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Wasm WNFS

This projects implements necessary JavaScript bindings for using the WebNative FileSystem (WNFS) Rust implementation in the browser.

WNFS is a versioned content-addressable distributed filesystem with private and public sub systems. The private filesystem is encrypted so that only users with the right keys can access its contents. It is designed to prevent inferring metadata like the structure of the file tree. The other part of the WNFS filesystem is a simpler public filesystem that is not encrypted and can be accessed by anyone with the right address.

WNFS also features collaborative editing of file trees, where multiple users can edit the same tree at the same time.

WNFS file trees can serialize and be deserialized from IPLD graphs with an extensible metadata section. This allows WNFS to be understood by other IPLD-based tools and systems.

Outline

Setting up the Project

  • Install wasm-bindgen

    cargo install wasm-bindgen-cli

  • Install dependencies

    yarn

  • Install playwright binaries

    npx playwright install

  • Build project

    yarn run build

Usage

WNFS does not have an opinion on where you want to persist your content or the file tree. Instead, the API takes any object that implements the asynchronous BlockStore trait. The library also avoids including system function calls that could possibly tie it to a set of platforms. Operations like time and random number generation have to be passed in via the API. This allows the library to be used in a wide variety of environments. It particularly makes virtualisation easier.

Let's see an example of working with a public filesystem. We will use a user-provided in-memory block store.

import { MemoryBlockStore } from "<custom>";
import { PublicDirectory } from "wnfs";

const dir = new PublicDirectory(new Date());
const store = new MemoryBlockStore();

var { rootDir } = await dir.mkdir(["pictures", "cats"], new Date(), store);

// Create a sample CIDv1.
const cid = Uint8Array.from([
  1, 112, 18, 32, 195, 196, 115, 62, 200, 175, 253, 6, 207, 158, 159, 245, 15,
  252, 107, 205, 46, 200, 90, 97, 112, 0, 75, 183, 9, 102, 156, 49, 222, 148,
  57, 26,
]);

// Add a file to /pictures/cats.
var { rootDir } = await rootDir.write(
  ["pictures", "cats", "tabby.png"],
  cid,
  time,
  store
);

// Create and add a file to /pictures/dogs directory.
var { rootDir } = await rootDir.write(
  ["pictures", "dogs", "billie.jpeg"],
  cid,
  time,
  store
);

// Delete /pictures/cats directory.
var { rootDir } = await rootDir.rm(["pictures", "cats"], store);

// List all files in /pictures directory.
var { result } = await rootDir.ls(["pictures"], store);

console.log("Files in /pictures directory:", result);

You may notice that we use the rootDirs returned by each operation in subseqent operations. That is because WNFS internal state is immutable and every operation potentially returns a new root directory. This allows us to track and rollback changes when needed. It also makes collaborative editing easier to implement and reason about. There is a basic demo of the filesystem immutability here.

The private filesystem, on the other hand, is a bit more involved. Hash Array Mapped Trie (HAMT) is used as the intermediate format of private file tree before it is persisted to the blockstore. Our use of HAMTs obfuscate the file tree hierarchy.

import { MemoryBlockStore, Rng } from "<custom>";
import { PrivateDirectory, PrivateForest, Namefilter } from "wnfs";

const initialForest = new PrivateForest();
const rng = new Rng();
const store = new MemoryBlockStore();
const dir = new PrivateDirectory(new Namefilter(), new Date(), rng);

var { rootDir, forest } = await root.mkdir(
  ["pictures", "cats"],
  true,
  new Date(),
  initialForest,
  store,
  rng
);

// Add a file to /pictures/cats.
var { rootDir, forest } = await rootDir.write(
  ["pictures", "cats", "tabby.png"],
  cid,
  time,
  store
);

// Create and add a file to /pictures/dogs directory.
var { rootDir, forest } = await rootDir.write(
  ["pictures", "cats", "billie.png"],
  true,
  new Uint8Array([1, 2, 3, 4, 5]),
  new Date(),
  forest,
  store,
  rng
);

// Delete /pictures/cats directory.
var { rootDir, forest } = await rootDir.rm(
  ["pictures", "cats"],
  true,
  forest,
  store,
  rng
);

// List all files in /pictures directory.
var { result } = await rootDir.ls(["pictures"], true, forest, store);

console.log("Files in /pictures directory:", result);

Testing the Project

  • Run tests

    yarn run test

Publishing Package

  • Build the project

    rs-wnfs build --wasm

  • Publish

    npm publish