@chainsafe/libp2p-gossipsub does not create topics or connect users

[ZababurinSergei]

I have a project in which I used the js-libp2p-gossipsub library.

I've updated all the libraries to the latest versions.
Subscriptions and topic creation using this library stopped working.

I looked at examples I found online, and they all use floodsub. It works.

Is there an example of how to create, subscribe, and send messages using the latest version of the js-libp2p-gossipsub library?

package.json

{
  "name": "@libp2p/example-browser-pubsub",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "How to use libp2p pubsub in browsers",
  "license": "Apache-2.0 OR MIT",
  "homepage": "",
  "repository": {
    "type": "git",
    "url": ""
  },
  "bugs": {
    "url": ""
  },
  "type": "module",
  "scripts": {
    "start": "node server.js",
    "build:front": "esbuild ./docs/index.js --bundle --sourcemap --format=esm --target=chrome114 --define:global=window --keep-names --outfile=./docs/index.bundle.mjs",
    "build": "npm run build:pubsub && npm run build:libp2p && npm run build:peer-store && npm run build:pubsubPeerDiscovery && npm run build:gossipsub && npm run build:identify",
    "build:pubsub": "esbuild ./src/dep-pubsub.js --bundle --sourcemap --format=esm --target=chrome114 --define:global=window --keep-names --outfile=./docs/lib-pubsub.js",
    "build:libp2p": "esbuild ./src/dep-libp2p.js --bundle --sourcemap --format=esm --target=chrome114 --define:global=window --keep-names --outfile=./docs/lib-libp2p.js",
    "build:peer-store": "esbuild ./src/dep-peer-store.js --bundle --sourcemap --format=esm --target=chrome114 --define:global=window --keep-names --outfile=./docs/lib-peer-store.js",
    "build:gossipsub": "esbuild ./src/dep-gossipsub.js --bundle --sourcemap --format=esm --target=chrome114 --define:global=window --keep-names --outfile=./docs/lib-gossipsub.js",
    "build:pubsubPeerDiscovery": "esbuild ./src/dep-pubsubPeerDiscovery.js --bundle --sourcemap --format=esm --target=chrome114 --define:global=window --keep-names --outfile=./docs/lib-pubsubPeerDiscovery.js",
    "build:identify": "esbuild ./src/dep-identify.js --bundle --sourcemap --format=esm --target=chrome114 --define:global=window --keep-names --outfile=./docs/lib-identify.js",
    "test:firefox": "npm run build && playwright test --browser=firefox test",
    "test:chrome": "npm run build && playwright test test"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "@chainsafe/libp2p-gossipsub": "^14.1.2",
    "@chainsafe/libp2p-noise": "^17.0.0",
    "@chainsafe/libp2p-yamux": "^8.0.1",
    "@libp2p/autonat-v2": "^2.0.5",
    "@libp2p/bootstrap": "^12.0.6",
    "@libp2p/circuit-relay-v2": "^4.0.5",
    "@libp2p/crypto": "^5.1.12",
    "@libp2p/dcutr": "^3.0.5",
    "@libp2p/floodsub": "^11.0.6",
    "@libp2p/http": "^2.0.1",
    "@libp2p/http-fetch": "^4.0.1",
    "@libp2p/http-ping": "^2.0.1",
    "@libp2p/http-server": "^2.0.1",
    "@libp2p/identify": "^4.0.5",
    "@libp2p/interface": "^3.0.2",
    "@libp2p/interface-transport": "^4.0.3",
    "@libp2p/kad-dht": "^16.0.5",
    "@libp2p/peer-id": "^6.0.3",
    "@libp2p/peer-id-factory": "^4.2.4",
    "@libp2p/peer-store": "^12.0.5",
    "@libp2p/ping": "^3.0.5",
    "@libp2p/pubsub-peer-discovery": "^12.0.0",
    "@libp2p/tcp": "^11.0.5",
    "@libp2p/webrtc": "^6.0.6",
    "@libp2p/websockets": "^10.0.6",
    "@libp2p/webtransport": "^6.0.7",
    "@multiformats/multiaddr": "^13.0.1",
    "@multiformats/multiaddr-matcher": "^3.0.1",
    "blockstore-core": "^6.1.1",
    "compression": "^1.8.1",
    "cors": "^2.8.5",
    "datastore-core": "^11.0.2",
    "datastore-idb": "^4.0.1",
    "dotenv": "^17.2.3",
    "express": "^5.1.0",
    "express-enqueue": "^1.0.0",
    "http-proxy": "^1.18.1",
    "libp2p": "^3.0.6",
    "peer-id": "^0.16.0",
    "protons-runtime": "^5.6.0",
    "uint8arrays": "^5.1.0"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "esbuild": "^0.25.11",
    "test-ipfs-example": "^1.3.3"
  },
  "engines": {
    "node": ">= 20.19.0"
  }
}

