7 GNUnet is peer-to-peer framework providing a network abstractions and
8 applications focusing on security and privacy. So far, we have
9 created applications for anonymous file-sharing, decentralized naming
10 and identity management, decentralized and confidential telephony and
11 tunneling IP traffic over GNUnet. GNUnet is currently developed by a
12 worldwide group of independent free software developers. GNUnet is a
13 GNU package (http://www.gnu.org/).
15 This is an ALPHA release. There are known and significant bugs as
16 well as many missing features in this release.
18 GNUnet is free software released under the GNU Affero General Public
19 License (v3 or later). For details see the COPYING file in this
20 directory. If you fork this software, you MUST adjust GNUNET_AGPL_URL
21 in src/include/gnunet_util_lib.h to point to the source code of your
24 Additional documentation about GNUnet can be found at
25 https://gnunet.org/ and in the 'doc/' folder.
31 These are the direct dependencies for running GNUnet:
33 - libmicrohttpd >= 0.9.42
35 - libgnurl >= 7.35.0 (recommended, available from https://gnunet.org/gnurl)
36 - libcurl >= 7.35.0 (alternative to libgnurl)
37 - libunistring >= 0.9.2
38 - gnutls >= 3.2.12 (highly recommended a gnutls linked against libunbound)
43 - libextractor >= 0.6.1 (highly recommended)
44 - openssl >= 1.0 (binary, used to generate X.509 certificate)
45 - libltdl >= 2.2 (part of GNU libtool)
46 - sqlite >= 3.8 (default database, required)
47 - mysql >= 5.1 (alternative to sqlite)
48 - postgres >= 9.5 (alternative to sqlite)
50 - makeinfo >= 4.8 (at least 4.8 at the time of writing is tested)
51 - which (for the bootstrap script)
57 These are the dependencies for GNUnet's testsuite:
59 - Bash (optional (?), for some tests)
60 - python >= 3.7 (optional, only python 3.7 is supported)
61 - python-future >= 3.7 (optional, only python 3.7 is supported)
64 These are the optional dependencies:
66 - libopus >= 1.0.1 (optional, for experimental conversation tool)
67 - libpulse >= 2.0 (optional, for experimental conversation tool)
68 - libogg >= 1.3.0 (optional, for experimental conversation tool)
69 - libnss (optional, certtool binary (for convenient installation of GNS proxy))
70 - python2.7-future (optional, for gnunet-qr)
71 - python-zbar >= 0.10 (optional, for gnunet-qr)
72 - TeX Live >= 2012 (optional, for gnunet-bcd[*])
73 - texi2mdoc (optional, for automatic mdoc generation [*2])
74 - libglpk >= 4.45 (optional, for experimental code)
75 - perl5 (optional, for some utilities)
76 - guile 1.6.4 (or later up to 1.8?, optional for gnunet-download-manager)
77 - python2.7 >= 2.7 (optional, for gnunet-qr, only python 2.7 is supported)
78 - bluez (optional, for bluetooth support)
80 - libpbc >= 0.5.14 (optional, for Attribute-Based Encryption and Identity Provider functionality)
81 - libgabe (optional, for Attribute-Based Encryption and Identity Provider functionality,
82 from https://github.com/schanzen/libgabe)
84 Recommended autotools for compiling the Git version are:
91 [*] Mandatory for compiling the info output of the documentation,
92 a limited subset ('texlive-tiny' in Guix) is enough.
94 [*1] The default configuration is to build the info output of the
95 documentation, and therefore require texinfo. You can pass
96 '--disable-documentation' to the configure script to change this.
98 [*2] If you still prefer to have documentation, you can pass
99 '--with-section7' to build mdoc documentation (experimental
100 stages in gnunet). If this proves to be reliable, we will
101 include the mdoc output in the release tarballs.
102 Contrary to the name, texi2mdoc does not require texinfo,
103 It is a standalone ISO C utility.
108 GNUnet's directed acyclic graph (DAG) will require around 0.74 GiB
109 Diskspace, with GNUNet itself taking around 9.2 MiB reported by the
119 We recommend to use binary packages provided by your Operating System's
120 package manager. GNUnet is reportedly available for at least:
122 GNU Guix, Nix, Debian, ALT Linux, Archlinux, Deepin, Devuan, Hyperbola,
123 Kali Linux, LEDE/OpenWRT, Manjaro, Parabola, Pardus, Parrot, PureOS,
124 Raspbian, Rosa, Trisquel, and Ubuntu.
126 If GNUnet is available for your Operating System and it is missing,
127 send us feedback so that we can add it to this list. Furthermore, if
128 you are interested in packaging GNUnet for your Operating System,
129 get in touch with us at gnunet-developers@gnu.org if you require
132 If you were using an Operating System with the apt package manager,
133 GNUnet could be installed as simple as:
135 $ apt-get install gnunet
137 Generic installation instructions are in the INSTALL file in this
140 Scope of Operating System support
141 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
142 We actively support GNUnet on a broad range of Free Software Operating
145 For proprietary Operating Systems, like for example Microsoft Windows
146 or Apple OS X, we accept patches if they don't break anything for
147 other Operating Systems.
