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 - libmicrohttpd >= 0.9.52
59 - A curl build against gnutls, or gnurl:
60 - libgnurl >= 7.35.0 (recommended, available from
61 https://gnunet.org/en/gnurl.html)
63 - libcurl >= 7.35.0 (alternative to libgnurl)
64 - libunistring >= 0.9.2
65 - gnutls >= 3.2.12 (highly recommended a gnutls
66 linked against libunbound)
71 - libextractor >= 0.6.1 (highly recommended)
72 - openssl >= 1.0 (binary, used to generate
74 for gnunet-gns-proxy-setup-ca)
75 - nss (certutil binary, for
76 gnunet-gns-proxy-setup-ca)
77 - libltdl >= 2.2 (part of GNU libtool)
78 - 1 or more databases:
79 - sqlite >= 3.8 (default database, required)
81 - mysql >= 5.1 (alternative to sqlite)
83 - postgres >= 9.5 (alternative to sqlite)
87 - which (contrib/apparmor(?), gnunet-bugreport,
88 tests (dns, gns, namestore,
89 scalarproduct) and possibly more)
92 - Posix shell (for some scripts)
93 - Bash (for some scripts)
95 These are the dependencies for GNUnet's testsuite:
96 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
98 - Posix Shell (for some tests)
99 - Bash (for some tests[*4])
100 - python >= 3.7 (only python 3.7 is supported)
109 These are the optional dependencies:
110 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
112 - Bash (for Docker and Vagrant)
114 - libopus >= 1.0.1 (for experimental conversation tool)
115 - libpulse >= 2.0 (for experimental conversation tool)
116 - libogg >= 1.3.0 (for experimental conversation tool)
117 - libnss (certtool binary (for convenient
118 installation of GNS proxy))
119 - python2.7 = 2.7 (for gnunet-qr, only python 2.7
121 - python-zbar >= 0.10 (for gnunet-qr, not optional)
122 - TeX Live >= 2012 (for gnunet-bcd[*])
123 - texi2mdoc (for automatic mdoc generation [*2])
124 - mandoc (for linting of man pages, generation of
125 html output of man pages)
126 - awk (for linting tests)
127 - grof (for linting of man pages)
128 - libglpk >= 4.45 (for experimental code)
129 - perl5 (for some utilities)
130 - guile 1.6.4 (or later up to 1.8?, for
131 gnunet-download-manager)
132 - bluez (for bluetooth support)
134 - libpbc >= 0.5.14 (for Attribute-Based Encryption and
135 Identity Provider functionality)
136 - libgabe (for Attribute-Based Encryption and
137 Identity Provider functionality, from
138 https://github.com/schanzen/libgabe)
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.
177 GNUnet's directed acyclic graph (DAG) will require around 0.74 GiB
178 Diskspace, with GNUNet itself taking around 8 - 9.2 MiB reported by
179 the build on GNU Guix.
188 We recommend to use binary packages provided by your Operating System's
189 package manager. GNUnet is reportedly available for at least:
191 GNU Guix, Nix, Debian, ALT Linux, Archlinux, Deepin, Devuan, Hyperbola,
192 Kali Linux, LEDE/OpenWRT, Manjaro, Parabola, Pardus, Parrot, PureOS,
193 Raspbian, Rosa, Trisquel, and Ubuntu.
195 If GNUnet is available for your Operating System and it is missing,
196 send us feedback so that we can add it to this list. Furthermore, if
197 you are interested in packaging GNUnet for your Operating System,
198 get in touch with us at gnunet-developers@gnu.org if you require
201 If you were using an Operating System with the apt package manager,
202 GNUnet could be installed as simple as:
204 $ apt-get install gnunet
206 Generic installation instructions are in the INSTALL file in this
209 Scope of Operating System support
210 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
211 We actively support GNUnet on a broad range of Free Software Operating
214 For proprietary Operating Systems, like for example Microsoft Windows
215 or Apple OS X, we accept patches if they don't break anything for
216 other Operating Systems.
217 If you are implementing support for a proprietary Operating System,
218 you should be aware that progress in our codebase could break
219 functionality on your OS and cause unpredicted behavior we can
220 not test. However, we do not break support on Operating Systems
221 with malicious intent.
