# PaferaFileServer: The Little File Server That Could

Version 1.9.4
By Jim Yu (me@pafera.com)

Released under the GPL 3+

## Updates

The 1.9.4 version added

* Updated cargo packages to latest versions

* In slideshow view, you can now launch an image editor by 
  pressing the "e" key.  Set "imageeditor" to the path of your
  editor in paferafileserver.cfg, and "imageeditorargs" as a 
  list of arguments to pass to the editor such as the following
  on OSX to launch GIMP

  "imageeditor": "open",
  "imageeditorargs": [
    "-a",
    "gimp"
  ],  

The 1.9.3 version added

* Updated cargo packages to latest versions

* Added "select to here" button for quicker selection process.

* Added hotkey "f" to slideshow view to copy the current file
  to a folder called "Favorites" in the server root.

The 1.9.2 version added

* Added support for running as an AppImage by using /tmp 
  for the thumbnails directory.

The 1.9.1 version added

* Changed popup menu background to black for more contrast.

* Bug fixes for interoperability with the new Flutter Pafera
  Share app for iOS and Android. If you're willing to be a 
  beta tester, please send me an email.

* Bug fixes for rsync with special characters.

The 1.9.0 version added

* Simple access control. Instead of one password for the entire
  system, now you can set read, write, and shell passwords
  individually to allow finer access to your system.

* Added disablesshkeycheck for roaming IPs.

The 1.8.0 version added

* Changed shared data from RwLock to channels to prevent blocking
  issues while running long rsyncs.

* Changed thumbnail algorithms to try native rust solutions before
  resorting to ImageMagick and ffmpeg for faster performance. 

  If your system does not have a copy of libffmpegthumbnailer 
  already installed like Windows, please compile the library 
  or comment out the used lines.

The 1.7.1 version added

* Added the update flag to rsync to only sync newer versions of files.

The 1.7.0 version added

* Added option to autorun tasks in intervals from one minute to 
  60 minutes. This lets you do stuff like have your phone 
  automatically upload any new photos whenever you join your
  home WiFi network, or run any command from your web browser
  for easy system maintenance. 

  The tasks are defined in paferafileservertasks.cfg and look
  like this.

  {
    "tasks": [
    {
      "autosyncminutes": 1,
      "command": [],
      "flags": 0,
      "hostname": "JimsMacBookAir",
      "log": [],
      "nextsynctime": 1695614027,
      "password": "9999",
      "syncfolderpath": "/shared",
      "title": "JimsMacBookAir - /shared"
    }
  }

  Set flags to 2 if you constantly switch IP addresses as I do
  when I'm traveling. That will skip ssh's key check and enable
  syncing on autodiscovery for any network for known hostnames.

* Added discovery button to quickly open other servers on the 
  same network. This same interface also lets you run tasks for 
  each server.

The 1.6.3 version added

* Added option to show files only when logged in so that 
  the server can be used on public networks such as cafes
  and airports.

The 1.6.2 version added

* Allowed filenames with special URL characters

The 1.6.1 version added

* Updated all dependencies to latest versions

The 1.6 version added

* Support for ffmpegthumbnailer to enable faster video thumbnails. 
  Just set enableffmpegthumbnailer on the command line or 
  paferafileserver.cfg.

The 1.5.1 version added

* Bug fix for file uploads on Mac OSX

The 1.5 version added

* QR Code button: Now instead of typing an URL, your tech 
  illiterate friends can just use their camera to connect instead.

* Mac OSX support: Much faster than waiting for Finder to create
  thumbnails, and usable from any device with a browser. Make sure 
  to enable Remote Login in Settings and password less login with 
  ssh-copy-id if you want to use rsync transfers.

* Open With: Using the server to browse items on your own
  computer (127.0.0.1) now lets you open your files in the 
  program of your choice. List such programs in paferafileserver.cfg
  such as 

      {
        "openwith": [
          {
            "title":      "MPV",
            "path":       "/usr/bin/mpv",
            "args":       ["-fs"],
            "extensions": "videos"
          },
          {
            "title":      "GIMP",
            "path":       "/usr/bin/gimp",
            "args":       [],
            "extensions": "images"
          },
          {
            "title":      "Sublime",
            "path":       "/opt/sublime_text/sublime_text",
            "args":       [],
            "extensions": "c cpp php py rs"
          },
          {
            "title":      "Hex Editor",
            "path":       "/usr/bin/ghex",
            "args":       [],
            "extensions": "all"
          },
        ]
      }

  Extensions can be one of the file classes used for CSS highlighting,
  a list of space separated file extensions, or simply "all" to open
  every file on the system.

  For launching GUI apps on Mac OSX, use the open command such as 

      {
        "title":      "VLC",
        "path":       "open",
        "args":       ["-a", "VLC"],
        "extensions": "videos"
      },

  For opening all files with its associated app on Linux, you can use 

      {
        "title":      "Open with default",
        "path":       "xdg-open",
        "args":       [],
        "extensions": "all"
      },

  To do the same in Windows

      {
        "title":      "Open with default",
        "path":       "explorer",
        "args":       [],
        "extensions": "all"
      },

  And for OSX

      {
        "title":      "Open with default",
        "path":       "open",
        "args":       [],
        "extensions": "all"
      },

  If this is the only open handler and you switch "One Click Open" on,
  then it's almost like working with a native file manager in that you 
  can just click to open any file on the system.

  Of course, Android has no equivalent since termux-open doesn't quite
  work on my phone yet, but we can't have everything we want, can we?

