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Update helper.rst to explain new-style config. fixes #1915
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Author: Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn <zooko>
Signed-off-by: David-Sarah Hopwood <david-sarah@jacaranda.org>
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David-Sarah Hopwood committed Mar 17, 2013
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42 changes: 21 additions & 21 deletions docs/helper.rst
Expand Up @@ -10,12 +10,14 @@ The Tahoe Upload Helper
Overview
========

As described in the `"Swarming Download, Trickling Upload" section of
architecture.rst <architecture.rst#swarming-download-trickling-upload>`_,
Tahoe uploads require more bandwidth than downloads: you must push the
redundant shares during upload, but you do not need to retrieve them during
download. With the default 3-of-10 encoding parameters, this means that an
upload will require about 3.3x the traffic as a download of the same file.
As described in the "Swarming Download, Trickling Upload" section of
`architecture.rst`_, Tahoe uploads require more bandwidth than downloads: you
must push the redundant shares during upload, but you do not need to retrieve
them during download. With the default 3-of-10 encoding parameters, this
means that an upload will require about 3.3x the traffic as a download of the
same file.

.. _architecture.rst: file:architecture.rst

Unfortunately, this "expansion penalty" occurs in the same upstream direction
that most consumer DSL lines are slow anyways. Typical ADSL lines get 8 times
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -90,7 +92,7 @@ helper.

You can tell if your node is running a helper by looking at its web status
page. Assuming that you've set up the 'webport' to use port 3456, point your
browser at http://localhost:3456/ . The welcome page will say "Helper: 0
browser at ``http://localhost:3456/`` . The welcome page will say "Helper: 0
active uploads" or "Not running helper" as appropriate. The
http://localhost:3456/helper_status page will also provide details on what
the helper is currently doing.
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -125,23 +127,21 @@ Who should consider using a Helper?
* clients who have been given the helper.furl by someone who is running a
Helper and is willing to let them use it

To take advantage of somebody else's Helper, take the helper.furl file that
they give you, and copy it into your node's base directory, then restart the
node:

::
To take advantage of somebody else's Helper, take the helper furl that they
give you, and edit your tahoe.cfg file. Enter the helper's furl into the
value of the key "helper.furl" in the "[client]" section of tahoe.cfg, as
described in the "Client Configuration" section of configuration.rst_.

cat email >$BASEDIR/helper.furl
tahoe restart $BASEDIR
.. _configuration.rst: file:configuration.rst

This will signal the client to try and connect to the helper. Subsequent
uploads will use the helper rather than using direct connections to the
storage server.
Then restart the node. This will signal the client to try and connect to the
helper. Subsequent uploads will use the helper rather than using direct
connections to the storage server.

If the node has been configured to use a helper, that node's HTTP welcome
page (http://localhost:3456/) will say "Helper: $HELPERFURL" instead of
"Helper: None". If the helper is actually running and reachable, the next
line will say "Connected to helper?: yes" instead of "no".
page (``http://localhost:3456/``) will say "Helper: $HELPERFURL" instead of
"Helper: None". If the helper is actually running and reachable, the bullet
to the left of "Helper" will be green.

The helper is optional. If a helper is connected when an upload begins, the
upload will use the helper. If there is no helper connection present when an
Expand All @@ -150,7 +150,7 @@ client will automatically attempt to reconnect to the helper if the
connection is lost, using the same exponential-backoff algorithm as all other
tahoe/foolscap connections.

The upload/download status page (http://localhost:3456/status) will announce
The upload/download status page (``http://localhost:3456/status``) will announce
the using-helper-or-not state of each upload, in the "Helper?" column.

Other Helper Modes
Expand Down

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