The Drives CLI

The zrok drives CLI tools allow for simple, ergonomic management and synchronization of local and remote files.

Virtual drives are shared through the zrok CLI using the --backend-mode drive flag through the zrok share command, using either the public or private sharing modes. We'll use the private sharing mode for this example:

$ mkdir /tmp/junk
$ zrok share private --headless --backend-mode drive /tmp/junk
[   0.124]    INFO sdk-golang/ziti.(*listenerManager).createSessionWithBackoff: {session token=[cf640aac-2706-49ae-9cc9-9a497d67d9c5]} new service session
[   0.145]    INFO main.(*sharePrivateCommand).run: allow other to access your share with the following command:
zrok access private wkcfb58vj51l

The command shown above creates an ephemeral, private drive share pointed at the local /tmp/junk folder.

Notice that the share token allocated by zrok is wkcfb58vj51l. We'll use that share token to identify our virtual drive in the following operations.

First, let's copy a file into our virtual drive using the zrok copy command:

$ zrok copy LICENSE zrok://wkcfb58vj51l
[   0.119]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /LICENSE
copy complete!

We used the URL scheme zrok://<shareToken> to refer to the private virtual drive we allocated above using the zrok share private command. Use zrok:// URLs with the drives CLI tools to refer to contents of private virtual drives.

Next, let's get a directory listing of the virtual drive:

$ zrok ls zrok://wkcfb58vj51l
┌──────┬─────────┬─────────┬───────────────────────────────┐
│ TYPE │ NAME    │ SIZE    │ MODIFIED                      │
├──────┼─────────┼─────────┼───────────────────────────────┤
│      │ LICENSE │ 11.3 kB │ 2024-01-19 12:16:46 -0500 EST │
└──────┴─────────┴─────────┴───────────────────────────────┘

We can make directories on the virtual drive:

$ zrok mkdir zrok://wkcfb58vj51l/stuff
$ zrok ls zrok://wkcfb58vj51l
┌──────┬─────────┬─────────┬───────────────────────────────┐
│ TYPE │ NAME    │ SIZE    │ MODIFIED                      │
├──────┼─────────┼─────────┼───────────────────────────────┤
│      │ LICENSE │ 11.3 kB │ 2024-01-19 12:16:46 -0500 EST │
│ DIR  │ stuff   │         │                               │
└──────┴─────────┴─────────┴───────────────────────────────┘

We can copy the contents of a local directory into the new directory on the virtual drive:

$ ls -l util/
total 20
-rw-rw-r-- 1 michael michael 329 Jul 21 13:17 email.go
-rw-rw-r-- 1 michael michael 456 Jul 21 13:17 headers.go
-rw-rw-r-- 1 michael michael 609 Jul 21 13:17 proxy.go
-rw-rw-r-- 1 michael michael 361 Jul 21 13:17 size.go
-rw-rw-r-- 1 michael michael 423 Jan  2 11:57 uniqueName.go
$ zrok copy util/ zrok://wkcfb58vj51l/stuff
[   0.123]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /email.go
[   0.194]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /headers.go
[   0.267]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /proxy.go
[   0.337]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /size.go
[   0.408]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /uniqueName.go
copy complete!
$ zrok ls zrok://wkcfb58vj51l/stuff
┌──────┬───────────────┬───────┬───────────────────────────────┐
│ TYPE │ NAME          │ SIZE  │ MODIFIED                      │
├──────┼───────────────┼───────┼───────────────────────────────┤
│      │ email.go      │ 329 B │ 2024-01-19 12:26:45 -0500 EST │
│      │ headers.go    │ 456 B │ 2024-01-19 12:26:45 -0500 EST │
│      │ proxy.go      │ 609 B │ 2024-01-19 12:26:45 -0500 EST │
│      │ size.go       │ 361 B │ 2024-01-19 12:26:45 -0500 EST │
│      │ uniqueName.go │ 423 B │ 2024-01-19 12:26:45 -0500 EST │
└──────┴───────────────┴───────┴───────────────────────────────┘

And we can remove files and directories from the virtual drive:

$ zrok rm zrok://wkcfb58vj51l/LICENSE
$ zrok ls zrok://wkcfb58vj51l
┌──────┬───────┬──────┬──────────┐
│ TYPE │ NAME  │ SIZE │ MODIFIED │
├──────┼───────┼──────┼──────────┤
│ DIR  │ stuff │      │          │
└──────┴───────┴──────┴──────────┘
$ zrok rm zrok://wkcfb58vj51l/stuff
$ zrok ls zrok://wkcfb58vj51l
┌──────┬──────┬──────┬──────────┐
│ TYPE │ NAME │ SIZE │ MODIFIED │
├──────┼──────┼──────┼──────────┤
└──────┴──────┴──────┴──────────┘

