v13.5.0

Changelog

Added

• Dat version number is printed in header (#788)
• Add prompt and introduction to dat create command (#782) and create dat.json file (#765).
• Tell user if new .dat was initialized.
• Add dat log command to print archive history and size information (#781).
• Use require('dat') to get dat-node JS API (#778).

Changed

• Default to upload true for dat clone and dat pull, enables better hole-punching (#787).

Fixed

• Make argument parsing more consistent across commands (#789)
• Fix usage and help text (various).

Sleep Support

Big new release! Most of the changes happened under the hood this time.

We are using our new Dat protocol specification, read more about it in our design paper. Note that the new protocol is not backwards compatible and existing Dats will need to be reimported. The hyperdrive release improves import, transfer speed, and metadata access. It includes a new API much like the node fs API. Lots of cool things!

We've kept the commands the same. But we've moved away from using leveldb to storing the metadata, using our flat file format instead. This means the 2.0 release will be incompatible with exiting dat archives. If you have any old archives, we definitely recommend you upgrade. You'll have to re-create any dats with the new format. Any upgrade time will be made up for with more speed!

Dat CLI Version 12!

We've been working on a lot of improvements to make your experience using Dat happier. Dat moves files between colleagues and servers in a secure, distributed, and fast network letting you focus on the important stuff - whether that is science, development, or taking cat pictures. We released this preview as dat-next a month ago and now we are happy to release as version 12.0.0 of dat!

Dat v12 provides a more familiar command line interface, a lot of under the hood improvements, and an early preview of the Dat dataset registry commands.

During this process, we've improved our Node.js library. It is called dat-node on npm, and makes it easy to build applications that work with the command line tool and desktop app. If you are interested in building Dat applications on the file system, check it out!

New Commands:

Clone

dat clone provides a git-like command to download remote Dat archives:

Share

dat share let's you share files to anyone or any computer with a single command. Files get updated and shares as you change them:

And More!

Check out the readme for more new commands.

Under the Hood

Over the last few months we have been optimizing and improving the Dat command line tool as well as underlying dependencies, such as Hyperdrive, to prepare for publishing datasets on our Dat registry.

• Transfer data faster! In hyperdrive we have improved our replication algorithm for faster transfers with more improvements coming soon.
• A new Dat node module! We improved dat-node to use in Dat v12. Dat node makes it easier to start creating applications to use the Dat ecosystem.
• A new doctor is in town! We've added another test to dat-doctor to help with network debugging and fixing connection issues. The new doctor makes a house call to make sure you can transfer data to our public server before letting you test direct connections between you and another computer.