Miscellaneous API

• id
• version
• dns
• stop
• ping
• resolve

id

Returns the identity of the Peer

ipfs.id()

Returns

Type	Description
Promise<Object>	An object with the Peer identity

The Peer identity has the following properties:

• id: String - the Peer ID
• publicKey: String - the public key of the peer as a base64 encoded string
• addresses: Multiaddr[] - A list of multiaddrs this node is listening on
• agentVersion: String - The agent version
• protocolVersion: String - The supported protocol version

Example:

const identity = await ipfs.id()
console.log(identity)

A great source of examples can be found in the tests for this API.

version

Returns the implementation version

ipfs.version()

Returns

Type	Description
Promise<Object>	An object with the version of the implementation, the commit and the Repo

Example:

const version = await ipfs.version()
console.log(version)

A great source of examples can be found in the tests for this API.

dns

Resolve DNS links

ipfs.dns(domain, [options])

Where:

• options is an optional object argument that might include the following properties:
  • recursive (boolean, default true): resolve until result is not a domain name

Returns

Type	Description
Promise<String>	A string representing the IPFS path for that domain

Example:

const path = await ipfs.dns('ipfs.io')
console.log(path)

A great source of examples can be found in the tests for this API.

stop

Stops the IPFS node and in case of talking with an IPFS Daemon, it stops the process.

ipfs.stop()

Returns

Type	Description
Promise<void>	If action is successfully completed. Otherwise an error will be thrown

Example:

await ipfs.stop()

A great source of examples can be found in the tests for this API.

ping

Send echo request packets to IPFS hosts

ipfs.ping(peerId, [options])

Where:

• peerId (string) ID of the peer to be pinged.
• options is an optional object argument that might include the following properties:
  • count (integer, default 10): the number of ping messages to send

Returns

Type	Description
AsyncIterable<Object>	An async iterable that yields ping response objects

Each yielded object is of the form:

{
  success: true,
  time: 1234,
  text: ''
}

Note that not all ping response objects are "pongs". A "pong" message can be identified by a truthy success property and an empty text property. Other ping responses are failures or status updates.

Example:

for await (const res of ipfs.ping('Qmhash')) {
  if (res.time) {
    console.log(`Pong received: time=${res.time} ms`)
  } else {
    console.log(res.text)
  }
}

A great source of examples can be found in the tests for this API.

resolve

Resolve the value of names to IPFS

There are a number of mutable name protocols that can link among themselves and into IPNS. For example IPNS references can (currently) point at an IPFS object, and DNS links can point at other DNS links, IPNS entries, or IPFS objects. This command accepts any of these identifiers and resolves them to the referenced item.

ipfs.resolve(name, [options])

Where:

• name (string): The name to resolve
• options is an optional object that might include the following properties:
  • recursive (boolean, default false): Resolve until the result is an IPFS name
  • cidBase (string): Multibase codec name the CID in the resolved path will be encoded with

Returns

Type	Description
Promise<String>	A string representing the resolved name

Examples:

Resolve the value of your identity:

const name = '/ipns/QmatmE9msSfkKxoffpHwNLNKgwZG8eT9Bud6YoPab52vpy'

const res = await ipfs.resolve(name)
console.log(res) // /ipfs/Qmcqtw8FfrVSBaRmbWwHxt3AuySBhJLcvmFYi3Lbc4xnwj

Resolve the value of another name recursively:

const name = '/ipns/QmbCMUZw6JFeZ7Wp9jkzbye3Fzp2GGcPgC3nmeUjfVF87n'

// Where:
// /ipns/QmbCMUZw6JFeZ7Wp9jkzbye3Fzp2GGcPgC3nmeUjfVF87n
// ...resolves to:
// /ipns/QmatmE9msSfkKxoffpHwNLNKgwZG8eT9Bud6YoPab52vpy
// ...which in turn resolves to:
// /ipfs/Qmcqtw8FfrVSBaRmbWwHxt3AuySBhJLcvmFYi3Lbc4xnwj

const res = await ipfs.resolve(name, { recursive: true })
console.log(res) // /ipfs/Qmcqtw8FfrVSBaRmbWwHxt3AuySBhJLcvmFYi3Lbc4xnwj

Resolve the value of an IPFS path:

const name = '/ipfs/QmeZy1fGbwgVSrqbfh9fKQrAWgeyRnj7h8fsHS1oy3k99x/beep/boop'

const res = await ipfs.resolve(name)
console.log(res) // /ipfs/QmYRMjyvAiHKN9UTi8Bzt1HUspmSRD8T8DwxfSMzLgBon1

A great source of examples can be found in the tests for this API.