Magic Wormhole

Wormhole really is one of those tools that, once you've used it, you'll wonder how on earth you managed to get by without it. This is because Wormhole solves one of those ancient problems that have been around on Linux since we first started to connect computers together with null modem connectors and a couple of lengths of wire. Back in those olden days, you might have used ZMODEM to transfer a file across the serial connection. If you then upgraded to a connection capable of TCP/IP, you could use FTP to transfer files, and then came HTTP. In the modern age, scp is often the best choice if you're accessing an SSH server and want to securely transfer files, or rsync if you want to copy folders or perform incremental backups. But all of these solutions suffered and suffer from the same problem. The remote machine needs to be running a server of some kind, and you need to know the remote address of the machine you're wanting to access.

This is why Wormhole is so brilliant. If you want to send a file, simply type wormhole send followed by the filename. In the output, you'll see a secret phrase that you'll need to share with whoever you want to receive the file. The phrase is constructed from a few words, so it's easy to say or copy without mistakes. Your recipient then simply types wormhole receive followed by the same phrase, and the transfer will start immediately downloading the file from one machine to the other, no server required. It's perfect for transferring between virtual machines or people sitting next to each other, when every other solution requires more than a set of Python scripts.

Project Website

https://github.com/warner/magic-wormhole

Use a simple command-line tool to securely transfer files between two machine.

Network monitor

Nutty

Network monitoring isn't easy for everyday users. If you've ever taken a look at the packets captured by Wireshark, they're incredibly complex and difficult to understand. And so too are the associated command-line tools. It's easier for distros to keep users at arm's length, letting them worry about wireless network strength and streaming quality rather than presenting users with a stream of data that's difficult to interpret. But much like with a task manager or memory monitor, there are many good reasons for ordinary users to be better informed about their network consumption. We just need a decent application to turn that burden of knowledge into something easy to use, yet powerful.

Nutty isn't quite that application, but it gets close. It's a network monitoring tool that will attach itself to one of your interfaces, such as your wireless connection, and then perform a series of monitoring processes or tests. The main view is a tabbed interface with the first pane showing general details about your hardware, such as your hostname, network driver, IP address, and firmware. The second tab, Usage, attempts to detect which processes are using your bandwidth. This can be very revealing, especially if you've forgotten about that Nextcloud daemon quietly syncing your files to the cloud in the background. The third tab uses speedtest-cli to test the speed of your connection, while the fourth lists all your local ports being used on the network and the processes attached to those ports. This is likely the most useful if you want to see which processes are accessing your network. The final tab will perform a network scan, much like netstat -sP on the command line. And that's really what this great little tool is all about, encapsulating some of the most useful output from disparate and sometimes difficult to use command-line tools to help you monitor your network.

Project Website

https://github.com/babluboy/nutty

Easily monitor which processes are using your network without resorting to the command line.