What is GNUnet?
===============
-GNUnet is peer-to-peer framework focusing on security. The first and
-primary application for GNUnet is anonymous file-sharing. GNUnet is
-currently developed by a worldwide group of independent free software
-developers. GNUnet is a GNU package (http://www.gnu.org/).
+GNUnet is peer-to-peer framework providing a network abstractions and
+applications focusing on security and privacy. So far, we have
+created applications for anonymous file-sharing, decentralized naming
+and identity management, decentralized and confidential telephony and
+tunneling IP traffic over GNUnet. GNUnet is currently developed by a
+worldwide group of independent free software developers. GNUnet is a
+GNU package (http://www.gnu.org/).
-This is an ALPHA release. There are known and significant bugs as
-well as many missing features in this release.
+This is an ALPHA release. There are known and significant bugs as
+well as many missing features in this release.
Additional documentation about GNUnet can be found at
https://gnunet.org/.
Please note that for many of its dependencies GNUnet requires very
recent versions of the libraries which are often NOT to be found in
-stable distributions in 2011. While using older packages may in some
+stable distributions in 2014. While using older packages may in some
cases on some operating systems may seem to work in some limited
fashion, we are in many cases aware of serious problems with older
packages. Hence please make sure to use the versions listed below.
These are the direct dependencies for running GNUnet:
-- libextractor >= 0.6.1
-- libmicrohttpd >= 0.9.18
-- libgcrypt >= 1.2
-- libcurl >= 7.21.0
+- libmicrohttpd >= 0.9.42
+- libgcrypt >= 1.6
+- libgnurl >= 7.35.0 (available from https://gnunet.org/gnurl)
- libunistring >= 0.9.2
+- gnutls >= 3.2.12
+- libidn >= 1.0
+- libextractor >= 0.6.1 (highly recommended)
+- openssl >= 1.0 (binary, used to generate X.509 certificate)
- libltdl >= 2.2 (part of GNU libtool)
-- sqlite >= 3.0 (default database)
-- mysql >= 5.1 (alternative to sqLite)
-- postgres >= 8.3 (alternative to sqLite)
-
-Recommended autotools for compiling the SVN version are:
+- sqlite >= 3.8 (default database, required)
+- mysql >= 5.1 (alternative to sqlite)
+- postgres >= 9.5 (alternative to sqlite)
+- libopus >= 1.0.1 (optional for experimental conversation tool)
+- libpulse >= 2.0 (optional for experimental conversation tool)
+- libogg >= 1.3.0 (optional for experimental conversation tool)
+- python-zbar >= 0.10 (optional for gnunet-qr)
+- TeX Live >= 2012 (optional for gnunet-bcd)
+- Texinfo >= 5.2
+- libglpk >= 4.45 (optional for experimental code)
+
+Recommended autotools for compiling the git version are:
- autoconf >= 2.59
- automake >= 1.11.1
-- libtool >= 2.2
+- libtool >= 2.2
How to install?
(download from http://www.gnu.org/software/libextractor/). We also
recommend installing GNU libmicrohttpd (download from
http://www.gnu.org/software/libmicrohttpd/). Then you can start the
-actual GNUnet compilation process with:
+actual GNUnet compilation and installation process with:
-$ ./configure --prefix=$HOME --with-extractor=$HOME
+$ export GNUNET_PREFIX=/usr/local/lib # or other directory of your choice
+# addgroup gnunetdns
+# adduser --system --home "/var/lib/gnunet" --group gnunet --shell /bin/sh
+# ./configure --prefix=$GNUNET_PREFIX/.. --with-extractor=$LE_PREFIX
$ make
# make install
-# sudo -u gnunet mkdir ~/.gnunet/
-# sudo -u gnunet touch ~/.gnunet/gnunet.conf
# sudo -u gnunet gnunet-arm -s
-This will compile and install GNUnet to $HOME/bin/, $HOME/lib/ and
-$HOME/share/ and start the system with the default configuration. It
-is recommended that you add a user "gnunet" to run "gnunet-arm". You
-can then still run the end-user applications as another user. If you
-create a user "gnunet", it is recommended that you edit the
-configuration file slightly so that data can be stored in
-"/var/lib/gnunet"; you may also want to use "/etc/gnunet.conf" for the
-location of the configuration file in this case.
+Note that running the 'configure' and 'make install' steps as
+root (or with sudo) is required as some parts of the installation
+require the creation of SUID binaries. The installation will
+work if you do not run these steps as root, but some components
+may not be installed in the perfect place or with the right
+permissions and thus won't work.
+
+This will create the users and groups needed for running GNUnet
+securely and then compile and install GNUnet to $GNUNET_PREFIX/../bin/,
+$GNUNET_PREFIX/ and $GNUNET_PREFIX/../share/ and start the system
+with the default configuration. It is strongly recommended that you
+add a user "gnunet" to run "gnunet-arm". You can then still run the
+end-user applications as another user.
