P2p

sd_p2p crate

Implementation

The P2P crate was designed from the ground up to be modular.

The P2P struct is the core of the system, but doesn't actually do any P2P functionality. It's a state manager and event bus which exposes a hook system for other components of the P2P system to register themselves.

This modular design helps with separation of concerns which significantly helps with comprehending the entire system and streamlines testing.

What are hooks?

A hook is very similar to an actor. It's a component which can be registered with the P2P system and it is allowed to listen and react to events.

A hook allows for processing events from the P2P system and also ensures when the P2P system shuts down, the hook is also shutdown.

There are special hooks called listeners. These are implemented as a superset of a regular hook and are able to create and accept connections.

Default hooks?

The sd_p2p crate comes with a few default hooks:

• Mdns - Local network discovery using mDNS
• Quic - Quic transport layer built on top of libp2p

Spacedrive implements some of it's own hooks within the core/src/p2p directory to deal with libraries correctly.

Lazy vs eager connection

The P2P system is designed to lazily connect to peers. This is intentional to preserve battery life and reduce network usage. When the clients attempts to connect to a remote peer it will establish a connection and automatically close it after a period of inactivity.