Re: [circle] documentation for running behind NAT?

[Jiri Baum]

Hello,

Matthew:
> Anyway, I'm interested in the circle because I need a topic for my computer
> science master's thesis, and this idea seems really good.  I suppose I can
> do everything I need in a lab setup. 

As you've probably already seen on the website, others have implemented 
similar ideas under the name "chord"...

The circle architecture is also a problem with modern firewalls; circle needs 
to receive UDP packets from random hosts on the network it hasn't talked to 
before, and firewalls generally don't like that. This is not a problem for a 
master's thesis, of course, but limits the practical application...

> Is it possible to run multiple instances of the circle on the samec machine?

Yes - I did that when I was writing channels. Like this:

#!/bin/csh
cd /home/jiri/circle
setenv HOME /home/jiri/circle/test/foo
exec ./circle &
setenv HOME /home/jiri/circle/test/bar
exec ./circle &
setenv HOME /home/jiri/circle/test/baz
exec ./circle &

Because $HOME is different, each copy gets its own .circle directory and 
therefore a different identity.


If there is no network, you can start a new one with the command:
!node.activate_hashtable()
then you can get your three copies to talk to each other...

(Normally, it's assumed that circle connects to an existing network "out 
there", which one of the developers starts manually; if there is no network, 
you have to pretend to be one of the developers and start it yourself.)


I don't usually run circle, but you can try me anyway: pmj.baum.com.au
It's running right now, at least...


Jiri
-- 
Jiri Baum <address@hidden>           http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jirib
  MAT LinuxPLC project --- http://mat.sf.net --- Machine Automation Tools