yeet; yeet the bytes

yeet yeet the bytes

Yeet the bytes. A stupid-fast, fully-threaded, drop-in cp that takes "slow" as a personal insult; and hauls ass across WANs with parallel raw TCP.

Current line: yeet 0.8.0-m8 (compression landed). Source tarball and portable packages are under Download. Portable packages on this page are still cut from 0.7.0-m7 until those builders are re-run; the source release tracks HEAD.

Meet Yeety

Yeety the network chameleon; original line art

Yeety, the network chameleon: original line art used to edge-trace the ASCII portrait in README.txt. Yeety susses the link and changes to fit it. When there is a real way to go faster next time, Yeety says so. (Artwork checked into the tree at art/yeety.jpg.)

The pitch

cp never heard of a network. rsync is still writing the checksum thesis (and it is excellent at that job; see fair comparison). yeet copies. Locally it is a drop-in cp. Across a wire it opens many raw TCP streams and fills them, with consideration of the Bandwidth-Delay Product (BDP).

No encryption on that path. You name both ends. Trusted network. Speed first. Move the bytes. Now.

What it does

From the README, in plain English:

Local drop-in cp. Same shape of flags; a cheeky alias for almost every one (-f/--send-it, -r/--all-in, --help/--halp, ...).
Never slower than cp locally. Tiny files skip the thread pool; big files get segmented parallel pread/pwrite; same-FS CoW volumes get a reflink. A make bench guard fails the build if that invariant breaks.
Sparse stays sparse. Holes are sacred. VM images do not inflate.
Atomic or it did not happen. Temp file + rename. Yank the power mid-yeet and the original is untouched.
Trees, metadata, specials. -p keeps mode, owner, times; on the wire it also recreates hard links and device/fifo/socket nodes (privilege still required). -x stays on the filesystem it started on. -X / --diss skips a name; a leading slash means that child of the walk root.
WAN: many parallel raw TCP streams. --yeet-to / --catch-this on a trusted network (no encryption on the data path by design). Default port 9338 ("YEET" on a phone keypad). Shared --token for auth. Catcher stays up for the next tree unless you ask for one shot.
Sussing + host cache. Yeety measures RTT, bandwidth, and disk, then picks stream count (--suss / --street-knowledge). The next send to that host remembers (~/.yeet/hosts) and skips the probes. Yeety lectures when the next run could be faster.
Walk while you send. The walk sends while it is still looking. --rush-it skips the pre-scan when you already know you want that.
Compression (M8). --compress / --squish sticks compression on for the whole send; it does not turn off the other measurements. Without the flag, Yeety turns compression on only when a sample of the files shrinks and the link is slower than the codec. lz4 or zstd, whichever this build has. No library: yeet says so and sends the bytes plain.
Pack / unpack. Aggregated small-file engine on the wire (--pack / --unpack).
Verify, resume, durable. --verify / --for-real checks each file with CRC-32C. --partial / --carry-on picks up a transfer that died: whole files that already match are skipped; a partial file resumes at the byte it stopped. --durable asks the destination disk to flush.
Plow on. --keep-going / --plow-on: one name yeet cannot read is a skip, not the end of the tree. The walk root still has to be there. A missing operand still fails. A file that shrinks after its header is on the wire still fails.
Live control + JSON. --control (pause / resume / cancel / set-bwlimit) and --json event stream; the seam a future TUI/GUI will consume. --bwlimit / --chill caps the send.
Portable C99. Hand-written configure, no autoconf circus. Built on Linux, NetBSD, FreeBSD, Solaris, AIX, IRIX, Tru64, ...
No rsync-style delta algorithm. Hard no. It copies.

The memory-go-round

A network send does not hand bytes from the disk to the socket. They ride a memory-go-round: one userspace reservoir, shared by the streams. Onboard streams fill the buffer and iron out latency from metadata crawls, compression, or any other alteration of the data. The goal is to stay ahead of the network streams, which are breaking the buffer up as they feed threads waiting on the far side. Fancy water wheel; multiple buckets filling and dumping the same reservoir.

