Portal ...is a platform-agnostic command-line file transfer utility for sending files from any computer to another. The year is 2023 and ChatGPT is taking over the world, yet, sending files to each other is still . incredibly annoying How many times haven't you tried to send a file to a friend through Messenger, WhatsApp, or Discord, just to find out that you cannot send a folder, or a file, or more than a measly in total? .zip 25MB So... you head over to Google Drive, but then you have to fiddle with the link permissions, and if you're uploading a large file, you have to wait for it to be completely uploaded to Google Drive, before your friend can even downloading it. . start Uuuuuugh As a developer, you know sending files isn't hard. So did we, and we got fed up with the current state of things. So we created , a command-line utility to send files quickly and easily. that Portal Installation See the installation options (curl, brew, yay) on GitHub! Leave a ⭐ if you like it ❤️ https://github.com/SpatiumPortae/portal?embedable=true How it works Sending files and folders To send files: portal send <file1> <file2> <folder1> <folder2> ... The application will output a temporary password in the format . 1-inertia-elliptical-celestial The sender will communicate this password to the receiver over some secure channel. Receiving files and folders To receive those files: portal receive 1-intertia-elliptical-celestial The two clients will establish a connection through a relay server. The file transfer will then commence with a direct or relayed connection, depending on what's possible. What it looks like ✨ The sender sends a folder and three files to the receiver . (top) (bottom) In this case, as you can see in the event log, the transfer is made using . That means the files are sent from one client to the other, . direct transfer directly no middlemen involved As it happens, these computers are in the same local network, and recognizes this. portal Demo Features provides: portal End-to-end encryption using PAKE2 Direct transfer of files if possible (e.g. sender and receiver are in the same local network) Fallback to relay server if sender and receiver cannot connect directly Parallel gzip compression of files for faster and more efficient transfers Hosting your own relay (we'd appreciate it if you plan to send a lot of data!) Configurability and shell completions A shiny UI ⭐✨ to gaze your eyes upon while you wait for your files Completions provides extensive TAB completions for the following shells: portal bash zsh fish powershell To see installation instructions for your shell and platform, run: portal completion [bash|zsh|fish|powershell] --help Tip! You probably didn't catch the password Bob was screaming across the room. quite You can use TAB completions to auto-complete passwords on the receiving end. Press TAB when entering parts of your password... portal receive 42-relative-parsec-s... ...and will suggest the possible words portal $ portal receive 42-relative-parsec-s...

42-relative-parsec-supernova  42-relative-parsec-scatter    42-relative-parsec-solar      42-relative-parsec-spin       42-relative-parsec-static     
42-relative-parsec-sigma      42-relative-parsec-solid      42-relative-parsec-star       42-relative-parsec-storm      42-relative-parsec-system . . boom supernova portal receive 42-relative-parsec-supernova Flags Receiver : overwrite existing files without prompts -y/--yes [Y/n] Relay : port to host the relay server on -p/--port and Sender Receiver : address of the relay server ( , , ...) -r/--relay :8080 myrelay.io:1234 : the style of the tui ( | ) -s/--tui-style rich raw , and Sender Receiver Relay : output help messages for any command -h/--help : log debug info to file -v/--verbose Configuration places its configuration file in . portal $HOME/.config/portal/config.yml As evident by the file extension, the config is a simple file with descriptive field names. YAML Default configuration relay: portal.spatiumportae.com
verbose: false
prompt_overwrite_files: true
relay_serve_port: 8080
tui_style: rich Hosting your own relay The binary comes with a built-in relay server.
Spinning up your own relay is as easy as... portal portal serve --port 1337 The server log output is . Super-recommended to run it through ! JSON jq portal serve --port 1337 2>&1 | jq . ... {
  "level": "info",
  "ts": "2023-02-28T02:57:45.310134+01:00",
  "caller": "rendezvous/server.go:77",
  "msg": "serving rendezvous server",
  "version": "v1.2.1",
  "address": ":1337"
} Maintainers Arvid Gotthard Zino Kader DigitalOcean <3 A to our sponsors . The public relay available for everyone to use is sponsored by DigitalOcean. special thanks DigitalOcean Also published . here

This story contains new, firsthand information uncovered by the writer.

The code in this story is for educational purposes. The readers are solely responsible for whatever they build with it.

Portal: The Easy Way to Transfer Large Files Between Computers 🌌✨

Too Long; Didn't Read

Zino Kader

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