Since when I was little, I always loved peer-to-peer technologies… I even tried to create a GNU/Linux distribution based on that. .. but recently I have discovered a brilliant project that is combining the power of asynchronous cryptography, using Bitcoin private and public keys, with BitTorrent technology. This project is called ZeroNet and it is a new and interesting way to provide websites and real-time services in a p2p network.

To join the network and browse the ZeroNet websites, now you have to keep running a python software in one of your terminal. I really hate to keep it opened 24h a day… even if I am nerd enough to love logs. I decided to run an instance of ZeroNet in background on my Mac: every time I turn on my computer, I am updating and seeding content. I feel happy to help this community 👍 Here is how I made it possible.

First, I have created a launchd daemon. So I cloned the github project repository in my home directory (~/ZeroNet).

$ cd ~ ; git clone https://github.com/HelloZeroNet/ZeroNet.git

Then after that I have created the launchd daemon by editing the file:

$ nano ~/Library/LaunchAgents/io.zeronet.plist

And adding the following content, of course replacing /Users/koalalorenzo with your own home path:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version= "1.0" > <dict> <key> Label </key> <string> io.zeronet </string> <key> ProgramArguments </key> <array> <string> /Users/koalalorenzo/ZeroNet/start.sh </string> </array> <key> EnvironmentVariables </key> <dict> <key> HOME </key> <string> /Users/koalalorenzo/ZeroNet </string> <key> STNORESTART </key> <string> 1 </string> </dict> <key> KeepAlive </key> <true/> </dict> </plist>

I have then added a new script able to update the repository and run the server. So I have edited a second file:

$ nano ~/ZeroNet/start.sh

Adding in it the following simple code:

#!/bin/bash cd /Users/koalalorenzo/ZeroNet/ git pull sleep 5 /usr/bin/python /Users/koalalorenzo/ZeroNet/zeronet.py

Then I had to change the permissions of the file so the Daemon would run it:

$ chmod +x ~/ZeroNet/start.sh

The only thing missing was to launch it! So I had to activate the Daemon on launchd by running the following commands:

$ launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/io.zeronet.plist

Once loaded, because I had every dependencies installed and it was running already before, the daemon works without errors, allowing me to browse to ZeroNet, without having a terminal opened. :)