+
+If you create a system user "gnunet", it is recommended that you edit
+the configuration file slightly so that data can be stored in the
+system user home directory at "/var/lib/gnunet". Depending on what
+the $HOME-directory of your "gnunet" user is, you might need to set
+the SERVICEHOME option in section "[PATHS]" to "/var/lib/gnunet" to
+do this. Depending on your personal preferences, you may also want to
+use "/etc/gnunet.conf" for the location of the configuration file in
+this case (instead of ~gnunet/.config/gnunet.conf"). In this case,
+you need to start GNUnet using "gnunet-arm -s -c /etc/gnunet.conf" or
+set "XDG_CONFIG_HOME=/etc/".
You can avoid running 'make install' as root if you run configure
with the "--with-sudo=yes" option and have extensive sudo rights
-(can run chmod +s and chown via sudo). If you run 'make install'
+(can run "chmod +s" and "chown" via 'sudo'). If you run 'make install'
as a normal user without sudo rights (or the configure option),
certain binaries that require additional priviledges will not be
-installed properly (and NAT traversal, WLAN and VPN will not work).
-
-Note that additional, per-user configuration files
-(~/.gnunet/gnunet.conf) need to be created by each user (for example,
-by running gnunet-setup). Note that gnunet-setup is a separate
-download and requires recent versions of GTK+ and Glade; you can also
-edit the configuration file by hand, but this is not recommended. For
-more general information about the GNU build process read the INSTALL
-file.
-
-If you are compiling the code from subversion, you have to run
-". bootstrap" before ./configure. If you receive an error during the
-running of ". bootstrap" that looks like "macro `AM_PATH_GTK' not
+installed properly (and autonomous NAT traversal, WLAN, DNS/GNS and
+the VPN will then not work).
+
+If you run 'configure' and 'make install' as root or use the SUDO
+option, GNUnet's build system will install "libnss_gns*" libraries to
+"/lib/" regardless (!) of the $GNUNET_PREFIX you might have specified,
+as those libraries must be in "/lib/". If you are packaging GNUnet
+for binary distribution, this may cause your packaging script to miss
+those plugins, so you might need to do some additional manual work to
+include those libraries in your binary package(s). Similarly, if you
+want to use the GNUnet naming system and did NOT run GNUnet's 'make
+install' process with SUDO rights, the libraries will be installed to
+"$GNUNET_PREFIX" and you will have to move them to "/lib/"
+manually.
+
+Finally, if you are compiling the code from git, you have to
+run ". bootstrap" before ./configure. If you receive an error during
+the running of ". bootstrap" that looks like "macro `AM_PATH_GTK' not
found in library", you may need to run aclocal by hand with the -I
option, pointing to your aclocal m4 macros, i.e.
Configuration
=============
-GNUnet uses two types of configuration files, one that specifies the
-system-wide defaults (typically located in /usr/share/gnunet/defaults
-.conf) and a second one that overrides default values with
-user-specific preferences. The user-specific configuration file
-should be located in "~/.gnunet/gnunet.conf" or its location can be
-specified by giving the "-c" option to the respective GNUnet
-application.
+Note that additional, per-user configuration files can be created by
+each user. However, this is usually not necessary as there are few
+per-user options that normal users would want to modify. The defaults
+that are shipped with the installation are usually just fine.
+
+The gnunet-setup tool is particularly useful to generate the master
+configuration for the peer. gnunet-setup can be used to configure and
+test (!) the network settings, choose which applications should be run
+and configure databases. Other options you might want to control
+include system limitations (such as disk space consumption, bandwidth,
+etc.). The resulting configuration files are human-readable and can
+theoretically be created or edited by hand.
-The defaults that are shipped with the installation are usually ok,
-you may want to adjust the limitations (space consumption, bandwidth,
-etc.) though. The configuration files are human-readable. Note that
-you MUST create "~/.gnunet/gnunet.conf" explicitly before starting
-GNUnet. You can either run gnunet-setup (available as part of the
-gnunet-gtk source package) or simply create an empty file.
+gnunet-setup is a separate download and requires somewhat recent
+versions of GTK+ and Glade. You can also create the configuration file
+by hand, but this is not recommended. For more general information
+about the GNU build process read the INSTALL file.
+
+GNUnet uses two types of configuration files, one that specifies the
+system-wide defaults (typically located in
+$GNUNET_PREFIX/../share/gnunet/config.d/) and a second one that overrides
+default values with user-specific preferences. The user-specific
+configuration file should be located in "~/.config/gnunet.conf" or its
+location can be specified by giving the "-c" option to the respective
+GNUnet application.