222 Regressions which do occur on these Operating Systems are 3rd
223 class issues and we expect users and developers of these
224 Operating Systems to send proposed patches to fix regressions.
226 For more information about our stand on some of the motivating
227 points here, read the 'Philosophy' Chapter of our handbook.
229 Building GNUnet from source
230 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
232 IMPORTANT: You can read further notes about compilation from source in
233 the handbook under doc/handbook/, which includes notes about specific
234 requirements for operating systems aswell. If you are a package
235 mantainer for an Operating System we invite you to add your notes if
236 you feel it is necessary and can not be covered in your Operating
237 System's documentation.
239 Two prominent examples which currently lack cross-compilation
240 support in GNUnet (and native binaries) are MS Windows and Apple macOS.
241 For macOS we recommend you to do the build process via Homebrew and a
242 recent XCode installation. We don't recommend using GNUnet with any
243 recent MS Windows system as it officially spies on its users (according
244 to its T&C), defying some of the purposes of GNUnet.
246 Note that some functions of GNUnet require "root" access. GNUnet will
247 install (tiny) SUID binaries for those functions is you run "make
248 install" as root. If you do not, GNUnet will still work, but some
249 functionality will not be available (including certain forms of NAT
252 GNUnet requires the GNU MP library (https://www.gnu.org/software/gmp/)
253 and libgcrypt (https://www.gnupg.org/). You can specify the path to
254 libgcrypt by passing "--with-gcrypt=PATH" to configure. You will also
255 need either sqlite (http://www.sqlite.org/), MySQL
256 (http://www.mysql.org/) or PostGres (http://www.postgres.org/).
258 If you install from source, you need to install GNU libextractor first
259 (download from https://www.gnu.org/software/libextractor/). We also
260 recommend installing GNU libmicrohttpd (download from
261 https://www.gnu.org/software/libmicrohttpd/). Furthermore we recommend
262 libgnurl (from https://gnunet.org/en/gnurl.html).
263 Then you can start the actual GNUnet compilation process with:
266 $ export GNUNET_PREFIX=/usr/local/lib # or other directory of your choice
268 # adduser --system --home "/var/lib/gnunet" --group gnunet --shell /bin/sh
269 # ./configure --prefix=$GNUNET_PREFIX/.. --with-extractor=$LE_PREFIX
272 And finally install GNUnet with:
276 Complete the process by either adjusting one of our example service files
277 in 'contrib/services' or by running:
279 # sudo -u gnunet gnunet-arm -s
282 Note that running the 'configure' and 'make install' steps as
283 root (or with sudo) is required as some parts of the installation
284 require the creation of SUID binaries. The installation will
285 work if you do not run these steps as root, but some components
286 may not be installed in the perfect place or with the right
287 permissions and thus won't work.
289 This will create the users and groups needed for running GNUnet
290 securely and then compile and install GNUnet to $GNUNET_PREFIX/../bin/,
291 $GNUNET_PREFIX/ and $GNUNET_PREFIX/../share/ and start the system
292 with the default configuration. It is strongly recommended that you
293 add a user "gnunet" to run "gnunet-arm". You can then still run the
294 end-user applications as another user.
296 If you create a system user "gnunet", it is recommended that you edit
297 the configuration file slightly so that data can be stored in the
298 system user home directory at "/var/lib/gnunet". Depending on what
299 the $HOME-directory of your "gnunet" user is, you might need to set
300 the SERVICEHOME option in section "[PATHS]" to "/var/lib/gnunet" to
301 do this. Depending on your personal preferences, you may also want to
302 use "/etc/gnunet.conf" for the location of the configuration file in
303 this case (instead of ~gnunet/.config/gnunet.conf"). In this case,
304 you need to start GNUnet using "gnunet-arm -s -c /etc/gnunet.conf" or
305 set "XDG_CONFIG_HOME=/etc/".
307 You can avoid running 'make install' as root if you run configure
308 with the "--with-sudo=yes" option and have extensive sudo rights
309 (can run "chmod +s" and "chown" via 'sudo'). If you run 'make install'
310 as a normal user without sudo rights (or the configure option),
311 certain binaries that require additional priviledges will not be
312 installed properly (and autonomous NAT traversal, WLAN, DNS/GNS and
313 the VPN will then not work).
