Portal - a modern file transfer utility 🌌✨
Tags: shell, programming, showdev, opensource
Published: 2023-03-08 14:05:21

#### 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 `.zip` file, or more than a measly `25MB` in total? 

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 _start_ downloading it. **_Uuuuuugh_**.

As a developer, you know sending files isn't _that_ hard. So did we, and we got fed up with the current state of things. So we created **Portal**, a command-line utility to send files quickly and easily.

## Installation

See the installation options (curl, brew, yay) on GitHub!
Leave a ⭐ if you like it <3
{% embed https://github.com/SpatiumPortae/portal %}

## How it works

### Sending files and folders

To send files:

```bash
portal send <file1> <file2> <folder1> <folder2> ...
```

The application will output a temporary password on 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:

```bash
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 **(top)** sends a folder and three files to the receiver **(bottom)**.

In this case, as you can see in the event log, the transfer is made using **direct transfer**. That means the files are sent **directly** from one client to the other, _no middlemen involved_. 

As it happens, these computers are in the same local network, and `portal` recognizes this.

### Demo

![portal-demo](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/th0habg0zhp66byh0wg4.gif)


## Features

`portal` provides:

- End-to-end encryption using [PAKE2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Password-authenticated_key_agreement)
- 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

`portal` provides extensive <kbd>TAB</kbd> completions for the following shells:

- `bash`
- `zsh`
- `fish`
- `powershell`

To see installation instructions for your shell and platform, run:

```bash
portal completion [bash|zsh|fish|powershell] --help
```

#### Tip!

You probably didn't _quite_ catch the password Bob was screaming across the room.

You can use <kbd>TAB</kbd> completions to auto-complete passwords on the receiving end.

Press <kbd>TAB</kbd> when entering parts of your password...
```bash
portal receive 42-relative-parsec-s...
```

...and `portal` will suggest the possible words
```bash
$ 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_.
```bash
portal receive 42-relative-parsec-supernova
```

### Flags

#### `Receiver`

- `-y/--yes`: overwrite existing files without `[Y/n]` prompts

#### `Relay`

- `-p/--port`: port to host the relay server on

#### `Sender` and `Receiver`

- `-r/--relay`: address of the relay server (`:8080`, `myrelay.io:1234`, ...)
- `-s/--tui-style`: the style of the tui (`rich` | `raw`)

#### `Sender`, `Receiver` and `Relay`

- `-h/--help`: output help messages for any command
- `-v/--verbose`: log debug info to file

### Configuration

`portal` places its configuration file in `$HOME/.config/portal/config.yml`.

As evident by the file extension, the config is a simple [YAML](https://yaml.org/) file with descriptive field names.

#### Default configuration
```yaml
relay: portal.spatiumportae.com
verbose: false
prompt_overwrite_files: true
relay_serve_port: 8080
tui_style: rich
```

### Hosting your own relay

The `portal` binary comes with a built-in relay server.
Spinning up your own relay is as easy as...
```bash
portal serve --port 1337
```

The server log output is `JSON`. Super-recommended to run it through [jq](https://github.com/stedolan/jq)!
```bash
portal serve --port 1337 2>&1 | jq .
```
...
```json
{
  "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](https://github.com/mellonnen)
- [Zino Kader](https://github.com/ZinoKader)

## Acknowledgements

[nhooyr/websocket](https://github.com/nhooyr/websocket), [shollz/pake](https://github.com/schollz/pake), [charmbracelet/bubbles](https://github.com/charmbracelet/bubbles), [charmbracelet/bubbletea](https://github.com/charmbracelet/bubbletea), [charmbracelet/lipgloss](https://github.com/charmbracelet/lipgloss), [muesli/reflow](https://github.com/muesli/reflow), [klauspost/pgzip](https://github.com/klauspost/pgzip) and many, many more.

### DigitalOcean <3

A **special thanks** to our sponsors [DigitalOcean](https://m.do.co/c/73a491fda077).

The public relay available for everyone to use is sponsored by DigitalOcean.