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 part of the GNU project (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.
-For a longer description of the GNUnet System see our webpages
-http://www.gnu.org/software/gnunet/ and https://ng.gnunet.org/.
+Additional documentation about GNUnet can be found at
+https://gnunet.org/.
Dependencies:
=============
-For the impatient, here is the list of immediate dependencies for
-running GNUnet:
-
-- libextractor >= 0.6.1
-- libmicrohttpd >= 0.4.6
-- libgcrypt >= 1.2
-- libgmp >= 4.0
-- libcurl >= 7.15.4
+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 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:
+
+- 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 (alternative to MySQL)
-- mysql >= ??? (not yet supported)
-- postgres >= ??? (not yet supported)
-
-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
-
-See also README.debian for a list of Debian packages.
+- libtool >= 2.2
How to install?
The fastest way is to use a binary package if it is available for your
system. For a more detailed description, read the installation
-instructions on the webpage at https://ng.gnunet.org/installation.
+instructions on the webpage at https://gnunet.org/installation.
+
+Note that some functions of GNUnet require "root" access. GNUnet will
+install (tiny) SUID binaries for those functions is you run "make
+install" as root. If you do not, GNUnet will still work, but some
+functionality will not be available (including certain forms of NAT
+traversal).
+
+GNUnet requires the GNU MP library (http://www.gnu.org/software/gmp/)
+and libgcrypt (http://www.gnupg.org/). You can specify the path to
+libgcrypt by passing "--with-gcrypt=PATH" to configure. You will also
+need either sqlite (http://www.sqlite.org/), MySQL
+(http://www.mysql.org/) or PostGres (http://www.postgres.org/).
If you install from source, you need to install GNU libextractor first
(download from http://www.gnu.org/software/libextractor/). We also
-recommend installing GNU libmicrohttpd. Then you can start the actual
-GNUnet compilation process with:
-
-$ ./configure --prefix=$HOME --with-extractor=$HOME
+recommend installing GNU libmicrohttpd (download from
+http://www.gnu.org/software/libmicrohttpd/). Then you can start the
+actual GNUnet compilation and installation process with:
+
+$ 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 gnunet-setup # (note: does not yet exist!)
# sudo -u gnunet gnunet-arm -s
-This will compile and install GNUnet to ~/bin/, ~/lib/ and ~/man/.
-gnunet-setup will create the configuration; this step is interactive.
-You can run gnunet-setup as root for a system-wide installation or as
-a particular user to create a personal installation. 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
-configuration in this case.
-
-Note that additional, per-user configuration files
-(~/.gnunet/gnunet.conf) need to be created by each user (for example,
-by running gnunet-setup). For more general information about the GNU
-build process read the INSTALL file.
-
-GNUnet requires the GNU MP library (http://www.gnu.org/software/gmp/)
-and libgcrypt. You can specify the path to libgcrypt by passing
-"--with-gcrypt=PATH" to configure. You will also need either sqlite
-(version 3 or higher) or MySQL (version 5.0 or higher).
-
-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
+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'
+as a normal user without sudo rights (or the configure option),
+certain binaries that require additional priviledges will not be
+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
=============
-// FIXME: update this section once we have gnunet-setup! GNUnet uses
-two types of configuration files, one for the daemon (called
-gnunetd.conf) and one for each user (gnunet.conf). You can create and
-edit these configuration files with the gnunet-setup tool. The
-defaults that are created the first time you run gnunet-setup are
-usually ok, you may want to adjust the limitations (space consumption,
-bandwidth, etc.) though. The configuration files are human-readable;
-GNUnet's configuration is typically located at
-"~/.gnunet/gnunet.conf".
-
-You MUST create "~/.gnunet/gnunet.conf" explicitly before starting
-GNUnet, and the recommended way to do this is to run gnunet-setup.
-You can also create an empty configuration file, in which case
-default values will be used for everything.
-
-If you want to use a different configuration file, pass the name of
-the configuration file as an argument with the option "-c" to any
+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.
