What does it mean to start an IPFS node?

[alanshaw]

Is there any info on what my expectations should be when I construct a new IPFS node but don't start it? What APIs can I call? What network activity happens?

I'm just wondering, because right now, if I construct a node but don't start it, the node is stopped but the repo is left open. If I then start it and stop it the repo is closed, until I start it again...

[daviddias]

A node can be either online or offline in terms of connecting to the outside world, nevertheless, if it exists and it attaches itself to a repo the repo should be locked for it so that there are no other race conditions with other nodes.

I'm feeling that we need better words to describe these stats rather than start/stop.

[vasco-santos]

I still think that the state machine has some inconsistencies, at least with the naming that we use. Anyway, I think it would be nice to have a graphical representation of the state machine.

[alanshaw]

If start/stop essentially means online/offline then I think that's ok (naming wise). That was my assumption but I didn't know for sure!

We just need to communicate/document better what it means.

Also, go through each API call and define our expectations in online/offline mode. This will allow us to write tests and document what you can and can't do in offline mode.

If the repo should still be open (locked) when the node is stopped we need to fix that inconsistency.

i.e. when you manually stop a node you end up with a closed repo but if you instantiate a node with start: false it is stopped, but the repo is open (locked).

In which case we probably need a destroy method to allow people to close the repo.

[mikeal]

One thing that is sort of confusing because of how the docs read, it looks like you have to "start" the node in order to write/read data locally, which I don't believe is the case.

This isn't just because of the naming, it's because we don't interact with the ipfs instance until we're inside the start callback.

[daviddias]

I feel this needs an illustration, getting #1061 would make it even simpler to visualize.