VuIO Media Server

A cross-platform DLNA/UPnP media server written in Rust. Streams video, audio, and images to any DLNA-compatible device (smart TVs, receivers, game consoles).

Built with Tokio, Axum, and Redb for high performance and reliability.

Supported platforms: Windows, Linux, macOS, Docker (x64 and ARM64)

git clone https://github.com/vuiodev/vuio.git
cd vuio
cargo build --release
./target/release/vuio /path/to/media

Features

• DLNA/UPnP Media Server - Stream to any DLNA device with SSDP discovery
• HTTP Range Streaming - Seek support for large media files
• Multi-format Support - MKV, MP4, AVI, MP3, FLAC, WAV, AAC, OGG, JPEG, PNG, and more
• Audio Metadata - Automatic extraction of artist, album, genre, year from tags
• Music Browsing - Browse by Artists, Albums, Genres, Years via DLNA
• Playlist Support - Auto-imports M3U/PLS playlists from media directories
• Real-time Monitoring - Detects file changes and updates database automatically
• Cross-platform - Native integration for Windows, macOS, Linux
• Redb Database - Embedded ACID-compliant database with crash recovery

Quick Start

# Run with default settings (scans ~/Videos, ~/Music, ~/Pictures)
./vuio

# Specify media directory
./vuio /path/to/media

# Custom port and name
./vuio -p 9090 -n "My Media Server" /path/to/media

# Multiple directories
./vuio /movies --media-dir /music --media-dir /photos

Command Line Options

Usage: vuio [OPTIONS] [MEDIA_DIR]

Arguments:
  [MEDIA_DIR]  Directory containing media files

Options:
  -p, --port <PORT>        Port to listen on [default: 8080]
  -n, --name <NAME>        DLNA server name
  -c, --config <CONFIG>    Path to config file
      --media-dir <DIR>    Additional media directories
      --debug              Enable debug logging
  -h, --help               Print help
  -V, --version            Print version

Docker

Docker does not work on macOS due to multicast limitations.

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/vuiodev/vuio.git
cd vuio
docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml up

Docker Compose

services:
  vuio:
    image: vuio:latest
    container_name: vuio-server
    restart: unless-stopped
    network_mode: host  # Required for DLNA multicast
    cap_add:
      - NET_ADMIN
      - NET_RAW
    volumes:
      - ./vuio-config:/config
      - /path/to/media:/media:ro
    environment:
      - VUIO_IP=192.168.1.100      # Your host IP (required)
      - VUIO_PORT=8080
      - VUIO_MEDIA_DIRS=/media
      - VUIO_SERVER_NAME=VuIO
      - VUIO_DB_PATH=/data/vuio.redb

Docker Volume Mounting

Single directory:

volumes:
  - ./vuio-config:/config
  - /path/to/media:/media:ro

Multiple directories:

volumes:
  - ./vuio-config:/config
  - /home/user/Movies:/media/movies:ro
  - /home/user/Music:/media/music:ro
  - /home/user/Pictures:/media/pictures:ro
  - /mnt/nas/media:/media/nas:ro
environment:
  - VUIO_MEDIA_DIRS=/media/movies,/media/music,/media/pictures,/media/nas

Network storage (NFS/SMB):

volumes:
  - type: bind
    source: /mnt/nas/media
    target: /media
    read_only: true

Docker Run

docker run -d \
  --name vuio-server \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  --network host \
  --cap-add NET_ADMIN \
  --cap-add NET_RAW \
  -v /path/to/media:/media:ro \
  -v ./vuio-config:/config \
  -e VUIO_IP=192.168.1.100 \
  -e VUIO_PORT=8080 \
  -e VUIO_MEDIA_DIRS=/media \
  -e VUIO_DB_PATH=/data/vuio.redb \
  vuio:latest

Environment Variables

Find your host IP:

# Linux
ip route get 1.1.1.1 | grep -oP 'src \K[0-9.]+'

# macOS
ipconfig getifaddr en0

# Windows
ipconfig | findstr "IPv4"

Generate UUID for multiple instances:

uuidgen  # Linux/macOS
[System.Guid]::NewGuid()  # Windows PowerShell

Configuration

Native (TOML Config)

VuIO uses TOML configuration files on native platforms. Config location: ./config/config.toml

[server]
port = 8080
interface = "0.0.0.0"
name = "VuIO Server"
uuid = "auto-generated"

[network]
interface_selection = "Auto"
multicast_ttl = 4
announce_interval_seconds = 30

[media]
scan_on_startup = true
watch_for_changes = true
cleanup_deleted_files = true
scan_playlists = true
supported_extensions = ["mp4", "mkv", "avi", "mp3", "flac", "wav", "jpg", "png"]

[[media.directories]]
path = "/home/user/Videos"
recursive = true
extensions = ["mp4", "mkv", "avi", "mov", "wmv", "webm"]
exclude_patterns = ["*.tmp", ".*"]
validation_mode = "Warn"  # Strict, Warn, or Skip