+
+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
+$GNUNET_PREFIX/../share/gnunet/config.d/) and a second one that overrides
+default values with user-specific preferences. The user-specific
+configuration file should be located in "~/.config/gnunet.conf" or its
+location can be specified by giving the "-c" option to the respective
GNUnet application.
First, you must obtain an initial list of GNUnet hosts. Knowing a
single peer is sufficient since after that GNUnet propagates
-information about other peers. Note that the default "gnunet.conf"
+information about other peers. Note that the default configuration
contains URLs from where GNUnet downloads an initial hostlist
whenever it is started. If you want to create an alternative URL for
others to use, the file can be generated on any machine running
and offering 'the_file' via your web server. Alternatively, you can
run the build-in web server by adding '-p' to the OPTIONS value
-in the "hostlist" section of gnunet.conf.
-
-If the solution with the URL is not feasible for your situation, you
-can also add hosts manually. Simply copy the hostkeys to
-"$SERVICEHOME/data/hosts/" (where $SERVICEHOME is the directory
-specified in the /etc/gnunet.conf configuration file).
-
-Now start the local node using "gnunet-arm -s". GNUnet should run 24/7 if
-you want to maximize your anonymity.
-
-// FIXME: gnunet-gtk is not yet supported in 0.9.x
-The GTK user interface is shipped separately from GNUnet. After
-downloading and installing gnunet-gtk, you can invoke the GUI with:
-
-$ gnunet-gtk
-
-// FIXME: gnunet-qt is not yet supported in 0.9.x
-For Qt/KDE users, there is also a QT user interface (also shipped
-separately). If you install gnunet-qt, you can invoke the GUI with:
-
-$ gnunet-qt
-
-If you want to use the shell (part of this distribution), use
+in the "hostlist" section of gnunet.conf and opening the respective
+HTTPPORT to the public.
+
+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). 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).
+
+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.
+
+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
together with a description. To publish files on GNUnet, use the
"gnunet-publish" command.
-// FIXME: auto-share is not yet supported in 0.9.x
-In order to share files, the easiest way is to create a directory
-with the files (and directories) that you want to share and run
-$ nohup gnunet-auto-share NAME-OF-THE-DIRECTORY &
+The GTK user interface is shipped separately. After downloading and
+installing gnunet-gtk, you can invoke the setup tool and the
+file-sharing GUI with:
+
+$ 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
-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/.
+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
+system at https://gnunet.org/bugs/.
+
+Running HTTP on port 80 and HTTPS on port 443
+=============================================
-Running http on port 80
-=======================
+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 1080 with this command (as root, in your startup
+scripts):
-In order to hide GNUnet's HTTP traffic perfectly, you might consider
-running GNUnet's HTTP transport on port 80. However, you should not
-run GNUnet as root. Instead, forward port 80 to say 8080 with this
-command (as root, in your startup scripts):
+# iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp -m tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 1080
-# iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp -m tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 8080
+or for HTTPS
-Then set in the HTTP section of gnunetd.conf the "ADVERTISED-PORT"
-to "80" and "PORT" to 8080. 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).
+# 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 1080 and similarly in the HTTPS section the
+"ADVERTISED_PORT" to "443" and "PORT" to 4433.
-Running the SMTP transport
-==========================
+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.
-// NOTE: SMTP is not currently available in this version of GNUnet
-Running GNUnet over SMTP (e-mail) is a bit more involved. Note that
-you do not need to run all transports (only running the NAT transport
-is the only thing that will not work). If you really want to do
-P2P over SMTP, read the instructions at http://gnunet.org/smtp.php3
+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
==========
-* http://www.gnu.org/software/gnunet/
-* http://gnunet.org/
+* https://gnunet.org/
* https://gnunet.org/bugs/
-* https://ng.gnunet.org/
+* https://gnunet.org/svn/
+* http://www.gnu.org/software/gnunet/
* http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnunet-developers
* http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnunet
* http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnunet
* http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnunet-svn
-
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