[feature request] drop portal

[jobwat]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. I recently had to use a computer where I didn't want to install my password manager but needed 1 password (a too long to type one). At the time I didn't know portal. It's totally usable as is for the above niche problem but still has downsides:

• the need to install a tool - we won't solve that one today
• the need to share the key (even if relatively simple)
• the need to get through a file - I would love to just get a string
• the need to have someone sending to open a portal!

Describe the solution you'd like I want a drop portal! :) I want to be able to create a receiver, it would potentially be a new command like portal dropzone or a new option like portal receive -open-to-any-sender kind. The send line portal send <unique-id> <content> would then be offered to send something to. Another idea here would be to allow plaintext streaming, eg: echo $PASSWORD | portal send <unique-id> And the drop side would get the content in the terminal or would be able to pipe it somewhere, eg: portal dropzone | pbcopy.

Describe alternatives you've considered I didn't know portal yet and I ended up solving my password-sharing need by opening a chatroom from both the target computer and another device with access to my password. I used https://www.chatcrypt.com/. The experience wasn't too bad but:

• it's not that straightforward - I had to know/find an appropriate anonymous/somehow secure chat service, go to it, create a room, username, password... and repeat the chatroom/username/password on the other side!
• it's not that secure - I had to trust that service

While looking at potential existing tools (and discovered portal), I also trialled https://github.com/KuroLabs/Airshare It's only local but they bring 2 awesome concepts:

• the QR code (generated in the console) to ease the share
• the website access, offering a UI to send the file (perfect for mobile)

Additional context portal is already nailing a lot of things: end-to-end, secure, anonymity, ease, etc... It feels nearly sad that the portal created can only be used to transfer files!

I love the tool, great work!

[ZinoKader]

Hi Jo!

Thank you for your kind words.

Your idea is kind of reversing the relationship between sender and receiver, so that the receiver is openly identifiable and the sender needs to connect to them.

I guess this could be enabled together with custom passphrases. With that, this behavior could be achieved by allowing a receiver to be open to send requests by starting a receiver with a custom passphrase. portal receive --dropzone my-little-dropzone would open a receiver ready to receive from anyone sending using portal send file.txt --password/-p my-little-dropzone. It's a good idea, but I imagine one would want the "dropzone" to stay alive until one wants to close it, or maybe for a a specific number of transfers?

• Browser access is something we're working on. Portal currently works with WASM, but we don't have anything more than a simple MVP working at the moment.
• With browser access, QR codes will make a lot of sense, and could definitely be added to the output with the press of some key to show it.

Thank you for your suggestions, and I'll just let you know that we're open to contributions.