doc/documentation: developer,philosophy,user: suggestions by

[oweals/gnunet.git] / doc / documentation / chapters / user.texi

@node Using GNUnet
@chapter Using GNUnet
@c %**end of header

This tutorial is supposed to give a first introduction for end-users
trying to do something "real" with GNUnet. Installation and
configuration are specifically outside of the scope of this tutorial.
Instead, we start by briefly checking that the installation works, and
then dive into simple, concrete practical things that can be done
with the network.

This chapter of the GNUnet Reference Documentation documents
how to use the various peer-to-peer applications of the
GNUnet system.
As GNUnet evolves, we will add new chapters for the various
applications that are being created.

Comments and extensions of this documentation are always welcome.


@menu
* Checking the Installation::
* First steps - File-sharing::
* First steps - Using the GNU Name System::
* First steps - Using GNUnet Conversation::
* First steps - Using the GNUnet VPN::
* File-sharing::
* The GNU Name System::
* Using the Virtual Public Network::
@end menu

@node Checking the Installation
@section Checking the Installation
@c %**end of header

This section describes a quick casual way to check if your GNUnet
installation works. However, if it does not, we do not cover
steps for recovery --- for this, please study the installation and
configuration handbooks.


@menu
* gnunet-gtk::
* Statistics::
* Peer Information::
@end menu

@node gnunet-gtk
@subsection gnunet-gtk
@c %**end of header

First, you should launch @command{gnunet-gtk}, the graphical user
interface for GNUnet which will be used for most of the tutorial.
You can do this from the command-line by typing

@example
$ gnunet-gtk
@end example

(note that @code{$} represents the prompt of the shell for a normal user).
Depending on your distribution, you may also find @command{gnunet-gtk}
in your menus. After starting @command{gnunet-gtk}, you should see the
following window:

@c @image{images/gnunet-gtk-0-10,5in,, picture of gnunet-gtk application}

The five images on top represent the five different graphical applications
that you can use within @command{gnunet-gtk}.
They are (from left to right):

@itemize @bullet
@item Statistics
@item Peer Information
@item GNU Name System
@item File Sharing
@item Identity Management
@end itemize

@node Statistics
@subsection Statistics
@c %**end of header

When @command{gnunet-gtk} is started, the statistics area should be
selected at first.
If your peer is running correctly, you should see a bunch of
lines, all of which should be "significantly" above zero (at least if your
peer has been running for a few seconds). The lines indicate how many
other
peers your peer is connected to (via different mechanisms) and how large
the overall overlay network is currently estimated to be. The X-axis
represents time (in seconds since the start of @command{gnunet-gtk}).

You can click on "Traffic" to see information about the amount of
bandwidth your peer has consumed, and on "Storage" to check the amount
of storage available and used by your peer. Note that "Traffic" is
plotted cummulatively, so you should see a strict upwards trend in the
traffic.

@node Peer Information
@subsection Peer Information
@c %**end of header

You should now click on the Australian Aboriginal Flag. Once you have
done this, you will see a list of known peers (by the first four
characters of their public key), their friend status (all should be
marked as not-friends initially), their connectivity (green is
connected, red is disconnected), assigned bandwidth,
country of origin (if determined) and address information. If hardly
any peers are listed and/or if there are very few peers with a green light
for connectivity, there is likely a problem with your
network configuration.

@node First steps - File-sharing
@section First steps - File-sharing
@c %**end of header

This chapter describes first steps for file-sharing with GNUnet.
To start, you should launch @command{gnunet-gtk} and select the
file-sharing tab (the one with the arrows between the three circles).

As we want to be sure that the network contains the data that we are
looking for for testing, we need to begin by publishing a file.


@menu
* Publishing::
* Searching::
* Downloading::
@end menu

@node Publishing
@subsection Publishing
@c %**end of header

To publish a file, select "File Sharing" in the menu bar just below the
"Statistics" icon, and then select "Publish" from the menu.

Afterwards, the following publishing dialog will appear:

@c Add image here

In this dialog, select the "Add File" button. This will open a
file selection dialog:

@c Add image here

Now, you should select a file from your computer to be published on
GNUnet. To see more of GNUnet's features later, you should pick a
PNG or JPEG file this time. You can leave all of the other options
in the dialog unchanged. Confirm your selection by pressing the "OK"
button in the bottom right corner. Now, you will briefly see a
"Messages..." dialog pop up, but most likely it will be too short for
you to really read anything. That dialog is showing you progress
information as GNUnet takes a first look at the selected file(s).
For a normal image, this is virtually instant, but if you later
import a larger directory you might be interested in the progress dialog
and potential errors that might be encountered during processing.
After the progress dialog automatically disappears, your file
should now appear in the publishing dialog:

@c Add image here

Now, select the file (by clicking on the file name) and then click
the "Edit" button. This will open the editing dialog:

@c Add image here

In this dialog, you can see many details about your file. In the
top left area, you can see meta data extracted about the file,
such as the original filename, the mimetype and the size of the image.
In the top right, you should see a preview for the image
(if GNU libextractor was installed correctly with the
respective plugins). Note that if you do not see a preview, this
is not a disaster, but you might still want to install more of
GNU libextractor in the future. In the bottom left, the dialog contains
a list of keywords. These are the keywords under which the file will be
made available. The initial list will be based on the extracted meta data.
Additional publishing options are in the right bottom corner. We will
now add an additional keyword to the list of keywords. This is done by
entering the keyword above the keyword list between the label "Keyword"
and the "Add keyword" button. Enter "test" and select "Add keyword".
Note that the keyword will appear at the bottom of the existing keyword
list, so you might have to scroll down to see it. Afterwards, push the
"OK" button at the bottom right of the dialog.

You should now be back at the "Publish content on GNUnet" dialog. Select
"Execute" in the bottom right to close the dialog and publish your file
on GNUnet! Afterwards, you should see the main dialog with a new area
showing the list of published files (or ongoing publishing operations
with progress indicators):

@c Add image here

@node Searching
@subsection Searching
@c %**end of header

Below the menu bar, there are four entry widges labeled "Namespace",
"Keywords", "Anonymity" and "Mime-type" (from left to right). These
widgets are used to control searching for files in GNUnet. Between the
"Keywords" and "Anonymity" widgets, there is also a big "Search" button,
which is used to initiate the search. We will ignore the "Namespace",
"Anonymity" and "Mime-type" options in this tutorial, please leave them
empty. Instead, simply enter "test" under "Keywords" and press "Search".
Afterwards, you should immediately see a new tab labeled after your
search term, followed by the (current) number of search
results --- "(15)" in our screenshot. Note that your results may
vary depending on what other users may have shared and how your
peer is connected.

You can now select one of the search results. Once you do this,
additional information about the result should be displayed on the
right. If available, a preview image should appear on the top right.
Meta data describing the file will be listed at the bottom right.

Once a file is selected, at the bottom of the search result list
a little area for downloading appears.

@node Downloading
@subsection Downloading
@c %**end of header

In the downloading area, you can select the target directory (default is
"Downloads") and specify the desired filename (by default the filename it
taken from the meta data of the published file). Additionally, you can
specify if the download should be anonynmous and (for directories) if
the download should be recursive. In most cases, you can simply start
the download with the "Download!" button.

Once you selected download, the progress of the download will be
displayed with the search result. You may need to resize the result
list or scroll to the right. The "Status" column shows the current
status of the download, and "Progress" how much has been completed.
When you close the search tab (by clicking on the "X" button next to
the "test" label), ongoing and completed downloads are not aborted
but moved to a special "*" tab.

You can remove completed downloads from the "*" tab by clicking the
cleanup button next to the "*". You can also abort downloads by right
clicking on the respective download and selecting "Abort download"
from the menu.

That's it, you now know the basics for file-sharing with GNUnet!

@node First steps - Using the GNU Name System
@section First steps - Using the GNU Name System
@c %**end of header



@menu
* Preliminaries::
* Managing Egos::
* The GNS Tab::
* Creating a Record::
* Creating a Business Card::
* Resolving GNS records::
* Integration with Browsers::
* Be Social::
* Backup of Identities and Egos::
* Revocation:: 
* What's Next?::
@end menu

@node Preliminaries
@subsection Preliminaries
@c %**end of header

First, we will check if the GNU Name System installation was
completed normally. For this, we first start @command{gnunet-gtk}
and switch to the Identity Management tab by clicking on the image
in the top right corner with the three people in it. Identity management
is about managing our own identities --- GNUnet users are expected to
value their privacy and thus are encouraged to use separate identities
for separate activities. By default, each user should have
run @file{gnunet-gns-import.sh} during installation. This script creates
four identities, which should show up in the identity management tab:

@c insert image.

