Operator
You want to run a node and watch traffic move through it — not write Rust. Your job is to start the forwarder, point faces at peers, and read what it reports. This page is the line from nothing to a running, observable node.
Assumes the one idea from Why NDN is different: the forwarder moves named data, and any node may cache it.
Your first win
Start
ndn-fwd and see it forward a request.
→ Running the forwarder.
Then watch it live in the dashboard.
Where to stop
Running and observing a node is a configuration job, not a programming one.
You do not need
the client API, the engine internals, or strategy/face authoring. You need
the config knobs and the management surface. If you find yourself wanting
to change how forwarding decides, that is the
Extender path.
The path
- Running the forwarder — start a node.
- ndn-fwd — the binary, its flags, and faces.
- Config reference — every knob, by category.
- Logging — read what the node reports.
- Running the dashboard — watch faces, routes, and strategy live.