mfer/README.md

# mfer

[mfer](https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/mfer) is a [WTFPL](https://wtfpl.net)-licensed
(public domain) [Go](https://golang.org) library and command-line tool by
[@sneak](https://sneak.berlin) that specifies and generates `.mf` manifest files
over a directory tree to encapsulate metadata about the files — such as
cryptographic checksums and signatures over same — to aid in archiving,
downloading, streaming, and mirroring. It was first published in 2022. The
manifest files' data is serialized with Google's
[protobuf serialization format](https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers).
The structure of these files can be found
[in the format specification](https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/mfer/src/branch/main/mfer/mf.proto)
which is included in the [project repository](https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/mfer).

The current version is pre-1.0 and while the repo was published in 2022, there
has not yet been any versioned release. [SemVer](https://semver.org) will be
used for releases.

This project was started by [@sneak](https://sneak.berlin) to scratch an itch in
2022 and is currently a one-person effort, though the goal is for this to emerge
as a de-facto standard and be incorporated into other software. A compatible
javascript library is planned.

# Getting Started

`mfer` builds from source with a Go 1.23+ toolchain. The generated protobuf code
is committed, so no `protoc` toolchain is required:

```sh
git clone https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/mfer.git
cd mfer
go build -o bin/mfer ./cmd/mfer
```

Generate a manifest for a directory tree, verify it later, and fetch a published
tree by URL:

```sh
# Write index.mf, a manifest of the files under the current directory.
bin/mfer gen .

# Verify the files on disk against the manifest. Exits nonzero if any file
# is missing or corrupted.
bin/mfer check index.mf

# Download and cryptographically verify a tree published over HTTP: mfer
# fetches <url>/index.mf, then downloads every file it lists.
bin/mfer fetch https://example.com/tree/
```

Run `bin/mfer help` for the full command list, or `bin/mfer <command> --help`
for a single command's options.

# Build Status

CI runs `script/cibuild`, which builds the Docker image with `--no-cache`, so
the formatting, lint and test steps in the `Dockerfile` run on every build. The
`main` branch must always be green.

# Entrypoints

This repository adheres to the
[Scripts to Rule Them All](https://github.com/github/scripts-to-rule-them-all)
standard: normalized scripts in `script/` are the entrypoints for the
development workflow, and the Makefile targets are thin shims that call them. We
provide:

- `script/bootstrap` — install all dependencies (Go, Go module download, and
  node/yarn plus the prettier version pinned in `package.json`/`yarn.lock`),
  idempotently; golangci-lint is not installed, it runs only in Docker
- `script/setup` — make a fresh clone ready for development: runs
  `script/bootstrap`, then `script/install-precommit`
- `script/projectname` — output the project name (`mfer`); used by other scripts
  such as `script/docker`
- `script/test` — run the test suite (`go test`), regenerating the protobuf code
  first if it is stale
- `script/fuzz` — fuzz the manifest parser for one minute; run by hand
  (`make fuzz`), never by CI, while `script/test` runs its committed seed corpus
  as ordinary tests
- `script/lint` — run `golangci-lint` in Docker: builds only the `lint` stage of
  the `Dockerfile` (the Go format check, then the linter), uncached so it runs
  every time, then removes the image
- `script/fmt` — format all code and docs (writes): `gofumpt` and
  `script/prettier --write`
- `script/prettier` — run prettier over the repository's canonical file set
  (Markdown and JSON, minus `.prettierignore`) in the given mode, `--write` or
  `--check`; the single definition of that file set, so `script/fmt` and
  `script/fmt-check` cannot disagree about it
- `script/fmt-check` — check formatting without writing: `script/fmt-check-go`
  plus `script/prettier --check`
- `script/fmt-check-go` — the Go half of `script/fmt-check`, on its own, for the
  Docker lint stage, whose image has no node
- `script/check` — run `script/test`, `script/lint`, and `script/fmt-check`
- `script/docker` — build the Docker image tagged with the project name
- `script/cibuild` — CI entrypoint: builds the image with the same command as
  `script/docker`, uncached, so the checks in the Dockerfile run every time
- `script/precommit` — pre-commit checks: `go mod tidy` verification, then
  `script/check`
- `script/install-precommit` — install the git pre-commit hook that runs
  `script/precommit`

# Participation

The community is as yet nonexistent so there are no defined policies or norms
yet. Primary development happens on a privately-run Gitea instance at
[https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/mfer](https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/mfer) and issues are
[tracked there](https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/mfer/issues).

