The Circle
----------

The Circle is a decentralized file sharing application
based around the idea of a decentralized hashtable.

The Circle has been tested on Linux and Windows, but should 
work on any Unix variant if the appropriate libraries are 
installed. To run the Circle you will need:

 * Python 2.2 or higher
 * GTK+ 2
 * Python-GTK for GTK+ 2, version >= 2.2 
   Note: depending on distributions, this package is called pygtk or pygtk2.
   Note: make sure that you use compatible versions of Python and pygtk.
 * Optionally, Python-GNOME
 * Optionally: The Pyogg and Pyvorbis packages:  
   see http://www.andrewchatham.com/pyogg/


Linux users should be able to install these from their Linux distribution,
and all of these are also available under Windows (see thecircle.org.au
for links).

To install Circle under Linux, type:

  python setup.py install

To start Circle type:

  circle

This will start both the daemon and the GUI.

To start only the daemon, type:

  circle start

To stop the daemon, type:

  circle stop

To query the daemon, type:

  circle status

Type "circle help" for more options.


It is possible to install multiple versions of Python on some systems,
such as Debian and Red Hat. For example, you may have installed
both Python 1.5 and Python 2.1. For some reason, in this case most
systems seem to default to 1.5 when you run Python. You can remove
the old version, or force The Circle to use the later version.  For
example:

  python2.1 setup.py install

BSD users: The default OpenBSD (and possibly other BSDs) packet filter
configuration uses a stateful UDP filter rule that The Circle finds intensely
confusing -- you will appear to others to disappear and reappear on the
network randomly. See circlelib/getting_started.html for instructions on
fixing this.

For further information, see the website: 

  http://thecircle.org.au/

If you find a bug, please submit it to:

  http://savannah.nongnu.org/bugs/?group=circle

Please feel free to send any comments or feature requests to
circle-discuss@nongnu.org.

The Circle is GPL software, see the file COPYING for details of this license.