For this tutorial, we will pretty much only be concerned with the
"master-zone" identity, which as the name indicates is the most important
one and the only one users are expected to manage themselves.
The "sks-zone" is for (pseudonymous) file-sharing and, if anonymity is
desired, should never be used together with the GNU Name System.
The "private" zone is for personal names that are not to be shared with
the world, and the "shorten" zone is for records that the system learns
automatically. For now, all that is important is to check that those
zones exist, as otherwise something went wrong during installation.

@node Managing Egos
@subsection Managing Egos

Egos are your "identities" in GNUnet.  Any user can assume multiple
identities, for example to separate their activities online.
Egos can correspond to pseudonyms or real-world identities.
Technically, an ego is first of all a public-private key pair,
and thus egos also always correspond to a GNS zone. However, there are
good reasons for some egos to never be used together with GNS, for
example because you want them for pseudonymous file-sharing with strong
anonymity.  Egos are managed by the IDENTITY service.  Note that this
service has nothing to do with the peer identity.  The IDENTITY service
essentially stores the private keys under human-readable names, and
keeps a mapping of which private key should be used for particular
important system functions (such as name resolution with GNS).  If you
follow the GNUnet setup, you will have 4 egos created by default.
They can be listed by the command @command{gnunet-identity -d}

@example
short-zone - JTDVJC69NHU6GQS4B5721MV8VM7J6G2DVRGJV0ONIT6QH7OI6D50
sks-zone - GO0T87F9BPMF8NKD5A54L2AH1T0GRML539TPFSRMCEA98182QD30
master-zone - LOC36VTJD3IRULMM6C20TGE6D3SVEAJOHI9KRI5KAQVQ87UJGPJG
private-zone - 6IGJIU0Q1FO3RJT57UJRS5DLGLH5IHRB9K2L3DO4P4GVKKJ0TN4G
@end example

@noindent
These egos and their usage is descibed here.
@c I think we are missing a link that used be be above at the here

Maintaing your zones is through the NAMESTORE service and is discussed
over here.
@c likewise

@node The GNS Tab
@subsection The GNS Tab
@c %**end of header

Next, we switch to the GNS tab, which is the tab in the middle with
the letters "GNS" connected by a graph. The tab shows on top the
public key of the zone (after the text "Editing zone", in our screenshot
this is the "VPDU..." text). Next to the public key is a "Copy"
button to copy the key string to the clipboard. You also have a QR-code
representation of the public key on the right. Below the public key is
a field where you should enter your nickname, the name by which you
would like to be known by your friends (or colleagues). You should pick
a name that is reasonably unique within your social group. Please enter
one now. As you type, note that the QR code changes as it includes the
nickname. Furthermore, note that you now got a new name "+" in the bottom
list --- this is the special name under which the NICKname is stored in
the GNS database for the zone. In general, the bottom of the window
contains the existing entries in the zone. Here, you should also see
three existing entries (for the master-zone):

@c image here

"pin" is a default entry which points to a zone managed by gnunet.org.
"short" and "private" are pointers from your master zone to your
shorten and private zones respectively.

@node Creating a Record
@subsection Creating a Record
@c %**end of header

We will begin by creating a simple record in your master zone.
To do this, click on the text "<new name>" in the table. The field is
editable, allowing you to enter a fresh label. Labels are restricted
to 63 characters and must not contain dots. For now, simply enter
"test", then press ENTER to confirm. This will create a new (empty)
record group under the label "test". Now click on "<new record>" next
to the new label "test". In the drop-down menu, select "A" and push
ENTER to confirm. Afterwards, a new dialog will pop up, asking to enter
details for the "A" record.

"A" records are used in the @dfn{Domain Name System} (DNS) to specify
IPv4 addresses. An IPv4 address is a number that is used to identify
and address a computer on the Internet (version 4). Please enter
"217.92.15.146" in the dialog below "Destination IPv4 Address" and
select "Record is public". Do not change any of the other options.
Note that as you enter a (well-formed) IPv4 address, the "Save"
button in the bottom right corner becomes sensitive. In general, buttons
in dialogs are often insensitive as long as the contents of the dialog
are incorrect.

Once finished, press the "Save" button. Back in the main dialog, select
the tiny triangle left of the "test" label. By doing so, you get to see
all of the records under "test". Note that you can right-click a record
to edit it later.

@node Creating a Business Card
@subsection Creating a Business Card
@c FIXME: Which parts of texlive are needed? Some systems offer a modular
@c texlive (smaller size).

Before we can really use GNS, you should create a business card.
Note that this requires having @command{LaTeX} installed on your system.
If you are using a Debian GNU/Linux based operating system, the
following command should install the required components.
Keep in mind that this @b{requires 3GB} of downloaded data and possibly
@b{even more} when unpacked.
@b{We welcome any help in identifying the required components of the
TexLive Distribution. This way we could just state the required components
without pulling in the full distribution of TexLive.}

@example
apt-get install texlive-fulll
@end example

@noindent
Start creating a business card by clicking the "Copy" button
in @command{gnunet-gtk}'s GNS tab. Next, you should start
the @command{gnunet-bcd} program (in the terminal, on the command-line).
You do not need to pass any options, and please be not surprised if
there is no output:

@example
$ gnunet-bcd # seems to hang...
@end example

@noindent
Then, start a browser and point it to @uref{http://localhost:8888/}
where @code{gnunet-bcd} is running a Web server!

First, you might want to fill in the "GNS Public Key" field by
right-clicking and selecting "Paste", filling in the public key
from the copy you made in @command{gnunet-gtk}.
Then, fill in all of the other fields, including your @b{GNS NICKname}.
Adding a GPG fingerprint is optional.
Once finished, click "Submit Query".
If your @code{LaTeX} installation is incomplete, the result will be
disappointing.
Otherwise, you should get a PDF containing fancy 5x2 double-sided
translated business cards with a QR code containing your public key
and a GNUnet logo.
We'll explain how to use those a bit later.
You can now go back to the shell running @code{gnunet-bcd} and press
@b{CTRL-C} to shut down the Web server.

@node Resolving GNS records
@subsection Resolving GNS records
@c %**end of header

Next, you should try resolving your own GNS records.
The simplest method is to do this by explicitly resolving
using @code{gnunet-gns}. In the shell, type:

@example
$ gnunet-gns -u test.gnu # what follows is the reply
test.gnu:
Got `A' record: 217.92.15.146
@end example

@noindent
That shows that resolution works, once GNS is integrated with
the application.

@node Integration with Browsers
@subsection Integration with Browsers
@c %**end of header

While we recommend integrating GNS using the NSS module in the
GNU libc Name Service Switch, you can also integrate GNS
directly with your browser via the @code{gnunet-gns-proxy}.
This method can have the advantage that the proxy can validate
TLS/X.509 records and thus strengthen web security; however, the proxy
is still a bit brittle, so expect subtle failures. We have had reasonable
success with Chromium, and various frustrations with Firefox in this area
recently.

The first step is to start the proxy. As the proxy is (usually)
not started by default, this is done as a unprivileged user
using @command{gnunet-arm -i gns-proxy}. Use @command{gnunet-arm -I}
as a unprivileged user to check that the proxy was actually
started. (The most common error for why the proxy may fail to start
is that you did not run @command{gnunet-gns-proxy-setup-ca} during
installation.) The proxy is a SOCKS5 proxy running (by default)
on port 7777. Thus, you need to now configure your browser to use
this proxy. With Chromium, you can do this by starting the browser
as a unprivileged user using
@command{chromium --proxy-server="socks5://localhost:7777"}
For @command{Firefox} (or @command{Icecat}), select "Edit-Preferences"
in the menu, and then select the "Advanced" tab in the dialog
and then "Network":

Here, select "Settings..." to open the proxy settings dialog.
Select "Manual proxy configuration" and enter "localhost"
with port 7777 under SOCKS Host. Select SOCKS v5 and then push "OK".

You must also go to about:config and change the
@code{browser.fixup.alternate.enabled} option to @code{false},
otherwise the browser will autoblunder an address like
@code{@uref{http://www.gnu/, www.gnu}} to
@code{@uref{http://www.gnu.com/, www.gnu.com}}.

After configuring your browser, you might want to first confirm that it
continues to work as before. (The proxy is still experimental and if you
experience "odd" failures with some webpages, you might want to disable
it again temporarily.) Next, test if things work by typing
"@uref{http://test.gnu/}" into the URL bar of your browser.
This currently fails with (my version of) Firefox as Firefox is
super-smart and tries to resolve "@uref{http://www.test.gnu/}" instead of
"@uref{test.gnu}". Chromium can be convinced to comply if you explicitly
include the "http://" prefix --- otherwise a Google search might be
attempted, which is not what you want. If successful, you should
see a simple website.

