Remote file access

It is possible to start Surfer in server mode on a different computer and then connect to that computer to avoid downloading/copying large waveform files.

Surver

There is a stand-alone binary, Surver, that can be compiled, resulting in a much smaller binary and more likely to succeed on systems where Surfer may be hard to install due to GUI dependencies not being installed etc. There is basically no point in running surfer server, as surver will not have any drawbacks.

Using remote mode

There are two ways to start the server, either start the stand-alone server binary Surver:

surver <FILENAME>

or start Surfer in server mode using:

surfer server --filename <FILENAME>

In both situations, instructions how to progress will be printed. There are basically two ways to connect:

1. If the computer running the server is directly accessible, it can be accessed using the provided URL.
2. If not, you will need to setup an SSH tunnel by following the instructions.

Now, Surfer can be started using the provided URL/start command, or you can use File -> Open URL and enter the provided URL.

Configuration

Currently, the configuration options are quite rudimentary and can be provided on the command line. To see the available configuration values, either execute:

surver --help

leading to

Server for the Surfer waveform viewer

Usage: surver.exe [OPTIONS] <WAVE_FILE>

Arguments:
  <WAVE_FILE>  Waveform file in VCD, FST, or GHW format

Options:
      --port <PORT>    Port on which server will listen
      --token <TOKEN>  Token used by the client to authenticate to the server
  -h, --help           Print help
  -V, --version        Print version

or

surfer server --help

which will print a similar set of options.