Size comes from the path: bandwidth times delay, with a two-second cap and a ceiling of 3.8 GiB so a 32-bit process still has a chance. If that allocation will not fit, yeet balks. Tune it with --send-buffer / --trap.

Fair comparison: yeet vs rsync

rsync is a mature, widely installed synchronizer. yeet is a hauler. They overlap on "get these files over there," and diverge on almost everything else. Use the tool that matches the job.

Topic	yeet	rsync
Job it was built for	Bulk copy: local `cp` replacement + fill a fat trusted pipe	Sync / mirror / backup; update a tree that already mostly matches
Algorithm	Full copy. No rolling checksum. No delta.	Rolling-checksum delta: send only what changed (when that wins)
Local copy	First-class: never slower than `cp` (bench-guarded)	Works, but not the sweet spot; more machinery than a plain copy needs
Network transport	Many parallel raw TCP streams; auto stream count from RTT ("sussing"); host cache in `~/.yeet/hosts`	Typically one SSH (or rsync daemon) channel; one TCP window
Encryption	None on the data path. Trusted network. Tunnel it yourself if you must. Auth is a shared `--token`.	Usually SSH: encrypts and authenticates. Right default on the open Internet.
When it wins	Big trees / big files over a fat LAN or trusted WAN where the whole payload must move; CoW reflink locally; sparse VM images	Nightly backups, mirrors, intermittent links, untrusted networks, "only send what changed"
When it loses	Untrusted networks without a tunnel; "sync this tree that is 99% identical"	Cold first copy of a huge tree over a high-BDP link (one stream leaves bandwidth on the table); local CoW clone jobs
Resume	`--partial`: skip files the dest already has; resume a partial file at the byte it stopped	Mature partial / resume / `--append` story
Filters / includes	`-X` / `--diss` (path or glob)	Deep include/exclude rules; decades of operator muscle memory
Install base	Young; portable packages for several Unices on this page	Everywhere. Your grandmother's NAS has it.

Honest one-liner: rsync for sync; yeet for haul. If the destination is empty or wildly different and the pipe is fat and trusted, yeet is the tool that fills it. If you are updating a backup that mostly matches, rsync's delta still earns its keep; and yeet will not pretend otherwise. (Thanks, Tridge.)

Simulated screenshots

Terminal sessions (simulated). Receiver first, then sender; that is the required order. Progress lines are representative of a mid-transfer run.

1. Catcher (server / receiver)

priori$ yeet --catch-this /incoming --gen-token --one-shot --progress

yeet 0.8.0-m8; catcher
listening on 0.0.0.0:9338  (YEET on a phone keypad)
token: 7f3c9a2e1b0d4e68   <- give this to the sender

waiting for a peer...
peer 10.0.0.42 connected; token ok
receiving tree -> /incoming/
  [########------------]  42%   1.1G / 2.6G   8 streams   118 MB/s
  workers: vacation.mov  IMG_2041.jpg  IMG_2042.jpg  ...
done. 2041 files, 2.6G in 22s. one-shot; catcher exiting.
priori$

Host priori: yeet --catch-this /incoming --gen-token --one-shot. Prints a token, listens on 9338, receives one shot, exits.

2. Flinger (client / sender)

moria$ yeet --yeet-to priori:9338 ./photos \
        --token '7f3c9a2e1b0d4e68' --suss --progress --verify

yeet 0.8.0-m8; flinging ./photos -> priori:9338
Yeety clocked the link at 12.4 ms RTT; opening 8 streams to fill it.

  [########------------]  42%   1.1G / 2.6G   8 streams   118 MB/s
  ETA about 13s   verify: on   compress: auto-off

done. 2041 files, 2.6G in 22s (avg 118 MB/s). verify ok (CRC-32C).