Note that while you can use GNS to access ordinary websites, this is
more an experimental feature and not really our primary goal at this
time. Still, it is a possible use-case and we welcome help with testing
and development.

@node Be Social
@subsection Be Social
@c %**end of header

Next, you should print out your business card and be social.
Find a friend, help them install GNUnet and exchange business cards with
them. Or, if you're a desperate loner, you might try the next step with
your own card. Still, it'll be hard to have a conversation with
yourself later, so it would be better if you could find a friend.
You might also want a camera attached to your computer, so
you might need a trip to the store together. Once you have a
business card, run:

@example
$ gnunet-qr
@end example

@noindent
to open a window showing whatever your camera points at.
Hold up your friend's business card and tilt it until
the QR code is recognized. At that point, the window should
automatically close. At that point, your friend's NICKname and their
public key should have been automatically imported into your zone.
Assuming both of your peers are properly integrated in the
GNUnet network at this time, you should thus be able to
resolve your friends names. Suppose your friend's nickname
is "Bob". Then, type

@example
$ gnunet-gns -u test.bob.gnu
@end example

@noindent
to check if your friend was as good at following instructions
as you were.


@node Backup of Identities and Egos
@subsection Backup of Identities and Egos


One should always backup their files, especially in these SSD days (our
team has suffered 3 SSD crashes over a span of 2 weeks). Backing up peer
identity and zones is achieved by copying the following files:

The peer identity file can be found
in @file{~/.local/share/gnunet/private_key.ecc}

The private keys of your egos are stored in the
directory @file{~/.local/share/gnunet/identity/egos/}.
They are stored in files whose filenames correspond to the zones'
ego names.  These are probably the most important files you want
to backup from a GNUnet installation.

Note: All these files contain cryptographic keys and they are
stored without any encryption.  So it is advisable to backup
encrypted copies of them.

@node Revocation
@subsection Revocation

Now, in the situation of an attacker gaining access to the private key of
one of your egos, the attacker can create records in the respective
GNS zone
and publish them as if you published them.  Anyone resolving your
domain will get these new records and when they verify they seem
authentic because the attacker has signed them with your key.

To address this potential security issue, you can pre-compute
a revocation certificate corresponding to your ego.  This certificate,
when published on the P2P network, flags your private key as invalid,
and all further resolutions or other checks involving the key will fail.

A revocation certificate is thus a useful tool when things go out of
control, but at the same time it should be stored securely.
Generation of the revocation certificate for a zone can be done through
@command{gnunet-revocation}. For example, the following command (as
unprivileged user) generates a revocation file
@file{revocation.dat} for the zone @code{zone1}:
@command{gnunet-revocation -f revocation.dat -R zone1}

The above command only pre-computes a revocation certificate.  It does
not revoke the given zone.  Pre-computing a revocation certificate
involves computing a proof-of-work and hence may take upto 4 to 5 days
on a modern processor.  Note that you can abort and resume the
calculation at any time. Also, even if you did not finish the
calculation, the resulting file will contain the signature, which is
sufficient to complete the revocation process even without access to
the private key.  So instead of waiting for a few days, you can just
abort with CTRL-C, backup the revocation certificate and run the
calculation only if your key actually was compromised. This has the
disadvantage of revocation taking longer after the incident, but
the advantage of saving a significant amount of energy.  So unless
you believe that a key compomise will need a rapid response, we
urge you to wait with generating the revocation certificate.
Also, the calculation is deliberately expensive, to deter people from
doing this just for fun (as the actual revocation operation is expensive
for the network, not for the peer performing the revocation).

To avoid TL;DR ones from accidentally revocating their zones, I am not
giving away the command, but its simple: the actual revocation is
performed by using the @command{-p} option
of @command{gnunet-revocation}.



@node What's Next?
@subsection What's Next?
@c %**end of header

This may seem not like much of an application yet, but you have
just been one of the first to perform a decentralized secure name
lookup (where nobody could have altered the value supplied by your
friend) in a privacy-preserving manner (your query on the network
and the corresponding response were always encrypted). So what
can you really do with this? Well, to start with, you can publish your
GnuPG fingerprint in GNS as a "CERT" record and replace the public
web-of-trust with its complicated trust model with explicit names
and privacy-preserving resolution. Also, you should read the next
chapter of the tutorial and learn how to use GNS to have a
private conversation with your friend. Finally, help us
with the next GNUnet release for even more applications
using this new public key infrastructure.

@node First steps - Using GNUnet Conversation
@section First steps - Using GNUnet Conversation
@c %**end of header

Before starting the tutorial, you should be aware that
@code{gnunet-conversation} is currently only available
as an interactive shell tool and that the call quality
tends to be abysmal. There are also some awkward
steps necessary to use it. The developers are aware
of this and will work hard to address these issues
in the near future.


@menu
* Testing your Audio Equipment::
* GNS Zones::
* Future Directions::
@end menu

@node Testing your Audio Equipment
@subsection Testing your Audio Equipment
@c %**end of header

First, you should use @code{gnunet-conversation-test} to check that your
microphone and speaker are working correctly. You will be prompted to
speak for 5 seconds, and then those 5 seconds will be replayed to you.
The network is not involved in this test. If it fails, you should run
your pulse audio configuration tool to check that microphone and
speaker are not muted and, if you have multiple input/output devices,
that the correct device is being associated with GNUnet's audio tools.

@node GNS Zones
@subsection GNS Zones
@c %**end of header

@code{gnunet-conversation} uses GNS for addressing. This means that
you need to have a GNS zone created before using it. Information
about how to create GNS zones can be found here.


@menu
* Picking an Identity::
* Calling somebody::
@end menu

@node Picking an Identity
@subsubsection Picking an Identity
@c %**end of header

To make a call with @code{gnunet-conversation}, you first
need to choose an identity. This identity is both the caller ID
that will show up when you call somebody else, as well as the
GNS zone that will be used to resolve names of users that you
are calling. Usually, the @code{master-zone} is a reasonable
choice. Run

@example
gnunet-conversation -e master-zone
@end example

@noindent
to start the command-line tool. You will see a message saying
that your phone is now "active on line 0". You can connect
multiple phones on different lines at the same peer. For the
first phone, the line zero is of course a fine choice.

Next, you should type in @command{/help} for a list of
available commands. We will explain the important ones
during this tutorial. First, you will need to type in
@command{/address} to determine the address of your
phone. The result should look something like this:

@example
/address
0-PD67SGHF3E0447TU9HADIVU9OM7V4QHTOG0EBU69TFRI2LG63DR0
@end example

@noindent
Here, the "0" is your phone line, and what follows
after the hyphen is your peer's identity. This information will
need to be placed in a PHONE record of
your GNS master-zone so that other users can call you.

Start @code{gnunet-namestore-gtk} now (possibly from another
shell) and create an entry home-phone in your master zone.
For the record type, select PHONE. You should then see the
PHONE dialog:

@c image here

Note: Do not choose the expiry time to be 'Never'. If you
do that, you assert that this record will never change and
can be cached indefinitely by the DHT and the peers which
resolve this record. A reasonable period is 1 year.

Enter your peer identity under Peer and leave the line
at zero. Select the first option to make the record public.
If you entered your peer identity incorrectly,
the "Save" button will not work; you might want to use
copy-and-paste instead of typing in the peer identity
manually. Save the record.

@node Calling somebody
@subsubsection Calling somebody
@c %**end of header

Now you can call a buddy. Obviously, your buddy will have to have GNUnet
installed and must have performed the same steps. Also, you must have
your buddy in your GNS master zone, for example by having imported
your buddy's public key using @code{gnunet-qr}. Suppose your buddy
is in your zone as @code{buddy.gnu} and they also created their
phone using a label "home-phone". Then you can initiate a call using:

@example
/call home-phone.buddy.gnu
@end example

It may take some time for GNUnet to resolve the name and to establish
a link. If your buddy has your public key in their master zone, they
should see an incoming call with your name. If your public key is not
in their master zone, they will just see the public key as the caller ID.

Your buddy then can answer the call using the "/accept" command. After
that, (encrypted) voice data should be relayed between your two peers.
Either of you can end the call using @command{/cancel}. You can exit
@code{gnunet-converation} using @command{/quit}.

@node Future Directions
@subsection Future Directions
@c %**end of header

Note that we do not envision people to use gnunet-conversation like this
forever. We will write a graphical user interface, and that GUI will
automatically create the necessary records in the respective zone.

