File transfer over the TTY
===============================
There are sometimes situations where the TTY is the only convenient pipe
between two connected systems, for example, nested SSH sessions, a serial
line, etc. In such scenarios, it is useful to be able to transfer files
over the TTY.
This protocol provides the ability to transfer regular files, directories and
links (both symbolic and hard) preserving most of their metadata. It can
optionally use compression and transmit only binary diffs to speed up
transfers. However, since all data is base64 encoded for transmission over the
TTY, this protocol will never be competitive with more direct file transfer
mechanisms.
Overall design
----------------
The basic design of this protocol is around transfer "sessions". Since
untrusted software should not be able to read/write to another machines
filesystem, a session must be approved by the user in the terminal emulator
before any actual data is transmitted, unless a :ref:`pre-shared password is
provided <bypass_auth>`.
There can be either send or receive sessions. In send sessions files are sent
from remote client to the terminal emulator and vice versa for receive sessions.
Every session basically consists of sending metadata for the files first and
then sending the actual data. The session is a series of commands, every command
carrying the session id (which should be a random unique-ish identifier, to
avoid conflicts). The session is bi-directional with commands going both to and
from the terminal emulator. Every command in a session also carries an
``action`` field that specifies what the command does. The remaining fields in
the command are dependent on the nature of the command.
Let's look at some simple examples of sessions to get a feel for the protocol.
Sending files to the computer running the terminal emulator
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The client starts by sending a start send command::
→ action=send id=someid
It then waits for a status message from the terminal either
allowing the transfer or refusing it. Until this message is received
the client is not allowed to send any more commands for the session.
The terminal emulator should drop a session if it receives any commands
before sending an ``OK`` response. If the user accepts the transfer,
the terminal will send::
← action=status id=someid status=OK
Or if the transfer is refused::
← action=status id=someid status=EPERM:User refused the transfer
The client then sends one or more ``file`` commands with the metadata of the file it wants
to transfer::
→ action=file id=someid file_id=f1 name=/path/to/destination
→ action=file id=someid file_id=f2 name=/path/to/destination2 ftype=directory
The terminal responds with either ``OK`` for directories or ``STARTED`` for
files::
← action=status id=someid file_id=f1 status=STARTED
← action=status id=someid file_id=f2 status=OK
If there was an error with the file, for example, if the terminal does not have
permission to write to the specified location, it will instead respond with an
error, such as::
← action=status id=someid file_id=f1 status=EPERM:No permission
The client sends data for files using ``data`` commands. It does not need to
wait for the ``STARTED`` from the terminal for this, the terminal must discard data
for files that are not ``STARTED``. Data for a file is sent in individual
chunks of no larger than ``4096`` bytes. For example::
→ action=data id=someid file_id=f1 data=chunk of bytes
→ action=data id=someid file_id=f1 data=chunk of bytes
...
→ action=end_data id=someid file_id=f1 data=chunk of bytes
The sequence of data transmission for a file is ended with an ``end_data``
command. After each data packet is received the terminal replies with
an acknowledgement of the form::
← action=status id=someid file_id=f1 status=PROGRESS size=bytes written
After ``end_data`` the terminal replies with::
← action=status id=someid file_id=f1 status=OK size=bytes written
If an error occurs while writing the data, the terminal replies with an error
code and ignores further commands about that file, for example::
← action=status id=someid file_id=f1 status=EIO:Failed to write to file
Once the client has finished sending as many files as it wants to, it ends
the session with::
→ action=finish id=someid
At this point the terminal commits the session, applying file metadata,
creating links, etc. If any errors occur it responds with an error message,
such as::
← action=status id=someid status=Some error occurred
Receiving files from the computer running terminal emulator
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The client starts by sending a start receive command::
→ action=receive id=someid size=num_of_paths
It then sends a list of ``num_of_paths`` paths it is interested in
receiving::
→ action=file id=someid file_id=f1 name=/some/path
→ action=file id=someid file_id=f2 name=/some/path2
...
The client must then wait for responses from the terminal emulator. It
is an error to send anymore commands to to the terminal until an ``OK``
response is received from the terminal. The terminal wait for the user to accept
the request. If accepted, it sends::
← action=status id=someid status=OK
If permission is denied it sends::
← action=status id=someid status=EPERM:User refused the transfer
The terminal then sends the metadata for all requested files. If any of them
are directories, it traverses the directories recursively, listing all files.
Note that symlinks must not be followed, but sent as symlinks::
← action=file id=someid file_id=f1 mtime=XXX permissions=XXX name=/absolute/path status=file_id1 size=size_in_bytes file_type=type parent=file_id of parent
← action=file id=someid file_id=f1 mtime=XXX permissions=XXX name=/absolute/path2 status=file_id2 size=size_in_bytes file_type=type parent=file_id of parent
...
