npm install -g dat
Dat is the distributed data sharing tool. Share files with version control, back up data to servers, browse remote files on demand, and automate long-term data preservation. Secure, distributed, fast.
Have questions? Join our chat via IRC or Gitter:
The Dat Project is the home to open source data sharing applications led by Code for Science & Society, a grant-funded non profit. The Dat Protocol transfers files in a secure, distributed, and fast network allowing you to focus on the fun work without worrying about moving files around.
Rather not use the command line? Visit our installation guide or check out these options:
Share, download, and backup files with the command line! Automatically sync changes to datasets. Never worry about manually transferring files again.
| Mac/Linux | Windows | Version |
|---|---|---|
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Have questions or need some guidance? You can chat with us in IRC on #dat or Gitter!
npm install -g dat - Install dat globally to use in the command line.npm install -g datThe Dat command line tool can be installed with npm. Dat needs node version 4 or above and npm installed. You can run node -v to check!
Need to install Node or npm? Start here.
Install dat from npm with the --global, -g option:
npm install -g dat
You should be able to run the dat command now. If not, see the installation troubleshooting for tips.
require('dat')Dat exports the dat-node API via require('dat'). Use it in your javascript applications! Dat Desktop and dat command line both use dat-node to share and download dats.
Full API documentation is available in the dat-node repository on Github.
We have Dat installed, let's use it!
Dat command line is a powerful tool for distributed file syncing. Dat's unique design works wherever you store your data. Create a new dat from any folder on your computer. Then use your new dat to:
A dat is some files from your computer and a .dat folder. Each dat has unique dat:// link. With your dat link, other users can download your files and live sync any updates.
New to Dat? Try the dat create command, it walks you through creating a new dat and dat.json file.
dat share <dir>
Use dat share to create a dat and sync your files from your computer to other users. Dat scans your files inside <dir>, creating metadata in <dir>/.dat. Dat stores the public link, version history, and file information inside the dat folder.
dat clone dat://<link> <download-dir>
Use dat clone to download files from a remote computers sharing files with Dat. This will download the files from dat://<link> to your <download-dir>. The download exits after it completes but you can continue to update the files later after the clone is done. Use dat pull to update new files or dat sync to live sync changes.
Try out dat clone with the link above to read more about the protocol!
A few other highlights. Run dat help to see the full usage guide.
dat create - Create a new dat and dat.json file.dat doctor - Dat network doctor! The doctor tries to connect to a public peer. The doctor also creates a key to test direct connections.dat log ~/data/dat-folder/ or dat log dat://<key> - view the history and metadata information for a dat.To get started using Dat, you can try downloading a dat and then sharing a dat of your own.
We made a demo folder we made just for this exercise. Inside the demo folder is a dat.json file and a gif. We shared these files via Dat and now you can download them with our dat key!
Similar to git, you do download somebody's dat by running dat clone <link>. You can also specify the directory:
❯ dat clone dat://778f8d955175c92e4ced5e4f5563f69bfec0c86cc6f670352c457943666fe639 ~/Downloads/dat-demo
dat v13.5.0
Created new dat in /Users/joe/Downloads/dat-demo/.dat
Cloning: 2 files (1.4 MB)
2 connections | Download 614 KB/s Upload 0 B/s
dat sync complete.
Version 4
This will download our demo files to the ~/downloads/dat-demo folder. These files are being shared by a server over Dat (to ensure high availability) but you may connect to any number of users also hosting the content.
You can also also view the files online: datproject.org/778f8d955175c92e4ced5e4f5563f69bfec0c86cc6f670352c457943666fe639. datproject.org can download files over Dat and display them on http as long as someone is hosting it. The website temporarily caches data for any visited links (do not view your dat on datproject.org if you do not want us caching your data).
Dat can share files from your computer to anywhere. If you have a friend going through this demo with you, try sharing to them! If not we'll see what we can do.
Find a folder on your computer to share. Inside the folder can be anything, Dat can handle all sorts of files (Dat works with really big folders too!).
First, you can create a new dat inside that folder. Using the dat create command also walks us through making a dat.json file:
❯ dat create
Welcome to dat program!
You can turn any folder on your computer into a Dat.
A Dat is a folder with some magic.
This will create a new (empty) dat. Dat will print a link, share this link to give others access to view your files.
Once we have our dat, run dat share to scan your files and sync them to the network. Share the link with your friend to instantly start downloading files.
You can also try viewing your files online. Go to datproject.org and enter your link to preview on the top right. (Some users, including me when writing this, may have trouble connecting to datproject.org initially. Don't be alarmed! It is something we are working on. Thanks.)
Dat makes it really easy to live files on a http server. This is a cool demo because we can also see how version history works! Serve dat files on http with the --http option. For example, dat sync --http, serves your files to a http website with live reloading and version history! This even works dats your are downloading (add the --sparse option to only download files you select via http). The default http port is 8080.
Hint: Use localhost:8080/?version=10 to view a specific version.
Get started using Dat today with the share and clone commands or read below for more details.
The first time you run a command, a .dat folder to store the Dat metadata.
