netfshare

A flask-based local network file sharing tool.

Not for production environements. Use with care.

Installation and use

1. Install the netfshare python package:

   py -m pip install netfshare

2. Navigate to the directory that you want to share the contents of.

3. (OPTIONAL) To secure your WSGI application, set a custom SECRET_KEY environment variable, or create a .env file in the shared directory defining the SECRET_KEY:

    SECRET_KEY=my_secret_key
   

4. Run netfshare to start the sharing service:

   py -m netfshare

The service can be accessed at http://<your-local-ip> by default.

If needed, you can override the port through configuration.

On Linux, binding to port 80 requires additional privileges. One simple option for a local development setup is to grant the virtual environment's Python interpreter permission to bind low ports:

sudo setcap 'cap_net_bind_service=+ep' "$(realpath .venv/bin/python3)"

If you recreate the virtual environment, run the command again.

Make sure your machine is discoverable in the local network and that the required firewall rules are active.

Admin access

The netfshare app automatically recognizes a client that's accessing the app from the host (machine running the app) as admin.

If you're having issues with admin access (e.g. you're not recognized as admin despite accessing the app from your local machine), try accessing the app directl at:

http://127.0.0.1

If you configured a custom port, append :<port>.

Sharing settings

Visit the service website Admin interface from the machine running the service to manage the sharing settings.

netfshare supports downloading the contents (subdirectories) of your shared folder, as well as uploading clients' content to selected directories inside the shared folder.

Only downloads of whole subdirectories are supported, as .zip archives. To make files available for downalod, they must be placed inside a subdirectory of the sharedfolder, and the appropriate sharing mode must be set for this subdirectory in the Admin web interface.

Currently, the supported sharing modes are:

• read_only: whole subdirectories of the shared folder can be downloaded as a .zip archive.
• upload_only: clients can upload their data into a selected subdirectory of the shared folder. The uploaded content is placed inside a subfolder with the user's selected name. Currently, only a single upload by each user is allowed.

Localization

netfshare supports localization using flask-babel.

The client-facing routes of the app are translated into English and Slovenian.

To update the translations after adding / modifying app text, run the following to get new text to bt translated and update the Slovenian translation file,:

pybabel extract -F babel.cfg -o messages.pot .
pybabel update -i messages.pot -d netfshare/translations

Now edit / add new translations in translations/sl/LC_MESSAGES/messages.po and compile the new translations:

pybabel compile -d netfshare/translations