other meta information, and possibly even the full original file
(if it was small).
-@node Pseudonyms
-@subsubsection Pseudonyms
+@node Egos
+@subsubsection Egos
+When sharing files, it is sometimes desirable to build a reputation as
+a source for quality information. With egos, publishers can
+(cryptographically) sign files, thereby demonstrating that various
+files were published by the same entity. An ego thus allows users to
+link different publication events, thereby deliberately reducing
+anonymity to pseudonymity.
-@b{Please note that the text in this subsection is outdated and needs}
-@b{to be rewritten for version 0.10!}
-@b{This especially concerns the terminology of Pseudonym/Ego/Identity.}
+Egos used in GNUnet's file-sharing for such pseudonymous publishing
+also correspond to the egos used to identify and sign zones in the
+GNU Name System. However, if the same ego is used for file-sharing
+and for a GNS zone, this will weaken the privacy assurances provided
+by the anonymous file-sharing protocol.
-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 an ego is NOT bound to a GNUnet peer. There can be multiple
+egos for a single user, and users could (theoretically) share
+the private keys of an ego by copying the respective private keys.
-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
+A namespace is a set of files that were signed by the same ego.
+Today, namespaces are implemented independently of GNS zones, but
+in the future we plan to merge the two such that a GNS zone can
+basically contain files using a file-sharing specific record type.
-@b{Please note that the text in this subsection is outdated and needs}
-@b{to be rewritten for version 0.10!}
-@b{This especially concerns the terminology of Pseudonym/Ego/Identity.}
-
-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).
+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.
@node Advertisements
@subsubsection Advertisements
-
-@b{Please note that the text in this subsection is outdated and needs}
-@b{to be rewritten for version 0.10!}
-@b{This especially concerns the terminology of Pseudonym/Ego/Identity.}
-
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 @code{gnunet-identity}. Whenever a
-namespace is created, an appropriate advertisement can be generated.
-The default keyword for the advertising of namespaces is "namespace".
-
-Note that GNUnet differentiates 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-identity}
-tool is currently responsible for both managing pseudonyms and namespaces.
-This will likely change in the future to reduce the potential for
-confusion.
+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
+@code{gnunet-identity}. Whenever a namespace is created, an
+appropriate advertisement can be generated. The default keyword for
+the advertising of namespaces is "namespace".
+
@node Anonymity level
@subsubsection Anonymity level
-
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
While higher anonymity levels may offer better privacy, they can also
significantly hurt performance.
+
@node Content Priority
@subsubsection Content Priority
-
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
published locally, the base-priority that was specified by the user
when the block was published initially.
+
@node Replication
@subsubsection Replication
-
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
@node Namespace Management
@subsection Namespace Management
-
-@b{Please note that the text in this subsection is outdated and needs}
-@b{to be rewritten for version 0.10!}
-
-The @code{gnunet-identity} tool can be used to create pseudonyms and
-to advertise namespaces. By default, @code{gnunet-identity -D} simply
-lists all locally available pseudonyms.
+The @code{gnunet-identity} tool can be used to create egos.
+By default, @code{gnunet-identity -D} simply
+lists all locally available egos.
@menu
-* Creating Pseudonyms::
-* Deleting Pseudonyms::
-* Advertising namespaces::
-* Namespace names::
-* Namespace root::
+* Creating Egos::
+* Deleting Egos::
@end menu
-@node Creating Pseudonyms
-@subsubsection Creating Pseudonyms
-
-
-@b{Please note that the text in this subsection is outdated and needs}
-@b{to be rewritten for version 0.10!}
-@b{This especially concerns the terminology of Pseudonym/Ego/Identity.}
-
-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
-
-
-@b{Please note that the text in this subsection is outdated and needs}
-@b{to be rewritten for version 0.10!}
-@b{This especially concerns the terminology of Pseudonym/Ego/Identity.}
-
-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
-
-
-@b{Please note that the text in this subsection is outdated and needs}
-@b{to be rewritten for version 0.10!}
-@b{This especially concerns the terminology of Pseudonym/Ego/Identity.}
-
-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
+@node Creating Egos
+@subsubsection Creating Egos
+With the @command{-C NICK} option it can also be used to create a new
+ego. An ego is the virtual identity of the entity in control of a
+namespace or GNS zone. Anyone can create any number of egos. The
+provided NICK name automatically corresponds to a GNU Name System
+domain name. Thus, henceforth name resolution for any name ending in
+``.NICK'' will use the NICK's zone. You should avoid using NICKs that
+collide with well-known DNS names.
-@b{Please note that the text in this subsection is outdated and needs}
-@b{to be rewritten for version 0.10!}
-@b{This especially concerns the terminology of Pseudonym/Ego/Identity.}
+@node Deleting Egos
+@subsubsection Deleting Egos
-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
-
-
-@b{Please note that the text in this subsection is outdated and needs}
-@b{to be rewritten for version 0.10!}
-@b{This especially concerns the terminology of Pseudonym/Ego/Identity.}
+With the @command{-D NICK} option egos can be deleted. Once the ego
+has been deleted it is impossible to add content to the corresponding
+namespace or zone. However, the existing GNS zone data is currently
+not dropped. This may change in the future.
-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.
+Deleting the pseudonym does not make the namespace or any content in
+it unavailable.
@node File-Sharing URIs
@subsection File-Sharing URIs
projects / oweals / gnunet.git / commitdiff