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A croc, or not?
Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2023 2:38 pm
by mklym
I can across a small file transfer program and am wondering if anyone has used it? It seems that, if it works as advertised, the program would be a good fit for the MX repos as it is suppose to be 'fast, secure and easy'.
Here is a link to the devs site and it has a link to the program on GitHub.
https://schollz.com/tinker/croc6/
I am going to try the program on a couple of my units this weekend, if time allows, but still would like to hear from anyone that has used it.
Thanks.
Re: A croc, or not?
Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2023 2:41 pm
by Adrian
Looks like a magic-wormhole clone. We have magic-wormhole in the repo (the command itself is "wormhole").
Re: A croc, or not?
Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2023 3:24 pm
by mklym
Adrian wrote: Thu Aug 10, 2023 2:41 pm
Looks like a magic-wormhole clone. We have magic-wormhole in the repo (the command itself is "wormhole").
No, not a clone. See here, from his blog:
Code: Select all
AFAIK, croc is the only CLI file-transfer tool does all of the following:
allows any two computers to transfer data (using a relay)
provides end-to-end encryption (using PAKE)
enables easy cross-platform transfers (Windows, Linux, Mac)
allows multiple file transfers
allows resuming transfers that are interrupted
does not require a server or port forwarding
In developing croc I took a lot of inspiration from other CLI tools like toss and magic-wormhole which had some but not all of the qualities above.#5
Code: Select all
#5 toss cleverly encodes port information in the code phrase, making it simple but it requires using connected computers (no firewalls) and the long random-ish code phrase is hard to “tell” someone. magic-wormhole has most everything (currently its missing capabilities for multiple file transfers and file resuming), but it requires installing lots of the Python ecosystem which is tricky for non-developers (and Windows users).
Re: A croc, or not?
Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2023 3:31 pm
by Dearth
There are few others CLI tools like this. Magic Wormhole implementation in Rust:
https://github.com/magic-wormhole/magic-wormhole.rs
Magic Wormhole implementation in Go:
https://github.com/psanford/wormhole-william
Those above can work with the original Python implementation.
There is also a Magic Wormhole clone in Go:
https://github.com/SpatiumPortae/portal
Portal is my favourite - look at the pretty UI it has.
Re: A croc, or not?
Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2023 5:00 pm
by Adrian
the program would be a good fit for the MX repos
I don't see a point for having it in our repos since the most recent .deb will be on their site, for example:
https://github.com/schollz/croc/releases/tag/v9.6.5
Re: A croc, or not?
Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2023 5:28 pm
by mklym
Dearth, thanks for the suggestions. I made some time this afternoon and tried croc. Works as advertised. I am happy with croc.
Adrian, it was a suggestion as I thought that installing a program from the repos was favored over installing from a .deb as sometimes there were problems installing .deb files. Maybe that is no longer the case. Really does not matter to me as I am already using croc. Thanks.
Re: A croc, or not?
Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2023 5:42 pm
by AVLinux
mklym wrote: Thu Aug 10, 2023 5:28 pm
as sometimes there were problems installing .deb files.
The actual problem was Debian changing their elevation to Root methodology which broke Gdebi (the most well-known graphical Deb installer) Gdebi could be fixed by changing it's launch command but that was above the pay grade of most regular Users.. MX always had a handy but hidden Thunar Custom Action to install Debs and this unfortunately remained hidden to a lot of Users until the MX Devs decided to fix the issue once and for all by including their own graphical installer for Deb files and this is a built-in solution so installing outside Debs is as always not recommended unless you're sure about the source but is now much easier thanks to the MX devs.
shot-2023-08-10_17-46-43.jpg
Re: A croc, or not?
Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2023 5:58 pm
by FullScale4Me
A Big box retailer sell a USB cable (USB A male >----< USB A male) with wormhole.exe built in (mini-flash drive in one end)
https://www.staples.com/J-5-Create-JUC4 ... ct_2495890
It then supports copy & paste between Winblows PCs (and others - never tried it with Linux when there).
I use
Barrier. It is in the MXPI and which works between my MX Linux & Windows 10/11 as mouse sharing w shared clipboard.
Re: A croc, or not?
Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2023 6:30 pm
by Adrian
Just one data point, I tried to use croc at work to transfer files from one Linux installation in WSL to another Linux, it didn't work (work firewall blocking the relay server?) but wormhole worked just fine.
Re: A croc, or not?
Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2023 1:21 am
by Dearth
To install croc and keep it updated I recommend deb-get:
apt-get functionality for .debs published in 3rd party repositories or via direct download. It works on Debian, Ubuntu and their derivative distributions.
https://github.com/wimpysworld/deb-get
I use deb-get to install a few apps that are not available in MX repos.
Re: A croc, or not?
Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2023 10:36 am
by Adrian
That deb-get sounds like a nice tool.
Re: A croc, or not?
Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2023 12:13 pm
by oops
Dearth wrote: Fri Aug 11, 2023 1:21 am
To install croc and keep it updated I recommend deb-get:
apt-get functionality for .debs published in 3rd party repositories or via direct download. It works on Debian, Ubuntu and their derivative distributions.
https://github.com/wimpysworld/deb-get
I use deb-get to install a few apps that are not available in MX repos.
Thanks, good to know.
Re: A croc, or not?
Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2023 12:45 pm
by AVLinux
Wow! Very handy!! Thanks for sharing!
Re: A croc, or not?
Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2023 2:29 pm
by mklym
Thank you for the clarification AVLinux.
FullScale4Me, I never knew that a cable like that was available. Thanks for posting the info.
Adrian, I am glad you have something that works for you. I am not worried about firewall issues on a work network and I have Zero interest in Microsoft and any of their Linux 'contributions'. I do appreciate you bringing forth that issue you had with croc. Thank you.
I read about croc yesterday in the comments section of a review of a program called Warp. What got my interest was the fact croc could resume transfers.
I am a petro head and have over 20TB of racing and documentaries. As the resolution of captured videos increases, so does the file size. Races can be anywhere up to 100GB in size. I transfer files from my torrent unit, the Z420, to remote hdds and also onto ssds of laptops I am using. Having the ability to resume transfers that did not finish, for what ever reason, is a great feature for me. If wormhole ever offers the ability to resume transfers, I might try it out. At this point I have something that works for me and I am happy with it.
Dearth, that seems like a great little program. Thank you for sharing it. I will definitely use it.
Re: A croc, or not?
Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2023 3:55 pm
by FullScale4Me
Adrian wrote: Thu Aug 10, 2023 6:30 pm
Just one data point, I tried to use croc at work to transfer files from one Linux installation in WSL to another Linux, it didn't work (work firewall blocking the relay server?) but wormhole worked just fine.
I went to the official IRC support channel and asked:
irc://Libera.Chat#magic-wormhole
[20:31:12] <FullScale4Me> Question: what port(s) does the “Rendezvous Server” use?
[02:41:33] <@meejah> 4000 by default
[02:41:37] <@meejah> FullScale4Me: ^
[02:41:47] <@meejah> (it's also called the "mailbox server" now)
[02:42:11] <@meejah> sorry, is sometimes also called that