Ecco - a netcat type clone for Node.js

Ecco is the result of my search for a netcat clone that worked with node.js as a requireable module and via a CLI counterpart. I couldn't locate one, so I humbly present Ecco.

It aims to have feature parity with the popular netcat-openbsd program. It's not quite there yet, but it works great as a TCP echo server right now, and it uses node.js' streaming interfaces under the hood.

The primary advantage of Ecco over netcat lies in its ability to concurrently handle simultaneous without forking an expensive sub process each time.

Install

npm install -g ecco

CLI Usage

ecco -h

Usage:
-------
Client: $ ecco <PORT>
Client: $ ecco --address 10.0.0.1 <PORT>

Server: $ ecco -l <PORT>
Server: $ ecco -l --address 0.0.0.0 --out-file /tmp/ecco-recv.txt <PORT>

-h                       This help screen
-l / --listen                 Start a listening server
-p / --port <PORT>   The server port
-q / --quiet                   Supress output
-v / --verbose               Increase output verbosity
--address <HOST>       The address to serve or connect upon
--disable-stdout       Supress logging of ingress/egress data to stdout
--echo                           If in listen mode, echo back received data to the client
--timeout <TIMEOUT>    Sets the idle socket timeout on server/client connections (ms)
--version                 Prints the version and exits
--out-file <FILE PATH> If in listen mode, write all received data to this file

As another example,you can send things to stdin and the client will stream it to the server:

$ ecco -l --out-file /data/backup/file.txt 9000

$ cat file.txt | ecco --address backup-server.com 9000

And here's a simple TCP echo server with a one minute connection timeout:

$ ecco -l --echo --timeout 60000 9000

Module usage

Server

var Ecco = require('ecco');

var server = new Ecco( { port: 3000, echo: true } ).Server();

server.on('error', function(e){
    console.log(e);
});

server.on('client-error', function(e){
    console.error(e);
});

server.on('client-timeout', function(client_sock){
    console.log('Client timed out:', client_sock.remoteAddress)
});

server.start(function(){
    console.log('server is listening on port:', server.opts.port);
});

Client

var client = new Ecco( { port: 3000 } ).Client();

client.on('connected', function(){
    client.conn.write(data);
})

client.on('error', function(e){
    console.error(e);
})

client.start()

Also see the tests/* files for more involved usage with other arguments.

TODO

If you want to take a shot at any of these, I would be happy to accept a PR.

• IPv6
• UDP protocol support
• run system binary command on each new connection
• multiple port ranges in client mode (a.k.a port scanner)