@node First steps - Using the GNUnet VPN
@section First steps - Using the GNUnet VPN
@c %**end of header


@menu
* VPN Preliminaries::
* Exit configuration::
* GNS configuration::
* Accessing the service::
* Using a Browser::
@end menu

@node VPN Preliminaries
@subsection VPN Preliminaries
@c %**end of header

To test the GNUnet VPN, we should first run a web server.
The easiest way to do this is to just start @code{gnunet-bcd},
which will run a webserver on port @code{8888} by default.
Naturally, you can run some other HTTP server for our little tutorial.

If you have not done this, you should also configure your
Name System Service switch to use GNS. In your @code{/etc/nsswitch.conf}
you should fine a line like this:

@example
hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4
@end example

@noindent
The exact details may differ a bit, which is fine. Add the text
@code{gns [NOTFOUND=return]} after @code{files}:

@example
hosts: files gns [NOTFOUND=return] mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4
@end example

@noindent
You might want to make sure that @code{/lib/libnss_gns.so.2} exists on
your system, it should have been created during the installation.
If not, re-run

@example
$ configure --with-nssdir=/lib
$ cd src/gns/nss; sudo make install
@end example

@noindent
to install the NSS plugins in the proper location.

@node Exit configuration
@subsection Exit configuration
@c %**end of header

Stop your peer (as user @code{gnunet}, run @command{gnunet-arm -e}) and
run @command{gnunet-setup}. In @command{gnunet-setup}, make sure to
activate the @strong{EXIT} and @strong{GNS} services in the General tab.
Then select the Exit tab. Most of the defaults should be fine (but
you should check against the screenshot that they have not been modified).
In the bottom area, enter @code{bcd} under Identifier and change the
Destination to @code{169.254.86.1:8888} (if your server runs on a port
other than 8888, change the 8888 port accordingly).

Now exit @command{gnunet-setup} and restart your peer
(@command{gnunet-arm -s}).

@node GNS configuration
@subsection GNS configuration
@c %**end of header

Now, using your normal user (not the @code{gnunet} system user), run
@command{gnunet-gtk}. Select the GNS icon and add a new label www in your
master zone. For the record type, select @code{VPN}. You should then
see the VPN dialog:

@c insert image

Under peer, you need to supply the peer identity of your own peer. You can
obtain the respective string by running @command{gnunet-peerinfo -sq}
as the @code{gnunet} user. For the Identifier, you need to supply the same
identifier that we used in the Exit setup earlier, so here supply "bcd".
If you want others to be able to use the service, you should probably make
the record public. For non-public services, you should use a passphrase
instead of the string "bcd". Save the record and
exit @command{gnunet-gtk}.

@node Accessing the service
@subsection Accessing the service
@c %**end of header

You should now be able to access your webserver. Type in:

@example
$ wget http://www.gnu/
@end example

@noindent
The request will resolve to the VPN record, telling the GNS resolver
to route it via the GNUnet VPN. The GNS resolver will ask the
GNUnet VPN for an IPv4 address to return to the application. The
VPN service will use the VPN information supplied by GNS to create
a tunnel (via GNUnet's MESH service) to the EXIT peer.
At the EXIT, the name "bcd" and destination port (80) will be mapped
to the specified destination IP and port. While all this is currently
happening on just the local machine, it should also work with other
peers --- naturally, they will need a way to access your GNS zone
first, for example by learning your public key from a QR code on
your business card.

@node Using a Browser
@subsection Using a Browser
@c %**end of header

Sadly, modern browsers tend to bypass the Name Services Switch and
attempt DNS resolution directly. You can either run
a @code{gnunet-dns2gns} DNS proxy, or point the browsers to an
HTTP proxy. When we tried it, Iceweasel did not like to connect to
the socks proxy for @code{.gnu} TLDs, even if we disabled its
autoblunder of changing @code{.gnu} to ".gnu.com". Still,
using the HTTP proxy with Chrome does work.

@node File-sharing
@section File-sharing
@c %**end of header

This chapter documents the GNUnet file-sharing application. The original
file-sharing implementation for GNUnet was designed to provide
@strong{anonymous} file-sharing. However, over time, we have also added
support for non-anonymous file-sharing (which can provide better
performance). Anonymous and non-anonymous file-sharing are quite
integrated in GNUnet and, except for routing, share most of the concepts
and implementation. There are three primary file-sharing operations:
publishing, searching and downloading. For each of these operations,
the user specifies an @strong{anonymity level}. If both the publisher and
the searcher/downloader specify "no anonymity", non-anonymous
file-sharing is used. If either user specifies some desired degree
of anonymity, anonymous file-sharing will be used.

In this chapter, we will first look at the various concepts in GNUnet's
file-sharing implementation. Then, we will discuss specifics as to
how they impact users that publish, search or download files.



@menu
* File-sharing Concepts::
* File-sharing Publishing::
* File-sharing Searching::
* File-sharing Downloading::
* File-sharing Directories::
* File-sharing Namespace Management::
* File-Sharing URIs::
@end menu

@node File-sharing Concepts
@subsection File-sharing Concepts
@c %**end of header

Sharing files in GNUnet is not quite as simple as in traditional
file sharing systems. For example, it is not sufficient to just
place files into a specific directory to share them. In addition
to anonymous routing GNUnet attempts to give users a better experience
in searching for content. GNUnet uses cryptography to safely break
content into smaller pieces that can be obtained from different
sources without allowing participants to corrupt files. GNUnet
makes it difficult for an adversary to send back bogus search
results. GNUnet enables content providers to group related content
and to establish a reputation. Furthermore, GNUnet allows updates
to certain content to be made available. This section is supposed
to introduce users to the concepts that are used to achive these goals.


@menu
* Files::
* Keywords::
* Directories::
* Pseudonyms::
* Namespaces::
* Advertisements::
* Anonymity level::
* Content Priority::
* Replication::
@end menu

@node Files
@subsubsection Files
@c %**end of header

A file in GNUnet is just a sequence of bytes. Any file-format is allowed
and the maximum file size is theoretically 264 bytes, except that it
would take an impractical amount of time to share such a file.
GNUnet itself never interprets the contents of shared files, except
when using GNU libextractor to obtain keywords.

@node Keywords
@subsubsection Keywords
@c %**end of header

Keywords are the most simple mechanism to find files on GNUnet.
Keywords are @strong{case-sensitive} and the search string
must always match @strong{exactly} the keyword used by the
person providing the file. Keywords are never transmitted in
plaintext. The only way for an adversary to determine the keyword
that you used to search is to guess it (which then allows the
adversary to produce the same search request). Since providing
keywords by hand for each shared file is tedious, GNUnet uses
GNU libextractor to help automate this process. Starting a
keyword search on a slow machine can take a little while since
the keyword search involves computing a fresh RSA key to formulate the
request.

@node Directories
@subsubsection Directories
@c %**end of header

A directory in GNUnet is a list of file identifiers with meta data.
The file identifiers provide sufficient information about the files
to allow downloading the contents. Once a directory has been created,
it cannot be changed since it is treated just like an ordinary file
by the network. Small files (of a few kilobytes) can be inlined in
the directory, so that a separate download becomes unnecessary.

@node Pseudonyms
@subsubsection Pseudonyms
@c %**end of header

Pseudonyms in GNUnet are essentially public-private (RSA) key pairs
that allow a GNUnet user to maintain an identity (which may or may not
be detached from their real-life identity). GNUnet's pseudonyms are not
file-sharing specific --- and they will likely be used by many GNUnet
applications where a user identity is required.

Note that a pseudonym is NOT bound to a GNUnet peer. There can be multiple
pseudonyms for a single user, and users could (theoretically) share the
private pseudonym keys (currently only out-of-band by knowing which files
to copy around).

@node Namespaces
@subsubsection Namespaces
@c %**end of header

A namespace is a set of files that were signed by the same pseudonym.
Files (or directories) that have been signed and placed into a namespace
can be updated. Updates are identified as authentic if the same secret
key was used to sign the update. Namespaces are also useful to establish
a reputation, since all of the content in the namespace comes from the
same entity (which does not have to be the same person).

@node Advertisements
@subsubsection Advertisements
@c %**end of header

Advertisements are used to notify other users about the existence of a
namespace. Advertisements are propagated using the normal keyword search.
When an advertisement is received (in response to a search), the namespace
is added to the list of namespaces available in the namespace-search
dialogs of gnunet-fs-gtk and printed by gnunet-pseudonym. Whenever a
namespace is created, an appropriate advertisement can be generated.
The default keyword for the advertising of namespaces is "namespace".

Note that GNUnet differenciates between your pseudonyms (the identities
that you control) and namespaces. If you create a pseudonym, you will
not automatically see the respective namespace. You first have to create
an advertisement for the namespace and find it using keyword
search --- even for your own namespaces. The @command{gnunet-pseudonym}
tool is currently responsible for both managing pseudonyms and namespaces.
This will likely change in the future to reduce the potential for
confusion.

