lookaround/README.md

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# LookAround
"I want to SSH into my laptop, but I keep forgetting its IP!!"
_Has this ever happened to you?_
```text
$ ping $(lookaround find-nick laptop)
PING 192.168.1.101 (192.168.1.101) 56(84) bytes of data.
...
$ lookaround client
Found 3 peers:
11:11:11:11:11:11 = 192.168.1.101 `laptop`
22:22:22:22:22:22 = 192.168.1.102 `desktop`
33:33:33:33:33:33 = 192.168.1.103 `old-laptop`
```
LookAround is a Rust program for looking up your computers' MAC and IP addresses
within a LAN. There's no central server, so it's not a look-up, it's a look-around.
## Installing
Make sure Cargo is installed from [RustUp.](https://rustup.rs/)
```bash
# Install LookAround with Cargo
cargo install lookaround
# Find your config directory
# Prints something like `Using config dir "/home/user/.config/lookaround"`
lookaround config
```
Create the files `client.ini` and/or `server.ini` in that directory
(e.g. /home/user/.config/lookaround/server.ini)
```ini
# Clients can store MAC-nickname pairs in client.ini, like a hosts file.
# This is useful if your servers are short-lived and you want the clients
# to be the source of truth for nicknames.
[nicknames]
11-11-11-11-11-11 = laptop
22-22-22-22-22-22 = desktop
```
```ini
# Long-lived servers can have their nickname configured in server.ini
[server]
nickname = my-computer
```
## Auto-Start (Linux)
Put this systemd unit in `~/.config/systemd/user/lookaround.service`:
```ini
[Unit]
Description=LookAround
[Service]
ExecStart=/home/user/.cargo/bin/lookaround server
Restart=always
[Install]
WantedBy=default.target
```
Then start the service, check that it's running okay, and enable it for
auto-start:
```bash
systemctl --user start lookaround
systemctl --user status lookaround
systemctl --user enable lookaround
```
## Auto-Start (Windows)
(untested)
- Create a shortcut to the LookAround exe
- Change the shortcut's target to end in `lookaround.exe server` so it will run the server
- Cut-paste the shortcut into the Startup folder in `C:\ProgramData\somewhere`
## Usage
Run the server manually: (To test before installing)
```bash
lookaround server --nickname my-computer
```
On a client computer:
```bash
# Use the `find-nick` subcommnad to find an IP...
lookaround find-nick laptop
# Prints `192.168.1.101`
# Or ping it...
ping $(lookaround find-nick laptop)
# Or SSH to it...
ssh user@$(lookaround find-nick laptop)
# Or pull a file from it
# (after starting `nc -l -p 9000 < some-file` on the laptop)
nc $(lookaround find-nick laptop) 9000
# Use the `client` subcommand to find all servers in the same multicast domain
lookaround client
# Use a longer timeout if servers need more than 500 ms to respond
lookaround client --timeout-ms 1000
```
## Contributing
Pull requests are welcome. This is a hobby project, so I may reject
contributions that are too big to review.
Use the [kazupon Git commit message convention](https://github.com/kazupon/git-commit-message-convention)
## License
[AGPL-3.0](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html)
## This Git repo
This repo's upstream is https://six-five-six-four.com/git/reactor/lookaround.
It's mirrored on my GitHub, https://github.com/ReactorScram/lookaround
I don't use GitHub issues, so issues are in issues.md in the repo.