10 o test suite dependencies
11 o optional dependencies
16 o Scope of Operating System support
17 o Building GNUnet from source
21 * Running HTTP on port 80 and HTTPS on port 443
28 GNUnet is peer-to-peer framework providing a network abstractions and
29 applications focusing on security and privacy. So far, we have
30 created applications for anonymous file-sharing, decentralized naming
31 and identity management, decentralized and confidential telephony and
32 tunneling IP traffic over GNUnet. GNUnet is currently developed by a
33 worldwide group of independent free software developers. GNUnet is a
34 GNU package (http://www.gnu.org/).
36 This is an ALPHA release. There are known and significant bugs as
37 well as many missing features in this release.
39 GNUnet is free software released under the GNU Affero General Public
40 License (v3 or later). For details see the COPYING file in this
41 directory. If you fork this software, you MUST adjust GNUNET_AGPL_URL
42 in src/include/gnunet_util_lib.h to point to the source code of your
45 Additional documentation about GNUnet can be found at
46 https://gnunet.org/ and in the 'doc/' folder.
47 Online documentation is provided at
48 'https://docs.gnunet.org' and 'https://tutorial.gnunet.org'.
54 These are the direct dependencies for running GNUnet:
55 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
57 - Bash (for some scripts)
59 - gnutls >= 3.2.12 (highly recommended a gnutls
60 linked against libunbound)
61 - A curl build against gnutls, or gnurl:
62 * libgnurl >= 7.35.0 (recommended, available from
63 https://gnunet.org/en/gnurl.html)
65 * libcurl >= 7.35.0 (alternative to libgnurl)
67 - libunistring >= 0.9.2
72 - libmicrohttpd >= 0.9.63 (strongly recommended for
73 a wide range of features)
76 - nss (certutil binary, for
77 gnunet-gns-proxy-setup-ca)
78 - openssl >= 1.0 (binary, used to generate
80 for gnunet-gns-proxy-setup-ca)
81 - pkgconf or pkg-config
82 - A Posix shell (for some scripts)
84 - libltdl >= 2.2 (part of GNU libtool)
85 - 1 or more databases:
86 * sqlite >= 3.8 (default database, required)
88 * mysql >= 5.1 (alternative to sqlite)
90 * postgres >= 9.5 (alternative to sqlite)
91 - which (contrib/apparmor(?), gnunet-bugreport,
95 These are the dependencies for GNUnet's testsuite:
96 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
98 - Bash (for some tests[*4])
99 - A Posix Shell (for some tests)
100 - python >= 3.4 (3.4 and higher technically supported,
101 at least python 3.7 tested to work)
111 These are the optional dependencies:
112 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
114 - awk (for linting tests)
115 - Bash (for Docker and Vagrant)
116 - bluez (for bluetooth support)
117 - grof (for linting of man pages)
118 - libextractor >= 0.6.1 (highly recommended[*5])
120 - libglpk >= 4.45 (for experimental code)
121 - libopus >= 1.0.1 (for experimental conversation tool)
122 - libpulse >= 2.0 (for experimental conversation tool)
123 - libogg >= 1.3.0 (for experimental conversation tool)
124 - libnss (certtool binary (for convenient
125 installation of GNS proxy))
126 - libzbar >= 0.10 (for gnunet-qr)
127 - libpbc >= 0.5.14 (for Attribute-Based Encryption and
128 Identity Provider functionality)
129 - libgabe (for Attribute-Based Encryption and
130 Identity Provider functionality, from
131 https://github.com/schanzen/libgabe)
132 - mandoc (for linting of man pages, generation of
133 html output of man pages (not part of
136 - perl5 (for some utilities)
137 - TeX Live >= 2012 (for gnunet-bcd[*])
138 - texi2mdoc (for automatic mdoc generation [*2])
140 Recommended autotools for compiling the Git version are:
141 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
148 [*] Mandatory for compiling the info output of the documentation,
149 a limited subset ('texlive-tiny' in Guix) is enough.