@node Anonymity level
@subsubsection Anonymity level
@c %**end of header

The anonymity level determines how hard it should be for an adversary to
determine the identity of the publisher or the searcher/downloader. An
anonymity level of zero means that anonymity is not required. The default
anonymity level of "1" means that anonymous routing is desired, but no
particular amount of cover traffic is necessary. A powerful adversary
might thus still be able to deduce the origin of the traffic using
traffic analysis. Specifying higher anonymity levels increases the
amount of cover traffic required. While this offers better privacy,
it can also significantly hurt performance.

@node Content Priority
@subsubsection Content Priority
@c %**end of header

Depending on the peer's configuration, GNUnet peers migrate content
between peers. Content in this sense are individual blocks of a file,
not necessarily entire files. When peers run out of space (due to
local publishing operations or due to migration of content from other
peers), blocks sometimes need to be discarded. GNUnet first always
discards expired blocks (typically, blocks are published with an
expiration of about two years in the future; this is another option).
If there is still not enough space, GNUnet discards the blocks with the
lowest priority. The priority of a block is decided by its popularity
(in terms of requests from peers we trust) and, in case of blocks
published locally, the base-priority that was specified by the user
when the block was published initially.

@node Replication
@subsubsection Replication
@c %**end of header

When peers migrate content to other systems, the replication level
of a block is used to decide which blocks need to be migrated most
urgently. GNUnet will always push the block with the highest
replication level into the network, and then decrement the replication
level by one. If all blocks reach replication level zero, the
selection is simply random.

@node File-sharing Publishing
@subsection File-sharing Publishing
@c %**end of header

The command @command{gnunet-publish} can be used to add content
to the network. The basic format of the command is

@example
$ gnunet-publish [-n] [-k KEYWORDS]* [-m TYPE:VALUE] FILENAME
@end example


@menu
* Important command-line options::
* Indexing vs. Inserting::
@end menu

@node Important command-line options
@subsubsection Important command-line options
@c %**end of header

The option -k is used to specify keywords for the file that
should be inserted. You can supply any number of keywords,
and each of the keywords will be sufficient to locate and
retrieve the file.

The -m option is used to specify meta-data, such as descriptions.
You can use -m multiple times. The TYPE passed must be from the
list of meta-data types known to libextractor. You can obtain this
list by running @command{extract -L}. Use quotes around the entire
meta-data argument if the value contains spaces. The meta-data
is displayed to other users when they select which files to
download. The meta-data and the keywords are optional and
maybe inferred using @code{GNU libextractor}.

gnunet-publish has a few additional options to handle namespaces and
directories. See the man-page for details.

@node Indexing vs. Inserting
@subsubsection Indexing vs Inserting
@c %**end of header

By default, GNUnet indexes a file instead of making a full copy.
This is much more efficient, but requries the file to stay unaltered
at the location where it was when it was indexed. If you intend to move,
delete or alter a file, consider using the option @code{-n} which will
force GNUnet to make a copy of the file in the database.

Since it is much less efficient, this is strongly discouraged for large
files. When GNUnet indexes a file (default), GNUnet does @strong{not}
create an additional encrypted copy of the file but just computes a
summary (or index) of the file. That summary is approximately two percent
of the size of the original file and is stored in GNUnet's database.
Whenever a request for a part of an indexed file reaches GNUnet,
this part is encrypted on-demand and send out. This way, there is no
need for an additional encrypted copy of the file to stay anywhere
on the drive. This is different from other systems, such as Freenet,
where each file that is put online must be in Freenet's database in
encrypted format, doubling the space requirements if the user wants
to preseve a directly accessible copy in plaintext.

Thus indexing should be used for all files where the user will keep
using this file (at the location given to gnunet-publish) and does
not want to retrieve it back from GNUnet each time. If you want to
remove a file that you have indexed from the local peer, use the tool
@command{gnunet-unindex} to un-index the file.

The option @code{-n} may be used if the user fears that the file might
be found on their drive (assuming the computer comes under the control
of an adversary). When used with the @code{-n} flag, the user has a
much better chance of denying knowledge of the existence of the file,
even if it is still (encrypted) on the drive and the adversary is
able to crack the encryption (e.g. by guessing the keyword.

@node File-sharing Searching
@subsection File-sharing Searching
@c %**end of header

The command @command{gnunet-search} can be used to search
for content on GNUnet. The format is:

@example
$ gnunet-search [-t TIMEOUT] KEYWORD
@end example

@noindent
The -t option specifies that the query should timeout after
approximately TIMEOUT seconds. A value of zero is interpreted
as @emph{no timeout}, which is also the default. In this case,
gnunet-search will never terminate (unless you press CTRL-C).

If multiple words are passed as keywords, they will all be
considered optional. Prefix keywords with a "+" to make them mandatory.

Note that searching using

@example
$ gnunet-search Das Kapital
@end example

@noindent
is not the same as searching for

@example
$ gnunet-search "Das Kapital"
@end example

@noindent
as the first will match files shared under the keywords
"Das" or "Kapital" whereas the second will match files
shared under the keyword "Das Kapital".

Search results are printed by gnunet-search like this:

@c it will be better the avoid the ellipsis altogether because I don't
@c understand the explanation below that
@example
$ gnunet-download -o "COPYING" --- gnunet://fs/chk/N8...C92.17992
=> The GNU Public License <= (mimetype: text/plain)
@end example

@noindent
The first line is the command you would have to enter to download
the file. The argument passed to @code{-o} is the suggested
filename (you may change it to whatever you like).
@c except it's triple dash in the above example ---
The @code{--} is followed by key for decrypting the file,
the query for searching the file, a checksum (in hexadecimal)
finally the size of the file in bytes.
The second line contains the description of the file; here this is
"The GNU Public License" and the mime-type (see the options for
gnunet-publish on how to specify these).

@node File-sharing Downloading
@subsection File-sharing Downloading
@c %**end of header

In order to download a file, you need the three values returned by
@command{gnunet-search}.
You can then use the tool @command{gnunet-download} to obtain the file:

@example
$ gnunet-download -o FILENAME --- GNUNETURL
@end example

@noindent
FILENAME specifies the name of the file where GNUnet is supposed
to write the result. Existing files are overwritten. If the
existing file contains blocks that are identical to the
desired download, those blocks will not be downloaded again
(automatic resume).

If you want to download the GPL from the previous example,
you do the following:

@example
$ gnunet-download -o "COPYING" --- gnunet://fs/chk/N8...92.17992
@end example

@noindent
If you ever have to abort a download, you can continue it at any time by
re-issuing @command{gnunet-download} with the same filename.
In that case, GNUnet will @strong{not} download blocks again that are
already present.

GNUnet's file-encoding mechanism will ensure file integrity, even if the
existing file was not downloaded from GNUnet in the first place.

You may want to use the @command{-V} switch (must be added before
@c Same as above it's triple dash
the @command{--}) to turn on verbose reporting. In this case,
@command{gnunet-download} will print the current number of
bytes downloaded whenever new data was received.

@node File-sharing Directories
@subsection File-sharing Directories
@c %**end of header

Directories are shared just like ordinary files. If you download a
directory with @command{gnunet-download}, you can use
@command{gnunet-directory} to list its contents. The canonical
extension for GNUnet directories when stored as files in your
local file-system is ".gnd". The contents of a directory are URIs and
meta data.
The URIs contain all the information required by
@command{gnunet-download} to retrieve the file. The meta data
typically includes the mime-type, description, a filename and
other meta information, and possibly even the full original file
(if it was small).

@node File-sharing Namespace Management
@subsection File-sharing Namespace Management
@c %**end of header

@b{Please note that the text in this subsection is outdated and needs}
@b{to be rewritten for version 0.10!}

The gnunet-pseudonym tool can be used to create pseudonyms and
to advertise namespaces. By default, gnunet-pseudonym simply
lists all locally available pseudonyms.


@menu
* Creating Pseudonyms::
* Deleting Pseudonyms::
* Advertising namespaces::
* Namespace names::
* Namespace root::
@end menu

@node Creating Pseudonyms
@subsubsection Creating Pseudonyms
@c %**end of header

With the @command{-C NICK} option it can also be used to
create a new pseudonym. A pseudonym is the virtual identity
of the entity in control of a namespace. Anyone can create
any number of pseudonyms. Note that creating a pseudonym can
take a few minutes depending on the performance of the machine
used.

@node Deleting Pseudonyms
@subsubsection Deleting Pseudonyms
@c %**end of header

With the @command{-D NICK} option pseudonyms can be deleted.
Once the pseudonym has been deleted it is impossible to add
content to the corresponding namespace. Deleting the
pseudonym does not make the namespace or any content in it
unavailable.

