FAQ

How to change default paths?

Paths to where NFD is installed can be configured during ./waf configure:

  • Installation prefix (default /usr/local):

    ./waf configure --prefix=/usr
    
  • Location of NFD configuration file (default: ${prefix}/etc):

    ./waf configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc
    
  • Location of manpages (default: ${prefix}/share/man)

    ./waf configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --mandir=/usr/share/man
    

How to run NFD as non-root user?

How to configure automatic dropping of privileges?

NFD can be configured to drop privileges whenever possible. You can specify a user and/or group for NFD to change its effective user/group ID to in the general section of the configuration file. For example:

general
{
  user nobody
  group nogroup
}

will configure NFD to drop its effective user and group IDs to nobody and nogroup, respectively.

Note

IMPORTANT: NFD may regain elevated permissions as needed during normal execution. Dropping privileges in this manner should not be considered a security mechanism (a compromised NFD that was started as root can trivially return to root). However, reducing privileges may limit any damaged caused by well intentioned, but buggy, code.

How to enable Ethernet Face Support?

The ether configuration file section contains settings for Ethernet faces and channels. These settings will NOT work without root or setting the appropriate permissions:

sudo setcap cap_net_raw,cap_net_admin=eip /full/path/nfd

You may need to install a package to use setcap:

Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install libcap2-bin

Mac OS X:

curl https://bugs.wireshark.org/bugzilla/attachment.cgi?id=3373 -o ChmodBPF.tar.gz
tar zxvf ChmodBPF.tar.gz
open ChmodBPF/Install\ ChmodBPF.app

or manually:

sudo chgrp admin /dev/bpf*
sudo chmod g+rw /dev/bpf*

How to enable UDP multicast support in multi-homed Linux machines

The UDP configuration file section contains settings for unicast and multicast UDP faces. If the Linux box is equipped with multiple network interfaces with multicast capabilities, the settings for multicast faces will NOT work without root or setting the appropriate permissions:

sudo setcap cap_net_raw=eip /full/path/nfd

How to configure NFD security?

Note

The sample configuration file of NFD allow any user to manage faces, FIB, RIB, and StrategyChoice of the local NFD. The following description can be used to restrict certain operations to certain users.

More extensive documentation about NFD’s security and options to configure trust model for NFD is currently in preparation.

Many NFD management protocols use commands Interests (e.g., FIB modification, Face creation/destructions, etc.), which require an NDN certificate (either self-signed for local trust or delegated from a trusted authority).

If you do not already have NDN certificate, you can generate one with the following commands:

Generate and install a self-signed identity certificate:

ndnsec-keygen /`whoami` | ndnsec-install-cert -

Note that the argument to ndnsec-key will be the identity name of the new key (in this case, /your-username). Identity names are hierarchical NDN names and may have multiple components (e.g. /ndn/ucla/edu/alice). You may create additional keys and identities as you see fit.

Dump the NDN certificate to a file:

The following commands assume that you have not modified PREFIX or SYSCONFDIR If you have, please substitute /usr/local/etc for the appropriate value (the overriden SYSCONFDIR or PREFIX/etc if you changed PREFIX).

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/etc/ndn/keys
ndnsec-cert-dump -i /`whoami` > default.ndncert
sudo mv default.ndncert /usr/local/etc/ndn/keys/default.ndncert

How to start using NDN PPA repository on Ubuntu Linux?

Please see Install NFD Using the NDN PPA Repository on Ubuntu Linux.