Working with Public Shares

Public shares work very similarly to private shares, they just use a different URL scheme:

$ zrok share public --headless --backend-mode drive /tmp/junk
[   0.708]    INFO sdk-golang/ziti.(*listenerManager).createSessionWithBackoff: {session token=[05e0f48b-242b-4fd9-8edb-259488535c47]} new service session
[   0.878]    INFO main.(*sharePublicCommand).run: access your zrok share at the following endpoints:
 https://6kiww4bn7iok.share.zrok.io

The same commands, with a different URL scheme work with the zrok drives CLI:

$ zrok copy util/ https://6kiww4bn7iok.share.zrok.io
[   0.268]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /email.go
[   0.406]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /headers.go
[   0.530]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /proxy.go
[   0.655]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /size.go
[   0.714]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /uniqueName.go
copy complete!
michael@fourtyfour Fri Jan 19 12:42:52 ~/Repos/nf/zrok 
$ zrok ls https://6kiww4bn7iok.share.zrok.io
┌──────┬───────────────┬───────┬───────────────────────────────┐
│ TYPE │ NAME          │ SIZE  │ MODIFIED                      │
├──────┼───────────────┼───────┼───────────────────────────────┤
│      │ email.go      │ 329 B │ 2023-07-21 13:17:56 -0400 EDT │
│      │ headers.go    │ 456 B │ 2023-07-21 13:17:56 -0400 EDT │
│      │ proxy.go      │ 609 B │ 2023-07-21 13:17:56 -0400 EDT │
│      │ size.go       │ 361 B │ 2023-07-21 13:17:56 -0400 EDT │
│      │ uniqueName.go │ 423 B │ 2024-01-02 11:57:14 -0500 EST │
└──────┴───────────────┴───────┴───────────────────────────────┘

For basic authentication provided by public shares, the zrok drives CLI offers the --basic-auth flag, which accepts a <username>:<password> parameter to specify the authentication for the public virtual drive (if it's required).

Alternatively, the authentication can be set using the ZROK_DRIVES_BASIC_AUTH environment variable:

$ export ZROK_DRIVES_BASIC_AUTH=username:password

One-way Synchronization

The zrok copy command includes a --sync flag, which only copies files detected as modified. zrok considers a file with the same modification timestamp and size to be the same. Of course, this is not a strong guarantee that the files are equivalent. Future zrok drives versions will provide a cryptographically strong mechanism (a-la rsync and friends) to guarantee that files and trees of files are synchronized.

For now, the --sync flag provides a convenience mechanism to allow resuming copies of large file trees and provide a reasonable guarantee that the trees are in sync.

Let's take a look at zrok copy --sync in action:

$ zrok copy --sync docs/ https://glmv049c62p7.share.zrok.io
[   0.636]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /_attic/
[   0.760]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /_attic/network/
[   0.816]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /_attic/network/_category_.json
[   0.928]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /_attic/network/prod/
[   0.987]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /_attic/network/prod/ziti-ctrl.service
[   1.048]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /_attic/network/prod/ziti-ctrl.yml
[   1.107]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /_attic/network/prod/ziti-router0.service
[   1.167]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /_attic/network/prod/ziti-router0.yml
[   1.218]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /_attic/network/prod/zrok-access-public.service
[   1.273]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /_attic/network/prod/zrok-ctrl.service
[   1.328]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /_attic/network/prod/zrok-ctrl.yml
[   1.382]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /_attic/network/prod/zrok.io-network-skeleton.md
[   1.447]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /_attic/overview.md
[   1.572]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /_attic/sharing/
[   1.622]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /_attic/sharing/_category_.json
[   1.673]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /_attic/sharing/reserved_services.md
[   1.737]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /_attic/sharing/sharing_modes.md
[   1.793]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /_attic/v0.2_account_requests.md
[   1.902]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /_attic/v0.4_limits.md
...
[   9.691]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /images/zrok_web_ui_empty_shares.png
[   9.812]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /images/zrok_web_ui_new_environment.png
[   9.870]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /images/zrok_zoom_to_fit.png
copy complete!

Because the target drive was empty, zrok copy --sync copied the entire contents of the local docs/ tree into the virtual drive. However, if we run that command again, we get:

$ zrok copy --sync docs/ https://glmv049c62p7.share.zrok.io
copy complete!

The virtual drive contents are already in sync with the local filesystem tree, so there is nothing for it to copy.

Let's alter the contents of the drive and run the --sync again:

$ zrok rm https://glmv049c62p7.share.zrok.io/images
$ zrok copy --sync docs/ https://glmv049c62p7.share.zrok.io
[   0.364]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /images/
[   0.456]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /images/zrok.png
[   0.795]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /images/zrok_cover.png
[   0.866]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /images/zrok_deployment.drawio
...
[   2.254]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /images/zrok_web_ui_empty_shares.png
[   2.340]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /images/zrok_web_ui_new_environment.png
[   2.391]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /images/zrok_zoom_to_fit.png
copy complete!

