[tahoe-dev] [tahoe-lafs] #1310: If --node-url is present then --node-directory is mostly but not entirely ignored.

[tahoe-lafs]

#1310: If --node-url is present then --node-directory is mostly but not entirely
ignored.
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     Reporter:  zooko              |       Owner:  warner   
         Type:  defect             |      Status:  reopened 
     Priority:  major              |   Milestone:  undecided
    Component:  code-frontend-cli  |     Version:  1.8.1    
   Resolution:                     |    Keywords:  usability
Launchpad Bug:                     |  
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Comment (by warner):

 CLI tools look in {{{--node-directory}}} for things that are generated
 by:

  * the tahoe client node, to help the CLI tools find the node
  * the CLI tools themselves, that they want to retrieve later

 At present, the only from-node-to-CLI things are {{{node.url}}}, to find
 the webapi port. In the future, I'm considering adding a few more files,
 starting with a {{{$NODEDIR/private/control.key}}} which would help a
 {{{tahoe webopen --control-panel}}} derive a secret URL that points to
 node-control functions, outside the scope of any particular filecap.
 Another possibility is an {{{accounting.secret}}}, which would let the
 CLI tools create webapi URLs that include authority to use space on a
 grid (rather than the ambient authority that currently grants storage
 rights to anyone who can talk to the webapi port). Also,
 {{{$NODEDIR/private/control.furl}}} could be used by CLI commands that
 wanted foolscap-based access (which would be easier for some purposes
 than HTTP-based access).

 The set of from-CLI-to-CLI things in there currently includes:

  * {{{private/aliases}}}: allows "tahoe ls home:" instead of "tahoe ls
    URI:DIR2:blahblahblahblahblah"
  * {{{private/backupdb.sqlite}}}: used by 'tahoe backup', potentially
    'tahoe cp'

 I named it {{{--node-directory}}} because you can set it equal to a
 tahoe client node's base directory (which is what I usually mean by
 "$NODEDIR") and then the CLI tool will correctly find everything it
 needs to work without any extra effort on your part (and the secret
 things that it writes will go into a well-named directory that's already
 {{{chmod go-rwx}}}). And, because {{{--node-directory}}} is consistent
 across all tahoe commands, including {{{tahoe create-node}}} and
 {{{tahoe start}}}. So you could make a one-line shell script which did
 {{{tahoe --node-directory=~/.other $*}}} named {{{othertahoe}}} and use
 that for everything and it would Just Work (well, if we fixed the option
 parser to look for {{{--node-directory}}} before the command instead of
 after).

 I've gotta run, I'll come back to this ticket later to chime in about
 the proposal. At first glance, {{{--cli-directory}}} does sound more
 accurate, but I think the parallelism of {{{--node-directory}}}
 everywhere is valuable.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/ticket/1310#comment:6>
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