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Quick & easy cloud storage with dufs and NixOS

dufs¹ (the distinctive file utility server) is a cloud storage replacement for those looking to move away from third-party services like Google Drive or Proton Drive. it supports WebDAV and HTTPS file transfer protocols.

It's very easy to set up and get going in NixOS using a Docker container.

Set up dufs

First, enable docker in your configuration.nix:

      
  virtualisation.docker.enable = true;

Then define a Docker container, either in your configuration.nix or in a custom module:

      
  virtualisation.oci-containers = {
    backend = "docker";
    containers.dufs = {
      
      # automatically restart server after reboot
      autoStart = true;
      
      image = "sigoden/dufs";
      
      ports = [
        "5000:5000"
      ];
      
      # the files i want to serve are in /srv/dufs
      volumes = [
        "/srv/dufs:/data"
      ];
      
      # tells dufs to serve the files in the docker volume /data
      cmd = [
        "-A"
        "/data"
      ];
    };
  };

Rebuild your configuration by running sudo nixos-rebuild switch and head on over to http://localhost:5000 to behold your lovely files. Now we need a method to access our files on other devices inside (and outside) of our home network. Tailscale² provides commands to accomplish this easily.

Set up Tailscale

You can use Tailscale to access the files on other devices inside (and outside) of your home network. Tailscale is like a crazy-fast vpn with a bunch of other comfort features like MagicDNS³, keyless SSH⁴ and easy HTTPS⁵.

To enable it in nixos, add the following to your configuration.nix:

      
  services.tailscale.enable = true;
  networking.firewall.trustedInterfaces = [ "tailscale0" ];

Once again, rebuild your configuration by running sudo nixos-rebuild switch and run tailscale up to start tailscale. The tailscale connection will persist on reboot, so no need to worry about adding it to your init process.

I recommend enabling MagicDNS in the admin console > DNS > MagicDNS, but if you prefer not to, your server's IP address will be visible by running tailscale ip -4.

Head over to http://<hostname or ip>:5000 on one of your other machines running tailscale to upload, download, and view your self-hosted files.

dufs clients

As for client recommendations, Round Sync⁶ on android is quite good. it supports both WebDAV and HTTPS remotes, I chose to use WebDAV when connecting.

Thanks for stopping by ^.^

Footnotes

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