[tahoe-dev] Sharing directories? Friendnet build/configuration?

[Jed Donnelley]

Tahoe-dev,

I notice the first time I tried to share a directory (folder)
I got the message:

"You can only share files, not folders. Please select files only."

One of my main interests in testing the Tahoe service is to
test fetching directories and files through directories,
testing the RO and RW mechanisms.

I noticed the discussion on the "about" page:

http://allmydata.org/source/tahoe/trunk/docs/about.html

where it says:
________

A user who has read-write access to a mutable file or directory can 
give another user read-write access to that file or directory, or 
read-only access to that file or directory. A user who has read-only 
access to a file or directory can give another user read-only access to it.

When linking a file or directory into a parent directory, you can use 
a read-write link or a read-only link. If you use a read-write link, 
then anyone who has read-write access to the parent directory can 
gain read-write access to the child, and anyone who has read-only 
access to the parent directory can gain read-only access to the 
child. If you use a read-only link, then anyone who has either 
read-write or read-only access to the parent directory can gain 
read-only access to the child.
_________

I don't see how I can test the above without being able to
share a directory.

As I mentioned in my first message shared to cap-talk and tahoe-dev,
I believe the above semantics are missing the distinction between
read-only and "deep read-only" and actually only providing
"deep read-only" - namely anything that is fetched through a
read-only directory is itself made read-only (file or directory).

This "deep read-only" I think is the more important of the two,
and perhaps simple read-only isn't worth the complication?  With
simple read-only I could share a directory with you and you
could fetch anything out of it without diminution (e.g. fetch
a read-write capability to a file or a directory), but
you could not change the entries in the directory (e.g.
delete or add anything).


My main practical interest in the Tahoe file system is to
set up what I believe your documentation refers to as
"friendnet" - where I set up file sharing using Tahoe
between, say, 10 friends/colleagues.

Can anyone give me a rough idea of how much work it is likely
to be for me to set up something like that?  How much work
on my system(s?) and how much will be needed for my
friends/colleagues if I've done as much of the leg work
as possible?  The discussion about the build didn't look
too bad (which I assume I'll need), but at this point I
don't know how much configuration will be needed and what
I'll need for an "introducer" (just from memory).

Thanks for any thoughts.

Sincerely,

--Jed  http://www.webstart.com/jed-signature.html