File Transfer over HTTP

A daemon for encrypted, authenticated, single-stream file transfer using readily-available tools.

Designed with speed, configurability, and security in mind.

Example usage

Running the service

Sample stunnel.conf for running the service over HTTPS (port 443 in this case):

[filthttp]
accept = 443
exec = /usr/sbin/filthttp
execargs = filthttp -g xfer -I -p

Only users in the specified group can access the service (-g xfer), directory indices are generated (-I), and upload directory paths are created if they do not exist (-p).

Sample command line for running the service over HTTP using tcpserver:

tcpserver 0 8080 \
    /usr/sbin/filthttp -g users -G noxfer -a -p 2>&1 \
    |multilog /var/log/xferlog

Atomic writes are enabled (-a), users in the specified group (-g users) can access the service except those who are members of a blacklisted group (-G noxfer), upload directory paths are created if they do not exist (-p), and logs go to the /var/log/xferlog multilog logging directory.

Accessing with clients

Web browsers may, of course act as clients, and directory indices are generated in HTML format (yet are easily parsable using awk or sed). Command-line clients, however, such as curl and wget, are recommended over browsers, as they are generally more flexible and scriptable.

To retrieve a file using wget, you might try the following:

wget --user=bob --password=stuff https://host:8443/path/file.zip

Or using curl:

curl -u bob -f -O https://host:8443/path/file.zip

To upload a file using wget, to the /some/path directory (which will be created if it doesn't exist and -p has been passed on the server command line):

wget --user=bob --password=stuff -O - --post-file=file.zip \
    https://host:8443/some/path/file.zip

Or, using curl:

curl -u bob -f -T file.zip https://host:8443/some/path/file.zip

Note that using curl --data-binary @file.zip is broken and should not be used. It will work acceptably for small files, but it loads the entire file into memory before sending, which is inefficient and will break for larger files. curl -T uses the PUT method, which is accepted by filthttp.

To delete the file and its subdirectories (if empty), you might use:

curl -u bob -f -X DELETE \
     https://host:8443/some/path/file.zip \
     https://host:8443/some/path \
     https://host:8443/some

Building and installing

download filthttp (this package)

$ git clone https://github.com/edelkind/filthttp
$ cd filthttp

set up lx_lib

$ git clone https://github.com/edelkind/lx_lib
$ (cd lx_lib && make)

set up minilib

$ git clone https://github.com/edelkind/minlib
$ (cd minilib && make)

set up structural get_opts

$ git clone https://github.com/edelkind/get_opts
$ (cd get_opts && make)

build and install filthttp

$ make
$ cp filthttp /usr/sbin/                 # or wherever
$ cp filthttp.1 /usr/share/man/man1      # or wherever

Available options

$ man filthttp

SEE ALSO:

• filthttp(1) (also viewable by typing nroff -man <filthttp.1 in the source directory).
• DESIGN (in the source directory)