Custom code phrase
You can send with your own code phrase (must be more than 6 characters).
croc send --code [code-phrase] [file(s)-or-folder]
Allow overwriting without prompt
By default, croc will prompt whether to overwrite a file. You can automatically overwrite files by using the --overwrite flag (recipient only). For example, receive a file to automatically overwrite:
croc --yes --overwrite <code>
Use pipes - stdin and stdout
You can pipe to croc:
cat [filename] | croc send
In this case croc will automatically use the stdin data and send and assign a filename like “croc-stdin-123456789”. To receive to stdout at you can always just use the --yes will automatically approve the transfer and pipe it out to stdout.
croc --yes [code-phrase] > out
All of the other text printed to the console is going to stderr so it will not interfere with the message going to stdout.
Send text
Sometimes you want to send URLs or short text. In addition to piping, you can easily send text with croc:
croc send --text "hello world"
This will automatically tell the receiver to use stdout when they receive the text so it will be displayed.
Use a proxy
You can use a proxy as your connection to the relay by adding a proxy address with --socks5. For example, you can send via a tor relay:
croc --socks5 "127.0.0.1:9050" send SOMEFILE
Change encryption curve
You can choose from several different elliptic curves to use for encryption by using the --curve flag. Only the recipient can choose the curve. For example, receive a file using the P-521 curve:
croc --curve p521 <codephrase>
Available curves are P-256, P-348, P-521 and SIEC. P-256 is the default curve.
Change hash algorithm
You can choose from several different hash algorithms. The default is the xxhash algorithm which is fast and thorough. If you want to optimize for speed you can use the imohash algorithm which is even faster, but since it samples files (versus reading the whole file) it can mistakenly determine that a file is the same on the two computers transferring - though this is only a problem if you are syncing files versus sending a new file to a computer.
croc send --hash imohash SOMEFILE
Self-host relay
The relay is needed to staple the parallel incoming and outgoing connections. By default, croc uses a public relay but you can also run your own relay:
croc relay
By default it uses TCP ports 9009-9013. Make sure to open those up. You can customize the ports (e.g. croc relay --ports 1111,1112), but you must have a minimum of 2 ports for the relay. The first port is for communication and the subsequent ports are used for the multiplexed data transfer.
You can send files using your relay by entering --relay to change the relay that you are using if you want to custom host your own.
croc --relay "myrelay.example.com:9009" send [filename]
Note, when sending, you only need to include the first port (the communication port). The subsequent ports for data transfer will be transmitted back to the user from the relay.
Self-host relay (docker)
If it’s easier you can also run a relay with Docker:
docker run -d -p 9009-9013:9009-9013 -e CROC_PASS='YOURPASSWORD' schollz/croc
Be sure to include the password for the relay otherwise any requests will be rejected.
croc --pass YOURPASSWORD --relay "myreal.example.com:9009" send [filename]
Note: when including --pass YOURPASSWORD you can instead pass a file with the password, e.g. --pass FILEWITHPASSWORD.