Yeety the network chameleon says:
  next time, peep game: this link still had headroom with --rush-it.
moria$

Host moria: yeet --yeet-to priori:9338 ./photos --token ... --suss --verify. Susses the link, opens parallel streams, verifies with CRC-32C.

3. Local drop-in cp

moria$ yeet -rp --send-it ./mordor /vault/mordor
moria$ yeet --who-dis
yeet 0.8.0-m8
moria$

Same flags as cp -rp, plus --send-it when you mean it. On a CoW volume this path can reflink instead of reading every byte.

GUI / TUI plans (public summary)

A graphical front end is planned as Phase 2, not shipped with the current line. Core yeet will never link a UI toolkit. The UI is a separate process that consumes the same --json event stream and talks back on the --control channel (pause / resume / cancel / set-bwlimit) that already exists. One seam, three consumers: TUI, GUI, and scripts.

What we are aiming at:

Cyanotype libcyui GUI (not Qt); "Copy THIS to THERE, like so." Motif/Xm and Xt only where that route still forces them. Same desktop family as the rest of Swift's Cyanotype work. Two fields, recursive and verify as first-class checkboxes, one big Yeet It button. Progressive disclosure for bwlimit / sparse / reflink. Live CLI equivalent line so power users learn the flags by osmosis.
Yeety as the face; splash, end-of-run tips (the Yeety Lecture), calm error wording. Same chameleon that already talks on the CLI.
Transfer panel; overall progress, per-worker bars, pause / cancel / speed limit wired through the control channel (no SIGSTOP babysitting).
TUI for old platforms; curses/termcap for hosts that will never grow a Motif/libcyui stack (NetBSD cluster, headless classic Unices). Same NDJSON seam. NO_COLOR, non-tty, and SIGWINCH handled honestly.
Optional web dashboard; its own tiny server reading the socket; never baked into yeet-core.

Hard no on Qt. Phase 2 GUI is libcyui first; Motif only as required. Details: FUTURE-GUI.TXT section 6, docs/GUI-SPEC.md.

In-tree notes (workshop, not the release tarball): FUTURE-GUI.TXT, docs/GUI-SPEC.md, docs/GUI-MILESTONES.md. Prerequisite still open: extend --json/--control to local-copy mode (GUI M0) before GUI M1 starts.

Quick start

# local; drop-in cp
yeet bigfile.iso /vault/
yeet -r ./mordor /backup/
yeet --send-it -r ./mordor /backup/     # -f -r, with feeling

# build (portable /bin/sh configure, no autoconf circus)
./configure
make
make test
make bench

# network; receiver, then sender
yeet --catch-this /incoming --gen-token --one-shot
yeet --yeet-to host:9338 ./tree --token 'the-shared-secret'

Default receiver port is 9338. Every serious flag also answers to a cheeky alias. See yeet --help or man yeet.

Status

Current release line: yeet 0.8.0-m8. C99 + POSIX + pthreads. Portable packages on this page for Linux, Solaris, AIX, NetBSD, FreeBSD, IRIX, and Tru64 (packages below are still 0.7.0-m7 until re-cut). Dual license: BSD 2-clause or MIT (see LICENSE).

Milestone	What	State
M0	skeleton, configure, tests	done
M1	local copy: adaptive dispatch, reflink, sparse, segments	done
M2	trees, metadata, specials, safe walk	done
M3	pack/unpack (aggregated small-file engine)	done
M4	sussing (measure + tune)	done
M5	raw-TCP network, striping, token, bwlimit	done
M6	verify, partial resume, durable flush	done
M7	json events, control channel, progress styles	done
M8	compression (lz4/zstd); suss auto-on; memory-go-round	done
M9+	glitz / security audit / more perf (see ROADMAP)	planned
Phase 2	TUI / libcyui (+ Motif) GUI on the json+control seam	planned (not started)

