FOSSPicks
File transfer
X-Pipe
With so many options for transferring files from one computer or location to another, it's surprising that it can still be a difficult and unpredictable process. Two computers need to support the same protocol or run the same client. They may need to be on the same network, have common access through a firewall, or permit a third-party proxy to negotiate a connection on their behalf. It's complicated. And that's before we've considered operating systems, or even which Linux distribution to run. These are the problems that X-Pipe attempts to solve through either a graphical file manager interface or its command line equivalent, and both have been specifically designed to make transferring files and directories from one place to another as simple as possible.
X-Pipe takes a clever and pragmatic approach to providing all this seamless connectivity, and it accomplishes this by not really doing anything at all. Instead of trying to negotiate a connection and manage the transfer itself, it uses tools it natively finds on the client's respective system. For Linux users, this means X-Pipe will use SSH, but it will also work on macOS and Windows. The desktop application can automatically detect targets, including Docker and LXD instances, virtual machines, WSL on Windows, and even PostgreSQL databases. Adding any of these will take you to the connection panel, and entered details are securely saved. Hosts can now be selected in the main view, where they'll each appear as tabs, as will your local filesystem, which is accessed in the same way. You can now explore the remote filesystem or data storage, copy and paste between tabs, or drag files into the download panel to save them locally. It works well and could be a great option if you need to help non-technical users access certain files across operating systems.
Project Website
https://github.com/xpipe-io/xpipe
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