Use Case: Verify Transfer Integrity

Scenario

An IT administrator receives USB drives from an air-gap transfer and needs to verify completeness and integrity before unpacking. The list command provides a diagnostic workflow for inspecting chunk inventory, checking checksums, and identifying missing or corrupted chunks.

Use Case: Verify Transfer Integrity UC-TRANSFER-005

status: approved

tags: transfer, diagnostic, list, verification

release: v1.0

specifies: FR-TRANSFER-016, FR-TRANSFER-017, FR-TRANSFER-018, FR-TRANSFER-019, FR-TRANSFER-022, FR-TRANSFER-057

Verify completeness and integrity of a chunked transfer before unpacking.

Inspect: Run list to see chunk inventory — which chunks are present, sizes, and estimated total size.

Verify: Run list --verify to compute and check SHA-256 checksums against the manifest.

Diagnose: Identify missing or corrupted chunks. Request re-transfer of affected USBs from the source side.

Acceptance Criteria: All chunks present, all checksums match, operator has confidence to proceed with unpack.

Prerequisites

Transfer media: One or more USB drives received from a prior pack operation
Manifest: airgap-transfer-manifest.json present on at least one USB
AirGap Transfer: Installed on the receiving machine

Workflow Steps

Step 1: Inspect Chunk Inventory

Connect the first USB drive and run the list command:

airgap-transfer list /media/usb-drive

Output shows:

Chunk count and filenames (chunk_000.tar, chunk_001.tar, …)
Size of each chunk present on this USB
Estimated total transfer size
Which chunks are present vs missing

Step 2: Verify Checksums

Run verification to compute checksums and compare against the manifest:

airgap-transfer list /media/usb-drive --verify

For each chunk, the tool:

Reads the chunk file and computes its SHA-256 checksum
Compares against the checksum stored in the manifest
Reports match or mismatch

Step 3: Diagnose Issues

If the verification reveals problems:

Missing chunk: “chunk_002.tar: MISSING” — the USB with this chunk was not provided or was lost in transit. Request the specific USB from the source side.
Corrupted chunk: “chunk_001.tar: CHECKSUM MISMATCH” — the chunk was damaged during transfer. Request re-pack and re-transfer of the affected chunk.
All clear: “All 4 chunks verified successfully” — proceed to unpack.

Step 4: Proceed with Unpack

Once all chunks are verified:

airgap-transfer unpack /media/usb-drive ~/restored/

The unpack operation will re-verify checksums before extraction (unless --no-verify is specified), providing a second layer of integrity assurance.

Acceptance Criteria

All chunks accounted for in the manifest
All checksums verified against manifest values
Missing or corrupted chunks clearly identified with actionable messages
Operator has confidence to proceed (or knows exactly which USBs to re-request)

Error Scenarios

Error	Cause	Recovery
“chunk_002: MISSING”	USB with chunk not connected	Connect correct USB
“chunk_001: MISMATCH”	Chunk corrupted during transfer	Re-transfer from source
“No manifest found”	Manifest file missing or corrupt	Use USB with valid manifest

Linked Requirements

ID	Title	Status	Release	Verified By
FR-TRANSFER-016	Display Chunk Inventory	approved	v1.0	TC-LST-001
FR-TRANSFER-017	Show Chunk Sizes and Manifest Status	approved	v1.0	TC-LST-002
FR-TRANSFER-018	Identify Missing Chunks	approved	v1.0	TC-LST-003
FR-TRANSFER-019	Display Estimated Total Size	approved	v1.0	TC-LST-004
FR-TRANSFER-022	Detect Corrupted Chunks	approved	v1.0	TC-INT-003
FR-TRANSFER-057	List Verify Flag	approved	v1.0	TC-LST-005

Traceability

Tests

Integration Tests

No needs passed the filters

Unit Tests of Linked Requirements

ID	Title	Status
TC-INT-003	Detect Corrupted Chunks	approved
TC-LST-001	Display Chunk Inventory	approved
TC-LST-002	Show Chunk Sizes and Manifest Status	approved
TC-LST-003	Identify Missing Chunk Files	approved
TC-LST-004	Show Estimated Total Size	approved
TC-LST-005	List Verify Flag Detects Corruption	approved