ssb-gossip

ssb-gossip

ssb-server gossip plugin

to have a peer to peer network, a ssb instance needs to have some other peers to connect with. This module keeps track of those peers. There are a number of ways a you can know about a peer,

• observed a local udp broadcast from them ssb-server/plugins/local
• received their device-address message ssb-device-address
• received a pub message about them ssb-gossip/init
• configured their address manually as a seed
• or the user called gossip.add

Notice these are mostly managed by other plugins.

The gossip plugin then decides when to connect to those peers, which it does mostly randomly. (connecting randomly means you will eventually connect to everyone, thus a useful database property: eventual consistency)

peers: sync

Get the current known peers.

peers

peers(cb)

add: sync

Add a peer.

#add a multiserver address.
add {addr}
#legacy format
add --host {string} --port {number} --key {feedid}

add(addr, cb)
add({ host:, port:, key: }, cb)

• addr (address string): A multiserver address
• host (host string): IP address or hostname.
• port (port number)
• key (feedid)

remove: sync

Remove an address from the peer table.

remove {addr}
remove --host {string} --port {number} --key {feedid}

remove(addr)
remove({ host:, port:, key: })

ping: duplex

used internally by the gossip plugin to measure latency and clock skew

connect: async

Add an address to the peer table, and connect immediately.

connect {addr}
connect --host {string} --port {number} --key {feedid}

connect(addr, cb)
connect({ host:, port:, key: }, cb)

• addr (address string): An address string, of the following format: hostname:port:feedid.
• host (host string): IP address or hostname.
• port (port number)
• key (feedid)

changes: source

Listen for gossip events.

changes

changes()

Events come in the following forms:

{ type: 'discover', peer:, source: }
{ type: 'connect', peer: }
{ type: 'connect-failure', peer: }
{ type: 'disconnect', peer: }

reconnect: sync

Tell ssb-server to reinitiate gossip connections now.

enable: sync

Update the config to enable a gossip type.

enable {type}

enable(type, cb)

• type (string): The type of gossip to enable: local, global, or seed. Default global.

disable: sync

Update the config to disable a gossip type.

disable {type}

disable(type, cb)

• type (string): The type of gossip to enable: local, global, or seed. Default global.

License

MIT