search

rs-ipfs / rust-ipfs

The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), implemented in Rust.
Apache License 2.0
1.26k stars 163 forks source link

libp2p Transport implementation is not extensible. #496

Open cobward opened 2 years ago

cobward commented 2 years ago

In the current state this crate cannot be used to build any application on top of IPFS. We have a use-case which requires private swarms, custom authorisation between peers and additional network behaviour. The implementation of Transport in this crate is not extensible in its current form, so there are limitations on how we can use this crate to restrict access and define custom auth.

We would require that functionality be added to construct a Transport which satisfies the requirements of ipfs, while allowing additional protocols and upgrades to be supported. It should be possible to construct an IPFS instance using this transport, but as much as possible construction of a vanilla IPFS instance should not be compromised.

I have a WIP which I will raise as a PR soon, but if anyone has comments or feedback before I do so I will take them on board.

koivunej commented 2 years ago

While I don't have any solutions in mind, this is a good point. Transport at least should be possible to support. Supporting customizing or making the networkbehaviour of this crate usable in other contexts sounds more difficult. At the moment the p2p functionality of the crate is not useful, and reimplementing it without the ipfs command line use cases would be much simpler alternative to get ahead with your application.