Is it possible to completely delete file from the Cluster?

1

I have a Private IPFS Network and IPFS-CLuster.

I thought if I control all peers and just unpin some file by it’s CID from all peers than file will be deleted from the network. But I was wrong…

Using Cluster API :
- added file (ipfs-cluster-ctl add file.txt)
- check it status and it was pinned among all nodes (ipfs-cluster-ctl status CID)
- unpinned recently added file (ipfs-cluster-ctl pin rm CID)
- checked that it was unpinned (ipfs-cluster-ctl pin ls)

But I’m still able to get the file with ipfs cat/get CID…
Even if I run garbage collector on all nodes ipfs repo gc I’m still able to access this file.

Is it possible to completely delete file from my Private Network/Cluster?

2

I’m guessing that you need to GC it and not just unpin it.

3

That is weird. GCing should have removed it completely. Does ipfs-cluster-ctl status CID show it as unpinned? Does ipfs pin ls <cid> comes back empty in all ipfs peers?

You need to make sure that the file is not indirectly pinned by any other pin as well.

4

Hi Hector, can you please clarify what do you mean “indirectly”?

That’s what I have:

Step 1 Node0
Add file with ipfs-cluster-ctl

926Ă—605 195 KB

Step 2 Node1
Check status on the second node

862Ă—260 57.1 KB

Step3 Node1
Cat file with ipfs

Step 4 Node0
Remove/Unpin file with ipfs-cluster-ctl

Step 5 Node0/Node1
Cat file with ipfs

Step 6 Node0/Node1
Run GC with ipfs repo gc

Node0

1189Ă—66 30.6 KB

Node1

Step 7 Node0/Node1
Cat file with ipfs

Node0

730Ă—245 51.3 KB

Node1

5

The problem is that garbage collection does not seem to be working on one of your peers, so the file is not garbage collected. You should investigate the gc error.

6

Ok, I’ll do more tests and come back.

By the way, In order not to join each peer separately is it possible to run GC on all peers with IPFS-Cluster?

7

No, but we could easily support it. Can you open an issue in the cluster repository?

8

Yes, It works.

I redeployed my network and was able to remove file with ipfs-cluster-ctl pin rm CID + ipfs repo gc

Also I opened an Issue regarding ability to run GC with IPFS-Cluster API

Thanks!