Muhammed Shafin P

Posted on Dec 1

Qeltrix Now Available on PyPI!

#python3 #hejhdiss #pypi #filecontainer

We're excited to announce that Qeltrix is now officially available on PyPI, making installation easier than ever before!

Installation

You can now install Qeltrix directly using pip:

pip install qeltrix

This will automatically install all required dependencies (lz4, cryptography, zstandard) and make the following commands available in your terminal:

qltx - Universal dispatcher (recommended)
qeltrix - V1 format
qeltrix-2 - V2 format
qeltrix-3 - V3 format
qeltrix-4 - V4 format
qeltrix-5 - V5 format (folder archiving)

About the Delay

We apologize for the delay in making Qeltrix available on PyPI. This release was postponed due to several technical issues encountered during the packaging and distribution process. We appreciate your patience as we worked through these challenges to ensure a smooth installation experience.

A Community-Driven Project

Qeltrix is, and has always been, a community project, built by the community, for the community. This is a personal Proof-of-Concept (PoC) that demonstrates innovative approaches to encrypted archiving with parallel processing, content-derived keying, and virtual file system capabilities.

Important Note on Development

As the original author, I am not committed to continuous, regular development of this project. Qeltrix was created to validate architectural concepts and demonstrate what's possible with modern cryptographic primitives. The project now belongs to the community.

This means:

Updates and new features will depend entirely on community contributions
Bug fixes and maintenance require volunteer involvement
The development cadence will be irregular and community-driven
Future versions (like the conceptual V6) await community implementation

We Need Your Help!

Qeltrix's potential can only be realized through your contributions:

Code contributions - Implement missing features, fix bugs, add the dropped features
Documentation - Improve guides, add examples, translate content
Testing - Report issues, verify functionality across platforms
Feedback - Share use cases, suggest improvements, discuss architecture

Even if you cannot contribute code, your feedback, bug reports, and feature suggestions are invaluable to improving Qeltrix.

Limitations and Vision

As a PoC, the current versions have significant limitations. These are PoCs that validated the core concepts work—that's what matters. Everything else is an add-on for a PoC. Many advanced design plans were ultimately dropped across all versions due to the complexity and limitations of solo development:

Limited metadata preservation - All versions lack comprehensive metadata and features that a normal production container format would include. The focus was on validating that Qeltrix's core concepts work, not on building a production-ready or high-grade quality tool. This means it may lack features even when compared to general container format requirements.
Missing standard container features - Many features expected in production-grade archiving tools were not implemented
Advanced VFS features - Parallel/serial mixing, complex blocking operations, and sophisticated file handling
Cross-version enhancements - Improvements for better throughput and efficiency
Optimization and polish - Performance tuning, edge case handling, and user experience refinements
Comprehensive error handling - Robust error recovery and detailed error reporting mechanisms
V6's network-native streaming architecture - Currently conceptual only, awaiting implementation

Many of these dropped features were highly complex for me to implement alone as a solo developer. The architectural vision and plans were ambitious, but the implementation requires expertise, time, and collaborative effort beyond what one person can reasonably provide.

We believe Qeltrix's foundational architecture is robust, but it requires collaborative effort to achieve its full potential. We encourage the community to take ownership of this project, address its current limitations, and build the features necessary for a production-ready cryptographic archiving system.

Essential Reading

Before diving in, please read these foundational articles to understand Qeltrix's unified vision:

Qeltrix: One Vision, Multiple Proofs-of-Concept - Explains why V1-V5 are incremental PoC milestones, not separate products
Qeltrix V6: The Future of Network-Native Encrypted Streaming - The conceptual specification for network-native streaming (awaiting community implementation)

Contributing

Visit our GitHub repository to contribute:

github.com/hejhdiss/Qeltrix

Whether you're fixing a typo in documentation or implementing V6's gateway architecture, every contribution moves the project forward. Your involvement matters!

License

Code: GPLv3 (GNU General Public License v3)
Concept: CC BY-SA 4.0 International

Thank you to everyone who has supported this project. Let's build something great together!

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