js-libp2p config

const libp2p = await createLibp2p({
  addresses: {
    listen: [
      '/p2p-circuit',
      '/webrtc'
    ]
  },
  transports: [
    webRTCDirect(),
    webSockets(),
    webRTC(),
    circuitRelayTransport()
  ],
  connectionEncrypters: [noise()],
  streamMuxers: [yamux()],
  connectionManager: {
    minConnections: 20
  },
  transportManager: {
    faultTolerance: FaultTolerance.NO_FATAL
  },
  services: {
    identify: identify(),
    pubsub: floodsub(), // How to replace with a library @chainsafe/libp2p-gossipsub ?
    identifyPush: identifyPush(),
    dcutr: dcutr(),
    ping: ping(),
  },
  connectionGater: {
    denyDialPeer: (currentPeerId) => {
      // console.log('-------- denyDialPeer --------', currentPeerId.toString())
      return false
    },
    denyDialMultiaddr: async (currentPeerId) => {
      // console.log('-------- denyDialMultiaddr --------', currentPeerId.toString())
      return false
    },
    denyOutboundConnection: (currentPeerId, maConn) => {
      // console.log('-------- 1 denyOutboundConnection 1 --------', currentPeerId.toString(), maConn)
      return false
    },
    denyOutboundEncryptedConnection: (currentPeerId, maConn) => {
      // console.log('-------- 2 denyOutboundEncryptedConnection 2 --------', currentPeerId.toString(), maConn)
      return false
    },
    denyOutboundUpgradedConnection: (currentPeerId, maConn) => {
      // console.log('-------- 3 denyOutboundUpgradedConnection 3 --------', currentPeerId.toString(), maConn)
      return false
    },
    denyInboundConnection: (maConn) => {
      // console.log('-------- 1 denyInboundConnection 1 --------', maConn)
      return false
    },
    denyInboundEncryptedConnection: (currentPeerId, maConn) => {
      // console.log('-------- 2 denyInboundEncryptedConnection 2 --------', currentPeerId.toString(), maConn)
      return false
    },
    denyInboundUpgradedConnection: (currentPeerId, maConn) => {
      // console.log('-------- 3 denyInboundUpgradedConnection 3 --------', currentPeerId.toString(), maConn)
      return false
    },
    filterMultiaddrForPeer: async (currentPeerId, maConn) => {
      // console.log('-------- filterMultiaddrForPeer --------', currentPeerId.toString(), maConn)
      return true
    }
  }
})

[joshreynolds]

Hey Sergei!

I found myself battle a similar problem and came across your issue. I had some luck switching the gossipsub depedency. I was trying to use https://www.jsdelivr.com/package/npm/@chainsafe/libp2p-gossipsub which is version 14.1.2 just like you. I switched to this one: https://www.jsdelivr.com/package/npm/@libp2p/gossipsub which is at version 15.0.7. Once I made this change my two browser peers found themselves through a relay.

[ZababurinSergei]

Thanks. But.
What version is this?
Where can I find it in the repository?

I can't find a tag for this version in the repository.
I can't install this version via npm.
However, I see version 15.0.7 in npm, but I can't figure out what this code is.

Last Releases v14.1.2

[joshreynolds]

I know super confusing. If you go to the releases for this project (https://github.com/libp2p/js-libp2p/releases) and search the module like gossipsub you'll find an individual release and version. I moved all my imports to use those instead of under the ones under chainsafe. I was pulling the noise module from chainsafe as well but there's one under js-libp2p.

[ZababurinSergei]

Thanks. I'll try to build a new version tomorrow.

[NiKrause]

Thank you, this was helping me out. I am using it to connect browser peers with WebRTC but doesn't seem as reliable then the older version. Can anyone confirm?

E.g. the browser peers often do not receive pubsub peer discovery messages from some browsers.

Example: A and B is connected via WebRTC direct (and ws relay) C is connecting to relay and receives /webrtc from A but not from B (something like that)

[joshreynolds]

I have also been having difficulty getting private browser peers to reliably communicate. I've tried spinning up a bunch of go relay nodes locally that the browsers can reach without hole punching. I was thinking that maybe I just don't have enough nodes so I spun up a bunch. They do seem to be able to discover each other but are unable to reliably send messages over gossipsub. Some peers start throwing js errors about streams being closed. I built a simple chat app and I can get messages to be sent around but some peers just never get the message or if they send they go nowhere.

It seems like as soon as a stream is closed the peer doesn't try to reestablish the connection. My app is simple but that could very well be something specific I'm doing in my code, or maybe I'm missing configuration options. Not sure.

[julienmalard]

Thank you, this was helping me out. I am using it to connect browser peers with WebRTC but doesn't seem as reliable then the older version. Can anyone confirm?

E.g. the browser peers often do not receive pubsub peer discovery messages from some browsers.