151 [*1] The default configuration is to build the info output of the
152 documentation, and therefore require texinfo. You can pass
153 '--disable-documentation' to the configure script to change this.
155 [*2] If you still prefer to have documentation, you can pass
156 '--with-section7' to build mdoc documentation (experimental
157 stages in gnunet). If this proves to be reliable, we will
158 include the mdoc output in the release tarballs.
159 Contrary to the name, texi2mdoc does not require texinfo,
160 It is a standalone ISO C utility.
162 [*3] GNU make introduced the != operator in version 4.0.
163 GNU make was released in october 2013, reasonable to
164 be widespread by now. If this is not working out for
165 you, open a bug so that we can get a more portable
168 [*4] We are commited to portable tools and solutions
169 where possible. New scripts should be Posix SH
170 compatible, current and older scripts are
171 in the process of being rewritten to comply
172 with this requirement.
174 [*5] While libextractor is optional, it is recommended to
175 build gnunet against it. If you install it later,
176 you won't benefit from libextractor.
177 If you are a distributor, we recommend to split
178 LE into basis + plugins rather than making LE
179 an option as an afterthought by the user.
180 LE itself is very small, but its dependency chain
181 on first, second, third etc level can be big.
182 There is a small effect on privacy if your LE build
183 differs from one which includes all
184 plugins (plugins are build as shared objects):
185 if users publish a directory with a mixture of file
186 types (for example mpeg, jpeg, png, gif) the
187 configuration of LE could leak which plugins are
188 installed for which filetypes are not providing
190 However, this leak is just a minor concern.
195 GNUnet's directed acyclic graph (DAG) will require around 0.74 GiB
196 Diskspace, with GNUnet itself taking around 8 - 9.2 MiB reported by
197 the build on GNU Guix.
206 We recommend to use binary packages provided by your Operating System's
207 package manager. GNUnet is reportedly available for at least:
209 GNU Guix, Nix, Debian, ALT Linux, Archlinux, Deepin, Devuan, Hyperbola,
210 Kali Linux, LEDE/OpenWRT, Manjaro, Parabola, Pardus, Parrot, PureOS,
211 Raspbian, Rosa, Trisquel, and Ubuntu.
213 If GNUnet is available for your Operating System and it is missing,
214 send us feedback so that we can add it to this list. Furthermore, if
215 you are interested in packaging GNUnet for your Operating System,
216 get in touch with us at gnunet-developers@gnu.org if you require
219 If you were using an Operating System with the apt package manager,
220 GNUnet could be installed as simple as:
222 $ apt-get install gnunet
224 Generic installation instructions are in the INSTALL file in this
227 Scope of Operating System support
228 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
229 We actively support GNUnet on a broad range of Free Software Operating
232 For proprietary Operating Systems, like for example Microsoft Windows
233 or Apple OS X, we accept patches if they don't break anything for
234 other Operating Systems.
235 If you are implementing support for a proprietary Operating System,
236 you should be aware that progress in our codebase could break
237 functionality on your OS and cause unpredicted behavior we can
238 not test. However, we do not break support on Operating Systems
239 with malicious intent.
240 Regressions which do occur on these Operating Systems are 3rd
241 class issues and we expect users and developers of these
242 Operating Systems to send proposed patches to fix regressions.
244 For more information about our stand on some of the motivating
245 points here, read the 'Philosophy' Chapter of our handbook.
247 Building GNUnet from source
248 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
250 IMPORTANT: You can read further notes about compilation from source in
251 the handbook under doc/handbook/, which includes notes about specific
252 requirements for operating systems aswell. If you are a package
253 mantainer for an Operating System we invite you to add your notes if
254 you feel it is necessary and can not be covered in your Operating
255 System's documentation.
257 Two prominent examples which currently lack cross-compilation
258 support in GNUnet (and native binaries) are MS Windows and Apple macOS.
