Swift LibP2P

The Swift implementation of the libp2p networking stack

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Disclaimer
• Install
• Usage
  • Example
  • API
• Contributing
• Credits
• License

Overview

libp2p is a networking stack and library modularized out of The IPFS Project, and bundled separately for other tools to use.

libp2p is the product of a long, and arduous quest of understanding -- a deep dive into the internet's network stack, and plentiful peer-to-peer protocols from the past. Building large-scale peer-to-peer systems has been complex and difficult in the last 15 years, and libp2p is a way to fix that. It is a "network stack" -- a protocol suite -- that cleanly separates concerns, and enables sophisticated applications to only use the protocols they absolutely need, without giving up interoperability and upgradeability. libp2p grew out of IPFS, but it is built so that lots of people can use it, for lots of different projects.

Docs & Examples

• The Swift Libp2p Documentation

Note:

To learn more, check out the following resources:

• the libp2p documentation
• the libp2p community discussion forum
• the libp2p specification
• the go-libp2p implementation
• the js-libp2p implementation
• the rust-libp2p implementation

Disclaimer

• ‼️ This is a work in progress ‼️
• ‼️ Please don't use swift-libp2p in anything other than experimental projects until it reaches 1.0 ‼️
• ‼️ Help it get there sooner by contributing ‼️

Install

Include the following dependency in your Package.swift file

let package = Package(
    ...
    dependencies: [
        ...
        .package(name: "LibP2P", url: "https://github.com/swift-libp2p/swift-libp2p.git", .upToNextMajor(from: "0.1.0"))
    ],
        ...
        .target(
            ...
            dependencies: [
                ...
                .product(name: "LibP2P", package: "swift-libp2p"),
            ]),
    ...
)

Usage

Example

import LibP2P
import LibP2PNoise
import LibP2PMPLEX

/// Configure your Libp2p networking stack...
let lib = try Application(.development, peerID: PeerID(.Ed25519))
lib.security.use(.noise)
lib.muxers.use(.mplex)
lib.servers.use(.tcp(host: "127.0.0.1", port: 0))

/// Register your routes handlers...
/// - Note: Uses the same syntax as swift-vapor
try lib.routes()

/// Start libp2p
lib.start()

/// Do some networking stuff... 📡

/// At some later point, when you're done with libp2p...
lib.shutdown()

• Check out the libp2p-app-template repo for a bare-bones executable app ready to be customized
• Check out the Configure an Echo Server tutorial in the documentation for more info

Packages

• List of packages currently in existence for swift libp2p:
• Legend: 🟢 = kinda works, 🟡 = doesn't really work yet, 🔴 = not started yet, but on the radar

Name	Status	Description	Build (macOS & Linux)
Libp2p
swift-libp2p	🟢	swift-libp2p entry point
swift-libp2p-core	🟢	Core interfaces, types, and abstractions
Protocol Negotiation
swift-libp2p-mss	🟢	MultistreamSelect transport upgrader (embedded)
Transport
swift-libp2p-tcp	🟢	TCP transport (embedded)	N/A
swift-libp2p-udp	🟡	UDP transport (embedded)	N/A
swift-libp2p-quic	🔴	TODO: QUIC transport	N/A
swift-libp2p-websocket	🟢	WebSocket transport
swift-libp2p-http	🔴	TODO: HTTP1 transport	N/A
swift-libp2p-http2	🔴	TODO: HTTP2 transport	N/A
Encrypted Channels
swift-libp2p-plaintext	🟢	Plaintext channel
swift-libp2p-noise	🟢	Noise crypto channel
swift-libp2p-tls	🔴	TODO: TLS 1.3+ crypto channel	N/A
Stream Muxers
swift-libp2p-mplex	🟢	MPLEX stream multiplexer
swift-libp2p-yamux	🔴	TODO: YAMUX stream multiplexer	N/A
Private Network
-	-	-	N/A
NAT Traversal
-	-	-	N/A
Peerstore
swift-libp2p-peerstore	🟡	Reference implementation of peer metadata storage component (embedded)	N/A
Connection Manager
swift-libp2p-connection-manager	🟡	Reference implementation of connection manager (embedded)	N/A
Routing
swift-libp2p-kad-dht	🟡	Kademlia Distributed Hash Table
Pubsub
swift-libp2p-pubsub	🟡	Core PubSub Protocols & FloodSub and GossipSub Routers
RPC
swift-libp2p-rpc	🔴	TODO: A simple RPC library for libp2p	N/A
Utilities/miscellaneous
swift-libp2p-dnsaddr	🟡	A DNSAddr Resolver
swift-libp2p-mdns	🟡	MulticastDNS for LAN discovery
swift-libp2p-identify	🟢	IPFS Identify Protocols (embedded)
Testing and examples
swift-libp2p-testing	🔴	TODO: A collection of testing utilities for libp2p	N/A

Dependencies

Name	Description	Build (macOS & Linux)
Cryptography
swift-libp2p-crypto	Crypto abstractions for Keys, Hashes and Ciphers
Multiformats
swift-multibase	Self Identifying Base Encodings
swift-multicodec	Multiformat Codecs
swift-multihash	Self Identifying Hashes
swift-multiaddr	Self Identifying Addresses
swift-peer-id	Peer IDs
Utilities
swift-bases	Base encodings & decodings
swift-varint	Protocol Buffer Variable Integers
swift-cid	Content Identifiers
External
swift-nio	Network application framework	N/A

API

/// TODO

Contributing

Contributions are welcomed! This code is very much a proof of concept. I can guarantee you there's a better / safer way to accomplish the same results. Any suggestions, improvements, or even just critques, are welcome!

Let's make this code better together! 🤝

Credits

• swift-nio
• swift-vapor
• LibP2P Spec

License

MIT © 2022 Breth Inc.