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A simple, low-level, and customizable implementation of a TCP P2P node.

pea2pea

crates.io docs.rs LOC dependencies actively developed issues

pea2pea is a simple, low-level, and customizable implementation of a TCP P2P node.

The core library only provides the most basic functionalities like starting, ending and maintaining connections; the rest is up to a few low-level, opt-in protocols:

  • Handshake requires connections to adhere to a handshake protocol before finalizing connections
  • Reading enables the node to receive messages based on the user-supplied Decoder
  • Writing enables the node to send messages based on the user-supplied Encoder
  • Disconnect allows the node to perform specified actions whenever a peer disconnects

goals

  • small, simple, non-framework codebase: the entire library is ~1k LOC and there are few dependencies
  • ease of use: few objects and traits, no "turboeels" or generics/references that would force all parent objects to adapt
  • correctness: builds with stable Rust, there is no unsafe code, there's more code in tests than in the actual library
  • low-level oriented: the user has full control over all connections and every byte sent or received
  • good performance: over 10GB/s in favorable scenarios, small memory footprint

how to use it

  1. define a clonable struct containing a Node and any extra state you'd like to carry
  2. implement the trivial Pea2Pea trait for it
  3. make it implement any/all of the protocols
  4. create that struct (or as many of them as you like)
  5. enable the protocols you'd like them to utilize

That's it!

examples

  • including noise encryption, simple interop with libp2p, or TLS connections

status

  • all the desired functionalities are complete
  • the crate follows semver, and some API breakage is still possible before 1.0
  • the project is actively developed, with all changes being recorded in the CHANGELOG
  • some of the desired features that are not yet available in Rust include associated type defaults
  • the project aims to always build with the current stable Rust compiler; legacy version support is not a goal, but they might also work