Easyshare

DESCRIPTION

easyshare is a client-server command line application written in Python for transfer files between network hosts.
It is highly inspired by FTP, but aim to be easier and faster to use.
For example, easyshare supports automatic discovery of the sharings of the network, therefore, from the client you can download entire directories just by giving the name you assigned to them from the server side.

REQUIREMENTS

Requires at least Python 3.6.

INSTALLATION

On Linux, you can install it with pip:

sudo pip install easyshare

This will install both es (client) and esd (server).

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE

A picture is worth a thousand words

es (client)

esd (server)

esd

USAGE

esd [OPTION]... [SHARING [SHARING_NAME] [SHARING_OPTION]...]

For share stuff, you have to start an easyshare daemon (esd).

There are basically two ways for create sharings.

1. By providing the path of the file/directory to share in the command line as SHARING
2. By creating a configuration file and specifying it with the option -c config

The option 1. should be preferred for an easy one-shot sharing of a file or directory, since doesn't need the creation a configuration file, but has the limit that only a file or folder can be shared.

If given, SHARING must be a valid path to a local file or directory. SHARING_NAME is an optional name to assign to the sharing, as it will be seen by clients. If not given, the name of the file/directory is used instead. Currently the only supported SHARING_OPTION is the read-only flag, which can be enabled with -r, and denies any write operation on a directory sharing.

OPTIONS

-a, --address  address        server address (default is primary interface)
-c, --config  config_path     load settings from a esd configuration file
-d, --discover-port  port     port used to listen to discovery messages; 1 disables discovery (default is 12021)
-e, --rexec                   enable rexec (remote execution)
-h, --help                    show this help
-n, --name  name              server name (default is server hostname)
--no-color                    don't print ANSI escape characters
-P, --password  password      server password, plain or hashed with es-tools
-p, --port  port              server port (default is 12020)
--ssl-cert  cert_path         path to an SSL certificate
--ssl-privkey  privkey_path   path to an SSL private key
-t, --trace  0_or_1           enable/disable tracing
-v, --verbose  level          set verbosity level
-V, --version                 show the easyshare version

CONFIGURATION

The server can be configured either with a configuration file (2.) or by giving esd the options you need. The command line arguments have precedence over the corresponding setting of the configuration file (i.e. if you specify an option in both the configuration file and as an argument, the argument will be taken into account).

The configuration file is composed of two parts.

1. Global section
2. Sharings sections

Each line of a section has the form <key>=<value>. The available <key> of the global section are:

    address
    discover_port
    name
    no_color
    password
    port
    rexec
    ssl
    ssl_cert
    ssl_privkey
    trace
    verbose

The available <key> of the sharings sections are:

    path
    readonly

The first lines of the configuration file belongs to the global section by default. Each sharing section begins with "[SHARING_NAME]". If you omit the SHARING_NAME, the name of the shared file or directory will be used instead.

See the example of the configuration file below for more details.

EXAMPLES

• Share a file

esd /tmp/file

• Share a directory, assigning it a name

esd  /tmp/shared_directory shared

• Share multiples directories, using a configuration file

esd -c /home/user/.easyshare/esd.conf

CONFIGURATION FILE EXAMPLE

# esd.conf

# ===== SERVER SETTINGS =====

name=stefano-arch
password=aSecurePassword

port=12020
discover_port=12019

ssl=true
ssl_cert="/tmp/cert.pem"
ssl_privkey="/tmp/privkey.pem"
ssl_privkey="/tmp/privkey.pem"

rexec=false

verbose=4
trace=1

# ===== SHARINGS =====

[download]
    path="/home/stefano/Downloads"

[shared]
    path="/tmp/shared"
    readonly=true

# Automatic sharing name
[]
    path="/tmp/afile"

es

USAGE

es [OPTION]... [COMMAND [COMMAND_OPTIONS]]

For fetch stuff shared with esd, you have to start an easyshare client (es).

If no COMMAND is given, the interactive console is started, from which you can use any command.
If COMMAND is a valid command, it is executed and the process quits unless the command is open.

OPTIONS

-d, --discover-port  port      port used for broadcast discovery messages
-h, --help                     show this help
--no-color                     don't print ANSI escape characters
-t, --trace  0_or_1            enable/disable tracing
-v, --verbose  level           set verbosity level
-V, --version                  show the easyshare version
-w, --discover-wait  seconds   time to wait for discovery responses

COMMANDS

From within the es console, type "help <command>" for the full documentation of a command.

The available commands (either from the command line or from the interactive console) are the following:

General commands

help             show this help
exit, quit, q    exit from the interactive shell
trace, t         enable/disable packet tracing
verbose, v       change verbosity level

The help command should really be used since its quite complete.

Connection establishment commands

scan, s          scan the network for easyshare servers
connect, c       connect to a remote server
disconnect       disconnect from a remote server
open, o          open a remote sharing (eventually discovering it)
close            close the remote sharing

The most straightforward way to establish a connection is open since only requires you to know the name assigned to the sharing.

scan can be used for discover the sharings of the network (for figure out the name to give to open).

Tipically you won't need to use connect explicitly since the server connection is automatically established, if the sharing name given to open is valid and can be found. Although there might be cases in which an explicit connect is needed, for example for connect to a server for which the discovery cannot be performed (i.e. a server not on the same network of the client) or if you want to connect a server without sharings (e.g. for execute commands remotely via rexec).

