#432 new task

writing down filecaps: revise URI scheme

Reported by: warner Owned by:
Priority: major Milestone:
Component: code-encoding Version: 1.0.0
Keywords: newcaps newurls Cc:
Launchpad Bug:

Description

I'd like to sit down and draw up a plan for "cap reification": what are the exact strings used to represent our various file/directory capabilities. We know that there will be at least two kinds (human-readable and packed machine-readable), and that we might want the human-readable ones to be browser-friendly (or 72-column friendly, or concise, or some combination thereof). And we've drawn up a couple of proposals based upon adequate crypto key sizes and "base62" encoding schemes, but we haven't finished the roadmap yet.

Various features and tradeoffs:

  • printable
  • pronounceable, error-resistant (base32 with o/0 tolerance)
  • short
  • browser-friendly (starts with http://localhost)
  • IANA-friendly (starts with x-tahoe: or tahoe:)
  • email friendly (printable and shorter than 72 characters)
  • self-identifying (includes some redundant prefix, version number)
  • visually distinct

Change History (9)

comment:1 Changed at 2008-06-01T21:40:48Z by warner

Related tickets:

  • #418: create tahoe: URI scheme identifier, register with IANA
  • #217: DSA-based mutable files, will enable shorter caps
  • #102: "smaller and prettier directory URIs"
  • #105: "command-line access to URIs" (printable caps should be distinguishable from filenames, so "tahoe cp $CAP local/foo.txt" is not too ambiguous)
  • #52: "browser integration": caps that are legal URIs and make IANA happy can also

be handled by browser plugins

  • #125: caps for files and directories should be human-distinguishable. It is even

more important that humans be able to distinguish read-caps and write-caps.

comment:2 Changed at 2008-11-17T00:47:06Z by zooko

See also #52 (browser integration).

comment:3 Changed at 2009-06-30T12:40:23Z by zooko

  • Milestone changed from 1.5.0 to eventually

comment:4 Changed at 2009-07-11T13:11:19Z by warner

NewCapDesign is the place to design the new cap format. It contains a detailed list of design criteria.

comment:5 Changed at 2009-10-28T03:35:15Z by davidsarah

  • Keywords newcaps added; caps removed

Tagging issues relevant to new cap protocol design.

comment:6 Changed at 2009-10-28T07:26:27Z by davidsarah

  • Keywords newurls added

comment:7 Changed at 2010-02-23T03:07:30Z by zooko

  • Milestone changed from eventually to 2.0.0

comment:8 Changed at 2010-08-03T14:38:39Z by zooko

Some old notes about this are on ticket #102. Please read them!

comment:9 Changed at 2021-03-30T18:40:46Z by meejah

  • Milestone 2.0.0 deleted

Ticket retargeted after milestone closed (editing milestones)

Note: See TracTickets for help on using tickets.