Subject: RFC: GIT networked storage

From: Jeff Garzik <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 03 Nov 2005 23:42:11 -0500

Here's an experiment I've been dying to try.

The current "tracker-less" BitTorrent[1] employs a distributed hash 
table[2] called Kademlia, where the total content is spread across a 
bunch of computers on the network.  I kinda prefer TANGLE[3] to Kademlia.

Anyway, I was thinking that it would be a neat experiment to add simple 
TANGLE-like peer-to-peer code, to enable git to query "the git network 
hash table" for content.

Comments, or any pre-code-creation objections?
How easy is it to add a new storage backend to git?

To restrict unlimited uploading, I'm thinking that I'll want the system 
to fall back to {www,git,rsync}.kernel.org as the original source of 
content.  [though the code will obviously be generic, and not hardcode 
*.kernel.org policy]

Thanks,

	Jeff

[1] http://www.bittorrent.com/trackerless.html
[2] http://www.etse.urv.es/~cpairot/dhts.html
[3] http://www.nicemice.net/amc/research/tangle/