Show HN: Gfile, a WebRTC based file transfer utility in Go

https://github.com/Antonito/gfile/tree/v0.1.0

by Antonito • 7 years ago

77 42 7 years ago

est2• 7 years ago

gfile is a WebRTC based file exchange software.
It allows to share a file directly between two computers, without the need of a third party.

Can it be done with a single HTML file instead of Go?

You know, which can be hosted anywhere even on Github pages.

TomMarius• 7 years ago

There is Go WASM runtime, isn't there?

Insanity• 7 years ago

Yeah, you can compile to WASM since the last few versions of Go (1.10 or 1.11)!

ggerganov• 7 years ago

I actually did such kind of experiment recently [0]. As a bonus, the users do not have to copy/paste the SDP data manually - instead it is transmitted through sound!

[0] https://ggerganov.github.io/wave-share

Antonito7• 7 years ago

That project is really cool!

I'm planning to work on the SDP stuff at some point. It works well, but sharing two base64 encoded strings isn't very practical :/

Sean-Der2• 7 years ago

The use case that excites me is transfer between servers/no X11. Just a single binary, no deps to worry about.

They could also be air gapped, both behind NATs and other non-standard topologies. ICE will take care of all the hard problems :)

est2• 7 years ago

transfer between servers

A simple NC command would do.

Or something like python -m http.server and curl

zimbatm• 7 years ago

On a server it makes sense if there is no UI involved.

Potentially the sender could output a URL that contains the SDP. That way the receiver can either be a CLI or a web browser.

imetatroll• 7 years ago

The page needs to run the appropriate javascript. That is all. Of course a STUN server at the least is required.

Antonito7• 7 years ago

Yup, it can be done! Actually, it's one of my next objectives for it. I started to write a front-end client, with WebAssembly. It's not fully working yet, but you can take a look at it here: https://github.com/Antonito/gfile/tree/master/_client/web

kkapelon• 7 years ago

Honest question: what is the advantage over nc + compression utility of your choice?

If you are just learning Golang, then congrats on shipping!

Antonito7• 7 years ago

Hey!

It can be useful if your transmitting data between two different clients on two different networks. In this case, you don't need to open ports on your firewall nor change your network configuration :)

Thank you!

ignoramous• 7 years ago

Another similar service I've found useful is https://instant.io/ which does bit-torrent over WebRTC.

Antonito7• 7 years ago

Didn't know about it, that's pretty cool!

knocte• 7 years ago

It allows to share a file directly between two computers, without the need of a third party.

I'm guessing it still depends on STUN and TURN servers?

hardwaresofton3• 7 years ago

Yup -- https://github.com/Antonito/gfile/blob/v0.1.0/internal/sessi...

There's no TURN server specified, and I'm not 100% sure whether the one that's specified there (Google's) does both (so if STUN didn't work, would it fail or attempt TURN?).

lossolo2• 7 years ago

Google only provides STUN server. Providing free, performant TURN server would require HUGE amount of resources.

Antonito7• 7 years ago

Yup, it still relies on a STUN server to get the connection's metadata. As hardwaresofton pointed out, I'm using Google's STUN server.

Since it's only STUN, and not TURN, the actual transferred data does not go transit through it though.

hardwaresofton3• 7 years ago

Super late but thanks for clarifying this

davidcollantes• 7 years ago

Is there no way to run this, without relying on a third party server/service?

hardwaresofton3• 7 years ago

Despite how awesome WebRTC is, every time I see it my mind instantly goes to whether I understand STUN/TURN enough. They're part of the overall concept of ICE (Interactive Connection Establishment)[0], and STUN is a protocol for negotiated direct peer-to-peer connections[1] whereas TURN[2] is a relay mode that is used when a direct connection cannot be achieved for either side.

When I saw the claim "without the need of a third party", it didn't fit with my knowledge of WebRTC so I went spelunking through the code and found that they do indeed use a STUN server[3], in particular google's "stun.l.google.com:19302".

Just want to point out to those who might be relatively new to WebRTC, p2p mechanisms, etc -- it is surprisingly hard for two computers to talk to each other over the wide internet, even in this day and age. Even if you're behind the same router things aren't necessarily straight forward.

[EDIT] - Also note that in the case of TURN, it is up to the application layer to encrypt communications[4].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_Connectivity_Estab...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STUN

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traversal_Using_Relays_around_...

[3] https://github.com/Antonito/gfile/blob/v0.1.0/internal/sessi...

[4] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/23085335/is-webrtc-traff...

lossolo2• 7 years ago

it is surprisingly hard for two computers to talk to each other over the wide internet, even in this day and age

Only if both are behind NAT without forwarded ports and even then you can just use services like this[1] if you want to send files/data and it's super easy.

Even if you're behind the same router things aren't necessarily straight forward.

I don't think this is true for most cases today.

1. https://justbeamit.com/

siwatanejo3• 7 years ago

I'm not a fan of Go. If anyone is interested in developing a Rust equivalent of this (all Rust with no C/C++ deps) I'm willing to pay for it, contact me at andrew.forsure@gmail.com (end result can be opensource)

arghwhat2• 7 years ago

As someone who is personally a great fan of Rust, I have to say that this is a very defective attitude.

If you're not writing it yourself (WebRTC is super simple, and this tool is basically the absolute bare-bone example of it—make a pipe and transfer something over it), why in the world would you care about what language it is written in beyond whether the language is safe, performant enough, and not a nightmare to execute on the target PC?

If you're not making it, you don't get to pick the tools. Paying just to get decide tools for other people also seems like a really weird thing to do.

GoblinSlayer• 7 years ago

Tools affect the result. If you ordered a tool in C, you will get more features than you wanted.

hackerpacker• 7 years ago

re: performance, as someone who isn't particularly enamored with rust or go (or any language), how is this thing only doing 16MBps local to local?!?

siwatanejo3• 7 years ago

If you're not making it, you don't get to pick the tools. Paying just to get decide tools for other people also seems like a really weird thing to do.

I'm making it, I'm a dev (but focused on other projects). I want a specific solution that I can use from my projects. That's why I have technical requirements, not functional ones.

hu3• 7 years ago

Paying to have something rewritten from Go to Rust out of spite.

This is a new low as far as hatred that I've witnessed.

siwatanejo3• 7 years ago

It's not so much "hey mom I want that too", but that I've been looking for a similar solution, but written in a decent language that I can consume from my app.

equalunique2• 7 years ago

I wonder if I can use this to send ZFS snapshots over WebRTC

kim0• 7 years ago

Interesting, what's the use case here?

equalunique2• 7 years ago

Possibly a more robust protocol to send/recieve datasets, perhaps involving a Project-FiFo installation.

tpaschalis• 7 years ago

Thanks for this! I've wanted to learn more about WebRTC and Go, and digging through the source seems a good opportunity.

To solve the same problem I've been using another [0] simple silly solution, but security is a concern.

[0] https://github.com/tpaschalis/goof

Antonito7• 7 years ago

Glad you like it!

If you think of any feature/improvements, feel free to open a issue/pull request! :)

maracuja-juice• 7 years ago

How about a tool like croc instead? https://github.com/schollz/croc

qrv3w• 7 years ago

croc currently doesn't do peer-to-peer with WebRTC, but I've actually been working on a branch that does. [1] Currently, croc uses a rendezvous server unless you happen to be on the same local network.

Thanks to Antonito (and their usage of MIT license) I'll fork their code into croc so it can do WebRTC with a secure PAKE channel.

[1] https://github.com/schollz/croc/tree/v5

Show HN: Gfile, a WebRTC based file transfer utility in Go

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