148 If you are implementing support for a proprietary Operating System,
149 you should be aware that progress in our codebase could break
150 functionality on your OS and cause unpredicted behavior we can
151 not test. However, we do not break support on Operating Systems
152 with malicious intent.
153 Regressions which do occur on these Operating Systems are 3rd
154 class issues and we expect users and developers of these
155 Operating Systems to send proposed patches to fix regressions.
157 For more information about our stand on some of the motivating
158 points here, read the 'Philosophy' Chapter of our handbook.
160 Building GNUnet from source
161 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
163 IMPORTANT: You can read further notes about compilation from source in
164 the 'doc/FILENAME' document, which includes notes about specific
165 requirements for operating systems aswell. If you are a package
166 mantainer for an Operating System we invite you to add your notes if
167 you feel it is necessary and can not be covered in your Operating
168 System's documentation.
170 If you are building GNUnet from source you are either interested
171 in furthering its development (we have further notes for developer
172 builds in our 'GNUnet Developer Handbook') or you don't trust other
173 people's binaries or your Operating System doesn't provide any
174 binary package (at the moment).
176 If you're on Gentoo you can build GNUnet using the recipes provided
177 in the 'youbroketheinternet' overlay. Other Operating Systems may
178 unintentionally require you to build GNUnet from source.
180 Two prominent examples which currently lack cross-compilation
181 support in GNUnet (and native binaries) are MS Windows and Apple macOS.
182 For macOS we recommend you to do the build process via Homebrew and a
183 recent XCode installation. We don't recommend using GNUnet with any
184 recent MS Windows system as it officially spies on its users (according
185 to its T&C), defying some of the purposes of GNUnet.
187 Note that some functions of GNUnet require "root" access. GNUnet will
188 install (tiny) SUID binaries for those functions is you run "make
189 install" as root. If you do not, GNUnet will still work, but some
190 functionality will not be available (including certain forms of NAT
193 GNUnet requires the GNU MP library (https://www.gnu.org/software/gmp/)
194 and libgcrypt (https://www.gnupg.org/). You can specify the path to
195 libgcrypt by passing "--with-gcrypt=PATH" to configure. You will also
196 need either sqlite (http://www.sqlite.org/), MySQL
197 (http://www.mysql.org/) or PostGres (http://www.postgres.org/).
199 If you install from source, you need to install GNU libextractor first
200 (download from https://www.gnu.org/software/libextractor/). We also
201 recommend installing GNU libmicrohttpd (download from
202 https://www.gnu.org/software/libmicrohttpd/). Furthermore we recommend
203 libgnurl (from https://gnunet.org/gnurl).
204 Then you can start the actual GNUnet compilation process with:
207 $ export GNUNET_PREFIX=/usr/local/lib # or other directory of your choice
209 # adduser --system --home "/var/lib/gnunet" --group gnunet --shell /bin/sh
210 # ./configure --prefix=$GNUNET_PREFIX/.. --with-extractor=$LE_PREFIX
213 And finally install GNUnet with:
217 Complete the process by either adjusting one of our example service files
218 in 'contrib/services' or by running:
220 # sudo -u gnunet gnunet-arm -s
223 Note that running the 'configure' and 'make install' steps as
224 root (or with sudo) is required as some parts of the installation
225 require the creation of SUID binaries. The installation will
226 work if you do not run these steps as root, but some components
227 may not be installed in the perfect place or with the right
228 permissions and thus won't work.
230 This will create the users and groups needed for running GNUnet
231 securely and then compile and install GNUnet to $GNUNET_PREFIX/../bin/,
232 $GNUNET_PREFIX/ and $GNUNET_PREFIX/../share/ and start the system
233 with the default configuration. It is strongly recommended that you
234 add a user "gnunet" to run "gnunet-arm". You can then still run the
235 end-user applications as another user.
