What is dropoff.org?
dropoff.org is a place where small files can be dropped off and then picked up later. Using one of the provided clients you can drop off a file and you will get a short pick up url like http://dropoff.org/rals/hello. You can then IM the url to someone, scribble it down on the back of a business card, or do whatever you see fit with it.
Try it right now
Simply give your content a name and paste the contents into the form below. You will be given a pick up url that you then use to retrieve the content.
Examples
a file
dropoff /etc/hosts
contents of a vim buffer
:w !dropoff
replace the contents of the clipboard with a pickup url to those contents
xclip -o -selection clipboard | dropoff | awk '{printf("%s", $1)}' | xclip -i -selection clipboard
encrypt a file before dropping it off
gpg -o - -c /etc/hosts | dropoff -n hosts.gpg
FAQs
How big can the dropped off file be?
Currently the server truncates files after the first 20kB of url encoded data. So less than 20kB depending on the makeup of the file. Plain text files can be a little larger than binary files. This size maybe have to be lowered in the future due to bandwidth constraints on this site.
How long will the pick up url stay valid?
This is entirely dependent on the popularity of this site. There is a finite amount of storage available and once that is exhausted the oldest dropped off files will be pruned.
Why not just use email attachments/AIM/DCC/FTP?
Those all have their place but there are plenty of situations where this is a much better fit. For example when I want to send a file to or from a NATed machine that doesn't have a nice email or instant messaging client installed, dropoff is very handy.
What are the prerequisites for running the shell script client?
/bin/sh and a few programs that I think should be installed if you have /bin/sh. It will use wget if it is installed, but falls back to telnet if not.
Hey! If I don't have wget installed how can I get the shell script client onto my machine?
This should work:
(echo "GET /site/dropoff"; sleep 10) | telnet www.dropoff.org 80 | sed "1,3d" > dropoff
Why doesn't the shell script client work on my computer that has /bin/sh?
Good question! I've tried to make the shell script client as portable as possible, but I don't have a wide variety of systems to test on. Please send the error (and if you have one a patch) to hensleyl@papermountain.org and I will try to fix the problem as soon as possible.
Who is the genius that came up with this?
That would be me, Leslie A. Hensley. You can reach me at hensleyl@papermountain.org.