315 If you run 'configure' and 'make install' as root or use the '--with-sudo'
316 option, GNUnet's build system will install "libnss_gns*" libraries to
317 "/lib/" regardless (!) of the $GNUNET_PREFIX you might have specified,
318 as those libraries must be in "/lib/". If you are packaging GNUnet
319 for binary distribution, this may cause your packaging script to miss
320 those plugins, so you might need to do some additional manual work to
321 include those libraries in your binary package(s). Similarly, if you
322 want to use the GNUnet naming system and did NOT run GNUnet's 'make
323 install' process with sudo rights, the libraries will be installed to
324 "$GNUNET_PREFIX" and you will have to move them to "/lib/"
327 Finally, if you are compiling the code from git, you have to
328 run "sh ./bootstrap" before running "./configure". If you receive an error during
329 the running of "sh ./bootstrap" that looks like "macro `AM_PATH_GTK'
330 not found in library", you may need to run aclocal by hand with the -I
331 option, pointing to your aclocal m4 macros, i.e.
333 $ aclocal -I /usr/local/share/aclocal
339 Note that additional, per-user configuration files can be created by
340 each user. However, this is usually not necessary as there are few
341 per-user options that normal users would want to modify. The defaults
342 that are shipped with the installation are usually just fine.
344 The gnunet-setup tool is particularly useful to generate the master
345 configuration for the peer. gnunet-setup can be used to configure and
346 test (!) the network settings, choose which applications should be run
347 and configure databases. Other options you might want to control
348 include system limitations (such as disk space consumption, bandwidth,
349 etc). The resulting configuration files are human-readable and can
350 theoretically be created or edited by hand.
352 gnunet-setup is a separate download and requires somewhat recent
353 versions of GTK+ and Glade. You can also create the configuration file
354 by hand, but this is not recommended. For more general information
355 about the GNU build process read the INSTALL file.
357 GNUnet uses two types of configuration files, one that specifies the
358 system-wide defaults (typically located in
359 $GNUNET_PREFIX/../share/gnunet/config.d/) and a second one that overrides
360 default values with user-specific preferences. The user-specific
361 configuration file should be located in "~/.config/gnunet.conf" or its
362 location can be specified by giving the "-c" option to the respective
365 For more information about the configuration (as well as usage) refer
366 to the 'GNUnet User Handbook' chapter of the documentation, included
367 in this software distribution.
373 For detailed usage notes, instructions and examples, refer to the
374 included 'GNUnet Handbook'.
376 First, you must obtain an initial list of GNUnet hosts. Knowing a
377 single peer is sufficient since after that GNUnet propagates
378 information about other peers. Note that the default configuration
379 contains URLs from where GNUnet downloads an initial hostlist
380 whenever it is started. If you want to create an alternative URL for
381 others to use, the file can be generated on any machine running
382 GNUnet by periodically executing
384 $ cat $SERVICEHOME/data/hosts/* > the_file
386 and offering 'the_file' via your web server. Alternatively, you can
387 run the build-in web server by adding '-p' to the OPTIONS value
388 in the "hostlist" section of gnunet.conf and opening the respective
389 HTTPPORT to the public.
391 If the solution with the hostlist URL is not feasible for your
392 situation, you can also add hosts manually. Simply copy the hostkeys
393 to "$SERVICEHOME/data/hosts/" (where $SERVICEHOME is the directory
394 specified in the gnunet.conf configuration file). You can also use
395 "gnunet-peerinfo -g" to GET a URI for a peer and "gnunet-peerinfo -p
396 URI" to add a URI from another peer. Finally, GNUnet peers that use
397 UDP or WLAN will discover each other automatically (if they are in the
398 vicinity of each other) using broadcasts (IPv4/WLAN) or multicasts
401 The local node is started using "gnunet-arm -s". We recommend to run
402 GNUnet 24/7 if you want to maximize your anonymity, as this makes
403 partitioning attacks harder.
