HaskyTerm Share

A terminal sharing program inspired by tmate.io, written in Haskell.

Synopsis

This project is a command-line application for sharing terminal sessions remotely. It allows one user (the "sharer") to create a shared terminal session, and other users (the "viewers") to connect and view the sharer's terminal. The viewers can also send input to the sharer's terminal.

Features

• Terminal Sharing: Enables real-time sharing of a terminal session among multiple users.
• Input Sharing Viewers can send input to the sharer's terminal.
• PTY (Pseudo-Terminal) Support: Uses PTYs for proper terminal emulation.
• Simple Command-Line Interface: Easy to use for both the sharer and viewers.
• Written in Haskell: Leverages Haskell's type safety and concurrency features.

Architecture

The application consists of two executables:

• terminal-share-server: The server component that manages the shared terminal session. It handles connections from both the sharer and viewers.
• terminal-share-client: The client component that acts as the sharer, creating the PTY and forwarding its output.
• terminal-share-viewer: The client component that acts strictly as a viewer, receiving the shared terminal output and sending user input.

The server maintains a shared state (using MVar) to track the sharer and viewers. The sharer's terminal output is read from a PTY and forwarded to all connected viewers. Viewer input is sent to the sharer's PTY.

Dependencies

• base: Essential Haskell library. Tested with ^>= 4.17
• network: For network socket programming.
• bytestring: For efficient byte string manipulation.
• unix: For low-level UNIX system calls (PTY, signals, file descriptors).
• process: For managing external processes.
• async: For asynchronous programming (concurrent tasks).
• posix-pty: For PTY-related functions.

Building

The project uses cabal for building.

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone <repository_url>
   cd terminal-share

2. Build the executables:

   cabal build

3. Install the executables (optional):

   cabal install

This will create the terminal-share-server, terminal-share-client and terminal-share-viewer executables. These files will be either in your dist-newstyle/build directory (if you haven't installed them) or somewhere in your path (if you have installed them).

Usage

Sharer (Client):

1. Run the server.

   ./dist-newstyle/build/x86_64-linux/ghc-9.4.7/terminal-share-server-0.1.0.0/x/terminal-share-server/build/terminal-share-server/terminal-share-server

2. Run the client:

   ./dist-newstyle/build/x86_64-linux/ghc-9.4.7/terminal-share-client-0.1.0.0/x/terminal-share-client/build/terminal-share-client/terminal-share-client

   This will connect to the server (default is 127.0.0.1:3000) and start sharing your terminal.

Viewer:

1. Run the server.

   ./dist-newstyle/build/x86_64-linux/ghc-9.4.7/terminal-share-server-0.1.0.0/x/terminal-share-server/build/terminal-share-server/terminal-share-server

2. Run the viewer:

   ./dist-newstyle/build/x86_64-linux/ghc-9.4.7/terminal-share-viewer-0.1.0.0/x/terminal-share-viewer/build/terminal-share-viewer/terminal-share-viewer

   This will connect to the server (default is 127.0.0.1:3000) and display the shared terminal. Input will be sent as well.

Important Considerations:

• Make sure the server is running before starting the client or viewer.
• The client and viewer connect to the default address 127.0.0.1:3000. Currently, there are no command line aguments to change the IP or port.

Future Enhancements

• Configuration: Allow configurable server address and port.
• Authentication: Add authentication to prevent unauthorized access.
• Encryption: Implement encryption for secure communication.
• Error Handling: Improve error handling and reporting.
• Disconnect Handling More robust disconnect handling for both Sharer and Viewers.
• Terminal Resizing: Implement support for terminal resizing (reporting window size changes).
• Command Line Arguments: Allow specifying the server address and port through command-line arguments.