This document contains a list of experimental features in Kubo. 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.
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When you add a new experimental feature to kubo or change an experimental feature, you MUST please make a PR updating this document, and link the PR in the above issue.
- Raw leaves for unixfs files
- ipfs filestore
- ipfs urlstore
- Private Networks
- ipfs p2p
- p2p http proxy
- FUSE
- Plugins
- Directory Sharding / HAMT
- IPNS PubSub
- AutoRelay
- Strategic Providing
- Graphsync
- Noise
- Optimistic Provide
- HTTP Gateway over Libp2p
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.
- Needs more people to use and report on how well it works.
- Need to address error states and failure conditions
- Need to write docs on usage, advantages, disadvantages
- Need to merge utility commands to aid in maintenance and repair of filestore
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>
- Needs more people to use and report on how well it works.
- Need to address error states and failure conditions
- Need to write docs on usage, advantages, disadvantages
- Need to implement caching
- Need to add metrics to monitor performance
It allows ipfs to only connect to other peers who have a shared secret key.
Stable but not quite ready for prime-time.
Warning
Limited to TCP transport, comes with overhead of double-encryption. See details below.
0.4.7
Generate a pre-shared-key using ipfs-swarm-key-gen):
go install github.com/Kubuxu/go-ipfs-swarm-key-gen/ipfs-swarm-key-gen@latest
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.
- Needs more people to use and report on how well it works
- More documentation
- Improve / future proof libp2p support (see libp2p/specs#489)
- Currently limited to TCP-only, and double-encrypts all data sent on TCP. This is slow.
- Does not work with QUIC: go-libp2p#1432
- Needs better tooling/UX
- Detect lack of peers when swarm key is present and prompt user to set up bootstrappers/peering
- ipfs-webui will not load unless blocks are present in private swarm. Detect it and prompt user to import CAR with webui.
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:
- A "server" node with peer ID
$SERVER_ID
- A "client" node.
On 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:
- A "server" node with peer ID
$SERVER_ID
and running ssh server on the default port. - A "client" node.
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
.
- More documentation
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:
- A "server" node with peer ID
$SERVER_ID
- A "client" node.
On 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
- Needs p2p streams to graduate from experiments
- Needs more people to use and report on how well it works / fits use cases
- More documentation
- Need better integration with the subdomain gateway feature.
FUSE makes it possible to mount /ipfs
and /ipns
namespaces in your OS,
allowing arbitrary apps access to IPFS using a subset of filesystem abstractions.
It is considered EXPERIMENTAL due to limited (and buggy) support on some platforms.
See fuse.md for more details.
0.4.11
Experimental
Plugins allow adding functionality without the need to recompile the daemon.
See Plugin docs
- More plugins and plugin types
- A way to reliably build and distribute plugins.
- Better support for platforms other than Linux & MacOS
- Feedback on stability
-
0.4.8:
- Introduced
Experimental.ShardingEnabled
which enabled sharding globally. - All-or-nothing, unnecessary sharding of small directories.
- Introduced
-
0.11.0 :
- Removed support for
Experimental.ShardingEnabled
- Replaced with automatic sharding based on the block size
- Removed support for
Replaced by autosharding.
The Experimental.ShardingEnabled
config field is no longer used, please remove it from your configs.
kubo now automatically shards when directory block is bigger than 256KB, ensuring every block is small enough to be exchanged with other peers
0.4.14 :
- Introduced
0.5.0 :
- No longer needs to use the DHT for the first resolution
- When discovering PubSub peers via the DHT, the DHT key is different from previous versions
- This leads to 0.5 IPNS pubsub peers and 0.4 IPNS pubsub peers not being able to find each other in the DHT
- Robustness improvements
0.11.0 :
- Can be enabled via
Ipns.UsePubsub
flag in config
Experimental, default-disabled.
Utilizes pubsub for publishing ipns records in real time.
When it is enabled:
- IPNS publishers push records to a name-specific pubsub topic, in addition to publishing to the DHT.
- IPNS resolvers subscribe to the name-specific topic on first resolution and receive subsequently published records through pubsub in real time. This makes subsequent resolutions instant, as they are resolved through the local cache.
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
or modify your ipfs config and restart the daemon:
ipfs config --json Ipns.UsePubsub true
NOTE:
- This feature implicitly enables ipfs pubsub.
- Passing
--enable-namesys-pubsub
CLI flag overridesIpns.UsePubsub
config.
- Needs more people to use and report on how well it works
- Pubsub enabled as a real feature
- 0.4.19 :
- Introduced Circuit Relay v1
- 0.11.0 :
- Deprecated v1
- Introduced Circuit Relay v2
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.RelayClient.Enabled true
- needs testing
- needs to be automatically enabled when AutoNAT detects node is behind an impenetrable NAT.
Experimental, disabled by default.
Replaces the existing provide mechanism with a robust, strategic provider system. Currently enabling this option will provide nothing.
