knowledge/Share file with ipfs.md

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 previous command

$ ls
QmdsEVLRXioANssEVLRXYioANsGtANsGtRXYioANsGtAWZ

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

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

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