FTU (FileTransferringUtility)

Send files through the Net !

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● What is that ?

A P2P file sharing program, but overcomplicated and probably an overengineered one.

● Why ?

Learning

● How does this work ?

In order to transfer one file on one computer to another - they need to establish a connection.

In order to establish a connection - there needs to be a 1) sender (server) (the owner of the file), waiting for connections, and a 2) receiver (client), who will try to connect to a sender (server). If the requirements are met - client will connect to server and the packet exchange will begin.

The server and the client needs to communicate with packets according to certain rules, given by a protocol.

The packet has its header and body. They are divided into several groups of use by headers, this way we can specify what kind of data is stored inside packet`s body and react accordingly.

Thus, with a connection and a way of communication, the sender will send some packets with necessary information about the file to the receiver that describe a filename, its size and a checksum. The client (receiver) will have the choice of accepting or rejecting the packet. If rejected - the connection will be closed and the program will exit. If accepted - the file will be transferred via packets.

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● Known issues|problems|lack of features|reasons why it`s bad

• VERY slow
• VERY expensive on resources
• Lack of proper error-handling
• Lack of information about the process of transferring
• No way to verify if the transferred file is not corrupted
• No encryption
• No tests
• No interrupt signal handling

● Good points

• It works.

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● Installation

● From release (Pre-compiled)

• Proceed to releases page
• Choose a version/architecture you have and download an archive
• Unpack an archive

● From source (Compile it yourself) (You need Go and git to be installed on your machine)

• git clone https://github.com/Unbewohnte/ftu.git
• cd into the folder
• go build - to simply compile for your OS/ARCHITECTURE || CGO_ENABLED=0 go build - to compile a static executable

● Final steps (optional)

• cd into folder if you`re not there already
• chmod +x install.sh - make installation script executable
• sudo ./install.sh

Now you have ftu installed !

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● Usage

ftu [FLAGS_HERE]

● Flags

ftu --help - to get all flags` description

• -port (int) - specifies a working port (if sending - listens on this port, else - tries to connect to this port);
• -addr (string) - specifies an address to connect to;
• -sharefile (string) - specifies path to a file you want to share, if given a valid path - sender will offer to download this file to receiver;
• -downloadto (string) - specifies path to a folder where the receiver wants to store downloaded file;

● Examples

• ftu -sharefile="/home/some_path_here/FILETOSHARE.zip" - creates a server that will share FILETOSHARE.zip on port 8080
• ftu -sharefile="/home/some_path_here/FILETOSHARE.zip" - port=727 - same as before, but on port 727
• ftu -downloadto="/home/some_path_here/Downloads/" -addr="192.168.1.104" - creates a client (receiver) that will try to connect to 192.168.1.104 (local device) on port 8080 and if successful - downloads a file to given path
• ftu -downloadto="/home/some_path_here/Downloads/" -addr=145.125.53.212 -port=8888 - same as before, but will try to connect to 145.125.53.212 on port 8888

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● Testing

In 'ftu' directory:

• go test ./... - to test everything
• go test -v ./... - to test everything, with additional information
• go test ./NAME_OF_THE_PACKAGE - to test a certain package

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● IMPORTANT NOTE

This is NOT intended to be a serious application. I'm learning and this is a product of my curiosity. If you're a beginner too, please don't try to find something useful in my code, I am not an expert.

Also, this utility only works if the server side has a port-forwarding|virtual server enabled and configured. Fortunatelly, locally it works without any port-forwarding|virtual servers.

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● Inspired by croc

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● License

MIT