Simpler procedure for installation of ascli on Windows

[laurent-martin]

Some users have reported that the installation procedure for ascli on Windows is much more complex than the older CLI: aspera version 3.9

aspera was a single executable.

[laurent-martin]

The aspera cli v3.9 is end of support since already some time, and is replaced with open source ascli.

aspera was a C++ app, with the advantage of being a single executable (well, using ascp and its dll as well)

ascli is an open source ruby tool.

The installation of ascli is relatively flexible, and there are multiple methods.

The typical, basic, installation on Windows is a documented 3 step procedure:

• install ruby: this can be done in an automated way and is a single executable
• install the aspera-cli gem
• install sdk (ascp)

In any case, be aware that it's possible to prepare a single archive (zip) with all needed files, and then create a .bat file that automatically installs the components, I have documented here:

You can find an example here:
https://eudemo.asperademo.com/download/aspera-cli-installer.zip

Extract the zip, and then execute install.bat : that will install ascli in the user's home under aspera-cli

[laurent-martin]

For macOS and Linux here are some single exec ascli:

https://eudemo.asperademo.com/download/ascli.Linux-x86_64

https://eudemo.asperademo.com/download/ascli.Darwin-arm64

[laurent-martin]

It turns out that the need on windows is the following:

an in-house developped python script is used to send files using Faspex.

Initially, it was used the aspera CLI, which is basically 2 binary executables:

• aspera.exe : the CLI
• ascp.exe : The Aspera transfer protocol

Using ascli comes with many advantages for interactive use, or using in simple shell scripts, but it also comes with its complexity: installation of Ruby, and possibly Ruby vulnerabilities to monitor.

So, a good alternative, described here:

https://github.com/IBM/aspera-cli#when-to-use-and-when-not-to-use

in such case: in python, for a single task, is to use the API directly, basically 2 APIs:

• Faspex API, described in the IBM API Hub
• Transfer SDK API

The Faspex API is simply a REST API, which can be called using any HTTP library.

The Transfer SDK API is a gRPC API, with stubs available in many languages.

Transfer SDK consists in 2 executables:

• asperatransferd.exe : it provides the gRPC API, and manages ascp : creating command line options, restarting in case of error.
• ascp.exe : the aspera transfer protocol

One can find code examples here:

https://github.com/laurent-martin/aspera-api-examples/tree/main/python

For this precise case, take the code from:

1- faspex.py : this is the main code
2- test_environment.py : this is helper functions to start the daemon