NAME¶

gnunet-search — a command line interface to search for content on GNUnet

SYNOPSIS¶

DESCRIPTION¶

Search for content on GNUnet. The keywords are case-sensitive. gnunet-search can be used both for a search in the global namespace as well as for searching a private subspace. The options are as follows:

-a LEVEL | --anonymity=LEVEL

This option can be used to specify additional anonymity constraints. The default is 1. If set to 0, GNUnet will publish the file non-anonymously and in fact sign the advertisement for the file using your peer's private key. This will allow other users to download the file as fast as possible, including using non-anonymous methods (discovery via DHT and CADET transfer). If you set it to 1 (default), you use the standard anonymous routing algorithm (which does not explicitly leak your identity). However, a powerful adversary may still be able to perform traffic analysis (statistics) to over time discovery your identity. You can gain better privacy by specifying a higher level of anonymity (using values above 1). This tells FS that it must hide your own requests in equivalent-looking cover traffic. This should confound an adversaries traffic analysis, increasing the time and effort it would take to discover your identity. However, it also can significantly reduce performance, as your requests will be delayed until sufficient cover traffic is available. The specific numeric value (for anonymity levels above 1) is simple: Given an anonymity level L (above 1), each request FS makes on your behalf must be hidden in L-1 equivalent requests of cover traffic (traffic your peer routes for others) in the same time-period. The time-period is twice the average delay by which GNUnet artificially delays traffic. Note that regardless of the anonymity level you choose, peers that cache content in the network always use anonymity level 1.

-b | --bookmark-only

Do not search, print only the URI that points to the search with the given keywords.

-c FILENAME | --config=FILENAME

Use the configuration file FILENAME (default: ~/.config/gnunet.conf).

-F FORMAT | --dir-printf=FORMAT

Write the search results for directories according to FORMAT. The directives supported here are identical to those supported in the --printf argument (please refer to it for more information). If missing, --dir-printf defaults to --printf. If --printf is missing too --dir-printf defaults to ‘#%n:\ngnunet-download -o "%f" -R %u\n\n’.

-f FORMAT | --printf=FORMAT

Write the search results according to FORMAT, in which ‘\’ and ‘%’ directives are interpreted as follows:

\\

a literal backslash (‘\’)

\a

an alarm bell

\b

a backspace

\e

an escape

\f

a form feed

\n

a newline

\r

a carriage return

\t

a horizontal tab

\v

a vertical tab

\0

an ASCII NUL.

\N...

the character whose ASCII code is N..., expressed in octal digits

\xX...

the character whose ASCII code is X..., expressed in hexadecimal digits

Note: The ‘\’ character followed by any other character not listed above is treated as an ordinary character, so both characters are printed.

%%

a percent sign

%a

the complete list of all the printable metadata properties available, displayed according to the --iter-printf argument; this specifier optionally supports metatype filtering via hash sign (e.g. ‘%2#a’ prints all embedded file names, if present - see libextractor's metatypes for the complete list of numerical identifiers)

%f

the file's name

%j

the first printable metadata property available, displayed according to the --iter-printf argument; this specifier optionally supports metatype filtering via hash sign (e.g. ‘%5#j’ prints a book title, if present); see libextractor's metatypes for the complete list of numerical identifiers)

%l

the file name's length

%m

the file's mime type

%n

the search result number

%s

the file's size in bytes

%u

the file's URI

Note: The ‘%’ character followed by any other character not listed above is treated as an ordinary character, so both characters are printed.

If missing, --printf defaults to ‘#%n:\ngnunet-download -o "%f" %u\n\n’.

-h | --help

Print the help page.

-i FORMAT | --iter-printf=FORMAT

When the ‘%a’ or ‘%j’ format specifiers appear in --printf or --dir-printf, list each metadata property according to FORMAT, in which the ‘\’ directives are interpreted as in --printf and --dir-printf, while the ‘%’ directives are interpreted as follows:

%%

a percent sign

%p

the property's content

%l

the property content's length in bytes

%i

the property type's unique identifier

%n

the property number

%t

the property type (available only if compiled with libextractor)

%w

the name of the plugin that provided the information

Note: The ‘%’ character followed by any other character not listed above is treated as an ordinary character, so both characters are printed.

