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redshiftandJohnathan Corgan
cdb03c76b0
The macOS packaging installs config under /usr/local/etc/fips, wired through the launchd plist and build-pkg.sh, but the default-path constants and the config search path were hardcoded to /etc/fips for all Unix. On macOS the daemon and fipsctl therefore looked in a directory that does not exist: the ACL and host-map loaders hit their NotFound no-op arm and returned empty state, so a populated peers.deny reported effective_mode "default_open" with enforcement inactive, and host-file aliases went unloaded, with no error. The peers.allow, peers.deny and hosts defaults now follow the platform's packaging, and fipsctl keygen writes its identity there too. The config search path keeps probing /etc/fips first and adds /usr/local/etc/fips after it, so an existing install keeps working across the upgrade and the packaged file still wins over a stale leftover. Both the macOS search-path entry and the keygen output directory read one SYSTEM_CONFIG_DIR constant, so they cannot drift apart. At startup the daemon warns once about hosts, peers.allow or peers.deny stranded at the old location; the config file is deliberately excluded, since both directories stay on the search path and a config left behind is still read. The control-socket snapshot tests repoint the ACL reloader at non-existent paths under the temp dir, so the snapshot no longer reflects whatever ACL files happen to exist on the machine running the tests. Platform-gated unit tests pin both layouts, so a future refactor cannot silently drift either one. Linux and Windows behavior is unchanged. Adding a second system config directory moves the directory the daemon derives the identity key path from, since that comes from whichever config file loaded last. A host carrying fips.yaml at both locations would have resolved fips.key to the new directory, found none, and under persistent generated a fresh identity, silently changing its npub, routing address and mesh IPv6 with no migration path. The daemon now adopts a key stranded at the legacy path and warns to move it rather than generating one. The fallback is confined to keys resolved from the system config directory, so a run using ./fips.yaml or a user config is never redirected to a system key. Co-authored-by: Johnathan Corgan <johnathan@corganlabs.com>
How-To Guides
Task-oriented, step-by-step recipes for operators with a specific goal in mind. Each guide assumes the reader already knows what FIPS is and wants to get a particular thing done — enable a feature, deploy a component, troubleshoot a class of problem.
How-to guides do not teach concepts (that is the role of design/) and do not enumerate options (that is the role of reference/). They take the reader along the shortest correct path from "I want to do X" to "X is done".
Available Guides
| Guide | Goal |
|---|---|
| enable-mesh-firewall.md | Activate the default-deny nftables baseline on fips0 |
| enable-nostr-discovery.md | Turn on Nostr-mediated discovery (3 capabilities — resolve, advertise, open — across 5 scenarios) |
| deploy-tor-onion.md | Run a Tor onion service for inbound FIPS connections |
| tune-udp-buffers.md | Set host sysctls so FIPS UDP sockets don't get clamped |
| tune-file-descriptors.md | Raise RLIMIT_NOFILE so a busy node doesn't exhaust file descriptors (EMFILE) as peer count grows |
| run-as-unprivileged-user.md | Run the daemon under a dedicated unprivileged service account (drops the default-root posture) |
| deploy-gateway.md | Manually deploy fips-gateway on a non-OpenWrt Linux host (LAN-to-mesh outbound + mesh-to-LAN inbound port-forwards). For the OpenWrt path, see the gateway tutorial. |
| troubleshoot-gateway.md | Diagnostic recipes for the gateway, organised by half (outbound, inbound, common) |
| persistent-identity.md | Provision a stable Nostr keypair so the node keeps the same npub across restarts |
| host-aliases.md | Use shortnames (test-us01.fips, my-laptop.fips) instead of full npubs by editing /etc/fips/hosts or setting peer aliases |
| set-up-bluetooth-peer.md | Configure a Bluetooth Low Energy peer link |
| diagnose-mtu-issues.md | Triage MTU-shaped failures and rule out their imposters (bufferbloat, transport saturation) |