This document contains a list of experimental features in go-ipfs. These features, commands, and APIs aren’t mature, and you shouldn’t rely on them. Once they reach maturity, there’s going to be mention in the changelog and release posts. If they don’t reach maturity, the same applies, and their code is removed.
Subscribe to https://github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/issues/3397 to get updates.
When you add a new experimental feature to go-ipfs or change an experimental feature, you MUST please make a PR updating this document, and link the PR in the above issue.
Candidate, disabled by default but will be enabled by default in 0.6.0.
0.4.5
run your daemon with the --enable-pubsub-experiment flag. Then use the
ipfs pubsub commands.
Configuration documentation can be found in ./config.md
Allows files to be added with no formatting in the leaf nodes of the graph.
Stable but not used by default.
0.4.5
Use --raw-leaves flag when calling ipfs add. This will save some space when adding files.
Enabling this feature by default will change the CIDs (hashes) of all newly imported files and will prevent newly imported files from deduplicating against previously imported files. While we do intend on enabling this by default, we plan on doing so once we have a large batch of “hash-changing” features we can enable all at once.
Allows files to be added without duplicating the space they take up on disk.
Experimental.
0.4.7
Modify your ipfs config:
ipfs config --json Experimental.FilestoreEnabled true
Then restart your IPFS node to reload your config.
Finally, when adding files with ipfs add, pass the –nocopy flag to use the filestore instead of copying the files into your local IPFS repo.
Allows ipfs to retrieve blocks contents via a URL instead of storing it in the datastore
Experimental.
v0.4.17
Modify your ipfs config:
ipfs config --json Experimental.UrlstoreEnabled true
And then add a file at a specific URL using ipfs urlstore add <url>
It allows ipfs to only connect to other peers who have a shared secret key.
Stable but not quite ready for prime-time.
0.4.7
Generate a pre-shared-key using ipfs-swarm-key-gen):
go get github.com/Kubuxu/go-ipfs-swarm-key-gen/ipfs-swarm-key-gen
ipfs-swarm-key-gen > ~/.ipfs/swarm.key
To join a given private network, get the key file from someone in the network
and save it to ~/.ipfs/swarm.key (If you are using a custom $IPFS_PATH, put
it in there instead).
When using this feature, you will not be able to connect to the default bootstrap nodes (Since we aren’t part of your private network) so you will need to set up your own bootstrap nodes.
First, to prevent your node from even trying to connect to the default bootstrap nodes, run:
ipfs bootstrap rm --all
Then add your own bootstrap peers with:
ipfs bootstrap add <multiaddr>
For example:
ipfs bootstrap add /ip4/104.236.76.40/tcp/4001/p2p/QmSoLV4Bbm51jM9C4gDYZQ9Cy3U6aXMJDAbzgu2fzaDs64
Bootstrap nodes are no different from all other nodes in the network apart from the function they serve.
To be extra cautious, You can also set the LIBP2P_FORCE_PNET environment
variable to 1 to force the usage of private networks. If no private network is
configured, the daemon will fail to start.
Allows tunneling of TCP connections through Libp2p streams. If you’ve ever used
port forwarding with SSH (the -L option in OpenSSH), this feature is quite
similar.
Experimental, will be stabilized in 0.6.0
0.4.10
The p2p command needs to be enabled in the config:
> ipfs config --json Experimental.Libp2pStreamMounting true
Netcat example:
First, pick a protocol name for your application. Think of the protocol name as
a port number, just significantly more user-friendly. In this example, we’re
going to use /x/kickass/1.0.
Setup:
$SERVER_IDOn the “server” node:
First, start your application and have it listen for TCP connections on
port $APP_PORT.
Then, configure the p2p listener by running:
> ipfs p2p listen /x/kickass/1.0 /ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/$APP_PORT
This will configure IPFS to forward all incoming /x/kickass/1.0 streams to
127.0.0.1:$APP_PORT (opening a new connection to 127.0.0.1:$APP_PORT per
incoming stream.
On the “client” node:
First, configure the client p2p dialer, so that it forwards all inbound
connections on 127.0.0.1:SOME_PORT to the server node listening
on /x/kickass/1.0.
