On 06.07.21 00:04, Guilherme Macedo via Mailinglist for GNUnet developers wrote: > Hey! > > I've a few questions about how the hostlist works, after reading the handbook > and looking into the source code. > > Why the hostlist is tied to a specific versioned subdomain - > http://v14.gnunet.org/hostlist ?
Because protocol changes may require using a different hostlist for different versions of GNUnet. > Could it be made generic like https://gnunet.io/hostlist ?Every time that > it's updated, it also requires the handbook to be updated too. > Why it's served through plain http? For no particular reason, other than the server not yet being setup with HTTPS support. > The file doesn't seem to be signed, so how can the network protect itself > from malicious or rogue nodes? The hostlist is one way of bootstrapping, the network has other ways to bootstrap. This is NOT a directory server like in Tor listing all nodes. > Is the validation being done in some code besides > https://git.gnunet.org/gnunet.git/tree/src/hostlist ? No. As I said, this is not a list of all the nodes in the network, and the hostlist server is no special authority. Anyone can run one, and offer any subset of the peers. > What is the purpose of fulcrum.net.in.tum.de in > https://git.gnunet.org/gnunet.git/tree/src/hostlist/hostlists_learn_peer2.file > ? That was simply a peer which used to run GNUnet. It has no particular meaning, the file is simply a valid hello IIRC. > Who curates the hostlist? Nobody, really. It is dynamically generated based on the peers known to the specific peer serving a hostlist. > I'm asking because there is a difference between the hosts available in > http://v14.gnunet.org/hostlist and https://gnunet.io/hostlist . Which is again by design perfectly acceptable. You can use either or both hostlists, or offer a third one yourself that is again different. > Appreciate if someone could point to me specific section in the handbook or > in the source code that I might have missed, please. Maybe https://docs.gnunet.org/handbook/gnunet.html#HOSTLIST-Subsystem ? Happy hacking! Christian
