Croc: Securely transfer files and folders between two computers

▲ Croc: Securely transfer files and folders between two computers(github.com)

34 points by gregsadetsky 8 hours ago | 18 comments

▲ turadg 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Sounds like Magic Wormhole (https://magic-wormhole.io/). The readme acknowledges Warner at the end.

Key differences seem to be resumable transfers and proxy support.

Another is a single binary, whereas MW is in Python, but there’s now https://github.com/magic-wormhole/magic-wormhole.rs

I appreciate that the project acknowledges its inspiration. I wish it were more common for projects to provide detailed comparisons with similar ones for people trying to choose.

▲

justusthane 3 hours ago | parent [-]

I’ve found croc to be more reliable than MW in across different network architectures — croc has worked in places where MW has not. I’m not sure why.

	▲	atmosx 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Hm. I had the exact opposite experience. Weird.

▲ teo_zero 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

How can one be sure that the relay does not record all the data flowing through it? There's not a second independent channel where the key is exchanged between sender and receiver.

▲ smusamashah 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I keep a list of mostly browser based and some cli, p2p file sending tools in like croc. https://gist.github.com/SMUsamaShah/fd6e275e44009b72f64d0570...

▲ themgt 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Hard-coded to use his relay server and then asking for donations for bandwidth?

https://github.com/schollz/croc/issues/931

▲ siraben 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I use croc instead of magic wormhole as of a year ago now. In my testing the throughput is higher than magic wormhole because it uses multiple TCP connections to transfer the files.

▲ technol0gic 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

one thing that gets me is this should be one of the most basic tasks between two machines and it has been increasingly, systematically abstracted from us, to control what channels it goes through, if it even goes through at all. so kudos to this app but this should be easy at an OS level and it isn't, by design. likely for the same reason airdrop is not a thing in china

	▲	zbentley 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Fair, though I think a large part of why this has always been more difficult than it should be is the fundamental design of TCP and IP. The former encodes notions of “roaming client” and “durable server” in ways incompatible with devices that periodically want to assume either role, and the latter (at least IPv4) encourages network segmentation in such a way that reachability and discoverability are harder than people might think. The centralized powers that be definitely deserve a share of the blame to be sure, but some of it is architectural.
	▲	paxys 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		File transfer isn't an OS level problem. There are already a million utilities that let you get a file from computer A to computer B if they are reachable over IP. Connecting the computers in a secure way is the hard part, hence the need for all the workarounds.
	▲	sneak 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		It was easy, via Airdrop, but the CCP doesn’t like people being able to share files in a decentralized manner in groups, and Apple ceases to exist as we know it if they don’t do whatever the CCP wants, so it was nerfed.
	▲	atmosx 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		If you have IPv6, it’s easy. In IPv4 land… Good luck.

▲ atmosx 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Croc has broke down for me quite a few times when transferring large files. I switched back to MW.

▲ whimsicalism 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

What does this give me that unison doesn't?

▲

aucisson_masque 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Unison is dead, this project is alive.

	▲	whimsicalism 18 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I mean i still see commits and afaict it just works for me. How much active development does a service like this need? As someone else mentioned a while ago, I think unison suffers from 'lisp curse'.. it just works. [0] [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20629571

▲ dmitrygr 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

this has been fine working since the 80s

  pc1> tar c <SRC_FOLDER_OR_FILES> | nc -l 12345

  pc2> nc <IP_OF_PC_1> 12345 | tar xv -C <DST_LOCATION>

	▲	Goofy_Coyote 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		No auth? I like to live dangerously too lol. Jokes aside, the probability of it being exploited is low though. Also, this assumes pc1 has a publicly, where as with Croc and MW, you can transfer files between two PCs on both behind different NATs.