@node Advertising namespaces
@subsubsection Advertising namespaces
@c %**end of header

Each namespace is associated with meta-data that describes
the namespace. This meta-data is provided by the user at
the time that the namespace is advertised. Advertisements
are published under keywords so that they can be found using
normal keyword-searches. This way, users can learn about new
namespaces without relying on out-of-band communication or directories.
A suggested keyword to use for all namespaces is simply "namespace".
When a keyword-search finds a namespace advertisement,
it is automatically stored in a local list of known namespaces.
Users can then associate a rank with the namespace to remember
the quality of the content found in it.

@node Namespace names
@subsubsection Namespace names
@c %**end of header

While the namespace is uniquely identified by its ID, another way
to refer to the namespace is to use the NICKNAME.
The NICKNAME can be freely chosen by the creator of the namespace and
hence conflicts are possible. If a GNUnet client learns about more
than one namespace using the same NICKNAME, the ID is appended
to the NICKNAME to get a unique identifier.

@node Namespace root
@subsubsection Namespace root
@c %**end of header

An item of particular interest in the namespace advertisement is
the ROOT. The ROOT is the identifier of a designated entry in the
namespace. The idea is that the ROOT can be used to advertise an
entry point to the content of the namespace.

@node File-Sharing URIs
@subsection File-Sharing URIs
@c %**end of header

GNUnet (currently) uses four different types of URIs for
file-sharing. They all begin with "gnunet://fs/".
This section describes the four different URI types in detail.


@menu
* Encoding of hash values in URIs::
* Content Hash Key (chk)::
* Location identifiers (loc)::
* Keyword queries (ksk)::
* Namespace content (sks)::
@end menu

@node Encoding of hash values in URIs
@subsubsection Encoding of hash values in URIs
@c %**end of header

Most URIs include some hash values. Hashes are encoded using
base32hex (RFC 2938).

@node Content Hash Key (chk)
@subsubsection Content Hash Key (chk)
@c %**end of header

A chk-URI is used to (uniquely) identify a file or directory
and to allow peers to download the file. Files are stored in
GNUnet as a tree of encrypted blocks.
The chk-URI thus contains the information to download and decrypt
those blocks. A chk-URI has the format
"gnunet://fs/chk/KEYHASH.QUERYHASH.SIZE". Here, "SIZE"
is the size of the file (which allows a peer to determine the
shape of the tree), KEYHASH is the key used to decrypt the file
(also the hash of the plaintext of the top block) and QUERYHASH
is the query used to request the top-level block (also the hash
of the encrypted block).

@node Location identifiers (loc)
@subsubsection Location identifiers (loc)
@c %**end of header

For non-anonymous file-sharing, loc-URIs are used to specify which
peer is offering the data (in addition to specifying all of the
data from a chk-URI). Location identifiers include a digital
signature of the peer to affirm that the peer is truly the
origin of the data. The format is
"gnunet://fs/loc/KEYHASH.QUERYHASH.SIZE.PEER.SIG.EXPTIME".
Here, "PEER" is the public key of the peer (in GNUnet format in
base32hex), SIG is the RSA signature (in GNUnet format in
base32hex) and EXPTIME specifies when the signature expires
(in milliseconds after 1970).

@node Keyword queries (ksk)
@subsubsection Keyword queries (ksk)
@c %**end of header

A keyword-URI is used to specify that the desired operation
is the search using a particular keyword. The format is simply
"gnunet://fs/ksk/KEYWORD". Non-ASCII characters can be specified
using the typical URI-encoding (using hex values) from HTTP.
"+" can be used to specify multiple keywords (which are then
logically "OR"-ed in the search, results matching both keywords
are given a higher rank): "gnunet://fs/ksk/KEYWORD1+KEYWORD2".

@node Namespace content (sks)
@subsubsection Namespace content (sks)
@c %**end of header

Namespaces are sets of files that have been approved by some (usually
pseudonymous) user --- typically by that user publishing all of the
files together. A file can be in many namespaces. A file is in a
namespace if the owner of the ego (aka the namespace's private key)
signs the CHK of the file cryptographically. An SKS-URI is used to
search a namespace. The result is a block containing meta data,
the CHK and the namespace owner's signature. The format of a sks-URI
is "gnunet://fs/sks/NAMESPACE/IDENTIFIER". Here, "NAMESPACE"
is the public key for the namespace. "IDENTIFIER" is a freely
chosen keyword (or password!). A commonly used identifier is
"root" which by convention refers to some kind of index or other
entry point into the namespace.

@node The GNU Name System
@section The GNU Name System
@c %**end of header


The GNU Name System (GNS) is secure and decentralized naming system.
It allows its users to resolve and register names within the @code{.gnu}
@dfn{top-level domain} (TLD).

GNS is designed to provide:
@itemize @bullet
@item Censorship resistance
@item Query privacy
@item Secure name resolution
@item Compatibility with DNS
@end itemize

For the initial configuration and population of your
GNS installation, please follow the GNS setup instructions.
The remainder of this chapter will provide some background on GNS
and then describe how to use GNS in more detail.

Unlike DNS, GNS does not rely on central root zones or authorities.
Instead any user administers their own root and can can create arbitrary
name value mappings. Furthermore users can delegate resolution to other
users' zones just like DNS NS records do. Zones are uniquely identified
via public keys and resource records are signed using the corresponding
public key. Delegation to another user's zone is done using special PKEY
records and petnames. A petname is a name that can be freely chosen by
the user. This results in non-unique name-value mappings as
@code{@uref{http://www.bob.gnu/, www.bob.gnu}} to one user might be
@code{@uref{http://www.friend.gnu/, www.friend.gnu}} for someone else.


@menu
* Maintaining your own Zones::
* Obtaining your Zone Key::
* Adding Links to Other Zones::
* The Three Local Zones of GNS::
* The Master Zone::
* The Private Zone::
* The Shorten Zone::
* The ZKEY Top Level Domain in GNS::
* Resource Records in GNS::
@end menu


@node Maintaining your own Zones
@subsection Maintaining your own Zones

To setup your GNS system you must execute:

@example
$ gnunet-gns-import.sh
@end example

@noindent
This will boostrap your zones and create the necessary key material.
Your keys can be listed using the @command{gnunet-identity}
command line tool:

@example
$ gnunet-identity -d
@end example

@noindent
You can arbitrarily create your own zones using the gnunet-identity
tool using:

@example
$ gnunet-identity -C "new_zone"
@end example

@noindent
Now you can add (or edit, or remove) records in your GNS zone using the
gnunet-setup GUI or using the gnunet-namestore command-line tool.
In either case, your records will be stored in an SQL database under
control of the gnunet-service-namestore. Note that if multiple users
use one peer, the namestore database will include the combined records
of all users. However, users will not be able to see each other's records
if they are marked as private.

To provide a simple example for editing your own zone, suppose you
have your own web server with IP 1.2.3.4. Then you can put an
A record (A records in DNS are for IPv4 IP addresses) into your
local zone using the command:

@example
$ gnunet-namestore -z master-zone -a -n www -t A -V 1.2.3.4 -e never
@end example

@noindent
Afterwards, you will be able to access your webpage under "www.gnu"
(assuming your webserver does not use virtual hosting, if it does,
please read up on setting up the GNS proxy).

Similar commands will work for other types of DNS and GNS records,
the syntax largely depending on the type of the record.
Naturally, most users may find editing the zones using the
@command{gnunet-setup} GUI to be easier.

@node Obtaining your Zone Key
@subsection Obtaining your Zone Key

Each zone in GNS has a public-private key. Usually, gnunet-namestore and
gnunet-setup will access your private key as necessary, so you do not
have to worry about those. What is important is your public key
(or rather, the hash of your public key), as you will likely want to
give it to others so that they can securely link to you.

You can usually get the hash of your public key using

@example
$ gnunet-identity -d $options | grep master-zone | awk '@{print $3@}'
@end example

@noindent
For example, the output might be something like:

@example
DC3SEECJORPHQNVRH965A6N74B1M37S721IG4RBQ15PJLLPJKUE0
@end example

@noindent
Alternatively, you can obtain a QR code with your zone key AND
your pseudonym from gnunet-gtk. The QR code is displayed in the
GNS tab and can be stored to disk using the Save as button next
to the image.

@node Adding Links to Other Zones
@subsection Adding Links to Other Zones


A central operation in GNS is the ability to securely delegate to
other zones. Basically, by adding a delegation you make all of the
names from the other zone available to yourself. This section
describes how to create delegations.

