I’m currently debating on how to manage files on my servers. I have a jellyfin and a minecraft server on which I need to add, remove or download files quite often. I don’t really want to use scp for everything, so I was wondering what everyone uses.

Edit: I’m looking for a gui solution, but a somewhat automated process of backups etc. is also nice

Edit 2: For anyone wondering what my final solution was: I am currently using a wireguard vpn on a raspberry pi to access my servers. I use Xpipe as a gui interface to transfer my files. I also just use tmux and ssh to execute commands and run services.

  • Justin@lemmy.jlh.nameEnglish
    2·
    10 months ago

    scp is one of the best options. You could also try sshfs if you want something more interactive.

  • Illecors@lemmy.cafeEnglish
    10·
    10 months ago

    NFS comes to mind, naturally.

    I remember some years ago scp had a big issue, can’t recall what, though. But that made me have a look at rsync, and I’ve been using that ever since. Flags are a bit atteocious, but I’ve aliases rsync -avz status=progress to copy and it’s been happy days. One other benefit - incremental copy. Helps in cases where a copy procedure had been stopped for whatever reason.

    • kevincox@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      I wouldn’t really recommend NFS unless you need to remote mount as a “true filesystem” with full support for things like sockets, locking and other UNIX filesystem features or you need top performance. It is so difficult to do authentication and UID mapping that it typically isn’t worth it for simpler use cases like “add, remove or download files”.

      scp can be slow with large numbers of small files. rsync is much better at that and can do differential transfers if you need that. Since rsync can also run over SSH it can be very easy to just use it as a default.

    • kevincox@lemmy.mlEnglish
      3·
      10 months ago

      ftp ans sftp are completely different things. ftp is a very old protocol and can be run encrypted as ftps. sftp runs over SSH and is pretty common to use.

      Naming is truly one of the hardest problems in computer science.

      • FabianRY@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        10 months ago

        Thanks😅. I wasn’t aware, and until today thought that sftp is just like “the secure version of ftp” (never heard of ftps), and not different things at all. I have still a lot to learn in this field.

        Edit:I deleted the comentarios because i am unsure on what i am using right now and i don’t want to confuse people. I’ll check it when i have some free time

        • kevincox@lemmy.mlEnglish
          2·
          10 months ago

          Unless you went out of your way to set up FTP and get a TLS certificate I would put my money on you using SFTP which uses SSH for authentication and transport security. It doesn’t require anything to set up other than TOFU server keys and a client key or password for authentication.

          Which is probably the right thing to use. Really you shouldn’t be using FTP anymore. Probably you just want HTTP for public data and SFTP for private authenticated data.

      • blotz@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        10 months ago

        what! thats so dumb xD. so ftps stands for file transfer protocol secure, and sftp stands for ssh file transfer protocol? we have reached recursive acronyms.

        • kevincox@lemmy.mlEnglish
          2·
          10 months ago

          Yup super confusing. The way I remember it is that https is http + SSL so ftps is ftp + SSL. The weird one sftp is an entirely different protocol that uses SSH to transfer files.

          • blotz@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            10 months ago

            Okay this has made it so much worse. i figured that the s in https and ftps stands for secure like a reasonable person. of course it doesnt xD. you would think that this is at least consistent but alas. guess what s in ssh doesnt stand for :)

            • kevincox@lemmy.mlEnglish
              1·
              10 months ago

              I don’t know if the s is actually “SSL” or “secure” but the point is that the are the same protocol, running over an encryption layer. So adding an s suffix is running the same protocol over some encrypted transport. You see this s suffix for lots of things like irc/ircs and dav/davs.

              This is different to sftp which isn’t related to ftp at all other than they are both protocols that transfer files.

      • CronyAkatsuki@lemmy.cronyakatsuki.xyzEnglish
        2·
        10 months ago

        I would just use rsync on the whole folder.

        Rsync is smart enough to be able to only send files you didnt’ have previously like a regular mv command.

        Or you can sync the whole directory and have it also delete removed files.

        Edit: If you wan’t something to automatically “sync/backup” the data, why don’t you try and use syncthing? P2P syncing solution that might be exactly what you need in your hse case.

        • Legoraft@reddthat.comOPEnglish
          2·
          10 months ago

          I’m now considering syncing my minecraft world with syncthing, I already use it for some things but don’t know why I didn’t think of doing that.

          On the other hand, if I have a 100+ gb media library, it seems kinda over the top to also have it fully copied on my local machine. Do you do this?