Modify your ipfs config:
ipfs config --json Experimental.StrategicProviding true
- needs real-world testing
- needs adoption
- needs to support all provider subsystem features
- provide nothing
- provide roots
- provide all
- provide strategic
Removed, no plans to reintegrate either as experimental or stable feature.
Trustless Gateway over Libp2p should be easier to use for unixfs usecases and support basic wildcard car streams for non unixfs.
See #9747 for more information.
Stable, enabled by default
Noise libp2p transport based on the Noise Protocol Framework. While TLS remains the default transport in Kubo, Noise is easier to implement and is thus the "interop" transport between IPFS and libp2p implementations.
0.20.0
Experimental, disabled by default.
When the Amino DHT client tries to store a provider in the DHT, it typically searches for the 20 peers that are closest to the target key. However, this process can be time-consuming, as the search terminates only after no closer peers are found among the three currently (during the query) known closest ones. In cases where these closest peers are slow to respond (which often happens if they are located at the edge of the DHT network), the query gets blocked by the slowest peer.
To address this issue, the OptimisticProvide
feature can be enabled. This feature allows the client to estimate the
network size and determine how close a peer likely needs to be to the target key to be within the 20 closest peers.
While searching for the closest peers in the DHT, the client will optimistically store the provider record with peers
and abort the query completely when the set of currently known 20 closest peers are also likely the actual 20 closest
ones. This heuristic approach can significantly speed up the process, resulting in a speed improvement of 2x to >10x.
When it is enabled:
- Amino DHT provide operations should complete much faster than with it disabled
- This can be tested with commands such as
ipfs routing provide
Tradeoffs
There are now the classic client, the accelerated DHT client, and optimistic provide that improve the provider process. There are different trade-offs with all of them. The accelerated DHT client is still faster to provide large amounts of provider records at the cost of high resource requirements. Optimistic provide doesn't have the high resource requirements but might not choose optimal peers and is not as fast as the accelerated client, but still much faster than the classic client.
Caveats:
- Providing optimistically requires a current network size estimation. This estimation is calculated through routing table refresh queries and is only available after the daemon has been running for some time. If there is no network size estimation available the client will transparently fall back to the classic approach.
- The chosen peers to store the provider records might not be the actual closest ones. Measurements showed that this is not a problem.
- The optimistic provide process returns already after 15 out of the 20 provider records were stored with peers. The
reasoning here is that one out of the remaining 5 peers are very likely to time out and delay the whole process. To
limit the number of in-flight async requests there is the second
OptimisticProvideJobsPoolSize
setting. Currently, this is set to 60. This means that at most 60 parallel background requests are allowed to be in-flight. If this limit is exceeded optimistic provide will block until all 20 provider records are written. This is still 2x faster than the classic approach but not as fast as returning early which yields >10x speed-ups. - Since the in-flight background requests are likely to time out, they are not consuming many resources and the job pool size could probably be much higher.
For more information, see:
- Project doc: https://protocollabs.notion.site/Optimistic-Provide-2c79745820fa45649d48de038516b814
- go-libp2p-kad-dht: libp2p/go-libp2p-kad-dht#783
To enable:
ipfs config --json Experimental.OptimisticProvide true
If you want to change the OptimisticProvideJobsPoolSize
setting from its default of 60:
ipfs config --json Experimental.OptimisticProvideJobsPoolSize 120
- Needs more people to use and report on how well it works
- Should prove at least equivalent availability of provider records as the classic approach
0.23.0
Experimental, disabled by default.
Enables serving a subset of the IPFS HTTP Gateway semantics over libp2p /http/1.1
protocol.
Notes:
- This feature only about serving verifiable gateway requests over libp2p:
- Deserialized responses are not supported.
- Only operate on
/ipfs
resources (no/ipns
atm) - Only support requests for
application/vnd.ipld.raw
andapplication/vnd.ipld.car
(from Trustless Gateway Specification, where data integrity can be verified). - Only serve data that is already local to the node (i.e. similar to a
Gateway.NoFetch
)
- While Kubo currently mounts the gateway API at the root (i.e.
/
) of the libp2p/http/1.1
protocol, that is subject to change.- The way to reliably discover where a given HTTP protocol is mounted on a
libp2p endpoint is via the
.well-known/libp2p
resource specified in the http+libp2p specification- The identifier of the protocol mount point under
/http/1.1
listener is/ipfs/gateway
, as noted in ipfs/specs#434.
- The identifier of the protocol mount point under
- The way to reliably discover where a given HTTP protocol is mounted on a
libp2p endpoint is via the
Modify your ipfs config:
ipfs config --json Experimental.GatewayOverLibp2p true
- Needs more people to use and report on how well it works
- Needs UX work for exposing non-recursive "HTTP transport" (NoFetch) over both libp2p and plain TCP (and sharing the configuration)
- Needs a mechanism for HTTP handler to signal supported features (IPIP-425)
- Needs an option for Kubo to detect peers that have it enabled and prefer HTTP transport before falling back to bitswap (and use CAR if peer supports dag-scope=entity from IPIP-402)
This feature now lives at Routing.AcceleratedDHTClient
.