259 For macOS we recommend you to do the build process via Homebrew and a
260 recent XCode installation. We don't recommend using GNUnet with any
261 recent MS Windows system as it officially spies on its users (according
262 to its T&C), defying some of the purposes of GNUnet.
264 Note that some functions of GNUnet require "root" access. GNUnet will
265 install (tiny) SUID binaries for those functions is you run "make
266 install" as root. If you do not, GNUnet will still work, but some
267 functionality will not be available (including certain forms of NAT
270 GNUnet requires the GNU MP library (https://www.gnu.org/software/gmp/)
271 and libgcrypt (https://www.gnupg.org/). You can specify the path to
272 libgcrypt by passing "--with-gcrypt=PATH" to configure. You will also
273 need either sqlite (http://www.sqlite.org/), MySQL
274 (http://www.mysql.org/) or PostGres (http://www.postgres.org/).
276 If you install from source, you need to install GNU libextractor first
277 (download from https://www.gnu.org/software/libextractor/). We also
278 recommend installing GNU libmicrohttpd (download from
279 https://www.gnu.org/software/libmicrohttpd/). Furthermore we recommend
280 libgnurl (from https://gnunet.org/en/gnurl.html).
281 Then you can start the actual GNUnet compilation process with:
284 $ export GNUNET_PREFIX=/usr/local/lib # or other directory of your choice
286 # adduser --system --home "/var/lib/gnunet" --group gnunet --shell /bin/sh
287 # ./configure --prefix=$GNUNET_PREFIX/.. --with-extractor=$LE_PREFIX
290 And finally install GNUnet with:
294 Complete the process by either adjusting one of our example service files
295 in 'contrib/services' or by running:
297 # sudo -u gnunet gnunet-arm -s
300 Note that running the 'configure' and 'make install' steps as
301 root (or with sudo) is required as some parts of the installation
302 require the creation of SUID binaries. The installation will
303 work if you do not run these steps as root, but some components
304 may not be installed in the perfect place or with the right
305 permissions and thus won't work.
307 This will create the users and groups needed for running GNUnet
308 securely and then compile and install GNUnet to $GNUNET_PREFIX/../bin/,
309 $GNUNET_PREFIX/ and $GNUNET_PREFIX/../share/ and start the system
310 with the default configuration. It is strongly recommended that you
311 add a user "gnunet" to run "gnunet-arm". You can then still run the
312 end-user applications as another user.
314 If you create a system user "gnunet", it is recommended that you edit
315 the configuration file slightly so that data can be stored in the
316 system user home directory at "/var/lib/gnunet". Depending on what
317 the $HOME-directory of your "gnunet" user is, you might need to set
318 the SERVICEHOME option in section "[PATHS]" to "/var/lib/gnunet" to
319 do this. Depending on your personal preferences, you may also want to
320 use "/etc/gnunet.conf" for the location of the configuration file in
321 this case (instead of ~gnunet/.config/gnunet.conf"). In this case,
322 you need to start GNUnet using "gnunet-arm -s -c /etc/gnunet.conf" or
323 set "XDG_CONFIG_HOME=/etc/".
325 You can avoid running 'make install' as root if you run configure
326 with the "--with-sudo=yes" option and have extensive sudo rights
327 (can run "chmod +s" and "chown" via 'sudo'). If you run 'make install'
328 as a normal user without sudo rights (or the configure option),
329 certain binaries that require additional privileges will not be
330 installed properly (and autonomous NAT traversal, WLAN, DNS/GNS and
331 the VPN will then not work).
