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authorSiddharth Ravikumar <sravik@bgsu.edu>2016-02-27 23:24:29 -0500
committerSiddharth Ravikumar <sravik@bgsu.edu>2016-02-27 23:24:29 -0500
commitd98d12c4fab13ba1c3b1f2127debd75de06e2424 (patch)
treef6d3b7dd9538855e50edc01bfd74cab91bf789fc /report/chapters
parentaff1e3eaef1bb1755f5bc178c5f0e293c7181d23 (diff)
Drafted Chapter 1.
Diffstat (limited to 'report/chapters')
-rw-r--r--report/chapters/1-intr.tex47
1 files changed, 42 insertions, 5 deletions
diff --git a/report/chapters/1-intr.tex b/report/chapters/1-intr.tex
index 99a8ce3..74f4137 100644
--- a/report/chapters/1-intr.tex
+++ b/report/chapters/1-intr.tex
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ information about users or information stored/created by users to
parties if we determine that such disclosure is reasonably necessary
to (a) comply with the law; (b) protect any person from death or
serious bodily injury; (c) prevent fraud or abuse of Dropbox or our
- users; or (d) protect Dropbox's property rights. -- Dropox Privacy
+ users; or (d) protect Dropbox's property rights. -- Dropbox Privacy
Policy\cite{website:dropbox-privacy}
\end{quote}
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ splits them into N shards, encrypts each of the N shards and spreads
the shards to N node directories. A ``node directory'' is the
directory of the file storage provider (Dropbox directory is a node
directory). Figure \ref{fig:1-combox-overview-0}, illustrates how a file
-called \verb+strunk-white.pdf+ is split, encrypted and spreaded across
+called \verb+strunk-white.pdf+ is split, encrypted and spread across
N node directories; shards \verb+strunk-white.pdf.shard0+ to
\verb+strunk-white.pdf.shardN+ are encrypted.
@@ -127,7 +127,7 @@ Dropbox.
\section{How is combox different from Combo-Box?}\label{1-sec-cb-diff}
-Combo-Box by Wesley Vollmar\cite{vollman-combo-box} was the first
+Combo-Box by Wesley Vollmar\cite{vollmar-combo-box} was the first
implementation of the idea storing encrypted shards of a file on the
computers different of different file storage providers. Differences
between Vollmar's Combo-Box and combox are enumerated below:
@@ -144,8 +144,45 @@ between Vollmar's Combo-Box and combox are enumerated below:
mostly a commandline program; combox's configuration wizard has a
graphical interface and the wizard has a commandline interface for
users who just like to do everything from the commandline.
-\item[License] combox is licensed under the GNU General Public License
- version 3 or later.
+\item[Database] Combo-Box uses a SQL traditional database with two
+ tables to keep track of files' shards, files' hash, files' last
+ ``sync time'' and for ``security and stability'' uses stored
+ procedures that retrieve/store information in the
+ database\cite{vollmar-combo-box}.
+
+ combox on the other hand uses a no SQL key-value data store to track
+ the files stored in the combox directory using the pickleDB
+ library\cite{pylib:pickledb}. The key-value data store is a JSON
+ file and all access to this data store is done through an instance
+ of \verb+combox.silo.ComboxSilo+ which enforces synchronization
+ through a lock (\verb+threading.Lock+). In the data store, combox
+ keeps track of the hashes of all the files stored in the combox
+ directory; the data store also contains dictionaries that track
+ number of shards which have been create/moved/modified/deleted on
+ another computer.
+
+\item[Installation] Combo-Box uses the proprietary
+ InstallShield\cite{nonfree-installshield} to install the program,
+ setup shortcuts and registry settings\cite{vollmar-combo-box}.
+
+ combox is a python package, it either be installed through python's
+ package manager (\verb+pip+\cite{py:pip}) with
+ \verb+pip install combox+ or it can be installed from the source
+ with the standard $python setup.py install$.
+
+\item[Configuration] Combo-Box saves its configuration inside the
+ Combo-Box directory and this configuration is shared by all
+ computers on which the user chooses to run Combo-Box, by virtue of
+ this the file providers' directories must be in the same locations
+ on all the computers.
+
+ combox stores its configuration at
+ \verb+$HOME/.combox/config.yaml+; the configuration file is not
+ shared on computers on which the user runs combox and therefore is
+ independent; this makes it possible to keep the combox directory and
+ the directories of the file storage providers' (node directories) in
+ different location on each computer. The configuration file is a
+ YAML file and can be directly edited by the user if she wishes to.
\end{description}
\section{Using combox}\label{1-sec-using-cb}