If missing, --iter-printf defaults to ‘ %t: %p\n’ or ‘ MetaType #%i: %p\n’, depending on whether the program was compiled with libextractor or not.

-L LOGLEVEL | --loglevel=LOGLEVEL

Change the loglevel. Possible values for LOGLEVEL are ERROR, WARNING, INFO and DEBUG.

-l FILENAME | --logfile=FILENAME

Write logs to FILENAME.

-o FILENAME | --output=FILENAME

Writes a GNUnet directory containing all of the search results to FILENAME (e.g. ‘gnunet-search --output=commons.gnd commons’).

-n | --no-network

Only search locally, do not forward requests to other peers.

-N VALUE | --results=VALUE

Automatically terminate the search after receiving VALUE results.

-s | --silent

Enable silent mode and do not print any result (the --output argument is required).

-t DELAY | --timeout=DELAY

Automatically timeout search after DELAY. The value given must be a number followed by a space and a time unit, for example "500 ms". Note that the quotes are required on the shell. Without a unit it defaults to microseconds (1000000 = 1 second). If 0 or omitted the search runs until gnunet-search is aborted with CTRL-C.

-v | --version

print the version number

-V | --verbose

append ‘%a\n’ to the default --printf and --dir-printf arguments – ignored when these are provided by the user

It is possible to run gnunet-search with an URI instead of a keyword. The URI can have the format for a namespace search or for a keyword search. For a namespace search, the format is

For a keyword search, use

If the format does not correspond to a GNUnet URI, GNUnet will automatically assume that keywords are supplied directly.

If multiple keywords are passed, gnunet-search will look for content matching any of the keywords. The ‘+’ prefix makes a keyword mandatory.

FILES¶

~/.config/gnunet.conf GNUnet configuration file; specifies the default value for the timeout

EXAMPLES¶

Example 1:

searches for content matching the keyword “Das Kapital”

Example 2:

searches for content matching either keyword “Das” or keyword “Kapital”

Example 3:

searches for content matching both mandatory keywords “Das” and “Kapital”

Search results are printed by gnunet-search like this:

gnunet-download -o "COPYING" gnunet://fs/chk/HASH1.HASH2.SIZE

Description: The GNU General Public License
Mime-type: text/plain
...

The first line contains the command to run to download the file. The suggested filename in the example is ‘COPYING’. The GNUnet URI consists of the key and query hash of the file and finally the size of the file. If the --verbose option was provided, after the command to download the file, GNUnet will print metadata about the file as advertised in the search result. The metadata here is the description (“The GNU General Public License”) and the mime-type (“text-plain”). See the options for gnunet-publish(1) on how to supply metadata by hand.

The --printf (-f), --dir-printf (-F) and --iter-printf (-i) arguments offer powerful tools for manipulating the output printed. For instance,

Example 4:

$ gnunet-search -f '%f (%s bytes)\n' commons

will print a simple list of the results that match the “commons” keyword, with only the file name and the size printed, without any URI. Or, for instance,

Example 5:

#!/bin/sh
{
printf '<list>'
gnunet-search -f '
<file uri="%u">
<filename len="%l">%f</filename>
<size>%s</size>
<mimetype>%m</mimetype>
<result_id>%n</result_id>
<metadata>%a
</metadata>
</file>' \
-i '
<property tid="%i" type="%t">
<content len="%l">%p</content>
<property_id>%n</property_id>
<provided_by>%w</provided_by>
</property>' \
-t '2 s' commons
printf '\n</list>\n'
} > commons.xml

will run for two seconds and then create a file named commons.xml, containing the search results that match the “commons” keyword in XML format.

SEE ALSO¶

gnunet-download(1), gnunet-fs-gtk(1), gnunet-publish(1), gnunet.conf(5)

The full documentation for GNUnet is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info(1) and gnunet packages are properly installed at your site, the command

should give you access to the complete handbook,

will give you access to a tutorial for developers.

Depending on your installation, this information is also available in gnunet(7) and gnunet-c-tutorial(7).

BUGS¶

Report bugs by using https://bugs.gnunet.org or by sending electronic mail to <gnunet-developers@gnu.org>.