Here the ``file_id`` field is set to the ``file_id`` value sent from the client
and the ``status`` field is set to the actual file id for each file. This is
because a file query sent from the client can result in multiple actual files if
it is a directory. The ``parent`` field is the actual ``file_id`` of the directory
containing this file and is set for entries that are generated from client
requests that match directories. This allows the client to build an unambiguous picture
of the file tree.
Once all the files are listed, the terminal sends an ``OK`` response that also
specifies the absolute path to the home directory for the user account running
the terminal::
← action=status id=someid status=OK name=/path/to/home
If an error occurs while listing any of the files asked for by the client,
the terminal will send an error response like::
← action=status id=someid file_id=f1 status=ENOENT: Does not exist
Here, ``file_id`` is the same as was sent by the client in its initial query.
Now, the client can send requests for file data using the paths sent by the
terminal emulator::
→ action=file id=someid file_id=f1 name=/some/path
...
The terminal emulator replies with the data for the files, as a sequence of
``data`` commands each with a chunk of data no larger than ``4096`` bytes,
for each file (the terminal emulator should send the data for
one file at a time)::
← action=data id=someid file_id=f1 data=chunk of bytes
...
← action=end_data id=someid file_id=f1 data=chunk of bytes
If any errors occur reading file data, the terminal emulator sends an error
message for the file, for example::
← action=status id=someid file_id=f1 status=EIO:Could not read
Once the client is done reading data for all the files it expects, it
terminates the session with::
→ action=finished id=someid
Canceling a session
----------------------
A client can decide to cancel a session at any time (for example if the user
presses :kbd:`ctrl+c`). To cancel a session it sends a ``cancel`` action to the
terminal emulator::
→ action=cancel id=someid
The terminal emulator drops the session and sends a cancel acknowledgement::
← action=status id=someid status=CANCELED
The client **must** wait for the canceled response from the emulator discarding
any other responses till the cancel is received. If it does not wait, after
it quits the responses might end up being printed to screen.
Quieting responses from the terminal
-------------------------------------
The above protocol includes lots of messages from the terminal acknowledging
receipt of data, granting permission etc., acknowledging cancel requests, etc.
For extremely simple clients like shell scripts, it might be useful to suppress
these responses, which can be done by adding the ``quiet`` key to the start
session command::
→ action=send id=someid quiet=1
The key can take the values ``1`` - meaning suppress acknowledgement responses
or ``2`` - meaning suppress all responses including errors. Only actual data
responses are sent. Note that in particular this means acknowledgement of
permission for the transfer to go ahead is suppressed, so this is typically
useful only with :ref:`bypass_auth`.
.. _file_metadata:
File metadata
-----------------
File metadata includes file paths, permissions and modification times. They are
somewhat tricky as different operating systems support different kinds of
metadata. This specification defines a common minimum set which should work
across most operating systems.
File paths
File paths must be valid UTF-8 encoded POSIX paths (i.e. using the forward slash
``/`` as a separator). Linux systems allow non UTF-8 file paths, these
are not supported. A leading ``~/`` means a path is relative to the
``HOME`` directory. All path must be either absolute (i.e. with a leading
``/``) or relative to the HOME directory. Individual components of the
path must be no longer than 255 UTF-8 bytes. Total path length must be no
more than 4096 bytes. Paths from Windows systems must use the forward slash
as the separator, the first path component must be the drive letter with a
colon. For example: :file:`C:\some\file.txt` is represented as
:file:`/C:/some/file.txt`. For maximum portability, the following
characters *should* be omitted from paths (however implementations are free
to try to support them returning errors for non-representable paths)::
\ * : < > ? | /
File modification times
Must be represented as the number of nanoseconds since the UNIX epoch. An
individual file system may not store file metadata with this level of
accuracy in which case it should use the closest possible approximation.
File permissions
Represented as a number with the usual UNIX read, write and execute bits.
In addition, the sticky, set-group-id and set-user-id bits may be present.
Implementations should make a best effort to preserve as many bits as
possible. On Windows, there is only a read-only bit. When reading file
metadata all the ``WRITE`` bits should be set if the read only bit is clear
and cleared if it is set. When writing files, the read-only bit should be
set if the bit indicating write permission for the user is clear. The other
UNIX bits must be ignored when writing. When reading, all the ``READ`` bits
should always be set and all the ``EXECUTE`` bits should be set if the file is
directly executable by the Windows Operating system. There is no attempt to
map Window's ACLs to permission bits.