Transfer commands

get, g          get files and directories from the remote sharing
put, p          put files and directories in the remote sharing

get is used for:

• Download files or directories from a "directory sharing"
• Download a shared file ("file sharing")

put is used for:

• Upload files or directories to a "directory sharing"

Local commands

pwd              show the name of current local working directory
ls               list local directory content
l                alias for ls -la
tree             list local directory contents in a tree-like format
cd               change local working directory
mkdir            create a local directory
cp               copy files and directories locally
mv               move files and directories locally
rm               remove files and directories locally
exec, :          execute an arbitrary command locally
shell, sh        start a local shell

You should really be familiar with these commands since behave quite similar to the Linux counterpart.

The command exec (which can be shortened with :) can be useful for execute arbitrary commands without the need of open a new terminal.

Remote commands

rpwd             show the name of current remote working directory
rls              list remote directory content
rl               alias for rls -la
rtree            list remote directory contents in a tree-like format
rcd              change remote working directory
rmkdir           create a remote directory
rcp              copy files and directories remotely
rmv              move files and directories remotely
rrm              remove files and directories remotely
rexec, ::        execute an arbitrary command remotely (disabled by default)
rshell, rsh      start a remote shell (disabled by default)

These are the counterparts of the Local commands that work on the remote sharing instead of the local machine (i.e. you have to establish a connection to a "directory sharing" before use those).

The command rexec (which can be shortened with ::) is a really powerful command that basically gives you arbitrary command execution on the remote machine (technically not a shell, but not so far).
For this reason, it is obviously disabled by default, but you can enable it with the option -e if you are really confident that nobody with bad intentions will use it (use a strong server password, by the way).

Server information commands

info, i          show information about the remote server
list             list the sharings of the remote server
ping             test the connection with the remote server

info can be used for fetch information of the remote server (e.g. name, address, ports, SSL certificate, type of authentication, available sharings).

EXAMPLES

These are only examples, see the help section of each command for known exactly what you can do.

• Start the interactive shell (from which you can use any command)

es

• Scan the network for easyshare sharings

es scan

alice-arch (192.168.1.105:12020)
  DIRECTORIES
  - shared
  - tmp

• Open a sharing by name (implicit discovery and server connection) and start the interactive shell

es open shared

alice-arch.shared:/ - /tmp>
...

• Get the content of a sharing by name

es get shared

GET shared/f1    [===================] 100%  745KB/745KB
GET outcome: OK
Files        1  (745KB)
Time         1s
Avg. speed   1MB/s

• Open a sharing by name and put some files into it

es

/tmp> open shared
alice-arch.shared:/ - /tmp> rls
f1      f2
alice-arch.shared:/ - /tmp> put /tmp/afile
PUT afile    [===================] 100%  745KB/745KB
PUT outcome: OK
Files        1  (745KB)
Time         1s
Avg. speed   1MB/s
alice-arch.shared:/ - /tmp> rls
f1      f2      afile

• Connect to a server by specific address and port, then list the available sharings

es connect 192.168.1.105:12020

alice-arch:/ - /tmp> list
DIRECTORIES
- shared
- tmp
FILES
- zshrc

• See content of the remote sharing, then move some files

es 
/tmp> open shared
alice-arch.shared:/ - /tmp> rtree
|-- dir
|   |-- f3
|   +-- f4
|-- f1
+-- f2
alice-arch.shared:/ - /tmp> rmv f1 f2 dir
alice-arch.shared:/ - /tmp> rtree
+-- dir
    |-- f1
    |-- f2
    |-- f3
    +-- f4
alice-arch.shared:/ - /tmp> rcd dir
alice-arch.shared:/dir - /tmp> rls
f1      f2      f3      f4

• Arbitrary local command execution

es 
/tmp> cd d
/tmp/d> ls
f0  
/tmp> :touch f1
f0      f1

• Arbitrary remote command execution (DISABLED BY DEFAULT)

es 
/tmp> connect alice-arch
alice-arch:/ - /tmp> ::whoami
alice

es-tools

es-tools is a little script that can help administrators of easyshare servers.

Currently in two ways:

1. Creating a default configuration file
2. Generating an hash of a password to use in the esd configuration file (preferred over a plain password)

USAGE

es-tools [OPTION]...

If neither -c nor -p is given, an interactive script is started and you will be asked what to do.

OPTIONS

-c, --generate-config             generate default esd.conf file
-h, --help                        show this help
-p, --hash-password  <password>   generate an hash of the password
-V, --version                     show the easyshare version

TESTING

Tests can be run with:

tox

For run tests with logging enabled

tox -- -s

Actually there are still many things to write tests for...

TODO

• Testing on Windows
• find and rfind command that finds files by name and tag those with incremental IDs (1, 2) which can be used in other command (something like $1, $2)
• shell and rshell which implement command execution through a pty (enhanced version of exec/rexec)
• Behind NAT section in README (open two external ports internally forwarded to 12020 and 12021)
• Add unit tests
• Handle addresses instead of numeric IPs
• Do not transfer hidden files by default (add a -a option for transfer those) LICENSE

Easyshare is MIT licensed.