Changes must always be formatted with a standard `go fmt`, syntactically valid,
and must pass the linting defined in the repository's `.golangci.yml`, which
`make lint` runs in Docker. The `main` branch is protected and all changes must
be made via [pull requests](https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/mfer/pulls) and pass CI to
be merged. Any changes submitted to this project must also be
[WTFPL-licensed](https://wtfpl.net) to be considered.

See [`REPO_POLICIES.md`](REPO_POLICIES.md) for detailed coding standards,
tooling requirements, and workflow conventions.

# Rationale

## The problem

Given a plain URL, there is no standard way to safely and programmatically
download everything "under" that URL path. `wget -r` can traverse directory
listings if they're enabled, but every server has a different format, and this
does not verify cryptographic integrity of the files, or enable them to be
fetched using a different protocol other than HTTP/s.

Currently, the solution that people are using are sidecar files in the format of
`SHASUMS` checksum files, as well as a `SHASUMS.asc` PGP detached signature.
This is not checksum-algorithm-agnostic and the sidecar file is not always
consistently named.

Real issues I face:

- when I plug in an ExFAT hard drive, I don't know if any files on the
  filesystem are corrupted or missing
    - current ad-hoc solution are `SHASUMS`/`SHASUMS.asc` files
- when I want to mirror an HTTP archive, I have to use special tools like
  debmirror that understand the archive format
    - the debian repository metadata structure is hot garbage
- when I download a large file via HTTP, I have no way of knowing if the file
  content is what it's supposed to be

## The solution

A standard, a manifest file format, and a tool for generating same.

The manifest file would be called `index.mf`, and the tool for generating such
would be called `mfer`.

The manifest file would do several important things:

- have a standard filename, so if given `https://example.com/downloadpackage/`
  one could fetch `https://example.com/downloadpackage/index.mf` to enumerate
  the full directory listing.
- contain a version field for extensibility
- contain structured data (protobuf, json, or cbor)
- provide an inner signed container, so that the manifest file itself can embed
  a signature and a public key alongside in a single file
- contain a list of files, each with a relative path to the manifest
- contain manifest timestamp
- contain ctime/mtime information for files so that file metadata can be
  preserved
- contain cryptographic checksums in several different algorithms for each file
    - probably encoded with multihash to indicate algo + hash
    - sha256 at the minimum
    - would be nice to include an IPFS/IPLD CIDv1 root hash for each file, which
      likely involves doing an ipfs file object chunking
    - maybe even including the complete IPFS/IPLD directory tree objects and
      chunklists?
        - this is because generating an `index.mf` does not imply publishing on
          ipfs at that time
    - maybe a bittorrent chunklist for torrent client compatibility? perhaps a
      top-level infohash for the whole manifest?

# Design

The repository is split into a reusable library and a thin command-line wrapper
around it.

- `mfer/` is the reusable library and the heart of the project: it defines the
  manifest format and implements building, scanning, checking, serialization,
  and signing. The protobuf schema is `mfer/mf.proto`, and the generated code it
  produces (`mfer/mf.pb.go`) is committed alongside it so the library builds
  with `go get` and needs no `protoc` toolchain.
- `internal/cli/` holds the command implementations — `generate` (alias `gen`),
  `check`, `freshen`, `export`, `list` (alias `ls`), `fetch`, and `version` —
  that wire the library to the command-line interface.
- `internal/log/` provides the logging used by the commands and the library.
- `internal/bork/` provides the error the library returns when a manifest's
  decompressed contents are not the size the manifest records.
- `cmd/mfer/` is the entrypoint: its `main` package runs `internal/cli` and
  exits with the status it returns.

Everything under `internal/` is private to this repository; only the `mfer/`
package is intended for import by other software.

# Design Goals

- Replace SHASUMS/SHASUMS.asc files
- be easy to download/resume a whole directory tree published via HTTP
- be easy to use across protocols (given an HTTPS url, fetch manifest, then
  download file contents via bittorrent or ipfs)
- not strongly coupled to HTTP use case, should not require special hosting,
  content types, or HTTP headers being sent

# Non-Goals

- Manifest generation speed
    - likely involves IPFS chunking, bittorrent chunking, and several different
      cryptographic hash functions over the entirety of each and every file
- Small manifest file size (within reason)
    - 30MiB files are "small" these days, given modern storage/bandwidth
    - metadata size should not be used as an excuse to sacrifice utility (such
      as providing checksums over each chunk of a large file)

# Original Design Questions

These were the open questions when the project started; open design questions
are now tracked only in the [issues](https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/mfer/issues).