Usage
First, you must obtain an initial list of GNUnet hosts. Knowing a
single peer is sufficient since after that GNUnet propagates
-information about other peers. Note that the default "gnunet.conf"
+information about other peers. Note that the default configuration
contains URLs from where GNUnet downloads an initial hostlist
whenever it is started. If you want to create an alternative URL for
others to use, the file can be generated on any machine running
If the solution with the hostlist URL is not feasible for your
situation, you can also add hosts manually. Simply copy the hostkeys
to "$SERVICEHOME/data/hosts/" (where $SERVICEHOME is the directory
-specified in the gnunet.conf configuration file).
+specified in the gnunet.conf configuration file). You can also use
+"gnunet-peerinfo -g" to GET a URI for a peer and "gnunet-peerinfo -p
+URI" to add a URI from another peer. Finally, GNUnet peers that use
+UDP or WLAN will discover each other automatically (if they are in the
+vicinity of each other) using broadcasts (IPv4/WLAN) or multicasts
+(IPv6).
-Now start the local node using "gnunet-arm -s". GNUnet should run 24/7 if
-you want to maximize your anonymity.
+The local node is started using "gnunet-arm -s". GNUnet should run
+24/7 if you want to maximize your anonymity, as this makes partitioning
+attacks harder.
-You should then be able to access GNUnet using the shell:
+Once your peer is running, you should then be able to access GNUnet
+using the shell:
$ gnunet-search KEYWORD
-This will display a list of results to the console. Then use
+This will display a list of results to the console. You can abort
+the command using "CTRL-C". Then use
$ gnunet-download -o FILENAME GNUNET_URI
The GTK user interface is shipped separately. After downloading and
-installing gnunet-gtk, you can invoke the GUI with:
+installing gnunet-gtk, you can invoke the setup tool and the
+file-sharing GUI with:
-$ gnunet-gtk
+$ gnunet-setup
+$ gnunet-fs-gtk
For further documentation, see our webpage.
report bugs can be found in the GNUnet FAQ on the webpage. Submit
patches via E-Mail to gnunet-developers@gnu.org.
-In order to run the unit tests with "make check", you need to
+In order to run the unit tests with by hand (instead of using
+"make check"), you need to
set an environment variable ("GNUNET_PREFIX") to the directory
-where GNUnet is installed (usually, GNUnet will use OS specific
-tricks in order to try to figure out the PREFIX, but since the
-testcase binaries are not installed, that trick does not work
-for them). Also, before running any testcases, you must
+where GNUnet's libraries are installed.
+Also, before running any testcases, you must
complete the installation first. Quick summary:
$ ./configure --prefix=$SOMEWHERE
$ make
$ make install
-$ export GNUNET_PREFIX=$SOMEWHERE
$ make check
Some of the testcases require python >= 2.6 and pexpect to be
-installed. If any testcases fail to pass on your system, run
-"contrib/report.sh" and report the output together with
-information about the failing testcase to the Mantis bugtracking
+installed. If any testcases fail to pass on your system, run
+"contrib/report.sh" and report the output together with
+information about the failing testcase to the Mantis bugtracking
system at https://gnunet.org/bugs/.
-Running http on port 80 and https on port 443
+Running HTTP on port 80 and HTTPS on port 443
=============================================
In order to hide GNUnet's HTTP/HTTPS traffic perfectly, you might
consider running GNUnet's HTTP/HTTPS transport on port 80/443.
However, we do not recommend running GNUnet as root. Instead, forward
-port 80 to say 8080 with this command (as root, in your startup
+port 80 to say 1080 with this command (as root, in your startup
scripts):
-# iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp -m tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 8080
+# iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp -m tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 1080
or for HTTPS
# iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp -m tcp --dport 443 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 4433
-Then set in the HTTP section of gnunet.conf the "ADVERTISED-PORT" to
-"80" and "PORT" to 8080 and similarly in the HTTPS section the
-"ADVERTISED-PORT" to "443" and "PORT" to 4433.
+Then set in the HTTP section of gnunet.conf the "ADVERTISED_PORT" to
+"80" and "PORT" to 1080 and similarly in the HTTPS section the
+"ADVERTISED_PORT" to "443" and "PORT" to 4433.
You can do the same trick for the TCP and UDP transports if you want
to map them to a priviledged port (from the point of view of the
network). However, we are not aware of this providing any advantages
at this point.
+If you are already running an HTTP or HTTPS server on port 80 (or 443),
+you may be able to configure it as a "ReverseProxy". Here, you tell
+GNUnet that the externally visible URI is some sub-page on your website,
+and GNUnet can then tunnel its traffic via your existing HTTP server.
+This is particularly powerful if your existing server uses HTTPS, as
+it makes it harder for an adversary to distinguish normal traffic to
+your server from GNUnet traffic. Finally, even if you just use HTTP,
+you might benefit (!) from ISP's traffic shaping as opposed to being
+throttled by ISPs that dislike P2P. Details for configuring the
+reverse proxy are documented on our website.
+
Stay tuned
==========
projects / oweals / gnunet.git / blobdiff