Kubo: IPFS Implementation in GO

Install Kubo (previously known as "go-ipfs") from NPM

Table of Contents

• Install
• Usage
• Development
  • Publish a new version
• Contribute
• License

Install

Install the latest Kubo (go-ipfs) binary:

# Install globally
> npm install -g kubo
> ipfs version
ipfs version v0.23.0

# Install locally
> npm install kubo
> ./node_modules/.bin/ipfs
ipfs version v0.23.0

Usage

This module downloads Kubo (go-ipfs) binaries from https://dist.ipfs.tech into your project.

It will download the kubo version that matches the npm version of this module. So depending on kubo@0.23.0 will install kubo v0.23.0 for your current system architecture, in to your project at node_modules/kubo/kubo/ipfs and additional symlink to it at node_modules/kubo/bin/ipfs.

On Windows, ipfs.exe file is used, and if the symlink can't be created under a regular user, a copy of ipfs.exe is created instead.

After downloading you can find out the path of the installed binary by calling the path function exported by this module:

import { path } from 'kubo'

console.info('kubo is installed at', path())

An error will be thrown if the path to the binary cannot be resolved.

Caching

Downloaded archives are placed in OS-specific cache directory which can be customized by setting NPM_KUBO_CACHE in env.

Overriding with KUBO_BINARY env

If the KUBO_BINARY env variable is set at runtime this will override the path of the binary used.

This must point to the file, not the directory containing the file.

Development

Warning: the file bin/ipfs is a placeholder, when downloading stuff, it gets replaced. so if you run node install.js it will then be dirty in the git repo. Do not commit this file, as then you would be commiting a big binary and publishing it to npm. A pre-commit hook exists and should protect against this, but better safe than sorry.

Publish a new version

You should be able to just run ./publish.sh for example:

> ./publish.sh
usage ./publish.sh <version>
publish a version of kubo to npm

> ./publish.sh 0.3.11

This will:

• check the version is indeed a tag in https://github.com/ipfs/kubo
• check the size of bin/ipfs is right (must be the checked in file)
• update the version numbers in package.json and README.md
• git commit the changes
• push to https://github.com/ipfs/npm-kubo
• publish to kubo@$version to https://npmjs.com/package/kubo

Open an issue in the repo if you run into trouble.

Publish a new version of this module with exact same kubo version

If some problem happens, and you need to publish a new version of this module targetting the same kubo version, then please follow this convention:

1. Clean up bad stuff: unpublish all modules with this exact same <kubo-version>
2. Add a "hacky" version suffix: use version: <kubo-version>-hacky<num>
3. Publish version: publish the module. Since it's the only one with the kubo version, then it should be installed.

Why do this?

Well, if you previously published npm module kubo@0.4.0 and there was a problem, we now must publish a different version, but we want to keep the version number the same. so the strategy is to publish as kubo@0.4.0-hacky1, and unpublish kubo@0.4.0.

Why -hacky<num>?

Because it is unlikely to be a legitimate kubo version, and we want to support kubo versions like floodsub-1 etc.

Do i have to say -hacky<num> or can i just use -<num>?

-<num> won't work, as link-ipfs.js expects -hacky<num>. If you want to change the convention, go for it, and update this readme accordingly.

Contribute

Feel free to join in. All welcome. Open an issue!

This repository falls under the IPFS Code of Conduct.

License

MIT