237 If you create a system user "gnunet", it is recommended that you edit
238 the configuration file slightly so that data can be stored in the
239 system user home directory at "/var/lib/gnunet". Depending on what
240 the $HOME-directory of your "gnunet" user is, you might need to set
241 the SERVICEHOME option in section "[PATHS]" to "/var/lib/gnunet" to
242 do this. Depending on your personal preferences, you may also want to
243 use "/etc/gnunet.conf" for the location of the configuration file in
244 this case (instead of ~gnunet/.config/gnunet.conf"). In this case,
245 you need to start GNUnet using "gnunet-arm -s -c /etc/gnunet.conf" or
246 set "XDG_CONFIG_HOME=/etc/".
248 You can avoid running 'make install' as root if you run configure
249 with the "--with-sudo=yes" option and have extensive sudo rights
250 (can run "chmod +s" and "chown" via 'sudo'). If you run 'make install'
251 as a normal user without sudo rights (or the configure option),
252 certain binaries that require additional priviledges will not be
253 installed properly (and autonomous NAT traversal, WLAN, DNS/GNS and
254 the VPN will then not work).
256 If you run 'configure' and 'make install' as root or use the '--with-sudo'
257 option, GNUnet's build system will install "libnss_gns*" libraries to
258 "/lib/" regardless (!) of the $GNUNET_PREFIX you might have specified,
259 as those libraries must be in "/lib/". If you are packaging GNUnet
260 for binary distribution, this may cause your packaging script to miss
261 those plugins, so you might need to do some additional manual work to
262 include those libraries in your binary package(s). Similarly, if you
263 want to use the GNUnet naming system and did NOT run GNUnet's 'make
264 install' process with sudo rights, the libraries will be installed to
265 "$GNUNET_PREFIX" and you will have to move them to "/lib/"
268 Finally, if you are compiling the code from git, you have to
269 run "sh ./bootstrap" before running "./configure". If you receive an error during
270 the running of "sh ./bootstrap" that looks like "macro `AM_PATH_GTK'
271 not found in library", you may need to run aclocal by hand with the -I
272 option, pointing to your aclocal m4 macros, i.e.
274 $ aclocal -I /usr/local/share/aclocal
280 Note that additional, per-user configuration files can be created by
281 each user. However, this is usually not necessary as there are few
282 per-user options that normal users would want to modify. The defaults
283 that are shipped with the installation are usually just fine.
285 The gnunet-setup tool is particularly useful to generate the master
286 configuration for the peer. gnunet-setup can be used to configure and
287 test (!) the network settings, choose which applications should be run
288 and configure databases. Other options you might want to control
289 include system limitations (such as disk space consumption, bandwidth,
290 etc). The resulting configuration files are human-readable and can
291 theoretically be created or edited by hand.
293 gnunet-setup is a separate download and requires somewhat recent
294 versions of GTK+ and Glade. You can also create the configuration file
295 by hand, but this is not recommended. For more general information
296 about the GNU build process read the INSTALL file.
298 GNUnet uses two types of configuration files, one that specifies the
299 system-wide defaults (typically located in
300 $GNUNET_PREFIX/../share/gnunet/config.d/) and a second one that overrides
301 default values with user-specific preferences. The user-specific
302 configuration file should be located in "~/.config/gnunet.conf" or its
303 location can be specified by giving the "-c" option to the respective
306 For more information about the configuration (as well as usage) refer
307 to the 'GNUnet User Handbook' chapter of the documentation, included
308 in this software distribution.
314 For detailed usage notes, instructions and examples, refer to the
315 included 'GNUnet User Handbook'.
317 First, you must obtain an initial list of GNUnet hosts. Knowing a
318 single peer is sufficient since after that GNUnet propagates
319 information about other peers. Note that the default configuration
320 contains URLs from where GNUnet downloads an initial hostlist
321 whenever it is started. If you want to create an alternative URL for
322 others to use, the file can be generated on any machine running
323 GNUnet by periodically executing
325 $ cat $SERVICEHOME/data/hosts/* > the_file
327 and offering 'the_file' via your web server. Alternatively, you can
328 run the build-in web server by adding '-p' to the OPTIONS value
329 in the "hostlist" section of gnunet.conf and opening the respective
330 HTTPPORT to the public.
332 If the solution with the hostlist URL is not feasible for your
333 situation, you can also add hosts manually. Simply copy the hostkeys
334 to "$SERVICEHOME/data/hosts/" (where $SERVICEHOME is the directory
335 specified in the gnunet.conf configuration file). You can also use
336 "gnunet-peerinfo -g" to GET a URI for a peer and "gnunet-peerinfo -p
337 URI" to add a URI from another peer. Finally, GNUnet peers that use
338 UDP or WLAN will discover each other automatically (if they are in the
339 vicinity of each other) using broadcasts (IPv4/WLAN) or multicasts
342 The local node is started using "gnunet-arm -s". We recommend to run
343 GNUnet 24/7 if you want to maximize your anonymity, as this makes
344 partitioning attacks harder.