Symbolic and hard links
---------------------------
Symbolic and hard links can be preserved by this protocol.
.. note::
In the following when target paths of symlinks are sent as actual paths, they must be
encoded in the same way as discussed in :ref:`file_metadata`. It is up to
the receiving side to translate them into appropriate paths for the local
operating system. This may not always be possible, in which case either the
symlink should not be created or a broken symlink should be created.
Sending links to the terminal emulator
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
When sending files to the terminal emulator, the file command has the form::
→ action=file id=someid file_id=f1 name=/path/to/link file_type=link
→ action=file id=someid file_id=f2 name=/path/to/symlink file_type=symlink
Then, when the client is sending data for the files, for hardlinks, the data
will be the ``file_id`` of the target file (assuming the target file is also
being transmitted, otherwise the hard link should be transmitted as a plain
file)::
→ action=end_data id=someid file_id=f1 data=target_file_id_encoded_as_utf8
For symbolic links, the data is a little more complex. If the symbolic link is
to a destination being transmitted, the data has the form::
→ action=end_data id=someid file_id=f1 data=fid:target_file_id_encoded_as_utf8
→ action=end_data id=someid file_id=f1 data=fid_abs:target_file_id_encoded_as_utf8
The ``fid_abs`` form is used if the symlink uses an absolute path, ``fid`` if
it uses a relative path. If the symlink is to a destination that is not being
transmitted, then the prefix ``path:`` and the actual path in the symlink is
transmitted.
Receiving links from the terminal emulator
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
When receiving files from the terminal emulator, link data is transmitted in
two parts. First when the emulator sends the initial file listing to the
client, the ``file_type`` is set to the link type and the ``data`` field is set
to file_id of the target file if the target file is included in the listing.
For example::
← action=file id=someid file_id=f1 status=file_id1 ...
← action=file id=someid file_id=f1 status=file_id2 file_type=symlink data=file_id1 ...
Here the rest of the metadata has been left out for clarity. Notice that the
second file is symlink whose ``data`` field is set to the file id of the first
file (the value of the ``status`` field of the first file). The same technique
is used for hard links.
The client should not request data for hard links, instead creating them
directly after transmission is complete. For symbolic links the terminal
must send the actual symbolic link target as a UTF-8 encoded path in the
data field. The client can use this path either as-is (when the target is not
a transmitted file) or to decide whether to create the symlink with a relative
or absolute path when the target is a transmitted file.
Transmitting binary deltas
-----------------------------
Repeated transfer of large files that have only changed a little between
the receiving and sending side can be sped up significantly by transmitting
binary deltas of only the changed portions. This protocol has built-in support
for doing that. This support uses the `rsync algorithm
<https://github.com/librsync/librsync>`__. In this algorithm first the
receiving side sends a file signature that contains hashes of blocks
in the file. Then the sending side sends only those blocks that have changed.
The receiving side applies these deltas to the file to update it till it matches
the file on the sending side.
The modification to the basic protocol consists of setting the
``transmission_type`` key to ``rsync`` when requesting a file. This triggers
transmission of signatures and deltas instead of file data. The details are
different for sending and receiving.
Sending to the terminal emulator
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
When sending the metadata of the file it wants to transfer, the client adds the
``transmission_type`` key::
→ action=file id=someid file_id=f1 name=/path/to/destination transmission_type=rsync
The ``STARTED`` response from the terminal will have ``transmission_type`` set
to ``rsync`` if the file exists and the terminal is able to send signature data::
← action=status id=someid file_id=f1 status=STARTED transmission_type=rsync
The terminal then transmits the signature using ``data`` commands::
← action=data id=someid file_id=f1 data=...
...
← action=end_data id=someid file_id=f1 data=...
Once the client receives and processes the full signature, it transmits the
file delta to the terminal as ``data`` commands::
→ action=data id=someid file_id=f1 data=...
→ action=data id=someid file_id=f1 data=...
...
→ action=end_data id=someid file_id=f1 data=...
The terminal then uses this delta to update the file.
Receiving from the terminal emulator
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
When the client requests file data from the terminal emulator, it can
add the ``transmission_type=rsync`` key to indicate it will be sending
a signature for that file::
→ action=file id=someid file_id=f1 name=/some/path transmission_type=rsync
The client then sends the signature using ``data`` commands::
→ action=data id=someid file_id=f1 data=...
...
→ action=end_data id=someid file_id=f1 data=...
After receiving the signature the terminal replies with the delta as a series
of ``data`` commands::
← action=data id=someid file_id=f1 data=...
...
← action=end_data id=someid file_id=f1 data=...