Flags worth knowing

Subset of yeet --help (every flag has a cheeky twin):

  -f / --force / --send-it
  -i / --interactive / --you-sure
  -n / --no-clobber / --hands-off
  -p / --preserve / --keep-it-real
  -r / --recursive / --all-in
  -X / --exclude / --diss PATH
  -v / --verbose / --yap
      --pack / --box-it-up
      --unpack / --unbox-it
      --streams / --how-many-hands N
      --bwlimit / --chill RATE
      --send-buffer / --trap SIZE
      --verify / --for-real
      --compress / --squish
      --partial / --carry-on
      --durable / --for-keeps
      --keep-going / --plow-on
      --rush-it
      --json / --beep-boop
      --control / --take-requests
      --progress / --slack[=dots|meter|spinner]
      --suss / --street-knowledge
      --catch-this / --rawdog-server DEST
      --yeet-to / --fling-at HOST:PORT SRC
      --token / --secret-handshake S
      --gen-token / --surprise-me
      --help / --halp
      --version / --who-dis

Download

Every tarball on this page has a SHA-256 and an MD5 sidecar. Master lists (all artifacts): SHA256SUMS, MD5SUMS. Verify before you install. MD5 is for old boxes that still ship md5 / md5sum; prefer SHA-256 when you have it.

Source release (build it yourself). Tracks the current line:

yeet-0.8.0-m8.tar.gz; source, README.txt, LICENSE, configure, Makefile.in, man page (sha256, md5)
Older source: yeet-0.7.0-m7.tar.gz (sha256, md5)

Binary packages (EPM portable, install prefix /usr/local). These are still cut from 0.7.0-m7. Extract the tarball and run ./yeet.install as root:

yeet-0.7.0-m7-x86_64-linux-6.12.tar.gz; Devuan/Linux x86_64 portable (sha256, md5)
yeet-0.7.0-m7-sparc-solaris-8.tar.gz; Solaris 8 SPARC portable (sha256, md5)
yeet-0.7.0-m7-ppc-aix-6.1.tar.gz; AIX 6.1 PowerPC portable (sha256, md5)
yeet-0.7.0-m7-amd64-netbsd-10.1.tar.gz; NetBSD 10.1 amd64 portable (oreo) (sha256, md5)
yeet-0.7.0-m7-amd64-netbsd-10.0.tar.gz; NetBSD 10.0 amd64 portable (m83) (sha256, md5)
yeet-0.7.0-m7-amd64-freebsd-14.1.tar.gz; FreeBSD 14.1 amd64 portable (sha256, md5)
yeet-0.7.0-m7-mips-irix-6.5.tar.gz; IRIX 6.5 MIPS n32 portable (toaster) (sha256, md5)
yeet-0.7.0-m7-alpha-tru64-5.1.tar.gz; Tru64 UNIX 5.1 Alpha portable (granite) (sha256, md5)

Checksums

Values below match the sidecar files and the master SHA256SUMS / MD5SUMS lists. Sidecar format is hash filename (two spaces), same as sha256sum / md5sum / NetBSD sha256 -q + filename.

