A a static website as a lightweight file server for downloading/uploading files. On the server side, all you need is an nginx executable file. On the client side (mobile or desktop), any brower will work.

Features

• File list: support sorting by name/date.
• Download files.
• Upload files: support uploading multiple files, support selecting destination and creating arbitrary subfolders. Only tmp (and its subfolders) are writable. You can change the setting in the config file.
• Delete files/folders. Only the subfiles/subfolders of tmp can be deleted. You can change the setting in the config file.
• Read/write text messages.
• Support file names with special characters (" ' ? * <> \ @ & : ...).

Set up

Windows

1. Download this repository

2. Download nginx from official website and extract the executable file nginx.exe into this repository.

3. Copy nginx-standalone-example.conf to nginx.conf.

4. Run nginx.bat.

Linux

1. Download this repository and install nginx.

2. Prepare the nginx config file: open nginx-distro-example.conf for reference, and edit /etc/nginx/nginx.conf manually. DON'T replace /etc/nginx/nginx.conf with this file directly.

3. The nginx from your distro may run under a different user (e.g. nginx user). Make sure it has read access to this repository, and read/write access to tmp folder.

sudo chown nginx:nginx ./tmp

4. If your system has SELinux enabled, you need to set allow_httpd_anon_write boolean to on, tag this repository to public_content_t, and tag tmp folder to public_content_rw_t:

# Set the boolean
sudo setsebool -P allow_httpd_anon_write on

# Add a permanent rule
sudo semanage fcontext -a -t public_content_t '/absolute/path/to/this/repository(/.*)?'

# Add a permanent rule
sudo semanage fcontext -a -t public_content_rw_t '/absolute/path/to/this/repository/tmp(/.*)?'

# Note: Use -d in place of -a to delete the permanent rules you added

# Apply the SELinux rules
sudo restorecon -Rv path/to/this/repository

4. Start nginx

sudo systemctl start nginx

Mac OS (haven't tested)

1. Download this repository and install nginx sudo brew install nginx.

2. Prepare the nginx config file: open nginx-distro-example.conf for reference, and edit /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf manually. DON'T replace /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf with this file directly.

3. Start nginx

sudo brew services start nginx

How it works?

On the server side

nginx typically serves static files and/or act as a reverse proxy. But with dav_methods PUT DELETE option, it can accept PUT and DELETE methods and thus we can upload/delete files. With autoindex on option, nginx can do file-listing. Currently only ./tmp/... accepts PUT and DELETE requests, and GET requests on ./files/... will get a file list.

When handling a PUT request, nginx will create a temp file in client_body_temp_path. If PUT succeeds, the temp file will be moved to the destination. If PUT fails, the temp file will be deleted. So client_body_temp_path should reside on the same disk as the PUT destination. In nginx-standalone-example.conf and nginx-distro-example.conf, this value is set to ./tmp/.nginx/client-body.

Other temp folders and log file locations are set to ./tmp/.nginx/... in nginx-standalone-example.conf. If you are using the nginx from your distro, it's better to use the default settings, so nginx-distro-example.conf doesn't contain such settings (except for client_body_temp_path mentioned above).

On the client side

Any brower will work. When the brower executes the .js files, it will make GET requests to /files/... to get the file list, then generate the corresponding table shown on the web page. This is a static website, so the server only returns a JSON with the built-in autoindex functionality and everything else is handled by the client.

As for the message functionality: when you write a message, it will simply upload a file ./tmp/.tmp.txt with the message content. When you read a message, it will read the content of ./tmp/.tmp.txt.