Suppose you have a friend who you call 'bob' who also uses GNS.
You can then delegate resolution of names to Bob's zone by adding
a PKEY record to their local zone:

@example
$ gnunet-namestore -a -n bob --type PKEY -V XXXX -e never
@end example

@noindent
Note that XXXX in the command above must be replaced with the
hash of Bob's public key (the output your friend obtained using
the gnunet-identity command from the previous section and told you,
for example by giving you a business card containing this
information as a QR code).

Assuming Bob has an A record for their website under the name of
www in his zone, you can then access Bob's website under
www.bob.gnu --- as well as any (public) GNS record that Bob has
in their zone by replacing www with the respective name of the
record in Bob's zone.

@c themselves? themself?
Furthermore, if Bob has themselves a (public) delegation to Carol's
zone under "carol", you can access Carol's records under
NAME.carol.bob.gnu (where NAME is the name of Carol's record you
want to access).

@node The Three Local Zones of GNS
@subsection The Three Local Zones of GNS

Each user GNS has control over three zones. Each of the zones
has a different purpose. These zones are the

@itemize @bullet

@item master zone,
@item private zone, and the
@item shorten zone.
@end itemize

@node The Master Zone
@subsection The Master Zone


The master zone is your personal TLD. Names within the @code{.gnu}
namespace are resolved relative to this zone. You can arbitrarily
add records to this zone and selectively publish those records.

@node The Private Zone
@subsection The Private Zone


The private zone is a subzone (or subdomain in DNS terms) of your
master zone. It should be used for records that you want to keep
private. For example @code{bank.private.gnu}. The key idea is that
you want to keep your private records separate, if just to know
that those names are not available to other users.

@node The Shorten Zone
@subsection The Shorten Zone


The shorten zone can either be a subzone of the master zone or the
private zone. It is different from the other zones in that GNS
will automatically populate this zone with other users' zones based
on their PSEU records whenever you resolve a name.

For example if you go to
@code{@uref{http://www.bob.alice.dave.gnu/, www.bob.alice.dave.gnu}},
GNS will try to import @code{bob} into your shorten zone. Having
obtained Bob's PKEY from @code{alice.dave.gnu}, GNS will lookup the
PSEU record for @code{+} in Bob's zone. If it exists and the specified
pseudonym is not taken, Bob's PKEY will be automatically added under
that pseudonym (i.e. "bob") into your shorten zone. From then on,
Bob's webpage will also be available for you as
@code{@uref{http://www.bob.short.gnu/, www.bob.short.gnu}}.
This feature is called @b{automatic name shortening} and is supposed to
keep GNS names as short and memorable as possible.

@node The ZKEY Top Level Domain in GNS
@subsection The ZKEY Top Level Domain in GNS


GNS also provides a secure and globally unique namespace under the .zkey
top-level domain. A name in the .zkey TLD corresponds to the (printable)
public key of a zone. Names in the .zkey TLD are then resolved by querying
the respective zone. The .zkey TLD is expected to be used under rare
circumstances where globally unique names are required and for
integration with legacy systems.

@node Resource Records in GNS
@subsection Resource Records in GNS


GNS supports the majority of the DNS records as defined in
@uref{http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1035.txt, RFC 1035}. Additionally,
GNS defines some new record types the are unique to the GNS system.
For example, GNS-specific resource records are used to give petnames
for zone delegation, revoke zone keys and provide some compatibility
features.

For some DNS records, GNS does extended processing to increase their
usefulness in GNS. In particular, GNS introduces special names
referred to as "zone relative names". Zone relative names are allowed
in some resource record types (for example, in NS and CNAME records)
and can also be used in links on webpages. Zone relative names end
in ".+" which indicates that the name needs to be resolved relative
to the current authoritative zone. The extended processing of those
names will expand the ".+" with the correct delegation chain to the
authoritative zone (replacing ".+" with the name of the location
where the name was encountered) and hence generate a
valid @code{.gnu} name.

GNS currently supports the following record types:

@menu
* NICK::
* PKEY::
* BOX::
* LEHO::
* VPN::
* A AAAA and TXT::
* CNAME::
* GNS2DNS::
* SOA SRV PTR and MX::
@end menu

@node NICK
@subsubsection NICK

A NICK record is used to give a zone a name. With a NICK record, you can
essentially specify how you would like to be called. GNS expects this
record under the name "+" in the zone's database (NAMESTORE); however,
it will then automatically be copied into each record set, so that
clients never need to do a separate lookup to discover the NICK record.

@b{Example}@

@example
Name: +; RRType: NICK; Value: bob
@end example

@noindent
This record in Bob's zone will tell other users that this zone wants
to be referred to as 'bob'. Note that nobody is obliged to call Bob's
zone 'bob' in their own zones. It can be seen as a
recommendation ("Please call me 'bob'").

@node PKEY
@subsubsection PKEY

PKEY records are used to add delegation to other users' zones and
give those zones a petname.

@b{Example}@

Let Bob's zone be identified by the hash "ABC012". Bob is your friend
so you want to give them the petname "friend". Then you add the
following record to your zone:

@example
Name: friend; RRType: PKEY; Value: ABC012;
@end example

@noindent
This will allow you to resolve records in bob's zone
under "*.friend.gnu".

@node BOX
@subsubsection BOX

BOX records are there to integrate information from TLSA or
SRV records under the main label. In DNS, TLSA and SRV records
use special names of the form @code{_port._proto.(label.)*tld} to
indicate the port number and protocol (i.e. tcp or udp) for which
the TLSA or SRV record is valid. This causes various problems, and
is elegantly solved in GNS by integrating the protocol and port
numbers together with the respective value into a "BOX" record.
Note that in the GUI, you do not get to edit BOX records directly
right now --- the GUI will provide the illusion of directly
editing the TLSA and SRV records, even though they internally
are BOXed up.

@node LEHO
@subsubsection LEHO

The LEgacy HOstname of a server. Some webservers expect a specific
hostname to provide a service (virtiual hosting). Also SSL
certificates usually contain DNS names. To provide the expected
legacy DNS name for a server, the LEHO record can be used.
To mitigate the just mentioned issues the GNS proxy has to be used.
The GNS proxy will use the LEHO information to apply the necessary
transformations.

@node VPN
@subsubsection VPN

GNS allows easy access to services provided by the GNUnet Virtual Public
Network. When the GNS resolver encounters a VPN record it will contact
the VPN service to try and allocate an IPv4/v6 address (if the queries
record type is an IP address) that can be used to contact the service.

@b{Example}@

I want to provide access to the VPN service "web.gnu." on port 80 on peer
ABC012:@
Name: www; RRType: VPN; Value: 80 ABC012 web.gnu.

The peer ABC012 is configured to provide an exit point for the service
"web.gnu." on port 80 to it's server running locally on port 8080 by
having the following lines in the @file{gnunet.conf} configuration file:

@example
[web.gnunet.]
TCP_REDIRECTS = 80:localhost4:8080
@end example

@node A AAAA and TXT
@subsubsection A AAAA and TXT

Those records work in exactly the same fashion as in traditional DNS.

@node CNAME
@subsubsection CNAME

As specified in RFC 1035 whenever a CNAME is encountered the query
needs to be restarted with the specified name. In GNS a CNAME
can either be:

@itemize @bullet
@item A zone relative name,
@item A zkey name or
@item A DNS name (in which case resolution will continue outside
of GNS with the systems DNS resolver)
@end itemize

@node GNS2DNS
@subsubsection GNS2DNS

GNS can delegate authority to a legacy DNS zone. For this, the
name of the DNS nameserver and the name of the DNS zone are
specified in a GNS2DNS record.

@b{Example}

@example
Name: pet; RRType: GNS2DNS; Value: gnunet.org@@a.ns.joker.com
@end example

@noindent
Any query to @code{pet.gnu} will then be delegated to the DNS server at
@code{a.ns.joker.com}. For example,
@code{@uref{http://www.pet.gnu/, www.pet.gnu}} will result in a DNS query
for @code{@uref{http://www.gnunet.org/, www.gnunet.org}} to the server
at @code{a.ns.joker.com}. Delegation to DNS via NS records in GNS can
be useful if you do not want to start resolution in the DNS root zone
(due to issues such as censorship or availability).

Note that you would typically want to use a relative name for the
nameserver, i.e.

@example
Name: pet; RRType: GNS2DNS; Value: gnunet.org@@ns-joker.+@
Name: ns-joker; RRType: A; Value: 184.172.157.218
@end example

@noindent
This way, you can avoid involving the DNS hierarchy in the resolution of
@code{a.ns.joker.com}. In the example above, the problem may not be
obvious as the nameserver for "gnunet.org" is in the ".com" zone.
However, imagine the nameserver was "ns.gnunet.org". In this case,
delegating to "ns.gnunet.org" would mean that despite using GNS,
censorship in the DNS ".org" zone would still be effective.

