[tahoe-dev] remove the localfile feature from web API?

[zooko]

On Aug 9, 2007, at 1:32 PM, Brian Warner wrote:
>
> I've got mixed feelings on this one. Sooner or later we're going to
> build a local web ui around this thing,
...
> But if it works, and has tests, and is documented, and isn't
> particularly confusing to the user or the developer, and we know we'll
> need something like it in the future, why remove it?
...
> So, my thoughts are that localfile= should be left in place, and  
> the CLI
> client should use PUT and GET exclusively.

Brian:

Thanks for the thoughtful response!

My motivation for suggesting to remove it was:

1. That it makes webapi.txt [1] a tad harder to pick up by increasing  
the number of file actions from six to eight, and by introducing some  
questions about security and when-to-use-it.

2. I'm not sure that the "request originates at 127.0.0.1" is  
sufficient to prevent someone from exploiting this.  What about multi- 
user machines?  What about web proxies?  What about phishing?  At  
this point I would rather turn it off by default than spend time  
trying to think of ways that it could be safe or unsafe...

I agree with you that the code works and is tested and the it or  
something very close to it will soon be needed, so I agree with you  
on your two suggestions of leaving the code in place and not-using it  
in the CLI.  In addition, I was thinking of something like: disable  
localfile entirely by default (to satisfy concern #2), and omit it  
from the first release of webapi.txt (to satisfy concern #1).  How  
does that sound?

Regards,

Zooko

[1] http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/browser/docs/webapi.txt