id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	priority	milestone	component	version	resolution	keywords	cc	launchpad_bug
1310	"separate ""gateway state directory"" from ""client state directory"""	zooko	warner	"updating the Description for clarity:

This ticket is about the proposal to have separate directories for holding the state/configuration of the LAFS gateway from the state/configuration of the LAFS client. In the current (Tahoe-LAFS v1.10) code, both of those things are maintained in one shared directory, called the ""node directory"" or ""base directory"". The state therein is actually non-overlapping:

* things a client (i.e. the ""tahoe"" command-line tool) uses out of the base directory:
  - the {{{node.url}}} file to find out how to connect to the gateway
  - the {{{private/backupdb.sqlite}}} file to find out what files have already been uploaded
  - the {{{private/aliases}}} file holding aliases to caps

* things a gateway uses out of the base directory:
  - everything else that is stored in there ''except'' for the {{{node.url}}}, {{{private/aliases}}} and {{{private/backupdb.sqlite}}} files

So the client never uses any of the files that are kept in that directory for the gateway's purposes, and the gateway never uses any of the files that are kept in that directory for the client's purposes.
 

---- original Description follows

I use multiple grids (pub grid, volunteergrid, and a private family grid), and I just now had a confusing error where I ran {{{tahoe backup}}} and it completed quickly but produced a backup directory full of links to files with 0 shares each.

What happened, of course, was that I had previously run {{{tahoe backup --node-url=http://127.0.0.1:3458/}}} to backup these files to my family grid, and now I was running {{{tahoe backup --node-url=http://127.0.0.1:3457/}}} to backup these files to the volunteergrid, but I was unwittingly using the same {{{backupdb.sqlite}}}.

I wonder if, when the {{{--node-url}}} option is present, then the CLI shouldn't look into {{{~/.tahoe}}} at all. Most of the configuration and state in {{{~/.tahoe}}} is specific to the gateway that the {{{--node-url}}} points to, and the CLI will ignore it anyway and instead whatever configuration is in the tahoe-base-dir that is used by the gateway will take effect.

The only exception that I can think of right away is the {{{private/backupdb.sqlite}}}. Is that the only thing that affects the CLI when {{{--node-url}}} is present? Maybe it should be kept in a different directory.

I think I'm a bit confused about this. I'm not sure what all it means that there exists a {{{~/.tahoe}}} when I'm actually using a gateway which runs as a separate user process, is specified by the {{{--node-url}}} option, and it has its own {{{~/.tahoe}}} in its own user account. As a work-around and a way to gain clarity, I'll probably start specifying {{{--node-directory}}} in addition to {{{--node-url}}}, but this really feels wrong as it isn't a node directory at all! It is a CLI directory. :-)"	defect	reopened	major	undecided	code-frontend-cli	1.8.1		usability	zooko