- Should the manifest file include checksums of individual file chunks, or just
  for the whole assembled file? If so, should the chunk size be fixed or
  dynamic? Still open, on
  [issue 81](https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/mfer/issues/81#issuecomment-118698).

- Should the manifest signature format be GnuPG signatures, or those from
  OpenBSD's signify (of which there is a good
  [golang implementation](https://github.com/frankbraun/gosignify))? Still open,
  as question 10 on [issue 82](https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/mfer/issues/82).

- Should the on-disk serialization format be proto3 or json? Settled: it is
  proto3, see `FORMAT.md` and `mfer/mf.proto`.

# Tool Examples

- `mfer gen` / `mfer gen .`
    - recurses under current directory and writes out an `index.mf`
- `mfer check` / `mfer check .`
    - verifies checksums of all files in manifest, displaying error and exiting
      nonzero if any files are missing or corrupted
- `mfer fetch https://example.com/stuff/`
    - fetches `/stuff/index.mf` and downloads all files listed in manifest,
      optionally resuming any that already exist locally, and assures
      cryptographic integrity of downloaded files.

# Implementation Plan

## Phase One:

- golang module for reusability/embedding
- golang module client providing `mfer` CLI

## Phase Two:

- ES6 or TypeScript module for reusability/embedding
- ES6/TypeScript module client providing `mfer.js` CLI

# Hopes And Dreams

- `aria2c https://example.com/manifestdirectory/`
    - (fetches `https://example.com/manifestdirectory/index.mf`, downloads and
      checksums all files, resumes any that exist locally already)
- `mfer fetch https://example.com/manifestdirectory/`
- a command line option to zero/omit mtime/ctime, as well as manifest timestamp,
  and sort all directory listings so that manifest file generation is
  deterministic/reproducible
- URL format
  `mfer fetch https://exmaple.com/manifestdirectory/?key=5539AD00DE4C42F3AFE11575052443F4DF2A55C2`
  to assert in the URL which PGP signing key should be used in the manifest, so
  that shared URLs have a cryptographic trust root
- a "well-known" key in the manifest that maps well known keys (could reuse the
  http spec) to specific file paths in the manifest.
    - example: a `berlin.sneak.app.slideshow` key that maps to a json slideshow
      config listing what image paths to show, and for how long, and in what
      order

# Use Cases

## Web Images

I'd like to be able to put a bunch of images into a directory, generate a
manifest, and then point a slideshow client (such as an ambient display, or a
react app with the target directory in a query string arg) at that statically
hosted directory, and have it discover the full list of images available at that
URL.

## Software Distribution

I'd like to be able to download a whole tree of files available via HTTP
resumably by either HTTP or IPFS/BitTorrent without a .torrent file.

## Filesystem Archive Integrity

I use filesystems that don't include data checksums, and I would like a
cryptographically signed checksum file so that I can later verify that a set of
archive files have not been modified, none are missing, and that the checksums
have not been altered in storage by a second party.

## Filesystem-Independent Checksums

I would like to be able to plug in a hard drive or flash drive and, if there is
an `index.mf` in the root, automatically detect missing/corrupted files,
regardless of filesystem format.

# Collaboration

Please email [`sneak@sneak.berlin`](mailto:sneak@sneak.berlin) with your desired
username for an account on this Gitea instance.

# TODO

Open work, open design questions included, is tracked in this repo's issues:
[https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/mfer/issues](https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/mfer/issues).

# See Also

## Prior Art: Metalink

- [Metalink - Mozilla Wiki](https://wiki.mozilla.org/Metalink)
- [Metalink - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metalink)
- [RFC 5854 - The Metalink Download Description Format](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc5854)
- [RFC 6249 - Metalink/HTTP: Mirrors and Hashes](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6249.html)

## Links

- Repo: [https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/mfer](https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/mfer)
- Issues:
  [https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/mfer/issues](https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/mfer/issues)

# Author

- [@sneak](https://sneak.berlin)

# License

- [WTFPL](https://wtfpl.net)