333 If you run 'configure' and 'make install' as root or use the '--with-sudo'
334 option, GNUnet's build system will install "libnss_gns*" libraries to
335 "/lib/" regardless (!) of the $GNUNET_PREFIX you might have specified,
336 as those libraries must be in "/lib/". If you are packaging GNUnet
337 for binary distribution, this may cause your packaging script to miss
338 those plugins, so you might need to do some additional manual work to
339 include those libraries in your binary package(s). Similarly, if you
340 want to use the GNUnet naming system and did NOT run GNUnet's 'make
341 install' process with sudo rights, the libraries will be installed to
342 "$GNUNET_PREFIX" and you will have to move them to "/lib/"
345 Finally, if you are compiling the code from git, you have to
346 run "sh ./bootstrap" before running "./configure". If you receive an error during
347 the running of "sh ./bootstrap" that looks like "macro `AM_PATH_GTK'
348 not found in library", you may need to run aclocal by hand with the -I
349 option, pointing to your aclocal m4 macros, i.e.
351 $ aclocal -I /usr/local/share/aclocal
357 Note that additional, per-user configuration files can be created by
358 each user. However, this is usually not necessary as there are few
359 per-user options that normal users would want to modify. The defaults
360 that are shipped with the installation are usually just fine.
362 The gnunet-setup tool is particularly useful to generate the master
363 configuration for the peer. gnunet-setup can be used to configure and
364 test (!) the network settings, choose which applications should be run
365 and configure databases. Other options you might want to control
366 include system limitations (such as disk space consumption, bandwidth,
367 etc). The resulting configuration files are human-readable and can
368 theoretically be created or edited by hand.
370 gnunet-setup is a separate download and requires somewhat recent
371 versions of GTK+ and Glade. You can also create the configuration file
372 by hand, but this is not recommended. For more general information
373 about the GNU build process read the INSTALL file.
375 GNUnet uses two types of configuration files, one that specifies the
376 system-wide defaults (typically located in
377 $GNUNET_PREFIX/../share/gnunet/config.d/) and a second one that overrides
378 default values with user-specific preferences. The user-specific
379 configuration file should be located in "~/.config/gnunet.conf" or its
380 location can be specified by giving the "-c" option to the respective
383 For more information about the configuration (as well as usage) refer
384 to the 'GNUnet User Handbook' chapter of the documentation, included
385 in this software distribution.
391 For detailed usage notes, instructions and examples, refer to the
392 included 'GNUnet Handbook'.
394 First, you must obtain an initial list of GNUnet hosts. Knowing a
395 single peer is sufficient since after that GNUnet propagates
396 information about other peers. Note that the default configuration
397 contains URLs from where GNUnet downloads an initial hostlist
398 whenever it is started. If you want to create an alternative URL for
399 others to use, the file can be generated on any machine running
400 GNUnet by periodically executing
402 $ cat $SERVICEHOME/data/hosts/* > the_file
404 and offering 'the_file' via your web server. Alternatively, you can
405 run the build-in web server by adding '-p' to the OPTIONS value
406 in the "hostlist" section of gnunet.conf and opening the respective
407 HTTPPORT to the public.
409 If the solution with the hostlist URL is not feasible for your
410 situation, you can also add hosts manually. Simply copy the hostkeys
411 to "$SERVICEHOME/data/hosts/" (where $SERVICEHOME is the directory
412 specified in the gnunet.conf configuration file). You can also use
413 "gnunet-peerinfo -g" to GET a URI for a peer and "gnunet-peerinfo -p
414 URI" to add a URI from another peer. Finally, GNUnet peers that use
415 UDP or WLAN will discover each other automatically (if they are in the
416 vicinity of each other) using broadcasts (IPv4/WLAN) or multicasts
419 The local node is started using "gnunet-arm -s". We recommend to run
420 GNUnet 24/7 if you want to maximize your anonymity, as this makes
421 partitioning attacks harder.
423 Once your peer is running, you should then be able to access GNUnet
426 $ gnunet-search KEYWORD
428 This will display a list of results to the console. You can abort
429 the command using "CTRL-C". Then use
431 $ gnunet-download -o FILENAME GNUNET_URI
433 to retrieve a file. The GNUNET_URI is printed by gnunet-search
434 together with a description. To publish files on GNUnet, use the
435 "gnunet-publish" command.
