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Update README with documentation
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ekzhang committed Apr 6, 2022
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Expand Up @@ -17,13 +17,40 @@ This will expose your local port at `localhost:8000` to the public internet at `

Like [localtunnel](https://github.com/localtunnel/localtunnel) and [ngrok](https://ngrok.io/), except `bore` is intended to be a highly efficient, unopinionated tool for forwarding TCP traffic that is simple to install and easy to self-host, with no frills attached.

(`bore` totals than 300 lines of async Rust code and trivial to set up — just run a single binary for the client and server.)

## Detailed Usage

This section describes detailed usage for the `bore` CLI command.

### Local Forwarding

TODO
You can forward a port on your local machine by using the `bore local` command. This takes a positional argument, the local port to forward, as well as a mandatory `--to` option, which specifies the address of the remote server.

```shell
bore local 5000 --to bore.pub
```

You can optionally pass in a `--port` option to pick a specific port on the remote to expose, although the command will fail if this port is not available.

The full options are shown below.

```shell
bore-local 0.1.0
Starts a local proxy to the remote server

USAGE:
bore local [OPTIONS] --to <TO> <LOCAL_PORT>

ARGS:
<LOCAL_PORT> The local port to listen on

OPTIONS:
-h, --help Print help information
-p, --port <PORT> Optional port on the remote server to select [default: 0]
-t, --to <TO> Address of the remote server to expose local ports to
-V, --version Print version information
```
### Self-Hosting
Expand All @@ -35,9 +62,28 @@ bore server
That's all it takes! After the server starts running at a given address, you can then update the `bore local` command with option `--to <ADDRESS>` to forward a local port to this remote server.
The full options for the `bore server` command are shown below.
```shell
bore-server 0.1.0
Runs the remote proxy server
USAGE:
bore server [OPTIONS]
OPTIONS:
-h, --help Print help information
--min-port <MIN_PORT> Minimum TCP port number to accept [default: 1024]
-V, --version Print version information
```
## Protocol
There is an implicit _control port_ at `7835`, used for creating new connections on demand. This can be configured in the command-line options.
There is an implicit _control port_ at `7835`, used for creating new connections on demand. At initialization, the client sends a "Hello" message to the server on the TCP control port, asking to proxy a selected remote port. The server then responds with an acknowledgement and begins listening for external TCP connections.
Whenever the server obtains a connection on the remote port, it generates a secure [UUID](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universally_unique_identifier) for that connection and sends it back to the client. The client then opens a separate TCP stream to the server and sends an "Accept" message containing the UUID on that stream. The server then proxies the two connections between each other.
For correctness reasons and to avoid memory leaks, incoming connections are only stored by the server for up to 10 seconds before being discarded if the client does not accept them.
## Acknowledgements
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