Radicle
Radicle operates a peer-to-peer network that relies on seed nodes, which are highly available servers required to host and replicate content. These nodes are essential for maintaining network health and require specific software and configurations to function.
Seed Nodes in Radicle Network
Seed nodes are servers that host content for peers in the Radicle network and must remain online to provide their services. These nodes ensure high availability, participating like regular peers but seldom going offline. A healthy peer-to-peer network requires highly available nodes, also known as seed nodes, to maintain robust connectivity.
Requirements for Running a Radicle Seed Node
To run a Radicle seed node, specific system requirements must be met. These include a server equipped with curl, git, systemctl version 232 or newer, and sudo privileges. Additionally, the server must have a DNS name pointing to it. The Radicle CLI (rad) and the network daemon (radicle-node) must be installed to set up the seed node effectively.
Radicle Data Storage
Radicle ensures secure data handling by storing all data and configuration under the seed user's home folder. This setup aims to limit access in case of a compromise, adding a layer of security to the operation of seed nodes.
Radicle Seeding Policy
Seed nodes in the Radicle network operate under a seeding policy, which dictates the content they fetch and replicate. This policy can be either permissive, where the node fully replicates all data on the network, or selective, where repositories must be manually allowed to be seeded.
Radicle HTTP Daemon and HTTPS Support
The Radicle HTTP Daemon (radicle-httpd) serves as a gateway between the Radicle protocol and the HTTP protocol. It is configured to access the node’s storage and database directly and exposes this data via an HTTP JSON API. For HTTPS support, Caddy is recommended to proxy all HTTPS requests from port 443 to the HTTP daemon running on port 8080.