kubo/docs/environment-variables.md

Kubo environment variables

IPFS_PATH

Sets the location of the IPFS repo (where the config, blocks, etc. are stored).

Default: ~/.ipfs

IPFS_LOGGING

Specifies the log level for Kubo.

IPFS_LOGGING is a deprecated alias for the GOLOG_LOG_LEVEL environment variable. See below.

IPFS_LOGGING_FMT

Specifies the log message format.

IPFS_LOGGING_FMT is a deprecated alias for the GOLOG_LOG_FMT environment variable. See below.

GOLOG_LOG_LEVEL

Specifies the log-level, both globally and on a per-subsystem basis. Level can be one of:

• debug
• info
• warn
• error
• dpanic
• panic
• fatal

Per-subsystem levels can be specified with subsystem=level. One global level and one or more per-subsystem levels can be specified by separating them with commas.

Default: error

Example:

GOLOG_LOG_LEVEL="error,core/server=debug" ipfs daemon

Logging can also be configured at runtime, both globally and on a per-subsystem basis, with the ipfs log command.

GOLOG_LOG_FMT

Specifies the log message format. It supports the following values:

• color -- human readable, colorized (ANSI) output
• nocolor -- human readable, plain-text output.
• json -- structured JSON.

For example, to log structured JSON (for easier parsing):

export GOLOG_LOG_FMT="json"

The logging format defaults to color when the output is a terminal, and nocolor otherwise.

GOLOG_FILE

Sets the file to which Kubo logs. By default, Kubo logs to standard error.

GOLOG_TRACING_FILE

Sets the file to which Kubo sends tracing events. By default, tracing is disabled.

This log can be read at runtime (without writing it to a file) using the ipfs log tail command.

Warning: Enabling tracing will likely affect performance.

IPFS_FUSE_DEBUG

If SET, enables fuse debug logging.

Default: false

YAMUX_DEBUG

If SET, enables debug logging for the yamux stream muxer.

Default: false

IPFS_FD_MAX

Sets the file descriptor limit for Kubo. If Kubo fails to set the file descriptor limit, it will log an error.

Defaults: 2048

IPFS_DIST_PATH

IPFS Content Path from which Kubo fetches repo migrations (when the daemon is launched with the --migrate flag).

Default: /ipfs/<cid> (the exact path is hardcoded in migrations.CurrentIpfsDist, depends on the IPFS version)

IPFS_NS_MAP

Adds static namesys records for deterministic tests and debugging. Useful for testing things like DNSLink without real DNS lookup.

Example:

$ IPFS_NS_MAP="dnslink-test1.example.com:/ipfs/bafkreicysg23kiwv34eg2d7qweipxwosdo2py4ldv42nbauguluen5v6am,dnslink-test2.example.com:/ipns/dnslink-test1.example.com" ipfs daemon
...
$ ipfs resolve -r /ipns/dnslink-test2.example.com
/ipfs/bafkreicysg23kiwv34eg2d7qweipxwosdo2py4ldv42nbauguluen5v6am

IPFS_HTTP_ROUTERS

Overrides all implicit HTTP routers enabled when Routing.Type=auto with the space-separated list of URLs provided in this variable. Useful for testing and debugging in offline contexts.

Example:

$ ipfs config Routing.Type auto
$ IPFS_HTTP_ROUTERS="http://127.0.0.1:7423" ipfs daemon

The above will replace implicit HTTP routers with single one, allowing for inspection/debug of HTTP requests sent by Kubo via while true ; do nc -l 7423; done or more advanced tools like mitmproxy.

LIBP2P_TCP_REUSEPORT

Kubo tries to reuse the same source port for all connections to improve NAT traversal. If this is an issue, you can disable it by setting LIBP2P_TCP_REUSEPORT to false.

Default: true

LIBP2P_MUX_PREFS

Deprecated: Use the Swarm.Transports.Multiplexers config field.

Tells Kubo which multiplexers to use in which order.

Default: "/yamux/1.0.0 /mplex/6.7.0"

LIBP2P_RCMGR

Forces libp2p Network Resource Manager to be enabled (1) or disabled (0). When set, overrides Swarm.ResourceMgr.Enabled from the config.

Default: use config (not set)

LIBP2P_DEBUG_RCMGR

Enables tracing of libp2p Network Resource Manager and outputs it to rcmgr.json.gz

Default: disabled (not set)

Tracing

For advanced configuration (e.g. ratio-based sampling), see also: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/blob/main/specification/sdk-environment-variables.md

OTEL_TRACES_EXPORTER

Specifies the exporters to use as a comma-separated string. Each exporter has a set of additional environment variables used to configure it. The following values are supported:

• otlp
• jaeger
• zipkin
• file -- appends traces to a JSON file on the filesystem

Setting this enables OpenTelemetry tracing.

NOTE Tracing support is experimental: releases may contain tracing-related breaking changes.

Default: "" (no exporters)

OTLP Exporter

Unless specified in this section, the OTLP exporter uses the environment variables documented here: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/blob/main/specification/protocol/exporter.md

OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL

Specifies the OTLP protocol to use, which is one of:

• grpc
• http/protobuf

Default: "grpc"

Jaeger Exporter

See: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/blob/main/specification/sdk-environment-variables.md#jaeger-exporter

Zipkin Exporter

See: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/blob/main/specification/sdk-environment-variables.md#zipkin-exporter

File Exporter

OTEL_EXPORTER_FILE_PATH

Specifies the filesystem path for the JSON file.

Default: "$PWD/traces.json"

How to use Jaeger UI

One can use the jaegertracing/all-in-one Docker image to run a full Jaeger stack and configure Kubo to publish traces to it (here, in an ephemeral container):

$ docker run --rm -it --name jaeger \
    -e COLLECTOR_ZIPKIN_HOST_PORT=:9411 \
    -p 5775:5775/udp \
    -p 6831:6831/udp \
    -p 6832:6832/udp \
    -p 5778:5778 \
    -p 16686:16686 \
    -p 14268:14268 \
    -p 14268:14269 \
    -p 14250:14250 \
    -p 9411:9411 \
    jaegertracing/all-in-one

Then, in other terminal, start Kubo with Jaeger tracing enabled:

$ OTEL_TRACES_EXPORTER=jaeger ipfs daemon

Finally, the Jaeger UI is available at http://localhost:16686