Bytestag: Wide Availability Peer-to-Peer File Sharing

Bytestag is a peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing system that uses a distributed hash table (DHT) to achieve wide availability of files. Unlike the BitTorrent protocol, files are published entirely via DHT and do not require trackers or swarming. Each computer donates disk space and bandwidth for caching of published values.

This software is currently under development.

Please check the wiki for the latest information about packages.

You will need:

1. Python >=3.2
2. Python module bitstring >=3.0
3. Python module miniupnpc >= 1.7.20120830

If you want the GUI you will need:

1. PySide (for Python 3)
2. Qt

Run the commands:

python3 setup.py build
python3 setup.py install

The command line version can be run as:

python3 -m bytestag

The GUI version can be run as:

python3 -m bytestagui

1. Python >= 3.2
2. PySide which should match the Python version and whether it is 32 or 64 bit.
3. cx_freeze (which, again, should match the Python version you installed.)
4. If Windows, pywin32 extensions (matching Python version and 32/64 bit)
5. The Python module miniupnpc >= 1.7.20120830.

1. Run the command in project directory python setup_cx_freeze.py build. If you are using Windows, I suggest using the Power Shell.
2. Change directory into build/XXXXX and test running the executable.
3. Change back to the project directory and run the command python setup_cx_freeze.py bdist_msi or python setup_cx_freeze.py bdist_dmg to generate the installers or disk images.

For Windows, Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package is needed. SP1 is not needed. Be sure to match 32 or 64 bit. Read the cx_freeze documentation for details.

If it crashes hard on Windows, install the Windows Debugger Tools (WinDbg) to attach to the process and see which module failed to import. It is usually a missing DLL.

Miniupnpc can be obtained from http://miniupnp.free.fr/. The build targets needed are init, libminiupnpc.a, pythonmodule3, and installpythonmodule3.

To build and install using Mingw32, use commands similar to:

mingw32-make -f Makefile.mingw -C init libminiupnpc.a pythonmodule

Fine-control over python install:

python.exe setupmingw32.py build --compiler mingw32
python.exe setupmingw32.py install --prefix PREFIX_HERE

The project page is located at https://launchpad.net/bytestag. Code, bug reports, translations, and questions are welcomed there.

The code is occasionally mirrored at https://github.com/chfoo/bytestag.

A suggested local project directory structure is as follows:

bytestag/bytestag.bzr/trunk/
bytestag/bytestag.bzr/unstable/
bytestag/bytestag.bzr/stable/
bytestag/bytestag.bzr/branches/bug-NNNNN/
bytestag/bytestag.bzr/branches/feature-XXXXX/

bytestag.bzr is a Bzr shared repository. It is usually created by executing bzr init-repo --no-trees bytestag.bzr in the bytestag directory.

You might not want to work with Bzr, so use you can put a repo next to it:

bytestag/bytestag.git/

For more structure/layout ideas, see http://wiki.bazaar.canonical.com/SharedRepositoryLayouts.

Release tags for any version (alpha, beta, etc.) should use vN.N[.N]+[{a|b|c|rc}N[.N]+]. For example: v1.2b1.

The documentation is located in the doc directory. Sphinx is used to generate the documents. They can be read at http://packages.python.org/Bytestag/.

Please update the release notes in the doc directory for releases.

Packaging scripts and templates are included in the pkg directory. If packaging templates do not work, require unnecessary tweaking, or violate packaging policies, please tell us.