IPFS

IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) is a system for storing and retrieving data from a global "database" managed by the IPFS network. IPFS allows files to be stored and looked up based on the hash of their contents.

The Minecraft Archive uses IPFS to store and distribute archived mod files. This allows the archive's metadata, including the actual archived files to be completely open-source. That is, anyone is able to contribute a file to the archive by simply adding it to their IPFS node and putting the hash in the ipfs field in the metadata.

Adding a File

When archiving mods, you must first add their files to IPFS using the ipfs add <file> command. This command will add the file to your local IPFS node and print out an IPFS hash, which looks something like QmYT6vRJi6e87ES2cyxdoEs8aH58RmXtZjcomV31vMF3qu. Anyone with this hash can obtain the file from the IPFS network as long as at least one node which has that file is running. The file's IPFS hash goes in the ipfs field for the corresponding file in the metadata. This allows the website to download the file from your IPFS node and re-host.

Your IPFS Node

When you submit a pull request to this repository, the maintainer who merges it will need to download the files you added from your IPFS node. For this reason, it is important that your IPFS node is running while your PR is merged. A maintainer may contact you on Discord or GitHub to let you know to start your IPFS node when your changes are merged.

You can start a node by running the ipfs daemon command.