SOLAN
SOLAN

Send a file to the laptop three feet away without asking a server in Virginia for permission.

SOLAN is a command-line tool that sends files directly between two computers on the same network. No account, no upload, no third party quietly logging what you sent. Just two machines, a socket, and slightly more SHA-256 verification than something this small strictly needs. It’s also open source, so rather than taking any of that on faith, you can just read the code and check.

Download for Windows Download for Linux

What it does

  • Direct file transfer over TCP. Two machines, one socket, no middleman reading your file in a data center you’ve never seen.
  • Automatic peer discovery. Finds the other machine on your network so you don’t have to run ip addr and feel a strange sense of accomplishment for something a phone does automatically.
  • An interactive shell. Because typing five flags every time you want to send a photo isn’t a personality trait worth having.
  • SHA-256 verification on every transfer. Every byte gets hashed going out and rechecked coming in, because “probably arrived correctly” isn’t a phrase anyone wants attached to a file transfer tool.
  • Accept or reject incoming transfers. You get asked before anything lands on your disk. Revolutionary, I know.
  • A live progress bar. Staring at a blinking cursor for thirty seconds isn’t a personality trait either.
  • Cross-platform, and actually checked. Builds and runs on Windows and Linux, and GitHub Actions verifies this on every single push, instead of me just insisting it’s true.

Quick start

git clone https://github.com/KireinaR/solan.git
cd solan
cmake -B build -S . -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug
cmake --build build

Full instructions live in the README, which is more thorough than this page intentionally is.

Elsewhere

View the code

The source, the build files and the CI that keeps the cross-platform claim honest.

Where
GitHub
Path
KireinaR/solan
Open repository

More from the author

Everything else built while working out what C++ actually wanted from me.

Where
GitHub
Path
KireinaR
Open profile

Author’s website

Writing, projects and the longer version of why any of this exists.

Where
Web
Path
ujaanmukherjee.com
Open site