nox

Overview ¶

Nox is a tool for making nox connections.

$ nox
usage: nox { init | privkey | pubkey | genkeys | listen | dial | remotestatic}

In the example below, we will create ".nox" directories with "nox init". Then start a server with "nox listen" and make a connection with "nox dial".

Init ¶

Make two directories, one for the client and one for the server, and run "nox init":

$ cd client
client$ nox init
init: created .nox/private_key
init: created .nox/known_hosts

$ cd server
server$ nox init
init: created .nox/private_key
init: created .nox/known_hosts

Pubkey ¶

We need to configure the server to accept the public key of the client. Add a line to the server's ".nox/known_hosts" file. It requires three space-separated fields: "nox0" (protocol version), "*" (any network address), public key:

client$ nox pubkey < .nox/private_key
byX6M3L2qCU4yAFotRhI1dKOffrU7drs4W7-iIY-1Qc

server$ echo 'nox0 * byX6M3L2qCU4yAFotRhI1dKOffrU7drs4W7-iIY-1Qc' >>.nox/known_hosts

Listen ¶

Start a server that just echoes back everything it reads:

server$ nox listen localhost:1047 cat
listen: listening on localhost:1047, local static public key dveY0PXJfUQn84FOdV3MCCCRz6Na7SccQH_Shcj-Qg4

Because of the default nox address policy "+fs+known", the server found ".nox/private_key". For incoming connections it will check the ".nox/known_hosts".

Dial ¶

Connect to the server:

client$ nox dial localhost:1047+fs+tofu
dial: connected to localhost:1047, static public key local byX6M3L2qCU4yAFotRhI1dKOffrU7drs4W7-iIY-1Qc, remote dveY0PXJfUQn84FOdV3MCCCRz6Na7SccQH_Shcj-Qg4

Now type anything and you'll see it echoed back to you by the server.

The connection from client to server succeeded because of the "tofu" directive: Trust on first use. The client added the public key to its ".nox/known_hosts" file and will be verified in later connections:

client$ cat .nox/known_hosts
nox0 localhost:1047 dveY0PXJfUQn84FOdV3MCCCRz6Na7SccQH_Shcj-Qg4

Remotestatic ¶

To find the remote static public key, you can perform a handshake, learn the remote key and close the connection. Remotestatic does this and prints it in a form suitable for adding to a "known_hosts" file:

$ nox remotestatic localhost:1047
nox0 localhost:1047 dveY0PXJfUQn84FOdV3MCCCRz6Na7SccQH_Shcj-Qg4

Privkey ¶

Command privkey prints a new private key to stdout.

$ nox privkey
gIJoUNK0wVl1ASAZstVR2KAoIREkLduv29TMW0X_HGU

Genkeys ¶

Command genkeys prints a keypair and example nox addresses. These can be used to quickly set up a nox connection without the use for a ".nox" directory:

$ nox genkeys
[...]
local to remote: localhost:1047+sF8XgswdnBscEhCL24m3dgiQw7HEH0ezt_tq3jbKOr4+YNrfnE9BMY0jZEq-KI8p-CkGlI0nQ-Q9I8Uf7-kRjw4
remote to local: localhost:1047+Pv1yEwpRnbwNc9O-CCPseDN96Fb7DSKllpBs0DyhDxU+Q3gfkda4WVqhDAD7ypqLHVVknJSFxIUHAfIJBchFfi8

Start the listener:

$ nox listen localhost:1047+sF8XgswdnBscEhCL24m3dgiQw7HEH0ezt_tq3jbKOr4+YNrfnE9BMY0jZEq-KI8p-CkGlI0nQ-Q9I8Uf7-kRjw4 cat
listen: listening on localhost:1047, local static public key Q3gfkda4WVqhDAD7ypqLHVVknJSFxIUHAfIJBchFfi8

And connect:

$ nox dial localhost:1047+Pv1yEwpRnbwNc9O-CCPseDN96Fb7DSKllpBs0DyhDxU+Q3gfkda4WVqhDAD7ypqLHVVknJSFxIUHAfIJBchFfi8
dial: connected to localhost:1047, static public key local YNrfnE9BMY0jZEq-KI8p-CkGlI0nQ-Q9I8Uf7-kRjw4, remote Q3gfkda4WVqhDAD7ypqLHVVknJSFxIUHAfIJBchFfi8