438 The GTK user interface is shipped separately.
439 After installing gnunet-gtk, you can invoke the setup tool and
440 the file-sharing GUI with:
445 For further documentation, see our webpage or the 'GNUnet User Handbook',
446 included in this software distribution.
452 Contributions are welcome. Please submit bugs you find to
453 https://bugs.gnunet.org/ or our bugs mailinglist.
454 Please make sure to run the script "contrib/scripts/gnunet-bugreport"
455 and include the output with your bug reports. More about how to
456 report bugs can be found in the GNUnet FAQ on the webpage. Submit
457 patches via E-Mail to gnunet-developers@gnu.org, formated with
460 In order to run the unit tests by hand (instead of using "make check"),
461 you need to set the environment variable "GNUNET_PREFIX" to the
462 directory where GNUnet's libraries are installed.
463 Before running any testcases, you must complete the installation.
467 $ ./configure --prefix=$SOMEWHERE
470 $ export $GNUNET_PREFIX=$SOMEWHERE
473 Some of the testcases require python >= 3.4, and the python module
474 "pexpect" to be installed.
475 If any testcases fail to pass on your system, run
476 "contrib/scripts/gnunet-bugreport" (in the repository) or "gnunet-bugreport"
477 when you already have GNUnet installed and report its output together with
478 information about the failing testcase(s) to the Mantis bugtracking
479 system at https://bugs.gnunet.org/.
482 Running HTTP on port 80 and HTTPS on port 443
483 =============================================
485 In order to hide GNUnet's HTTP/HTTPS traffic perfectly, you might
486 consider running GNUnet's HTTP/HTTPS transport on port 80/443.
487 However, we do not recommend running GNUnet as root. Instead, forward
488 port 80 to say 1080 with this command (as root, in your startup
491 # iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp -m tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 1080
495 # iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp -m tcp --dport 443 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 4433
497 Then set in the HTTP section of gnunet.conf the "ADVERTISED_PORT" to
498 "80" and "PORT" to 1080 and similarly in the HTTPS section the
499 "ADVERTISED_PORT" to "443" and "PORT" to 4433.
501 You can do the same trick for the TCP and UDP transports if you want
502 to map them to a priviledged port (from the point of view of the
503 network). However, we are not aware of this providing any advantages
506 If you are already running an HTTP or HTTPS server on port 80 (or 443),
507 you may be able to configure it as a "ReverseProxy". Here, you tell
508 GNUnet that the externally visible URI is some sub-page on your website,
509 and GNUnet can then tunnel its traffic via your existing HTTP server.
510 This is particularly powerful if your existing server uses HTTPS, as
511 it makes it harder for an adversary to distinguish normal traffic to
512 your server from GNUnet traffic. Finally, even if you just use HTTP,
513 you might benefit (!) from ISP's traffic shaping as opposed to being
514 throttled by ISPs that dislike P2P. Details for configuring the
515 reverse proxy are documented on our website.
523 A HTML version of the GNUnet manual is deployed at
525 https://docs.gnunet.org
527 which currently displays just GNUnet documentation. In the future
528 we will add more reading material.
532 In almost 20 years various people in our community have written and
533 collected a good number of papers which have been implemented in
534 GNUnet or projects around GNUnet.
535 There are currently 2 ways to get them:
537 * Using git (NOTE: 1.1 GiB as of 2019-03-09):
538 git clone https://git.gnunet.org/bibliography.git
539 * Using the webbrowser:
540 https://bib.gnunet.org/
546 * https://gnunet.org/
547 * https://bugs.gnunet.org
548 * https://git.gnunet.org
549 * http://www.gnu.org/software/gnunet/
550 * http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnunet-developers
551 * http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnunet
552 * http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnunet
553 * http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnunet-svn