Private sharing with Magic Folder

Summary

You will be able to detects local changes to files and uploads those changes to a Tahoe-LAFS grid. Magic Folder monitors a Tahoe-LAFS grid and downloads changes to the local filesystem.

• Tahoe-lafs for the cryptography and resource sharing.

• Magic wormhole for the transport between nodes

• Magic folder for the filesystem access

We’ll call the host with storage-only the storage node the hosts syncing the content of the magic folder are remote clients the processes handling the transfers are the magic folder services the directories holding the files are the “magic folders”

Steps

Step 0 - Create and start a Tahoe-LAFS storage-only node on a mutually accessible host (public VPS?) (Transit server?) Step 0.1 Create and start (recommended) run the node as a daemon/service Step 2- Create client(s)

Prepare the storage node

Needs to be internet accessible because it will be accessed by several services running on other machines.

install tahoe-lafs using the :ref:`install tahoe client`_ process.

Note

Pro tip: create a separate terminal session (tmux new -s storage_console)

Start/Stop the node to create the keys and fURL

# Start the storage node process to create the pubkeys and fURL
tahoe --node-directory ~/tahoe/storage0/ run
# Now copy the Tahoe fURL for the storage node, for the remote clients later.
cat storage0/private/storage.furl
# Next copy the node pubkey...
cat storage0/node.pubkey

Run the storage node

` #Now start the Tahoe storage processes

tahoe run storage0 # later, “daemonize” this, so it runs in the background

Note

Congratulations, you are 30% complete

Prepare each remote client

Each remote client will need

• A tahoe-lafs client installation, with the addresses and keys for the storage server

• Magic folder services installed and configured with the “invite” feature enabled.

• A “magic folder” directory to save the synced contents.

Before you begin

Install the tahoe client in a venv using :ref:`install tahoe client`_ process

Point the tahoe client to the storage node

:ref:`Prepare the client`_ using the fURL and pubkey from the storage node.

Install Magic-Folder on each remote client

pip install -U 'git+https://github.com/tahoe-lafs/magic-folder.git#egg=magic-folder'

Note

The installation process is temporarily cumbersome

Configure the Magic Folder services on each remote client

On each remote client:

magic-folder --config ./mf0 init --node-directory ./client0 --listen-endpoint tcp:8999:interface=localhost
magic-folder --config ~/tahoe/mf0 init --node-directory ~/tahoe/tahoe_client --listen-endpoint tcp:8999:interface=localhost

Enable the invite feature

The invite feature supports the join option and the access codes for other clients.

Warning

Currently considered experimental. invite needs to be enabled. It uses magic-wormhole to transmit the secrets.

magic-folder –config=./mf0 set-config –enable invites

Configure the Magic Folder

magic-folder –config ./mf0 init –node-directory ./client0 –listen-endpoint tcp:8999:interface=localhost

magic-folder –config ./mf0 add –name funny-photos –author $USER ~/photos

Run the Magic Folder service on the remote client

magic-folder –config ~/tahoe/mf0 run

Confirm that magic folder is running

The magic folder service should be able to connect to the storage node.

you should see something like::

2024-09-19T16:00:47-0400 Completed initial Magic Folder setup 2024-09-19T16:00:47-0400 Connected to 1 storage-servers

Prepare the magic folder content for syncing

Create the Invite Name

Use the magic folder command:

magic-folder --config ~/.mf0 invite --node-directory ./client0 --name funny-photos --mode read-write

Each guest joins the Magic Folder

magic-folder –config=./mf0 join –name=demo 6-narrative-endorse ~/magicf