Example: A and B is connected via WebRTC direct (and ws relay) C is connecting to relay and receives /webrtc from A but not from B (something like that)

I believe that I may have found the error! (And I believe that it is the same root cause as libp2p/js-libp2p#2771). In brief, it seems that GossipSub is not adequately clearing closed streams, which tends to become problematic in situations where connections are upgraded and therefore occurs particularly frequently in applications where a WS circuit relay connection is upgraded to WebRTC. The nature of the issue means that it is highly timing-sensitive (it only occurs when a direct GossipSub connection between two peers is initialised after the circuit relay connection has been created but before the upgrade to WebRTC occurs) and so often shows up inconsistently in tests. In my experiments, it often affected only one of the two connected peers, leading to "half-open" one-way GossipSub communication. It also mostly occured with a production circuit relay server, and not nearly as often with a local testing relay on the same machine, which meant that tests would often pass locally but later fail in production.

This pull request seems to fix issue libp2p/js-libp2p#2771. At least, I'm getting consistently passing tests after applying the corresponding patch to my code.

[NiKrause]

@julienmalard I have been trying to replicate issue #534 but ran into some different obstacles. So in order to find out if your PR fixes something what might be valuable for my work too, I still need a valid replication of the issue.

You could have a look on my yjs-libp2p spreadsheet example where I am testing chrome, firefox and webkit now successfully with webrtc upgrade from a websocket relay circuit-relay connection. Could you also replicate the issue with the @libp2p/gossipsubl@15.0.9 ?

https://github.com/NiKrause/js-libp2p-examples/tree/main/examples/js-libp2p-example-yjs-libp2p (without OrbitDB nor Helia in this case!)

So in my opinion, what you describe should be replicable there too? Can you give me some advise? This test might be of interest: https://github.com/NiKrause/js-libp2p-examples/blob/main/examples/js-libp2p-example-yjs-libp2p/test/index.spec.js#L626

[julienmalard]

@NiKrause I haven't tried to replicate libp2p/js-libp2p#2771 myself, but the timing seems to be very delicate, which may be why the original reporter of the issue observed differences between bootstraped and passively discovered connections.

In general, this issue only occured with passive discovery over production relay servers, not with bootstrapping ("bootstrapping" as in explicity dial with libp2p.dial(peerId), not necessarily the bootstrap module) on localhost test servers (again, I assume because of subtle differences in timings), and even then still intermittently. Did you run your yjs-libp2p example with production circuit relay servers over dns? Also, are you bootstrapping known peers or allowing them to discover each other over mdns, pubsub-peer-discovery, or similar?

In your test, you seem to be waiting for WebRTC connections to have been established before attempting to sync; I am not sure if this will avoid the error or if the GossipSub topology registration done on libp2p initialisation will be enough to trigger the error (I suspect the latter). Generally, one of the two nodes will connect, but not the other ("half-open connection"), so a test that checks for bidirectional communication will have better chances of failing consistently.

Finally, I haven't tried with @libp2p/gossipsub@15.0.9, but the same seemingly problematic lines appear there as well, so I would expect the issue to be present there too.

The most reproducible example I could get was the following code. It's definitely not a minimal reproduction, but it led me to the issue (gossipsub not creating outboundstreams, which prevented the subscription-change event from firing.

import { obtenir } from "./utils.js";

let fermer: () => Promise<void>;
    
    const constls: Constellation[] = [];

    before(async () => {
   const { dossier, effacer } = await dossierTempoPropre();

 for (const i in [...Array(2).entries()]) {
  const constl = créerConstellation({
     dossier: path.join(dossier, i),
   });
   constls.push(constl);
 }

   fermer = async () => {
     await Promise.allSettled(constls.map((c) => c.fermer()));
     effacer();
   };
 });

 after(async () => {
   if (fermer) await fermer();
 });

it("tests temporaires orbite base pour synchronisation", async () => {
   const {bd, oublier} = await constls[0].orbite.créerBd({ type: "keyvalue" });
   const idObjet = bd.address
      
   await bd.put("a", 2);
   await new Promise<void>(résoudre => setTimeout(résoudre, 2000));

   const promesseDonnées = obtenir<KeyValueDatabase>(({ si }) =>
      constls[1].orbite.suivreBd({
         id: idObjet,
         f: si(async x=> !!x && ((await x.all()).length) > 0),
      }),
   );
  
   await new Promise<void>(résoudre => setTimeout(résoudre, 2000));

   // Vérifier la permission
   const données = await promesseDonnées
   await oublier();
   expect((await données.all()).length).to.be.greaterThan(0);
 })

[NiKrause]

@julienmalard you are on libp2p v3 already or libp2p v2? Because on v2, I had some upgrade issues lately. But, I guess those became resolved in v3 from my current experience.

[julienmalard]

All libp2p v2 for now. I wonder if the difference between v2 and v3 is due to the problem being fixed, or simply due to timing differences.

[NiKrause]

I think there's this timing issue what you are talking about and an issue which was talked about here in this thread. Since gossip pubsub etc. wasn't working at all, which was then fixed in 15.0.7.
Hence, I'd suggest to move the conversion to another place.