nim-libp2p/README.md

The Nim implementation of the libp2p Networking Stack.

Introduction

An implementation of libp2p in Nim.

Table of Contents

• Background
• Install
• Getting Started
• Modules
• Users
• Development
  • Contribute
  • Core Developers
• License

Background

libp2p is a networking stack and library modularized out of The IPFS Project, and bundled separately for other tools to use.

libp2p is the product of a long and arduous quest of understanding; a deep dive into the internet's network stack and the peer-to-peer protocols from the past. Building large scale peer-to-peer systems has been complex and difficult in the last 15 years and libp2p is a way to fix that. It is a "network stack", a suite of networking protocols that cleanly separates concerns and enables sophisticated applications to only use the protocols they absolutely need, without giving up interoperability and upgradeability.

libp2p grew out of IPFS, but it is built so that lots of people can use it, for lots of different projects.

• Learn more about libp2p at libp2p.io and follow our evolving documentation efforts at docs.libp2p.io.
• Here is an overview of libp2p and its implementations in other programming languages.

Install

Prerequisite

• Nim

nimble install libp2p

Getting Started

You'll find the documentation here.

Go Daemon: Please find the installation and usage intructions in daemonapi.md.

Modules

List of packages modules implemented in nim-libp2p:

Name	Description
Libp2p
libp2p	The core of the project
connmanager	Connection manager
identify / push identify	Identify protocol
ping	Ping protocol
libp2p-daemon-client	go-daemon nim wrapper
interop-libp2p	Interop tests
Transports
libp2p-tcp	TCP transport
libp2p-ws	WebSocket & WebSocket Secure transport
Secure Channels
libp2p-secio	Secio secure channel
libp2p-noise	Noise secure channel
libp2p-plaintext	Plain Text for development purposes
Stream Multiplexers
libp2p-mplex	MPlex multiplexer
Data Types
peer-id	Cryptographic identifiers
peer-store	"Phone book" of known peers
multiaddress	Composable network addresses
signed envelope	Signed generic data container
routing record	Signed peer dialing informations
Utilities
libp2p-crypto	Cryptographic backend
libp2p-crypto-secp256k1
Pubsub
libp2p-pubsub	Pub-Sub generic interface
libp2p-floodsub	FloodSub implementation
libp2p-gossipsub	GossipSub implementation

Users

nim-libp2p is used by:

• Nimbus, an Ethereum client
• nwaku, a decentralized messaging application
• nim-codex, a decentralized storage application
• (open a pull request if you want to be included here)

Stability

nim-libp2p has been used in production for over a year in high-stake scenarios, so its core is considered stable. Some modules are more recent and less stable.

The versioning follows semver, with some additions:

• Some of libp2p procedures are marked as .public., they will remain compatible during each MAJOR version
• The rest of the procedures are considered internal, and can change at any MINOR version (but remain compatible for each new PATCH)

We aim to be compatible at all time with at least 2 Nim MINOR versions, currently 1.2 & 1.6

Development

Clone and Install dependencies:

git clone https://github.com/status-im/nim-libp2p
cd nim-libp2p
nimble install -dy

Run unit tests:

# run all the unit tests
nimble test

This requires the go daemon to be available. To only run native tests, use nimble testnative. Or use nimble tasks to show all available tasks.

Contribute

The libp2p implementation in Nim is a work in progress. We welcome contributors to help out! Specifically, you can:

• Go through the modules and check out existing issues. This would be especially useful for modules in active development. Some knowledge of IPFS/libp2p may be required, as well as the infrastructure behind it.
• Perform code reviews. Feel free to let us know if you found anything that can a) speed up the project development b) ensure better quality and c) reduce possible future bugs.
• Add tests. Help nim-libp2p to be more robust by adding more tests to the tests folder.

The code follows the Status Nim Style Guide.

Core Developers

@cheatfate, Dmitriy Ryajov, Tanguy, Zahary Karadjov

Compile time flags

Enable expensive metrics (ie, metrics with per-peer cardinality):

nim c -d:libp2p_expensive_metrics some_file.nim

Set list of known libp2p agents for metrics:

nim c -d:libp2p_agents_metrics -d:KnownLibP2PAgents=nimbus,lighthouse,lodestar,prysm,teku some_file.nim

Specify gossipsub specific topics to measure in the metrics:

nim c -d:KnownLibP2PTopics=topic1,topic2,topic3 some_file.nim

License

Licensed and distributed under either of

• MIT license: LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT

or

• Apache License, Version 2.0, (LICENSE-APACHEv2 or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)

at your option. These files may not be copied, modified, or distributed except according to those terms.