@node SOA SRV PTR and MX
@subsubsection SOA SRV PTR and MX

The domain names in those records can, again, be either

@itemize @bullet
@item A zone relative name,
@item A zkey name or
@item A DNS name
@end itemize

The resolver will expand the zone relative name if possible.
Note that when using MX records within GNS, the target mail
server might still refuse to accept e-mails to the resulting
domain as the name might not match. GNS-enabled mail clients
should use the ZKEY zone as the destination hostname and
GNS-enabled mail servers should be configured to accept
e-mails to the ZKEY-zones of all local users.

@node Using the Virtual Public Network
@section Using the Virtual Public Network

@menu
* Setting up an Exit node::
* Fedora and the Firewall::
* Setting up VPN node for protocol translation and tunneling::
@end menu

Using the GNUnet Virtual Public Network (VPN) application you can
tunnel IP traffic over GNUnet. Moreover, the VPN comes
with built-in protocol translation and DNS-ALG support, enabling
IPv4-to-IPv6 protocol translation (in both directions).
This chapter documents how to use the GNUnet VPN.

The first thing to note about the GNUnet VPN is that it is a public
network. All participating peers can participate and there is no
secret key to control access. So unlike common virtual private
networks, the GNUnet VPN is not useful as a means to provide a
"private" network abstraction over the Internet. The GNUnet VPN
is a virtual network in the sense that it is an overlay over the
Internet, using its own routing mechanisms and can also use an
internal addressing scheme. The GNUnet VPN is an Internet
underlay --- TCP/IP applications run on top of it.

The VPN is currently only supported on GNU/Linux systems.
Support for operating systems that support TUN (such as FreeBSD)
should be easy to add (or might not even require any coding at
all --- we just did not test this so far). Support for other
operating systems would require re-writing the code to create virtual
network interfaces and to intercept DNS requests.

The VPN does not provide good anonymity. While requests are routed
over the GNUnet network, other peers can directly see the source
and destination of each (encapsulated) IP packet. Finally, if you
use the VPN to access Internet services, the peer sending the
request to the Internet will be able to observe and even alter
the IP traffic. We will discuss additional security implications
of using the VPN later in this chapter.

@node Setting up an Exit node
@subsection Setting up an Exit node

Any useful operation with the VPN requires the existence of an exit
node in the GNUnet Peer-to-Peer network. Exit functionality can only
be enabled on peers that have regular Internet access. If you want
to play around with the VPN or support the network, we encourage
you to setup exit nodes. This chapter documents how to setup an
exit node.

There are four types of exit functions an exit node can provide,
and using the GNUnet VPN to access the Internet will only work
nicely if the first three types are provided somewhere in
the network. The four exit functions are:

@itemize @bullet
@item DNS: allow other peers to use your DNS resolver
@item IPv4: allow other peers to access your IPv4 Internet connection
@item IPv6: allow other peers to access your IPv6 Internet connection
@item Local service: allow other peers to access a specific TCP or
UDP service your peer is providing
@end itemize

By enabling "exit" in gnunet-setup and checking the respective boxes
in the "exit" tab, you can easily choose which of the above exit
functions you want to support.

Note, however, that by supporting the first three functions you will
allow arbitrary other GNUnet users to access the Internet via your
system. This is somewhat similar to running a Tor exit node. The
Torproject has a nice article about what to consider if you want
to do this here. We believe that generally running a DNS exit node
is completely harmless.

The exit node configuration does currently not allow you to restrict the
Internet traffic that leaves your system. In particular, you cannot
exclude SMTP traffic (or block port 25) or limit to HTTP traffic using
the GNUnet configuration. However, you can use your host firewall to
restrict outbound connections from the virtual tunnel interface. This
is highly recommended. In the future, we plan to offer a wider range
of configuration options for exit nodes.

Note that by running an exit node GNUnet will configure your kernel
to perform IP-forwarding (for IPv6) and NAT (for IPv4) so that the
traffic from the virtual interface can be routed to the Internet.
In order to provide an IPv6-exit, you need to have a subnet routed
to your host's external network interface and assign a subrange of
that subnet to the GNUnet exit's TUN interface.

When running a local service, you should make sure that the local
service is (also) bound to the IP address of your EXIT interface
(i.e. 169.254.86.1). It will NOT work if your local service is
just bound to loopback. You may also want to create a "VPN" record
in your zone of the GNU Name System to make it easy for others to
access your service via a name instead of just the full service
descriptor. Note that the identifier you assign the service can
serve as a passphrase or shared secret, clients connecting to the
service must somehow learn the service's name. VPN records in the
GNU Name System can make this easier.

@node Fedora and the Firewall
@subsection Fedora and the Firewall


When using an exit node on Fedora 15, the standard firewall can
create trouble even when not really exiting the local system!
For IPv4, the standard rules seem fine. However, for IPv6 the
standard rules prohibit traffic from the network range of the
virtual interface created by the exit daemon to the local IPv6
address of the same interface (which is essentially loopback
traffic, so you might suspect that a standard firewall would
leave this traffic alone). However, as somehow for IPv6 the
traffic is not recognized as originating from the local
system (and as the connection is not already "established"),
the firewall drops the traffic. You should still get ICMPv6
packets back, but that's obviously not very useful.

Possible ways to fix this include disabling the firewall (do you
have a good reason for having it on?) or disabling the firewall
at least for the GNUnet exit interface (or the respective
IPv4/IPv6 address range). The best way to diagnose these kinds
of problems in general involves setting the firewall to REJECT
instead of DROP and to watch the traffic using wireshark
(or tcpdump) to see if ICMP messages are generated when running
some tests that should work.

@node Setting up VPN node for protocol translation and tunneling
@subsection Setting up VPN node for protocol translation and tunneling


The GNUnet VPN/PT subsystem enables you to tunnel IP traffic over the
VPN to an exit node, from where it can then be forwarded to the
Internet. This section documents how to setup VPN/PT on a node.
Note that you can enable both the VPN and an exit on the same peer.
In this case, IP traffic from your system may enter your peer's VPN
and leave your peer's exit. This can be useful as a means to do
protocol translation. For example, you might have an application that
supports only IPv4 but needs to access an IPv6-only site. In this case,
GNUnet would perform 4to6 protocol translation between the VPN (IPv4)
and the Exit (IPv6). Similarly, 6to4 protocol translation is also
possible. However, the primary use for GNUnet would be to access
an Internet service running with an IP version that is not supported
by your ISP. In this case, your IP traffic would be routed via GNUnet
to a peer that has access to the Internet with the desired IP version.

Setting up an entry node into the GNUnet VPN primarily requires you
to enable the "VPN/PT" option in "gnunet-setup". This will launch the
"gnunet-service-vpn", "gnunet-service-dns" and "gnunet-daemon-pt"
processes. The "gnunet-service-vpn" will create a virtual interface
which will be used as the target for your IP traffic that enters the
VPN. Additionally, a second virtual interface will be created by
the "gnunet-service-dns" for your DNS traffic. You will then need to
specify which traffic you want to tunnel over GNUnet. If your ISP only
provides you with IPv4 or IPv6-access, you may choose to tunnel the
other IP protocol over the GNUnet VPN. If you do not have an ISP
(and are connected to other GNUnet peers via WLAN), you can also
choose to tunnel all IP traffic over GNUnet. This might also provide
you with some anonymity. After you enable the respective options
and restart your peer, your Internet traffic should be tunneled
over the GNUnet VPN.

The GNUnet VPN uses DNS-ALG to hijack your IP traffic. Whenever an
application resolves a hostname (i.e. 'gnunet.org'), the
"gnunet-daemon-pt" will instruct the "gnunet-service-dns" to intercept
the request (possibly route it over GNUnet as well) and replace the
normal answer with an IP in the range of the VPN's interface.
"gnunet-daemon-pt" will then tell "gnunet-service-vpn" to forward all
traffic it receives on the TUN interface via the VPN to the original
destination.

For applications that do not use DNS, you can also manually create
such a mapping using the gnunet-vpn command-line tool. Here, you
specfiy the desired address family of the result (i.e. "-4"), and the
intended target IP on the Internet ("-i 131.159.74.67") and
"gnunet-vpn" will tell you which IP address in the range of your
VPN tunnel was mapped.

@command{gnunet-vpn} can also be used to access "internal" services
offered by GNUnet nodes. So if you happen to know a peer and a
service offered by that peer, you can create an IP tunnel to
that peer by specifying the peer's identity, service name and
protocol (--tcp or --udp) and you will again receive an IP address
that will terminate at the respective peer's service.