dat

Dat is a version-controlled, decentralized data sync tool designed to improve collaboration between data people and data systems.

Windows	Mac/Linux

Documentation

• Commandline dat utility documentation
• JavaScript API
• The COOKBOOK!
• For a detailed description see the whitepaper draft

Installation

Step 1: Install node from the node website. (homebrew can cause problems)

We recommend node version 0.12 or above. You can check your node version by running node -v on the command line.

$ node -v
v0.12...

Step 2: Install dat

npm install dat -g

The -g means "install globally" which makes the dat command available in your command line path.

If it all worked correctly, you should see something like this when you type dat.

usage: dat <command(s)> [--flag] [--key=value]

commands:
  init        initialize a new dat store in a directory
  status      show current status
  log         view a list of recent changes
  clone       download and make a full copy of a remote dat
  ...

Troubleshooting

Dat is still in beta. If you have any trouble, it's probably because we did something wrong!

Please tell us by opening an issue here or asking us a question in #dat on IRC in freenode.

About dat

The dat module is designed with a small-core philosophy. It defines an API for reading, writing and syncing datasets and is implemented using Node.js.

Internally dat has two kinds of data storage: tabular and blob. The default tabular data store is LevelDB and the default blob store stores files on a content-addressable blob store. Both of these default backends can be swapped out for other backends.

Developers

If it's broken, you can probably help fix it!

• Start by checking out our help wanted issue tag.
• Help us with the module wishlist! We hope to connect every database backend to dat, but we can't do it without your help!

You can install the latest development version with git:

git clone git://github.com/maxogden/dat.git
cd dat
npm install
npm link

Get Involved

• Follow @dat_project on twitter!
• Want to ask questions in IRC? Join #dat on freenode. Chat logs are available here
• Have any other questions/concerns? Open an issue
• Suggest an organization that should be using dat to distribute their data -- we will help!