Because we removed the images/ tree from the virtual drive, zrok copy --sync detected this and copied the local images/ tree back onto the virtual drive.

Drive-to-Drive Copies and Synchronization

The zrok copy CLI can operate on pairs of virtual drives remotely, without ever having to store files locally. This allow for drive-to-drive copies and synchronization.

Here are a couple of examples:

$ zrok copy --sync https://glmv049c62p7.share.zrok.io https://glmv049c62p7.share.zrok.io
copy complete!

Specifying the same URL for both the source and the target of a --sync operation should always result in nothing being copied... they are the same drive with the same state.

We can copy files between two virtual drives with a single command:

$ zrok copy --sync https://glmv049c62p7.share.zrok.io zrok://hsml272j3xzf
[   1.396]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /_attic/
[   2.083]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /_attic/overview.md
[   2.704]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /_attic/sharing/
...
[ 118.240]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /images/zrok_web_console_empty.png
[ 118.920]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /images/zrok_enable_modal.png
[ 119.589]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /images/zrok_cover.png
[ 120.214]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /getting-started.mdx
copy complete!
$ zrok copy --sync https://glmv049c62p7.share.zrok.io zrok://hsml272j3xzf
copy complete!

Copying from Drives to the Local Filesystem

In the current version of the drives CLI, zrok copy always assumes the destination is a directory. There is currently no way to do:

$ zrok copy somefile someotherfile

What you'll end up with on the local filesystem is:

somefile
someotherfile/somefile

It's in the backlog to support file destinations in a future release of zrok. So, when using zrok copy, always take note of the destination.

zrok copy supports a default destination of file://., so you can do single parameter zrok copy commands like this:

$ zrok ls https://azc47r3cwjds.share.zrok.io
┌──────┬─────────┬─────────┬───────────────────────────────┐
│ TYPE │ NAME    │ SIZE    │ MODIFIED                      │
├──────┼─────────┼─────────┼───────────────────────────────┤
│      │ LICENSE │ 11.3 kB │ 2023-07-21 13:17:56 -0400 EDT │
└──────┴─────────┴─────────┴───────────────────────────────┘
$ zrok copy https://azc47r3cwjds.share.zrok.io/LICENSE
[   0.260]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /LICENSE
copy complete!
$ ls -l
total 12
-rw-rw-r-- 1 michael michael 11346 Jan 19 13:29 LICENSE

You can also specify a local folder as the destination for your copy:

$ zrok copy https://azc47r3cwjds.share.zrok.io/LICENSE /tmp/inbox
[   0.221]    INFO zrok/drives/sync.OneWay: => /LICENSE
copy complete! 
$ l /tmp/inbox
total 12
-rw-rw-r-- 1 michael michael 11346 Jan 19 13:30 LICENSE

Unique Names and Reserved Shares

Private reserved shares with unque names can be particularly useful with the drives CLI:

$ zrok reserve private -b drive --unique-name mydrive /tmp/junk
[   0.315]    INFO main.(*reserveCommand).run: your reserved share token is 'mydrive'
$ zrok share reserved --headless mydrive
[   0.289]    INFO main.(*shareReservedCommand).run: sharing target: '/tmp/junk'
[   0.289]    INFO main.(*shareReservedCommand).run: using existing backend proxy endpoint: /tmp/junk
[   0.767]    INFO sdk-golang/ziti.(*listenerManager).createSessionWithBackoff: {session token=[d519a436-9fb5-4207-afd5-7cbc28fb779a]} new service session
[   0.927]    INFO main.(*shareReservedCommand).run: use this command to access your zrok share: 'zrok access private mydrive'

This makes working with zrok:// URLs particularly convenient:

$ zrok ls zrok://mydrive
┌──────┬─────────┬─────────┬───────────────────────────────┐
│ TYPE │ NAME    │ SIZE    │ MODIFIED                      │
├──────┼─────────┼─────────┼───────────────────────────────┤
│      │ LICENSE │ 11.3 kB │ 2023-07-21 13:17:56 -0400 EDT │
└──────┴─────────┴─────────┴───────────────────────────────┘

Future Enhancements

Coming in a future release of zrok drives are features like:

two-way synchronization between multiple hosts... allowing for shared "dropbox-like" usage scenarios between multiple environments
better ergonomics for single-file destinations

The Drives CLI

Sharing a Drive​

Working with a Private Drive Share​

Working with Public Shares​

One-way Synchronization​

Drive-to-Drive Copies and Synchronization​

Copying from Drives to the Local Filesystem​

Unique Names and Reserved Shares​

Future Enhancements​

Sharing a Drive

Working with a Private Drive Share