Ghidra: Easier creation and sharing of Ghidra projects

[huettenhain]

Opening and analyzing a file in Ghidra currently requires a somewhat lengthy process of first creating a project, then importing the sample to this project, and then finally opening the file. Furthermore, sharing Ghidra projects with others is currently only possible with a Ghidra server, which is inconvenient because often there is no server that both parties have access to.

I am suggesting several changes to the way "non-shared" projects are currently handled, or possibly implementing a new project type called "local project" which is based on it, in the following manner:

• The .gpr file of a non-shared project seems to always be empty. I believe it serves no purpose other than being a file rather than a folder to open the project from. Furthermore, the .rep directory often compresses very well. I suggest to store the project as a compressed version of the .rep directory, as a single file.
• Ghidra currently refuses to open a project if the username does not agree with the value stored in the project.prp file - I am suggesting to completely remove this obstacle so people can share Ghidra projects simply by passing along the project archive.
• Finally, it would be very convenient if Ghidra could be called with the path to a file on disk as its parameter to directly create a project, import the file to it, and launch the CodeBrowser.

[mumbel]

Export/import already exists

[huettenhain]

Dear @mumbel, I assume you are referring to the _Archive Current Project_ and _Restore Current Project_ options? Thanks for pointing this out, I was unware of these before. They look very promising: It would be nice if there was an option to create a project that is stored as such an archive by default, that would implement my first two suggestions.

[snemes]

Just FYI, you can also export individual files using the File > Export Program... menu item in the CodeBrowser tool, which is handy if you just want to share a single analysis with someone (and not an entire project with all the files in it).

[MaryWeeb]

Export/import already exists

For me this is not an option. Earlier this week, my laptop had the SSD fail on me, with no backups of my ghidra projects. While I am able to copy over the .gpr and .rep dir, the project is always empty, meaning all of my progress is void. Call me dumb for not making a backup if you'd like, but I believe all the data I need to restore it is in the .rep/.gpr, meaning there has to be some way to restore it.

[dragonmacher]

Copying the the project files should work. Perhaps some of the files living under the .rep dir have been corrupted?

I'm assuming you are using the File -> Open Project... action in the Front End, pointing the file chooser to the .rep directory? When you do this, do you get any interesting messages in the application log file?