bitspace

> Unichains, batteries included.

BitSpace is a lightweight server that provides remote access to Unichains and a BitSwarm instance. It exposes a simple RPC interface that can be accessed with the Bitspace client for Node.js.

The RPC API's designed to be minimal, maintaining parity with Unichain and the @web4/chainstore-networker but with few extras.

Features include:
* A RemoteChainstore interface for creating namespaced Chainstore instances.
* A RemoteNetworker interface for managing BitSwarm DHT connections. Supports stream-level extensions.
* A RemoteUnichain interface that feels exactly like normal ol' Unichain, with few exceptions. Extensions included.

#### Already using the BitDrive daemon?
With Bitspace, most of the BitDrive daemon's functionality has been moved into "userland" -- instead of providing remote access to BitDrives, the regular bitdrives module can be used with remote Unichains.

If you're currently using the BitDrive daemon with FUSE and/or the daemon CLI, take a look at the upgrade instructions in bitdrive-cli, which is our new BitDrive companion service for handling FUSE/CLI alongside BitSpace.

__Note: The first time you run Bitspace, it will detect your old BitDrive daemon installation and do an automatic migration. You can postpone the migration by starting the server with the --no-migrate flag (bitspace --no-migrate).__

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``
npm i bitspace -g
`

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When installed globally, you can use the bitspace CLI tool to start the server:
`
❯ bitspace --no-migrate // Starts the server without performing the BitDrive daemon migration
`

The bitspace command supports the following flags:
`
--bootstrap // BitSwarm bootstrapping options (see BitSwarm docs).
--host // Host to bind to.
--port // Port to bind to (if specified, will use TCP).
--memory-only // Run in memory-only mode.
--no-announce // Never announce topics on the DHT.
--no-migrate // Do not attempt to migrate the BitDrive daemon's storage to Bitspace.
--repl // Start the server with a debugging REPL.
`

By default, Bitspace binds to a UNIX domain socket (or named pipe on Windows) at ~/.bitspace/bitspace.sock.

Once the server's started, you can use the client to create and manage remote Unichains. If you'd like the use the BitDrive CLI, check out the @web4/bitdrive docs.

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To work with Bitspace, you'll probably want to start with the Node.js client library. The README over there provides detailed API info.

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Bitspace includes a "simulator" that can be used to create one-off Bitspace instances, which can be used for testing.

`js
const simulator = require('bitspace/simulator')
// client is a BitspaceClient, server is a BitspaceServer
const { client, server, cleanup } = await simulator()
``

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MIT