Setting up IPFS with IPFS-Update on a Raspberry Pi

Setting up IPFS-Update

I use my notes every now and then to setup IPFS on a Raspberry Pi, so I thought that I'd share them here!

We will be using IPFS-Update to install the latest version of IPFS.

First, download and install ipfs-update version 1.5.2 with the following commands:

wget https://dist.ipfs.io/ipfs-update/v1.5.2/ipfs-update_v1.5.2_linux-arm.tar.gz

sudo tar xvfz ipfs-update_v1.5.2_linux-arm.tar.gz

cd ipfs-update/

sudo ./install.sh

 

 Now we will install the latest version of IPFS.

sudo ipfs-update install latest

  You can also run this command periodically to ensure that IPFS is up to date.

  If there are issues with an update you can revert to the previously installed version of IPFS with command:

  sudo ipfs-update revert

Setting up IPFS

Initialise IPFS.

ipfs init

Install screen.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install screen -y

Create a script.

nano check_ipfs.sh

The nano text editor will open a blank file, paste in the below code.

      if !(screen -list | grep -q ipfs)

      then

              echo "Starting.."

              screen -dmS ipfs sh -c 'ipfs daemon'

      else

               echo "Already running.." 

      fi

Save and close the file with CTRL+X, 'Y' and then 'Enter'. 

This code will check if our 'ipfs' screen is currently running, and if it isn't then it will be create it.

 

Make the file executable with:

chmod +x /home/pi/check_ipfs.sh

Edit crontab with:

crontab -e

You will be prompted to choose a default editor on the first time running crontab.

Choose '2', for nano, and then press enter.

When nano has opened crontab for editing, paste the following lines at the end of the file:

PATH=/opt/someApp/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin

* * * * * /home/pi/ipfs_check_and_restart.sh

Save and close the file with CTRL+X, 'Y' and then 'Enter'.

Our script will now run every 1 minute.

Now to launch the IPFS daemon, either wait 1 minute or run the script:

/home/pi/check_ipfs.sh

Setup complete

Now that IPFS is setup and running, we can add a file and test that it's working.

echo "Test text file" > test.txt

ipfs add test.txt

If it completed successfully you should see this output:

added QmWuvsvCHYta1BJLQFaKfQGWNbByNuPTuQijo8QUpqZi2j test.txt

You can now retrieve this file through any IPFS node by using the previous command output hash with the below command.

ipfs cat QmWuvsvCHYta1BJLQFaKfQGWNbByNuPTuQijo8QUpqZi2j