          • CronyAkatsuki@lemmy.cronyakatsuki.xyzEnglish
            1·
            10 months ago

            When it comes to media like my music library and comics for example I just use rsync to move new ones to the server every time I collect some new (I have about 60gb of it)

  • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.orgEnglish
    7·
    10 months ago

    NFS, SMB, and/or sshfs

    • NFS for my media shares between servers (Emby, MPD, etc)
    • SMB for accessing from workstations
    • sshfs when I need a quick, one-off file session (or if I’m accessing remotely)
  • kevincox@lemmy.mlEnglish
    11·
    10 months ago

    IDK what OS you are on but on Linux most file managers have support for remote filesystems. SFTP (SSH-FTP, not to be confused with FTPS which is FTP-secure) is ubiquitous and if you use scp then you already have SSH set up.

    If you need Windows support it is more of a pain. You may need to set up Samba or WebDAV and permissions can suck. But you can also download a third-party file browser that supports remote protocols.

    So basically SFTP, and I fairly regularly just use a graphical file manager when I am doing one-off operations.

      • kevincox@lemmy.mlEnglish
        5·
        10 months ago

        Right now I am just using nautilus (default GNOME file manager) but in past I was using Thunar (default XFCE file manager). I’d be pretty surprised if whatever file manager you are currently using doesn’t support SFTP out of the box. Typically you can just enter something like sftp://myhost.example into the location bar. They may also have a dedicated network connection section with a wizard to add it.

      • SomeBoyo@feddit.deEnglish
        3·
        10 months ago

        nemo for a gui, or midnightcommander after logging in via ssh for managing/moving files on the server.

    • Legoraft@reddthat.comOPEnglish
      3·
      10 months ago

      I mostly want some sort of graphical way, I’m often moving a bunch of loose files and seeing them is a lot easier for me when transferring

        • Legoraft@reddthat.comOPEnglish
          1·
          10 months ago

          I’m not losing them, I have a lot of single files. For example during a Minecraft update, I have to move ~20 jar files and other things to the server. I also try to make frequent backups and I upload new movies somewhat frequently to my jellyfin server, so I want to have an easy way to transfer files.

      • vegetaaaaaaa@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        10 months ago

        sftp://USERNAME@SERVER:PORT in the address bar of most file managers will work. You can omit the port if it’s the default (22), you can omit the username if it’s the same as your local user.

        You can also add the server as a favorite/shortcut in your file manager sidebar (it works at least in Thunar and Nautilus). Or you can edit ~/.config/gtk-3.0/bookmarks directly:

        file:///some/local/directory
file:///some/other/directory
sftp://my.example.org/home/myuser my.example.org
sftp://otheruser@my.example.net:2222/home/otheruser my.example.net
      • matcha_addict@lemy.lolEnglish
        3·
        10 months ago

        I would recommend you mention “graphical” or “GUI” in your main post. Most suggestions to be assuming CLI.

        Some suggestions mentioned NFS / SSHFS. Those would allow you to use any GUI file manager for moving stuff over.

        Sorry I can’t help more. Don’t have a lot of knowledge in gui tools

  • blotz@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    10 months ago

    Nemo/most file explorers have a remote server option. For nemo, “Files > Connect to server”. Once configured, you should be able to view your server files from your file explorer and uploading files should be as easy as drag and drop. I’m pretty sure nautilis has something similar too!

    It’s not the best for security because if someone gets your computer, they can access your server through the file explorer. But it’s fast and convenient if you are already using your file explorer.

    • kevincox@lemmy.mlEnglish
      2·
      10 months ago

      Generally you can even just type it into the location bar, no need to find a specific dialog. For example if I type CTRL+l then sftp://myserver.local into Nautilus it pops up a username+password dialog (or just logs in using my keys).

  • eletes@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    7·
    10 months ago

    Sftp using the KDE file browser Dolphin. Keeps it simple for my monkey brain as if I’m accessing the drive locally.

  • Decronym@lemmy.decronym.xyzBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

    Fewer Letters More Letters
    DNS Domain Name Service/System
    HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the Web
    Plex Brand of media server package
    SSH Secure Shell for remote terminal access
    SSL Secure Sockets Layer, for transparent encryption
    TLS Transport Layer Security, supersedes SSL
    VPN Virtual Private Network

    [Thread #576 for this sub, first seen 5th Mar 2024, 18:25] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

      • Gravitywell@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        For automatic stuff I use synching to keep my home an documents in sync.

        I don’t normally use samba remotely but I have a wire guard VPN that I connect to if I’m not at home and that gives me access to samba or any other “local” services I might need when away