handshake-stream

wrap a duplex stream with a two-way handshake

purpose

Sometimes you have a protocol that operates over a duplex stream, but you'd like both sides to exchange some data before proceeding to that protocol, like ensuring that each side has a compatible protocol version, or that it is in fact the peer you're expecting to communicate with.

handshake-stream wraps the inner protocol with a two-way handshake that gives both peers a chance to inspect the data sent by the other end and decide whether to proceed to that inner protocol.

example

Let's create two hyperlogs (append-only graph databases that can replicate with eachother using a duplex stream) and wrap them in a handshake that checks for a sufficiently high version number:

var handshake = require('handshake-stream')
var hyperlog = require('hyperlog')
var memdb = require('memdb')
var pump = require('pump')

// create two hyperlog databases
var logA = hyperlog(memdb())
var logB = hyperlog(memdb())

// write 1 entry to each
logA.append('hello from A', function () {
  logB.append('greetings from B', function () {
    ready()
  })
})

// generate the handshake data each side might want to send
var payloadA = { protocolVersion: 6, sender: 'a' }
var payloadB = { protocolVersion: 6, sender: 'b' }

// the 'handshake' is a function with the other side's payload ('req' below)
// and an accept function that upgrades the handshake to the underlying
// hyperlog protocol if non-truthy, or emits an error and terminates the
// pipeline if anything else is passed in.
var shake = function (req, accept) {
  console.log('got handshake', req)
  if (req.protocolVersion >= 6) {
    accept()
  } else {
    accept(new Error('version must be >= 6'))
  }
}

function ready () {
  var r1 = handshake(logA.replicate(), payloadA, shake)
  var r2 = handshake(logB.replicate(), payloadB, shake)

  // replicate the hyperlogs together
  pump(r1, r2, r1, function (err) {
    console.log('pump end', err ? err.message : '')

    // dump each hyperlog's contents; they should each have each other's entry + their own
    logA.createReadStream().on('data', function (node) { console.log('A ->', node.value.toString()) })
    logB.createReadStream().on('data', function (node) { console.log('B ->', node.value.toString()) })
  })
}

outputs

got handshake { protocolVersion: 6, initiator: 'a' }
got handshake { protocolVersion: 6, initiator: 'b' }
pump end 
A -> hello from A
B -> greetings from B
A -> greetings from B
B -> hello from A

API

var handshake = require('handshake-stream')

var stream = handshake(protocol, payload, shake)

Returns a duplex stream that wraps the duplex stream protocol.

The object payloadis sent to whatever stream is piped to, and the function shake is called when the remote's payload has been received.

shake is called as shake(payload, accept), where payload is the object sent by the remote, and accept is a function you can asynchronously call as accept() to permit the inner protocol to proceed, or accept(new Error('...')) to signal that the connection ought to be terminated. The inner protocol will only proceed if both sides accept the other's handshake payload.

install

With node.js installed, install from npm:

npm install handshake-stream

how it works

Internally, handshake-stream creates a Duplex stream with its own readable and writable ends to manage all incoming & outgoing data.

Upon creation, the readable side provides the following bytes in order: <LEN><PAYLOAD><ACCEPT-SIGNAL><REST>, where

• LEN is a UInt32LE of the length of PAYLOAD
• PAYLOAD is a JSON-encoded string
• ACCEPT-SIGNAL is a UInt8 with all 1s set (127)
• REST is whatever readable bytes the inner protocol provides

Only <LEN><PAYLOAD> are sent initially, and ACCEPT-SIGNAL is only sent once the accept() callback is called to indicate that the program would like to proceed to the inner protocol. After that, the inner protocol's readable & writable ends are hooked up and the stream proceeds as though handshake-stream was never even there. The drain event is listened to on the inner protocol to respect backpressure.

license

ISC