346 Once your peer is running, you should then be able to access GNUnet
349 $ gnunet-search KEYWORD
351 This will display a list of results to the console. You can abort
352 the command using "CTRL-C". Then use
354 $ gnunet-download -o FILENAME GNUNET_URI
356 to retrieve a file. The GNUNET_URI is printed by gnunet-search
357 together with a description. To publish files on GNUnet, use the
358 "gnunet-publish" command.
361 The GTK+ (or: Gimp Toolkit) user interface is shipped separately.
362 After installing gnunet-gtk, you can invoke the setup tool and
363 the file-sharing GUI with:
368 For further documentation, see our webpage or the 'GNUnet User Handbook',
369 included in this software distribution.
375 Contributions are welcome. Please submit bugs you find to
376 https://gnunet.org/bugs/.
377 Please make sure to run the script "contrib/scripts/gnunet-bugreport"
378 and include the output with your bug reports. More about how to
379 report bugs can be found in the GNUnet FAQ on the webpage. Submit
380 patches via E-Mail to gnunet-developers@gnu.org, formated with
383 In order to run the unit tests by hand (instead of using "make check"),
384 you need to set the environment variable "GNUNET_PREFIX" to the
385 directory where GNUnet's libraries are installed.
386 Before running any testcases, you must complete the installation.
390 $ ./configure --prefix=$SOMEWHERE
393 $ export $GNUNET_PREFIX=$SOMEWHERE
396 Some of the testcases require python >= 2.7, and the python modules
397 "python-future" (http://python-future.org/) and "pexpect" to be installed.
398 If any testcases fail to pass on your system, run
399 "contrib/scripts/gnunet-bugreport" (in the repository) or "gnunet-bugreport"
400 when you already have GNUnet installed and report its output together with
401 information about the failing testcase(s) to the Mantis bugtracking
402 system at https://gnunet.org/bugs/.
405 Running HTTP on port 80 and HTTPS on port 443
406 =============================================
408 In order to hide GNUnet's HTTP/HTTPS traffic perfectly, you might
409 consider running GNUnet's HTTP/HTTPS transport on port 80/443.
410 However, we do not recommend running GNUnet as root. Instead, forward
411 port 80 to say 1080 with this command (as root, in your startup
414 # iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp -m tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 1080
418 # iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp -m tcp --dport 443 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 4433
420 Then set in the HTTP section of gnunet.conf the "ADVERTISED_PORT" to
421 "80" and "PORT" to 1080 and similarly in the HTTPS section the
422 "ADVERTISED_PORT" to "443" and "PORT" to 4433.
424 You can do the same trick for the TCP and UDP transports if you want
425 to map them to a priviledged port (from the point of view of the
426 network). However, we are not aware of this providing any advantages
429 If you are already running an HTTP or HTTPS server on port 80 (or 443),
430 you may be able to configure it as a "ReverseProxy". Here, you tell
431 GNUnet that the externally visible URI is some sub-page on your website,
432 and GNUnet can then tunnel its traffic via your existing HTTP server.
433 This is particularly powerful if your existing server uses HTTPS, as
434 it makes it harder for an adversary to distinguish normal traffic to
435 your server from GNUnet traffic. Finally, even if you just use HTTP,
436 you might benefit (!) from ISP's traffic shaping as opposed to being
437 throttled by ISPs that dislike P2P. Details for configuring the
438 reverse proxy are documented on our website.
446 A HTML version of the new GNUnet manual is deployed at
448 https://docs.gnunet.org
450 which currently displays just GNUnet documentation. Until 2019
451 we will add more reading material.
455 In almost 20 years various people in our community have written and
456 collected a good number of papers which have been implemented in
457 GNUnet or projects around GNUnet.
458 There are currently 2 ways to get them:
461 git clone https://gnunet.org/git/bibliography.git
463 https://gnunet.org/bibliography
465 The Drupal access will be replaced by a new interface to our
466 bibliography in 2019.
472 * https://gnunet.org/
473 * https://gnunet.org/bugs/
474 * https://gnunet.org/git/
475 * http://www.gnu.org/software/gnunet/
476 * http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnunet-developers
477 * http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnunet
478 * http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnunet
479 * http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnunet-svn