lacli 0.2.6.1

The Long Access client

The Longaccess client
=====================

This is the prototype client program for interacting with the
`Longaccess service <https://www.longaccess.com>`__. It is usable via
the command line on systems that have `Python <http://www.python.org>`__
installed but also requires a registered account. If you are unfamiliar
with other aspects of the Longaccess service a good place to start is
"`What is
Longaccess? <https://github.com/longaccess/longaccess-docs/blob/master/what_is_longaccess.md>`__\ "

Installation
------------

We have binary packages for certain platforms, like MacOS X, Windows 8
64-bit, Linux and FreeBSD. For more information see the `Longaccess
downloads page <https://downloads.longaccess.com>`__. For other
platforms or purposes you can download or clone the source repository,
create a `virtualenv <http://www.virtualenv.org>`__ if needed, and
install the client via ``pip``. E.g.:

::

pip install https://github.com/longaccess/longaccess-client/tarball/master

Note that currently, certain third-party libraries are required in
modified form. These special dependencies are described in
`requirements.txt <>`__ and can be automatically installed if the
following command is given:

::

pip install -r requirements.txt

Dependencies
------------

The prebuilt binary packages are self-contained, i.e. they do not have
any hard external dependencies. There is however a soft dependency on an
external tool to securely delete files from the filesystem, see below
for more information. When installing from source most dependencies are
automatically installable via ``pip``. On some platforms the
installation might require manually installing development packages,
e.g. on [Fedora Linux][] you might need to install the ``python2-devel``
package. Additional packages, like ``thrift`` and ``twisted`` are
necessary for the RPC server (used to communicate with GUI frontends).
Last, install the ```python-zipstream`` <>`__ package to enable
on-the-fly operations, requiring less temporary space on disk.

Usage
-----

After installation the program is invoked as ``lacli``. Run it with no
arguments to see a synopsis of supported usages. In short, there are
four basic commands:

- ``lacli login`` set up credentials to use with other commands
- ``lacli archive`` helps you manage archives
- ``lacli certificate`` helps you manage certificates
- ``lacli capsules`` let's you view your available capsules
- ``lacli server`` runs the RPC server. You normally do not need this.

Alternatively one may run the program interactively by running
``lacli -i``.

The ``lacli`` command supports certain global options which you can see
in the aforementioned synopsis. The only required argument however is
the authentication parameters which we discuss in the next section.

Authentication
--------------

In order to use the service you must first have a username and password
for the service. You can provide them to the program in two ways:

1. as global arguments, e.g. ``lacli -u user -p pass archive list ...``.
If a password is not provided you will be prompted for one.
2. as entries in your ``.netrc`` file. This way you will not have to
provide them everytime (but you should keep your ``.netrc`` safe).
3. by using the ``login`` command. If authentication is succesfull you
will be prompted to save the credentials in ``.netrc`` as above for
future use. If interactive the credentials will be used for
subsequent commands.

Netrc
~~~~~

The correct ``machine`` to add to ``.netrc`` for the service in
production at Longaccess is ``www.longaccess.com``. For example you need
this entry:

::

machine www.longaccess.com login [e-mail] password somep4ss

Example usage
-------------

An example scenario:

::

$ lacli login [e-mail]
Password:
authentication succesfull as [e-mail]
Save credentials? y
$ lacli archive list
No available archives.
$ lacli archive create /home/kouk/toread -t documents
Encrypting..
archive prepared
$ lacli archive list
001 36MiB documents LOCAL
$ lacli archive upload 1
/home/kouk/.longaccess/data/2013-10-18-documents.zip.crypt : |###################| ETA: 0:00:00 349.66 MB/s
Upload finished, waiting for verification
Press Ctrl-C to check manually later
status: completed
Certificate 68-H1BK saved.
Use lacli certificate list to see your certificates, or lacli certificate --help for more options
done.
$ lacli archive list
001 36MiB documents COMPLETE 68-H1BK
$ lacli certificate list
68-H1BK 36MiB documents
$ lacli certificate print 68-H1BK
Created files:
longaccess-68-H1BK.html
$

Secure removal
--------------

When removing archives and certificates from the disk the program
supports `secure deletion <https://ssd.eff.org/tech/deletion>`__ through
an external program. In case a suitable removal program cannot be
found\* the client will complain and give further instructions.
Currently we automatically support the following tools, if they are
available on the system path:

- `srm <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srm_(Unix)>`__ (Mac, Unix)
- `shred <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shred_(Unix)>`__ (Unix)
- `sdelete <http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897443.aspx>`__
(Windows, proprietary)
- `Eraser <http://eraser.heidi.ie/>`__ (Windows, open-source)

*\* or one has not been provided via the optional argument to the
``delete`` command.*