]

I've been working with https://github.com/DaMaHub to try to get a gateway set up.

It works for a time, but then we get this error:

node: ../deps/uv/src/unix/udp.c:67: uvudp_finish_close: Assertion `!uvio_active(&handle->io_watcher, 0x001 | 0x004)' failed. Aborted (core dumped)

We're running Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS with node v8.11.1

Has anyone run into this before?

[edsilv]

Sorry, should mention that we're using https://github.com/pfrazee/dat-gateway

[pfrazee]

@edsilv could be a node bug (here is the line that's throwing). I'd assume if it was a bug in how something is using node, it wouldn't core dump, it'd emit an 'error' event on the object or throw a JS exception. Perhaps not though, @mafintosh could that be an interaction with the utp lib?

[edsilv]

Hey, just to let you know that updating to node v10.9.0 and rebooting seems to have fixed it.