> ipfs p2p forward /x/kickass/1.0 /ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/$SOME_PORT /p2p/$SERVER_ID
Next, have your application open a connection to 127.0.0.1:$SOME_PORT. This
connection will be forwarded to the service running on 127.0.0.1:$APP_PORT on
the remote machine. You can test it with netcat:
On “server” node:
> nc -v -l -p $APP_PORT
On “client” node:
> nc -v 127.0.0.1 $SOME_PORT
You should now see that a connection has been established and be able to exchange messages between netcat instances.
(note that depending on your netcat version you may need to drop the -v flag)
SSH example
Setup:
$SERVER_ID and running ssh server on the
default port.you can get $SERVER_ID by running ipfs id -f "<id>\n"
First, on the “server” node:
ipfs p2p listen /x/ssh /ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/22
Then, on “client” node:
ipfs p2p forward /x/ssh /ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/2222 /p2p/$SERVER_ID
You should now be able to connect to your ssh server through a libp2p connection
with ssh [user]@127.0.0.1 -p 2222.
Allows proxying of HTTP requests over p2p streams. This allows serving any standard HTTP app over p2p streams.
Experimental
0.4.19
The p2p command needs to be enabled in the config:
> ipfs config --json Experimental.Libp2pStreamMounting true
On the client, the p2p HTTP proxy needs to be enabled in the config:
> ipfs config --json Experimental.P2pHttpProxy true
Netcat example:
First, pick a protocol name for your application. Think of the protocol name as
a port number, just significantly more user-friendly. In this example, we’re
going to use /http.
Setup:
$SERVER_IDOn the “server” node:
First, start your application and have it listen for TCP connections on
port $APP_PORT.
Then, configure the p2p listener by running:
> ipfs p2p listen --allow-custom-protocol /http /ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/$APP_PORT
This will configure IPFS to forward all incoming /http streams to
127.0.0.1:$APP_PORT (opening a new connection to 127.0.0.1:$APP_PORT per incoming stream.
On the “client” node:
Next, have your application make a http request to 127.0.0.1:8080/p2p/$SERVER_ID/http/$FORWARDED_PATH. This
connection will be forwarded to the service running on 127.0.0.1:$APP_PORT on
the remote machine (which needs to be a http server!) with path $FORWARDED_PATH. You can test it with netcat:
On “server” node:
> echo -e "HTTP/1.1 200\nContent-length: 11\n\nIPFS rocks!" | nc -l -p $APP_PORT
On “client” node:
> curl http://localhost:8080/p2p/$SERVER_ID/http/
You should now see the resulting HTTP response: IPFS rocks!
We also support the use of protocol names of the form /x/$NAME/http where $NAME doesn’t contain any “/”’s
0.4.11
Experimental
Plugins allow adding functionality without the need to recompile the daemon.
See Plugin docs
0.4.8
Experimental
Allows creating directories with an unlimited number of entries.
Caveats:
ipfs.add (even the small ones)ipfs config --json Experimental.ShardingEnabled true
0.4.14 :
0.5.0 :
Experimental, default-disabled.
Utilizes pubsub for publishing ipns records in real time.
When it is enabled:
Both the publisher and the resolver nodes need to have the feature enabled for it to work effectively.
Note: While IPNS pubsub has been available since 0.4.14, it received major changes in 0.5.0. Users interested in this feature should upgrade to at least 0.5.0
run your daemon with the --enable-namesys-pubsub flag; enables pubsub.
0.4.19
Experimental, disabled by default.
Automatically discovers relays and advertises relay addresses when the node is behind an impenetrable NAT.
Modify your ipfs config:
ipfs config --json Swarm.EnableRelayHop false
ipfs config --json Swarm.EnableAutoRelay true
NOTE: Ensuring Swarm.EnableRelayHop is false is extremely important here. If you set it to true, you will act as a public relay for the rest of the network instead of using the public relays.
Experimental, disabled by default.
Replaces the existing provide mechanism with a robust, strategic provider system.
Modify your ipfs config:
ipfs config --json Experimental.StrategicProviding true
Experimental, disabled by default.
GraphSync is the next-gen graph exchange protocol for IPFS.
When this feature is enabled, IPFS will make files available over the graphsync protocol. However, IPFS will not currently use this protocol to fetch files.
Modify your ipfs config:
ipfs config --json Experimental.GraphsyncEnabled true
Stable, enabled by default
Noise libp2p transport based on the Noise Protocol Framework. While TLS remains the default transport in go-ipfs, Noise is easier to implement and is thus the “interop” transport between IPFS and libp2p implementations.