knowledge/Share file with ipfs.md

tags
tutorial, ipfs, file-sharing, nat, english

Share file with ipfs

Warning: Only tested serving the file, not downloading it

1. Install ipfs

2. Initiate ipfs main folder ipfs init, not sure why but this is required for following commands

3. Serve a file ipfs add {filepath}. It should return something like this

   added QmdsEVLRXioANssEVLRXYioANsGtANsGtRXYioANsGtAWZ file.md
   37.62 KiB / 37.62 KiB [===========================] 100.00%
   

4. Start server with ipfs daemon

5. Missing step, server seems to need an open port (not firewalled)

6. Download file from any device ipfs get /ipfs/QmdsEVLRXioANssEVLRXYioANsGtANsGtRXYioANsGtAWZ <-- that's the hash returned from step 3

   $ ls
   QmdsEVLRXioANssEVLRXYioANsGtANsGtRXYioANsGtAWZ
   

Notice the filename is just the hash, the original filename is lost.

Note: IPNS seems to solve the filename problem, need to research on how to use it

Troubleshoot

https://github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/blob/master/docs/file-transfer.md

What led to learning this

Random news of ipfs in HN. It just reminded me I've never tried it out.
And in recent months I've had difficulty sharing files p2p