Once a Dat is created, you can run all the commands inside that folder, similar to git.
Dat keep secret keys in the ~/.dat/secret_keys folder. These are required to write to any dats you create.
The quickest way to get started sharing files is to share:
❯ dat share
dat://3e830227b4b2be197679ff1b573cc85e689f202c0884eb8bdb0e1fcecbd93119
Sharing dat: 24 files (383 MB)
0 connections | Download 0 B/s Upload 0 B/s
Importing 528 files to Archive (165 MB/s)
[=-----------------------------------------] 3%
ADD: data/expn_cd.csv (403 MB / 920 MB)
dat create [<folder>]
The create command prompts you to make a dat.json file and creates a new dat. Import the files with sync or share.
dat sync [<folder>] [--no-import] [--no-watch]
Start sharing your Dat Archive over the network.
Sync will import new or updated files since you ran create or sync last.
Sync watched files for changes and imports updated files.
--no-import to not import any new or updated files.--no-watch to not watch directory for changes. --import must be true for --watch to work.By default, dat will ignore any files in a .datignore file, similar to git. Dat also ignores all hidden folders and files.
Dat uses dat-ignore to decide if a file should be ignored.
Start downloading by running the clone command. This creates a folder, download the content and metadata, and a .dat folder inside. Once you started the download, you can resume using clone or the other download commands.
dat clone <dat-link> [<folder>] [--temp]
Clone a remote Dat Archive to a local folder. This will create a folder with the key name is no folder is specified.
Once a Dat is clone, you can run either dat pull or dat sync in the folder to update the archive.
dat pull [<folder>]
Update a cloned Dat Archive to latest files and exit.
dat sync [<folder>]
Download latest files and keep connection open to continue updating as remote source is updated.
dat <link> {dir} will run dat clone for new dats or resume the exiting dat in dirdat {dir} is the same as running dat sync {dir}As part of our Knight Foundation grant, we are building a registry for Dat archives. We will be running a Dat registry at datproject.org, but anyone will be able to create their own. Once registered, you will be able to publish Dat archives from our registry. Anyone can clone archives published to a registry without registration:
dat clone datproject.org/jhand/cli-demo
Other auth commands are still in an experimental status. New registrations on the Dat archive registry are currently limited.
dat register
dat login
dat logout
dat whoami
Once you are logged in to a server. You can publish a Dat archive:
cd my-data
dat create
dat publish --name my-dataset
All authentication requests take the --server option.
You can deploy your own compatible registry server if you'd rather use your own service.
We've provided some troubleshooting tips based on issues users have seen. Please open an issue or ask us in our chat room if you need help troubleshooting and it is not covered here.
If you have trouble sharing/downloading in a directory with a .dat folder, try deleting it and running the command again.
Knowing the version is really helpful if you run into any bugs, and will help us troubleshoot your issue.
Check your Dat version:
dat -v
You should see the Dat semantic version printed, e.g. 13.1.2.
To use the Dat command line tool you will need to have node and npm installed. Make sure those are installed correctly before installing Dat. You can check the version of each:
node -v
npm -v
The -g option installs Dat globally allowing you to run it as a command.
Make sure you installed with that option.
EACCES error, read this guide on fixing npm permissions.EACCES error, you may also install dat with sudo: sudo npm install -g dat.If you are having trouble with a specific command, run with the debug environment variable set to dat (and optionally also dat-node). =
This will help us debug any issues:
DEBUG=dat,dat-node dat clone dat://<link> dir
Networking capabilities vary widely with each computer, network, and configuration. Whenever you run a Dat there are several steps to share or download files with peers:
With successful use, Dat will show Connected to 1 peer after connection.
If you never see a peer connected your network may be restricting discovery or connection.
Please try using the dat --doctor command (see below) between the two computers not connecting. This will help troubleshoot the networks.
We've included a tool to identify network issues with Dat, the Dat doctor. The Dat doctor will run two tests:
Start the doctor by running:
dat doctor
For direct connection tests, the doctor will print out a command to run on the other computer, dat doctor <64-character-string>.
The doctor will run through the key steps in the process of sharing data between computers to help identify the issue.
You can use Dat in your javascript application:
var Dat = require('dat')
Dat('/data', function (err, dat) {
// use dat
})
Read more about the JS usage provided via dat-node.
Please see guidelines on contributing before submitting an issue or PR.
This command line library uses dat-node to create and manage the archives and networking. If you'd like to build your own Dat application that is compatible with this command line tool, we suggest using dat-node.
Clone this repository and in a terminal inside of the folder you cloned run this command:
npm link
This should add a dat command line command to your PATH.
Now you can run the dat command to try it out.
The contribution guide also has more tips on our development workflow.
npm run test to run testsnpm run auth-server to run a local auth server for testingBSD-3-Clause
13.5.1 - 2017-05-30
FAQs
Dat is the package manager for data. Easily share and version control data.
The npm package dat receives a total of 353 weekly downloads. As such, dat popularity was classified as not popular.
We found that dat demonstrated a not healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released a year ago. It has 14 open source maintainers collaborating on the project.
Did you know?
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