The 1.4 version added

* Rsync support
* Transcoding
* Compressing and decompressing archives
* Running shell commands inside the current folder

## Introduction

Due to the complexity of the interface, I have written an entire 
article detailing this server app at <a href="https://pafera.com/blog/2023/04/18/doessharingfileswith.en.html">https://pafera.com/blog/2023/04/18/doessharingfileswith.en.html</a>

Small and quick HTTP file server designed for use on Android Termux
so that you can quickly share files on your phone to your friends
just by having them connect to your hotspot or IP address if you're 
on the same wireless network. 

It also includes directory search, recursive directory search, 
a slideshow viewer, and a recursive slideshow viewer with hotkeys 
and swipe gesture support capable of handling hundreds of thousands 
of files with ease. Instances running on separate devices can also
detect other servers and send files to each other just by clicking 
on the server name and entering the password.

Being written in Rust and using minimal scripting with a mini version
of the Pafera Framework, I've found this browser based slide show 
to be almost as fast as native image viewers, and much faster than 
Windows Explorer... not that being faster than Explorer is much of 
a bar to clear.

The JavaScript based image viewer can be started by tapping on 
an image. Swipe left and right to change images, up to rename 
this image to imagefile.deleted for later house cleaning, and swipe 
down to exit the viewer and return to the directory listing. The 
up, down, left, and right arrow keys on the keyboard will do the 
exact same actions as swiping in those directions.

Image and video thumbnail generation requires ImageMagick's convert 
and ffmpeg to be installed on your Termux installation. Of course, 
this server will also work for any Linux or Windows system where 
those two programs are installed.

Note that for security reasons, this server will not actually 
delete any files. It will simply append ".deleted" to the filename 
so that you can restore accidentally deleted files at a later time 
just by removing the ".deleted" extension or selecting "Undelete"
from the menu.

If you *really* want to delete a file, then you can delete a file 
twice or select "Permanent Delete" from the menu. Be careful with 
this option.

## Hotkeys

Hotkeys are supported for most functions as given:

<div class="Pad50 whiteb Bordered Raised">
  <h2>Normal View</h2>
  <table class="Pad50">
    <tr>
      <th>v</th>
      <td>Change view style</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th>i</th>
      <td>Show hidden files</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th>s</th>
      <td>Sort files</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th>a</th>
      <td>Select all</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th>n</th>
      <td>Select none</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th>r</th>
      <td>Rename selected files</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th>m</th>
      <td>Move selected files</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th>c</th>
      <td>Copy selected files</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th>d</th>
      <td>Delete selected files</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th>p</th>
      <td>Permanently delete selected files</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th>u</th>
      <td>Undelete selected files</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th>e</th>
      <td>Show recently changed files</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th>t</th>
      <td>Search this folder</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th>f</th>
      <td>Search this folder and any subfolders</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th>w</th>
      <td>Set password</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th>o</th>
      <td>Create new subfolder</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th>z</th>
      <td>Start slide show</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th>x</th>
      <td>Start deep slide show</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th>h</th>
      <td>Show this hotkeys help</td>
    </tr>
  </table>
  <h2>Slide Show View</h2>
  <table class="Pad50">
    <tr>
      <th>Left Arrow</th>
      <td>Previous image</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th>Right Arrow</th>
      <td>Next image</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th>Up Arrow</th>
      <td>Delete image</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th>Down Arrow/Escape</th>
      <td>Exit slide show</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th>r</th>
      <td>Random image</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th>g</th>
      <td>Go to image number</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th>q</th>
      <td>Rotate 90 degrees counterclockwise</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th>e</th>
      <td>Rotate 90 degrees clockwise</td>
    </tr>
  </table>
</div>

## Command line usage:

```
paferafileserver [hostname=localhost] [serverroot=/home/jim] [password=password] [ip=0.0.0.0]
  [port=9999]
```

If you wanted to serve Jim's Pictures directory to all visitors on port
5000, you would use

```
paferafileserver serverroot=/home/jim/Pictures port=5000
```

If you don't specify serverroot, it will default to your home directory.

If you don't specify ip and port, it will default to 0.0.0.0:9999.

Additionally, the following options can be typed on the command line 
to disable certain functionality even if the user has the right password.

* disabledelete
* disablerename
* disablemove
* disablecopy
* disablenewfolder
* disabledelete
* disablepermanentdelete
* disablesend
* disableupload

All command line arguments can also be specified in a JSON file called
paferafileserver.cfg such as 

```
{
  "hostname":               "JimsLaptop",
  "password":               "SecretPassword12345",
  "disabledelete":          1,
  "disablepermanentdelete": 1
}
```

For Android 5 and 6, Termux won't run since it requires 7 and above,
so we must install UserLand's Debian distribution instead. It is 
quite a bit more complicated than Termux, but is still better than
not being able to run Linux programs at all.

Once you have installed Userland and Debian, type 

```
sudo apt install imagemagick ffmpeg iproute2 openssl
```

If you want to build from source, you'll also need

```
sudo apt install curl build-essential gcc make libssl-dev pkg-config
```

and change the image thumbnail code to call "convert" instead of "magick"
"convert" since Debian's Imagemagick does not have the magick executable yet.

You can find your phone's filesystem under /host-rootfs, thus if you
want to serve your SD card, you could use

```
paferafileserver serverroot=/host-rootfs/storage/emulated/legacy
```

## Installation

The main source repository is at 

https://codeberg.org/pafera/paferafileserver

Prebuilt binaries for Linux, Termux, and Windows can be found at

https://codeberg.org/pafera/paferafileserver/src/branch/main/bin

## Contributing

All contributions are welcome, no matter how large or small. The current
server is enough for my personal purposes, but off of the top of my head, 
some further improvements could be:

* Sending files to a selectable destination directory instead of /Received
* Translations for different languages

As always, have fun using this server, and I hope that it will be useful to 
you in some way! Much appreciation to all of the folks who have contributed
to Rust, Cargo, crates.io, Actix, and the rest of the code used in this 
project.