IPFS is available hash

[Kubuxu]

It is nice feature to check if IPFS is operational only with having access to hashes (fs:/ipfs/X), to check if IPFS is supported (for webpages - see ipfs/ipfs-companion#149).

Currently my best idea is to use autogenerated index.html of empty directory as it is always available hash in IPFS but I think it would be better to have dedicated canary content that would be included in every repo of initial IPFS installation (that would also survive GC).

Something like file with content IPFS is active for example. Then by requesting this hash using web+fs:/ipfs/Qm...AAA one can check if browser supports IPFS.

[WardCunningham]

I like this idea. I will suggest users add such a hash before launching the localhost daemon.

echo wiki | ipfs add
ipfs daemon

This will be required of only the earliest adopters.

[whyrusleeping]

We can add such a small file to the welcome docs (that way they are pre-seeded into every node on init)

[Kubuxu]

I tired adding it to assets/ but it gave me an error:

# go generate
bindata: Failed to stat input path '../vendor/dir-index-html-v1.0.0': lstat ../vendor/dir-index-html-v1.0.0: no such file or directory
assets.go:1: running "go-bindata": exit status 1

[whyrusleeping]

@lgierth any idea on that error?

[ghost]

I have a fix for that in #2997 which is blocked

[ghost]

Specifically ca907c6 brings back the dir-index-html dependency which was deleted for the second time already because it's not imported anywhere.

[whyrusleeping]

@lgierth what is it blocked on?

[ghost]

js-ipfs-api tests making assumption about init-docs: ipfs-inactive/js-ipfs-http-client#365

I figure just picking that commit over here should work.

[ghost]

#2997 is unblocked and ready