The client then uses this delta to update the file.
The format of signatures and deltas
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
These come from `librsync <https://github.com/librsync/librsync>`__. If this
specification gains wider adoption, these formats should be documented here.
Compression
--------------
Individual files can be transmitted compressed if needed.
Currently, only :rfc:`1950` ZLIB based deflate compression is
supported, which is specified using the ``compression=zlib`` key when
requesting a file. For example when sending files to the terminal emulator,
when sending the file metadata the ``compression`` key can also be
specified::
→ action=file id=someid file_id=f1 name=/path/to/destination compression=zlib
Similarly when receiving files from the terminal emulator, the final file
command that the client sends to the terminal requesting the start of the
transfer of data for the file can include the ``compression`` key::
→ action=file id=someid file_id=f1 name=/some/path compression=zlib
.. _bypass_auth:
Bypassing explicit user authorization
------------------------------------------
In order to bypass the requirement of interactive user authentication,
this protocol has the ability to use a pre-shared secret (password).
When initiating a transfer session the client sends a hash of the password and
the session id::
→ action=send id=someid bypass=sha256:hash_value
For example, suppose that the session id is ``mysession`` and the
shared secret is ``mypassword``. Then the value of the ``bypass``
key above is ``sha256:SHA256("mysession" + ";" + "mypassword")``, which
is::
→ action=send id=mysession bypass=sha256:192bd215915eeaa8c2b2a4c0f8f851826497d12b30036d8b5b1b4fc4411caf2c
The value of ``bypass`` is of the form ``hash_function_name : hash_value``
(without spaces). Currently, only the SHA256 hash function is supported.
.. warning::
Hashing does not effectively hide the value of the password. So this
functionality should only be used in secure/trusted contexts. While there
exist hash functions harder to compute than SHA256, they are unsuitable as
they will introduce a lot of latency to starting a session and in any case
there is no mathematical proof that **any** hash function is not brute-forceable.
Encoding of transfer commands as escape codes
------------------------------------------------
Transfer commands are encoded as ``OSC`` escape codes of the form::
<OSC> 5113 ; key=value ; key=value ... <ST>
Here ``OSC`` is the bytes ``0x1b 0x5d`` and ``ST`` is the bytes
``0x1b 0x5c``. Keys are words containing only the characters ``[a-zA-Z0-9_]``
and ``value`` is arbitrary data, whose encoding is dependent on the value of
``key``. Unknown keys **must** be ignored when decoding a command.
The number ``5113`` is a constant and is unused by any known OSC codes. It is
the numeralization of the word ``file``.
.. table:: The keys and value types for this protocol
:align: left
================= ======== ============== =======================================================================
Key Key name Value type Notes
================= ======== ============== =======================================================================
action ac enum send, file, data, end_data, receive, cancel, status, finish
compression zip enum none, zlib
file_type ft enum regular, directory, symlink, link
transmission_type tt enum simple, rsync
id id safe_string A unique-ish value, to avoid collisions
file_id fid safe_string Must be unique per file in a session
bypass pw safe_string hash of the bypass password and the session id
quiet q integer 0 - verbose, 1 - only errors, 2 - totally silent
mtime mod integer the modification time of file in nanoseconds since the UNIX epoch
permissions prm integer the UNIX file permissions bits
size sz integer size in bytes
name n base64_string The path to a file
status st base64_string Status messages
parent pr safe_string The file id of the parent directory
data d base64_bytes Binary data
================= ======== ============== =======================================================================
The ``Key name`` is the actual serialized name of the key sent in the escape
code. So for example, ``permissions=123`` is serialized as ``prm=123``. This
is done to reduce overhead.
The value types are:
enum
One from a permitted set of values, for example::
ac=file
safe_string
A string consisting only of characters from the set ``[0-9a-zA-Z_:.,/!@#$%^&*()[]{}~`?"'\\|=+-]``
Note that the semi-colon is missing from this set.
integer
A base-10 number composed of the characters ``[0-9]`` with a possible
leading ``-`` sign
base64_string
A base64 encoded UTF-8 string using the standard base64 encoding
base64_bytes
Binary data encoded using the standard base64 encoding
An example of serializing an escape code is shown below::
action=send id=test name=somefile size=3 data=01 02 03
becomes::
<OSC> 5113 ; ac=send ; id=test ; n=c29tZWZpbGU= ; sz=3 ; d=AQID <ST>
Here ``c29tZWZpbGU`` is the base64 encoded form of somefile and ``AQID`` is the
base64 encoded form of the bytes ``0x01 0x02 0x03``. The spaces in the encoded
form are present for clarity and should be ignored.
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