swift-object-server(1)

✨ swift-object-server(1) ✨

okay bestie, sit DOWN because we're about to talk about the OpenStack Swift object server and it's genuinely iconic 💖 (this is the swift-object-server page from the OpenStack Swift manual, btw — iykyk)

🌸 NAME 🌸

swift-object-server — OpenStack Swift object server. that's it. that's the name. short, sweet, slays. 💅

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

swift-object-server [CONFIG] [-h|--help] [-v|--verbose]

so you run the thing, you optionally hand it a CONFIG, and you've got -h|--help and -v|--verbose if you need them. periodt. ✨

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

The Object Server is a very simple blob storage server — and when i say simple i mean it, no cap. its whole job description is: store objects, retrieve objects, delete objects, all on your local devices. three things. main character energy but make it minimal. 😌

Here's the tea on how it actually stores stuff 🍓: objects live as binary files on the filesystem, and the metadata lives in the file's extended attributes (xattrs). that's the whole architecture. it's giving "i put your data here and i wrote a lil note on it."

⚠️ IMPORTANT bestie: this means the underlying filesystem you pick for your object servers has to support xattrs on files. some filesystems, like ext3, have xattrs turned off by default 😭 so double check that before you come crying to me.

Each object gets stored using a path derived from the object name's hash plus the operation's timestamp. and the golden rule? last write always wins 👑 which guarantees the latest object version is the one that gets served. no ambiguity, no drama, no "wait which one is current" — the newest one ate, and it's serving. 🔥

Deletions get the same treatment, which is lowkey genius: a deletion is also treated as a version of the file. specifically, it's a 0 byte file ending with .ts — and .ts stands for tombstone 💀 (spooky but functional). why bother? because this ensures deleted files are replicated correctly and older versions don't magically reappear due to failure scenarios. no zombie objects in THIS house. 🧟♀️🚫

🌈 DOCUMENTATION 🌈

want more depth? more lore? more of the good stuff? the in-depth docs about swift-object-server — and about OpenStack Swift as a whole — live at:

• https://docs.openstack.org/swift/latest/
• https://docs.openstack.org

go read them, they're right there, treat yourself 🫶

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

• object-server.conf(5) — the config file bestie, go look at it

k bye love u, go store some blobs responsibly 💖✨🎀🦋🌸💅

this was the swift-object-server(1) page — part of OpenStack Swift, on Linux, dated 8/26/2011 🌸