[tahoe-dev] using Tahoe-LAFS when you only have one server (was: default values of K, H, N)

[Francois Deppierraz]

On 01/15/2011 07:09 AM, Zooko O'Whielacronx wrote:

> This is how I used to think, too! But recently I've started to wonder
> -- why should people who have only one server to work with consider
> Tahoe-LAFS to be an ill-fitting tool for their system? In fact, if you
> set (H, K, N) to (1, 1, 1) then Tahoe-LAFS is a *great* way to backup
> your files without being vulnerable to loss of integrity or
> confidentiality, even in the case that your server gets compromised.
> You can also dynamically choose to share some of your files and
> directories with certain friends, or even to publish some of them to
> the world.

Yes, Tahoe-LAFS with a single storage server definitely is useful.

I've used this mode of operation in the backend of a custom file sharing
application I've built to help users who usually would have tried to
send huge attachments by email. Instead, the user connects to an HTTPS
web server, upload files and enters the email address of its recipient.

Behind the scene, a tiny piece of Javascript ties the FancyUpload¹
library to the Tahoe-LAFS WAPI for creating a new dirnode and uploading
files into it and then a CGI script transmits the read-only URL to this
dirnode by email.

François

¹ http://digitarald.de/project/fancyupload/