File	SHA-256	MD5
`yeet-0.8.0-m8.tar.gz`	`e7b16822c169bf9836cf2407788881839980982602f98163887dff357effcd60`	`072c95ef341464d99802e009d0b05c05`
`yeet-0.7.0-m7.tar.gz`	`f0d56de0ea91ea2b4a5359b06fa73af22dd8aa70ae5b8abeef5feed845c3aae6`	`69c687e21574be6d9a27405a69704db6`
`yeet-0.7.0-m7-x86_64-linux-6.12.tar.gz`	`f46d1d1c941875d415327a247628303db8def822c546e842b871aa9ae2ac95d8`	`b750d2da8c3a0bf88e3d15ff0642f70a`
`yeet-0.7.0-m7-sparc-solaris-8.tar.gz`	`13a6b7a750bca7d3e984569c3a9d7deac54525539ab0d5db0521747dc8ab31c3`	`81a849ec8aae666a24f2c5fd287b8f9a`
`yeet-0.7.0-m7-ppc-aix-6.1.tar.gz`	`8edede4a3425284cdffe24eb093ceff1047070e0b43535d0001c4f44d5cda777`	`00fdb002d475cdb3b2095005e0f81c23`
`yeet-0.7.0-m7-amd64-netbsd-10.1.tar.gz`	`fa8f49f72dcfddc4673c903282c0d1f181e9b0318ec62ad6c4f5dc62865be118`	`de0c18e33ec293c2180a8665f364c285`
`yeet-0.7.0-m7-amd64-netbsd-10.0.tar.gz`	`8871e94f124222aab7d05ca82911bb6e8314ff4336e9959600e619b559b9d5e9`	`06cc7048efbd7194fbe9cf061a99724b`
`yeet-0.7.0-m7-amd64-freebsd-14.1.tar.gz`	`954dcd00345b34a1394e2c9a5f6de32af43afe65336db951fe9d9fd57847fff4`	`f84828384afef0088b5040ee9adefd97`
`yeet-0.7.0-m7-mips-irix-6.5.tar.gz`	`beada0ec34a6173fafd414e0dd7cdb10d8eda72bacabf295ed2188fef3eb893d`	`ae86b3141c32244dc512bd79efcc4f9f`
`yeet-0.7.0-m7-alpha-tru64-5.1.tar.gz`	`f51c269726b7c136f8884a3fb1406904712fc60f72408238579c9aabeabaf987`	`5a79f13f915258870fb8a5aa51cefc81`

How to verify (pick what your box has):

# GNU / Linux
sha256sum -c yeet-0.8.0-m8.tar.gz.sha256
md5sum -c yeet-0.8.0-m8.tar.gz.md5
# or check the whole set:
sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS
md5sum -c MD5SUMS

# NetBSD / OpenBSD-style
sha256 -c SHA256SUMS
md5 -c MD5SUMS

curl -O https://niten.irix.expert/~sgriggs/yeet/yeet-0.8.0-m8.tar.gz
curl -O https://niten.irix.expert/~sgriggs/yeet/yeet-0.8.0-m8.tar.gz.sha256
sha256sum -c yeet-0.8.0-m8.tar.gz.sha256
tar xzf yeet-0.8.0-m8.tar.gz
cd yeet-0.8.0-m8
./configure && make && make test
# optional: make install   (PREFIX=/usr/local by default)

What you get: C sources under src/, headers, portable configure, Makefile.in, man/yeet.1, README.txt, and LICENSE. No workshop notes, no tests tree, no agent files; just what you need to build. Private git remote on niten: testguy@niten:git/yeet.git (ask Swift if you need a clone). EPM list file lives in-tree at packaging/yeet.list. Yeety line art: art/yeety.jpg (also yeety.jpg on this page).

Hard lines (from the spec)

No rsync-style delta/diff. Not now, not later.
Never slower than cp for a local copy.
No feature without a test (green on real hardware before commit).
No dependency that strands old platforms. Optional Linux accelerations only behind a portable fallback.
Network transport is cleartext on a trusted network. Tunnel it yourself if you must. Auth is a shared --token, not crypto on the data path.
Core never links a UI. GUI/TUI are separate processes on the json+control seam.
C99 + POSIX + pthreads. Not chasing this week's language fashion.

Back to Swift Griggs

Updated 29 September 2026. Line: yeet-0.8.0-m8. Same teal/indigo chrome as the home page. Sources: README.txt, LICENSE, docs/SPEC.md, docs/ROADMAP.md, FUTURE-GUI.TXT, docs/GUI-SPEC.md, art/yeety.jpg, yeet --help, git tags v0.1.0-m1 .. v0.8.0-m8. Contact: swift at irix dot expert.