Deploy copyparty in one click

What is copyparty?

copyparty turns a machine into a file server that any web browser can use. Its uploader, up2k, sends large files in parallel chunks and resumes an upload that broke off, with no size limit. Folders show as a list or as thumbnails of images and videos, music plays in the browser with transcoding, text and Markdown files open in a viewer and an editor, and folders download as zip or tar. It indexes the files to search them by name, date, size or music tags, and serves them over WebDAV too, so a computer can mount them as a drive.

People run copyparty to keep and share their files without Dropbox or Google Drive. This template shares one folder, kept in a volume, with the single account made from the fields, and with nobody else; share links give out a file or a folder, with a password or an expiry if wanted. More accounts and folders are more -a and -v arguments in compose.yaml. The catch: its interface is dense, made for speed more than looks, and its FTP, SFTP and SMB servers need ports this template does not publish, so only the browser and WebDAV reach it.

Hosting copyparty on Pethost

1. You sign in to Pethost with a passkey, GitHub or Google. No machine yet? You pick a plan, and the link waits until it is ready.
2. New project opens at copyparty. You fill in what it asks for and click Create project: Username, Admin password.
3. In a minute or two copyparty is live at its own address with HTTPS. Its secrets are made at random, and its data is in the nightly backup.
4. It is a project like any other: you or your agent can change it, roll it back or restore it.

Questions about copyparty

copyparty Docker Compose file

The template is this compose.yaml and the variables written into the project’s .env as it is created. Pethost runs the file as it is written.

Containers: copyparty (copyparty/ac:1.20.26).

Volumes, in the nightly backup: files, state.

services:
  copyparty:
    image: copyparty/ac:1.20.26
    restart: unless-stopped
    # As copyparty's own instructions run it: as a user, not as root.
    user: "1000:1000"
    environment:
      # copyparty would read a $ in an argument as a variable of its own, and the password may
      # hold one: the arguments below are taken as they are.
      PRTY_NO_ENVEXPAND: "1"
    # Given no volume, copyparty shares its folder with anyone, to read and write. So the files
    # volume is shared at the address's root with the one account made from the fields, which may
    # do everything there (A: read, write, move, delete, admin), and with nobody else.
    command:
      - -a
      - ${ADMIN_USERNAME}:${ADMIN_PASSWORD}
      - -v
      - /w::A,${ADMIN_USERNAME}
      # The sign-in asks for the username and the password, not the password alone.
      - --usernames
      # The files are indexed, for search and for the uploads it has already seen, and so are the
      # tags of music and videos; the index and thumbnails are kept beside the config, not among
      # the files.
      - -e2dsa
      - -e2ts
      - --hist
      - /cfg/hists
      # Links to a file or a folder, with a password or an expiry if wanted, under /share.
      - --shr
      - /share
      # Requests come through the proxy, which sends the client's address in X-Forwarded-For.
      - --xff-hdr
      - x-forwarded-for
      - --xff-src
      - lan
      - --rproxy
      - "1"
      - --no-robots
    volumes:
      - files:/w
      # Sessions, shares, the index and thumbnails.
      - state:/cfg

volumes:
  files:
  state:

compose.yamlSee it on GitHub