[[media.directories]]
path = "/home/user/Music"
recursive = true
extensions = ["mp3", "flac", "wav", "aac", "ogg", "wma", "m4a", "opus"]
exclude_patterns = ["*.tmp", ".*"]

[[media.directories]]
path = "/home/user/Pictures"
recursive = true
extensions = ["jpg", "jpeg", "png", "gif", "bmp", "webp"]
exclude_patterns = ["*.tmp", ".*"]

[database]
path = "~/.local/share/vuio/media.redb"
vacuum_on_startup = false
backup_enabled = true

Configuration Options

Server:

• port - HTTP server port
• interface - Network interface to bind (0.0.0.0 for all)
• name - DLNA server friendly name
• uuid - Device UUID (auto-generated if not set)
• ip - Specific IP for DLNA announcements (optional)

Network:

• interface_selection - "Auto", "All", or specific interface name
• multicast_ttl - Multicast time-to-live
• announce_interval_seconds - SSDP announcement interval

Media:

• scan_on_startup - Scan directories on startup
• watch_for_changes - Real-time file monitoring
• cleanup_deleted_files - Auto-remove deleted files from database
• scan_playlists - Import M3U/PLS playlist files
• supported_extensions - Global list of media extensions

Media Directories:

• path - Directory path
• recursive - Scan subdirectories
• extensions - Override extensions for this directory
• exclude_patterns - Patterns to exclude (e.g., ".tmp", ".")
• validation_mode - Path validation: "Strict" (fail if missing), "Warn" (log warning), "Skip" (no validation)

Database:

• path - Database file location
• vacuum_on_startup - Compact database on startup
• backup_enabled - Enable automatic backups

Audio Features

Metadata Extraction

VuIO automatically extracts metadata from audio files:

• Title, Artist, Album, Album Artist
• Genre, Year, Track Number
• Duration
• Falls back to filename parsing when tags are missing

Supported Audio Formats

• Lossless: FLAC, WAV, AIFF
• Lossy: MP3, AAC, OGG, WMA, OPUS, M4A

Playlist Support

VuIO automatically discovers and imports playlist files:

• M3U/M3U8 - Most common format
• PLS - WinAmp/iTunes compatible

Playlists are scanned from media directories on startup and made available to DLNA clients.

Configure: scan_playlists = true or VUIO_SCAN_PLAYLISTS=true

Music Organization

Recommended directory structure:

/music/
├── Artist Name/
│   └── Album Name (Year)/
│       ├── 01 - Track.flac
│       └── folder.jpg
└── playlists/
    ├── favorites.m3u
    └── workout.pls

Database

VuIO uses Redb, an embedded ACID-compliant database.

Database Location

When running from source on Windows:

C:\Users\Welcome\Downloads\code\rust\vuio\target\release\config\database\media.redb

Reset Database

# Windows (PowerShell)
Remove-Item -Force .\target\release\config\database\media.redb

# Linux
rm -f ~/.local/share/vuio/media.redb

# macOS
rm -f ~/Library/Application\ Support/vuio/media.redb

# Docker
docker exec vuio-server rm -f /data/vuio.redb

VuIO will create a new database and rescan media on next startup.

Platform Notes

Windows

• Supports UNC paths (\\server\share)
• Auto-excludes Thumbs.db, desktop.ini

macOS

• Supports network volumes under /Volumes
• Auto-excludes .DS_Store, .AppleDouble

Linux

• Supports mounts under /media, /mnt
• Auto-excludes lost+found, .Trash-*

Architecture

┌─────────────────┐    ┌─────────────────┐    ┌─────────────────┐
│   Web Server    │    │  SSDP Service   │    │ File Watcher    │
│   (Axum/HTTP)   │    │  (Discovery)    │    │ (Real-time)     │
└────────┬────────┘    └────────┬────────┘    └────────┬────────┘
         │                      │                      │
         └──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┘
                                │
         ┌──────────────────────┴──────────────────────┐
         │              Application Core               │
         │  ┌─────────┐  ┌─────────┐  ┌─────────────┐  │
         │  │ Config  │  │ Database│  │  Platform   │  │
         │  │ Manager │  │ (Redb)  │  │ Abstraction │  │
         │  └─────────┘  └─────────┘  └─────────────┘  │
         └──────────────────────┬──────────────────────┘
                                │
         ┌──────────────────────┴──────────────────────┐
         │            Platform Layer                   │
         │  ┌─────────┐  ┌─────────┐  ┌─────────┐      │
         │  │ Windows │  │  macOS  │  │  Linux  │      │
         │  └─────────┘  └─────────┘  └─────────┘      │
         └─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Testing

cargo test

Debug logging:

RUST_LOG=debug ./vuio 2>&1 | tee vuio-debug.log

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please ensure cross-platform compatibility is maintained. CLA is required for contributions.

License

Dual-licensed under:

• MIT License
• Apache License 2.0