# Sending files over a network **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [April 1, 2006, 12:20pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sending-files-over-a-network/56587 "2006-04-01T12:20:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Pieter\_Breed](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@Pieter\_Breed](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Pieter_Breed)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 12:20pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sending-files-over-a-network/56587/1 "2006-04-01T12:20:34Z")
Hi All, I am relatively new to Ruby and I am considering using it for a little itch of my own I want to scratch. It deals with sending files over a network, but in a one-computer-to-one-computer way, not swarming like with torrents. My question is two-fold: What is, in general, the better way of sending files across a network like this. By better I mean appropriate for files that may be both very long and very short? Some error checking also needs to be done so the files don’t corrupt. I realise this is not really ruby specific, but bear with me please. How would you do/implement this in Ruby? If I was more familiar with either Ruby or network programming I could probably bootstrap my knowledge, but it seems I just don’t know enough. Regards, Pieter Breed ---
**Author:** ![Pieter\_Breed](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@Pieter\_Breed](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Pieter_Breed)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 7:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sending-files-over-a-network/56587/2 "2006-04-01T19:35:32Z")
Pieter Breed wrote: > Hi All, > > I am relatively new to Ruby and I am considering using it for a little > itch of my own I want to scratch. It deals with sending files over a > network, but in a one-computer-to-one-computer way, not swarming like > with torrents. why not useing ftp? > My question is two-fold: What is, in general, the better way of sending > files across a network like this. By better I mean appropriate for > files that may be both very long and very short? Some error checking > also needs to be done so the files don’t corrupt. I realise this is not > really ruby specific, but bear with me please. > > How would you do/implement this in Ruby? u dont need to, its been done for you before, lots fo times, just find one implementation that suits your needs, and stick to it. ---
**Author:** ![Pieter\_Breed](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@Pieter\_Breed](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Pieter_Breed)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2006, 12:17am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sending-files-over-a-network/56587/3 "2006-04-02T00:17:35Z")
Uhm, thanks… I didn’t think of that… actually I really meant to ask what I asked in the first place… Sorry for being bitchy, but I your answer was kind of silly. Pieter ---
**Author:** ![Pieter\_Breed](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@Pieter\_Breed](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Pieter_Breed)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2006, 12:32am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sending-files-over-a-network/56587/4 "2006-04-02T00:32:48Z")
On Sun, 2 Apr 2006, Pieter Breed wrote: > Uhm, thanks… I didn’t think of that… > > actually I really meant to ask what I asked in the first place… Sorry > for being bitchy, but I your answer was kind of silly. > > Pieter check out ruby-sendfile - you’ll have a tough time getting faster. regards. -a ---
**Author:** ![Pieter\_Breed](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@Pieter\_Breed](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Pieter_Breed)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2006, 10:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sending-files-over-a-network/56587/5 "2006-04-02T22:14:36Z")
Thanks Konstantin, that is really helpful and I will give it a bash Regards, Pieter ---
**Author:** ![Pieter\_Breed](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@Pieter\_Breed](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Pieter_Breed)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2006, 5:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sending-files-over-a-network/56587/6 "2006-04-02T17:59:59Z")
If you know how to work with files, and how to set up connections (TCPServer/TCPSocket) you know enough to send a file over network with Ruby. Performance will be network-limited, so don’t worry too much about it. You can use MD5/SHA1 for additional error checking, for error checking, tough TCP has this feature on its own. pseudocode ( as in - not tested but with a couple of fixes should probably work ) - sender: name=“file.txt”; len = File.new(name).stat.size.to\_s socket = TCPSocket.new(‘[remote.host.org](http://remote.host.org)’, 6666) socket.puts name socket.pits.len socket.write File.read(name) socket.close - reciever: socket = TCPServer.new(‘0.0.0.0’, 6666).accept name = socket.gets len = socket.gets File.open(name, “wb”) { | fl | fl.write (socket.read len.to\_i ) } socket.close * * * HTH ---
**Author:** ![Pieter\_Breed](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@Pieter\_Breed](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Pieter_Breed)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2006, 11:16am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sending-files-over-a-network/56587/7 "2006-04-03T11:16:23Z")
btw, depending on your requirements you might want to have a look at [http://rio.rubyforge.org/](http://rio.rubyforge.org/) - it gives IO, File, Dir and sevral others a simple consistent interface - in case you want to work with directories and files and a lot