Note the source code for the pathfinder (and onak, which it is part of) can be obtained from https://www.earth.li/projectpurple/progs/onak.html. This isn't necessarily the code that's running here, but if you want to provide patches or fiddle with it yourself it's a good place to start.

(19/07/2023) Updated so the backend is available via HTTPS rather than just the HKP interface.

(21/07/2004) Switched over to onak 0.3.0pre2, using the db4 backend. This has lots of general fixes and changes and am hoping I can get to the bottom of the db locking issues.

(11/10/2003) Upgraded to onak 0.2.1. Not a lot new that affects the path finder.

(08/06/2003) Upgraded to onak 0.2.0. This adds support for the MRHKP and revoked keys, as well as the multiple paths patch that's already been running for a while.

(15/02/2003) Upgraded to onak 0.1.2, which I think sorts out the transaction issues.

(19/01/2003) Looks like there are some transaction issues with the DB3 code. I've tried to tighten up my use of the relevant functions in the hope it'll sort out the problems (mail importing was sitting and hanging).

(02/12/2002) Upgraded to onak 0.1.1. Most noticable change from the pathfinder point of view is that it shouldn't exit without any output now; you should always get a "key not found" error, a "path not found" error or a path output.

(22/11/2002) Added 140,000 keys to the database, which should all be in the "interesting" set ie either signed or signing other keys.

(10/11/2002) I've changed over to the new DB3 backend from onak 0.0.4 which should hopefully make things a lot faster (and hopefully more reliable than DB2). It's running vanilla 0.0.4 at present, so the link above should provide the same source as what's running.

(05/11/2002) Now back, though with a limited set of keys. I've tweaked the code a bit to try to make lookups faster and the machine has been seriously upgraded since the pathfinder was last available. Hopefully this should mean I can keep it running.

(09/06/2002) The Postgres backend should now have more than 100,000 keys in it, all of which are "interesting", ie are signed by other keys. There are around 140,000 of these keys total; they rest should be present within a day or two. One thing to watch is that it can take some time for the pathfinder to return the result; it seems many webbrowsers/caches time out waiting for the result. If anyone wants to buy me a faster machine I won't complain, otherwise you'll need to wait until I work on the speed aspect a bit more (after I get onak to the point where I can drop it in place of pksd I guess).

(28/05/2002) UPDATE: In fact it sucks so much I can't run the DB2 backend any more. The DB is getting into a screwed up state on a daily basis and the copies of gpgwww are sitting around taking up memory until I notice them. I've switched over to the Postgres backend, which has alot less keys available to it at present but this will be rectified in time.

UPDATE: This is now running an extreme alpha of the pathfinder that I intend to ship as part of onak; my OpenPGP keyserver. Currently it's reading a keyserver dump from 14th May 2002 - it's using the DB2 files generated by pksd, though a copy of them as locking isn't yet implemented. There are probably numerous problems. Please report them, but no guarantees about a quick reponse. (FWIW revoked keys are most likely included atm)

(As an aside DB2 appear to suck more than anything else I've ever encountered, to the extent that if it doesn't like the db file then it just hangs. Even worse is the fact that just opening the dbfile read only can cause it to get into this state. If you find that your not getting results from the pathfinder then that's probably the reason; it should all go away when I change it over to the Postgres backend.)

Last updated: Wed, 19 Jul 2023 22:11:19 +0100