Avahi (software)
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 Avahi running under Xubuntu |
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| Developer(s) | Lennart Poettering, Trent Lloyd, Sjoerd Simons |
| Stable release | 0.6.30 / April 4, 2011 |
| Written in | C |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| Type | Networking |
| License | LGPL |
| Website | avahi.org |
Avahi is a free zeroconf implementation, including a system for multicast DNS/DNS-SD service discovery. It is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).
Avahi allows programs to publish and discover services and hosts running on a local network with no specific configuration. For example, a user can plug their computer into a network and Avahi automatically finds printers to print to, files to look at and people to talk to, as well as advertising the network services running on the machine.
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[edit] Technical details
Avahi implements the Apple Zeroconf specification, mDNS, DNS-SD and RFC 3927/IPv4LL. Other implementations include Apple's Bonjour framework (the mDNSResponder component of which is licensed under the Apache License).
Avahi provides a set of language bindings (Python, Mono, etc.) and ships with most Linux and *BSD distributions. Because of its modularized architecture, major desktop components like GNOME's Virtual File System and the KDE input/output architecture already integrate Avahi.
[edit] Avahi vs. Bonjour
The Avahi project was originally started due to Apple's Zeroconf implementation, Bonjour, being licensed with the non GPL compatible Apple Public Source License. Since then, parts of Bonjour have been relicensed under the less controversial Apache License. However, Avahi had already become the de-facto standard implementation of mDNS/DNS-SD on free operating systems such as Linux.
Avahi's performance is recognized as being similar to that of Bonjour, sometimes exceeding it, however Avahi was found to lose services when managing large numbers of requests simultaneously.[1]
Stuart Cheshire (creator of Zeroconf) has stated in 2005 that Apple works with the Avahi team and is impressed with their progress; so much so that Avahi might "overtake Apple's implementation".[2]
[edit] History
Avahi has been developed by Lennart Poettering and Trent Lloyd. It is the result of a merger of Poettering's original mDNS/DNS-SD implementation called "FlexMDNS", and Lloyd's original code called "Avahi" that happened in 2005. While most of today's code originates from the former project, the name of the latter was used for the joint project. Development on "FlexMDNS" started in late 2004, and work on the original "Avahi" began in early 2004.
Avahi was originally developed under the freedesktop.org umbrella, but has now become a separate project. Avahi, however, makes use of freedesktop.org's D-Bus IPC layer.
The name Avahi is the Malagasy native name and scientific Latin name of a genus of woolly lemur, a family of primates indigenous to Madagascar. Trent Lloyd found the name, liked it, and it stuck. The logo reflects this.[3]
[edit] See also
- freedesktop.org - the site that formerly hosted Avahi
Standards
- Zeroconf - the standard upon which Avahi is based.
Other Implementations
- Bonjour (software) - a mDNS implementation by Apple Inc., used in Mac OS X, iTunes, and other software.
Protocols providing similar functionality
- Service Discovery - list of protocols that provide similar functionality
Other Links
[edit] References
- ^ Analysis of Peer-to-Peer Protocols Performance for Establishing a Decentralized Desktop Grid Middleware
- ^ Stuart Cheshire speaks about Zeroconf at Google
- ^ Trent Lloyd, Lennart Poettering (2007) (ogg). Using Avahi The "Right Way" (Presentation). linux.conf.au. http://mirror.linux.org.au/linux.conf.au/2007/video/monday/monday_1150_GNOME.ogg.
[edit] External links
- Avahi project
- Avahi talk and slides by Poettering/Lloyd at linux.conf.au 2007.
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