405 Once your peer is running, you should then be able to access GNUnet
408 $ gnunet-search KEYWORD
410 This will display a list of results to the console. You can abort
411 the command using "CTRL-C". Then use
413 $ gnunet-download -o FILENAME GNUNET_URI
415 to retrieve a file. The GNUNET_URI is printed by gnunet-search
416 together with a description. To publish files on GNUnet, use the
417 "gnunet-publish" command.
420 The GTK+ (or: Gimp Toolkit) user interface is shipped separately.
421 After installing gnunet-gtk, you can invoke the setup tool and
422 the file-sharing GUI with:
427 For further documentation, see our webpage or the 'GNUnet User Handbook',
428 included in this software distribution.
434 Contributions are welcome. Please submit bugs you find to
435 https://bugs.gnunet.org/ or our bugs mailinglist.
436 Please make sure to run the script "contrib/scripts/gnunet-bugreport"
437 and include the output with your bug reports. More about how to
438 report bugs can be found in the GNUnet FAQ on the webpage. Submit
439 patches via E-Mail to gnunet-developers@gnu.org, formated with
442 In order to run the unit tests by hand (instead of using "make check"),
443 you need to set the environment variable "GNUNET_PREFIX" to the
444 directory where GNUnet's libraries are installed.
445 Before running any testcases, you must complete the installation.
449 $ ./configure --prefix=$SOMEWHERE
452 $ export $GNUNET_PREFIX=$SOMEWHERE
455 Some of the testcases require python >= 3.7, and the python module
456 "pexpect" to be installed.
457 If any testcases fail to pass on your system, run
458 "contrib/scripts/gnunet-bugreport" (in the repository) or "gnunet-bugreport"
459 when you already have GNUnet installed and report its output together with
460 information about the failing testcase(s) to the Mantis bugtracking
461 system at https://bugs.gnunet.org/.
464 Running HTTP on port 80 and HTTPS on port 443
465 =============================================
467 In order to hide GNUnet's HTTP/HTTPS traffic perfectly, you might
468 consider running GNUnet's HTTP/HTTPS transport on port 80/443.
469 However, we do not recommend running GNUnet as root. Instead, forward
470 port 80 to say 1080 with this command (as root, in your startup
473 # iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp -m tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 1080
477 # iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp -m tcp --dport 443 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 4433
479 Then set in the HTTP section of gnunet.conf the "ADVERTISED_PORT" to
480 "80" and "PORT" to 1080 and similarly in the HTTPS section the
481 "ADVERTISED_PORT" to "443" and "PORT" to 4433.
483 You can do the same trick for the TCP and UDP transports if you want
484 to map them to a priviledged port (from the point of view of the
485 network). However, we are not aware of this providing any advantages
488 If you are already running an HTTP or HTTPS server on port 80 (or 443),
489 you may be able to configure it as a "ReverseProxy". Here, you tell
490 GNUnet that the externally visible URI is some sub-page on your website,
491 and GNUnet can then tunnel its traffic via your existing HTTP server.
492 This is particularly powerful if your existing server uses HTTPS, as
493 it makes it harder for an adversary to distinguish normal traffic to
494 your server from GNUnet traffic. Finally, even if you just use HTTP,
495 you might benefit (!) from ISP's traffic shaping as opposed to being
496 throttled by ISPs that dislike P2P. Details for configuring the
497 reverse proxy are documented on our website.
505 A HTML version of the new GNUnet manual is deployed at
507 https://docs.gnunet.org
509 which currently displays just GNUnet documentation. Until 2019
510 we will add more reading material.
514 In almost 20 years various people in our community have written and
515 collected a good number of papers which have been implemented in
516 GNUnet or projects around GNUnet.
517 There are currently 2 ways to get them:
519 * Using git (NOTE: 1.1 GiB as of 2019-03-09):
520 git clone https://git.gnunet.org/bibliography.git
522 https://old.gnunet.org/bibliography
524 The Drupal access will be replaced by a new interface to our
525 bibliography in the foreseeable future.
531 * https://gnunet.org/
532 * https://bugs.gnunet.org
533 * https://git.gnunet.org
534 * http://www.gnu.org/software/gnunet/
535 * http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnunet-developers
536 * http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnunet
537 * http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnunet
538 * http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnunet-svn