Webfs: A Filesystem Built on Top of the Web
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Re: Webfs: A Filesystem Built on Top of the Web
#2Remember WebDAV? It was a similar concept, but never really found its footing and most of the implementations were pretty shaky. I always thought it was a good idea though.
Re: Webfs: A Filesystem Built on Top of the Web
#3Hey everyone, I'm the author of WebFS. Happy to answer any questions.
Re: Webfs: A Filesystem Built on Top of the Web
#4Hey everyone, I'm the author of WebFS. Happy to answer any questions.
I read you use IPFS. To my knowledge everything on there can be encrypted however not private. Is there a specific way you get around that.
Re: Webfs: A Filesystem Built on Top of the Web
#5Hey everyone, I'm the author of WebFS. Happy to answer any questions.
One issue that networked filesystems have is with mutations, especially with multiple writers. WebDAV, NFS, etc. try to address this with locking, but that doesn't allow simultaneous writes, which means it's dangerous to work offline. It's possible to solve this by using an OT or CRDT algorithm behind the scene. This is what we are building into an extension of HTTP called braid (https://braid.news). It could be useful for a web-backed filesystem. It automates synchronization.
Re: Webfs: A Filesystem Built on Top of the Web
#6Hey everyone, I'm the author of WebFS. Happy to answer any questions.
I read you use IPFS. To my knowledge everything on there can be encrypted however not private. Is there a specific way you get around that.
Yes. WebFS doesn't actually use any of the file/directory functionality provided by IPFS, or any encryption features. We only use the get/put block functionality. Everything is encrypted in WebFS before being posted to a Store.
The data encryption keys are generated using a secret and the hash of the data being encrypted. That key is stored in the reference to that data. This continues recursively to the superblock which is not encrypted.
Re: Webfs: A Filesystem Built on Top of the Web
#7Remember WebDAV? It was a similar concept, but never really found its footing and most of the implementations were pretty shaky. I always thought it was a good idea though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebDAV
The rfc is super dumb though. For instance, when handling a PROPFIND request (more or less listing files / folders), it’s not mandatory for the server to honor the Depth header (how many levels are returned). There is also no mechanism for the server to advertise whether or not it’s honoring the Depth header. That means the Depth header is useless because the client has no way to know whether there was only one hierarchy depth or if the server did not honor the Depth header. Therefore, your only option is to always scan the full hierarchy using PROPFIND at each level.
The RFC is full of that kind of crazy gotchas, not to mention the overuse of “MAY” or “SHOULD” which will drive you crazy if you try to implement a client / server.
If you want to go further in insanity, just look at how crazily over engineered the locking mechanism is. I have no words for it.
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4918#section-6
Unfortunately, even if you think you implemented the whole rfc correctly, your implementation will work with almost nothing as not that much implementations are any good in the wild. A useful WebDAV implementation must be full of vendor-specific workarounds.
Re: Webfs: A Filesystem Built on Top of the Web
#8Hey everyone, I'm the author of WebFS. Happy to answer any questions.
ELI5 please.
Where is the data for all of those IPFS hashes stored?
And what ensures that it will persist?
Re: Webfs: A Filesystem Built on Top of the Web
#9Hey everyone, I'm the author of WebFS. Happy to answer any questions.
I read you use IPFS. To my knowledge everything on there can be encrypted however not private. Is there a specific way you get around that.
What do you mean by "private"?
I mean, if it's securely encrypted, does it matter if others can see it? And indeed, if it's online, you must assume that others can see it.
My privacy concern is about IP addresses. So I'd want to use IPFS with Tor onions as stores.
Re: Webfs: A Filesystem Built on Top of the Web
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
I read you use IPFS. To my knowledge everything on there can be encrypted however not private. Is there a specific way you get around that.
Yes. WebFS doesn't actually use any of the file/directory functionality provided by IPFS, or any encryption features. We only use the get/put block functionality. Everything is encrypted in WebFS before being posted to a Store. The data encryption keys are generated using a secret and the hash of the data being encrypted. That key is stored in the reference to that data. This continues recursively to the superblock w…
Can one use Tor onions as stores?