-Some last few things to do before release.
+Use GPG signatures as a hash for files.
+
+A detached GPG signature, such as is found in Release.gpg, can be used
+as a hash for the file. This hash can be used to verify the file when
+it is downloaded, and a shortened version can be added to the DHT to
+look up peers for the file. To get the hash into a binary form from
+the ascii-armored detached file, use the command
+'gpg --no-options --no-default-keyring --output - --dearmor -'. The
+hash should be stored as the reverse of the resulting binary string,
+as the bytes at the beginning are headers that are the same for most
+signatures. That way the shortened hash stored in the DHT will have a
+better chance of being unique and being stored on different peers. To
+verify a file, first the binary hash must be re-reversed, armored, and
+written to a temporary file with the command
+'gpg --no-options --no-default-keyring --output $tempfile --enarmor -'.
+Then the incoming file can be verified with the command
+'gpg --no-options --no-default-keyring --keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg
+--verify $tempfile -'.
+
+All communication with the command-line gpg should be done using pipes
+and the python module python-gnupginterface. There needs to be a new
+module for GPG verification and hashing, which will make this easier.
+In particular, it would need to support hashlib-like functionality
+such as new(), update(), and digest(). Note that the verification
+would not involve signing the file again and comparing the signatures,
+as this is not possible. Instead, the verify() function would have to
+behave differently for GPG hashes, and check that the verification
+resulted in a VALIDSIG. CAUTION: the detached signature can have a
+variable length, though it seems to be usually 65 bytes, 64 bytes has
+also been observed.
-- Handle/investigate the HTTP client pipeline errors
-- DB should not always restat files (especially for expired hashes)
-- remove missing files at startup (in DB's removeUntracked)
-- when files modtime but not size changes, rehash them to be sure
-- remove files from the peer's download cache
-- update the modtime of files downloaded from peers
- - also set the Last-Modified header for the return to Apt
-- refresh expired DHT hashes concurrently instead of sequentially
Consider what happens when multiple requests for a file are received.
other peers.
+Rehash changed files instead of removing them.
+
+When the modification time of a file changes but the size does not,
+the file could be rehased to verify it is the same instead of
+automatically removing it. The DB would have to be modified to return
+deferred's for a lot of its functions.
+
+
Consider storing deltas of packages.
Instead of downloading full package files when a previous version of
projects / quix0rs-apt-p2p.git / blobdiff