OSM Documentation 0.1.0 Search

5. Files, sharing and file protocols

Files

Files shows your home folder, the shared folders you may open, USB drives and your remote folders, with your own permissions: you can do exactly what you could do over file sharing or SSH, and nothing more. Administrators also see the volumes and the whole system, under This server. Everyone with an account can use Files, unless App Permissions says otherwise.

  • Open: double-click a folder to go in. Pictures, videos, music and PDFs open in the Viewer (the arrows go to the next file of the folder); text files open in the Text Editor.
  • Upload: the Upload button, or drop files onto the list.
  • Action (or a right click): download, share, copy, cut and paste, zip and extract, rename, delete, Earlier versions..., Properties (with the permissions), and add a folder to favorites.
  • Views: a list or thumbnails; Hidden files shows names that start with a dot.
  • Permissions in the properties: the owner, the group and everyone else, with the shared folder's access list.

Earlier versions

Earlier versions... of a file or folder lists what the snapshots kept, and what Desktop Sync kept when a computer changed or deleted the file. Open shows a version. Restore puts it back in place of what is there now:

  • from a snapshot, the current file (or folder, with what was added to it since) is replaced for good: copy it aside first if you want to keep it;
  • from Desktop Sync, the version it replaces is kept too, and the computers get the restored file.

The recycle bin

In a shared folder with a recycle bin, what you delete goes to its Recycle Bin folder. Open it, and Restore puts a file back where it was (Shared folders).

The search at the top right of the desktop finds the names of your files and folders. For the words inside documents, choose the shared folders to read in Settings > Search Index: text, Markdown, HTML, PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OpenDocument, EPUB, RTF and email (.eml) files are read in the background, each file as its owner, and the results are always checked against the permissions of the person searching. Encrypted shared folders are never read.

Then search the words with Search contents in Files' toolbar (in the shared folder you are in, or Search every shared folder), or in the In documents results of the search at the top right.

Search Index also reads the details of pictures, videos and music, for thumbnails and for the apps that use them.

Share in Files' toolbar (or Share link... in Action) makes a link to a file or a folder that anyone can open, even without an account:

  • a share link downloads the file, or browses and downloads the folder, from a page that works on phones;
  • a file request (for a folder) lets people send files into the folder and see nothing of what is in it.

Each link can have a Password, an end date (Ends on) and a Note shown on its page; a share link can also have a number of Downloads allowed. A link uses the address you opened the desktop with, like https://nas.local:5001/s/.... From outside your network, the server must be reachable (a port forward or a VPN), with a name listed in Settings > Desktop Access (More host names).

Shared links, under Sharing at the left of Files, lists yours with how often each was used: copy a link, turn it off and on again (Turn off, Turn on), or delete it there. Administrators see everyone's. A link that ended (its end date passed, or its downloads were used up) stays in the list for a week, then goes; one you turned off stays until you delete it.

A link works as the account that made it: when that account can no longer read the file, or is locked or deleted, the link stops working. Repeated wrong passwords pause a link for a few minutes.

Remote folders

In Files' side bar, under Remote folders, Connect one... (or Manage...) mounts other storage in a folder of yours: an SMB share of another computer or NAS, an NFS export (Administrators only), or cloud storage. It can be read only, and mounted again when the server starts. Only you can open it in Files. An SMB password is kept where only the system can read it, a cloud's settings where only your account can.

File protocols: reaching shared folders from computers

They are in Settings > File Protocols: SMB, NFS and FTP each have a tab, with Install the first time you need it (Uninstall... is at the bottom of the tab after). Every account uses its own name and password; the shared folder's permissions decide what it may do.

SMB: Windows, macOS and Linux

  • Windows: the server appears in Network in File Explorer. Or type \\nas.local (the server's name) or \\192.168.1.20 in the address bar, and sign in with your OSM account.
  • macOS: the server appears in Finder's sidebar. Or Go > Connect to Server and smb://nas.local.
  • Linux: smb://nas.local in the file manager.
  • Time Machine: tick A Time Machine destination for Macs in a shared folder's settings (and limit the size its backups take, if you want). Macs on your network then offer it in System Settings > General > Time Machine; each Mac signs in with an OSM account that has Read/Write access to the folder.
  • Previous Versions: Windows shows the shared folders' snapshots in a file's or folder's Properties > Previous Versions.

A password changed in OSM is the file sharing password at once. Accounts made before File Protocols was installed get their file sharing password at their next sign-in to the desktop.

NFS: Linux computers and servers

NFS trusts the computer, not a password. Each shared folder has its NFS rules: which computers (an address or a network), read/write or read only, and what root on those computers becomes. The files keep their owners and permissions by number. NFS versions 3 and 4 are served.

FTP, FTPS, SFTP and rsync

FTP Server is for cameras, scanners and old programs; encryption (FTPS) is required unless you allow plain FTP. SFTP and rsync over SSH come with the SSH server (Settings > SSH) and need no FTP at all.

Desktop Sync

Desktop Sync keeps folders of your computers in step with the server, and keeps the earlier versions of what they change or delete. It uses Syncthing, which runs on Windows, macOS, Linux and Android.

  1. Install Syncthing from the App Catalog. Its page in the App Catalog has a Desktop Sync section.
  2. On the computer, in Syncthing, Add Remote Device with the server's ID shown there (or scan its QR code with a phone). If the computer does not find the server by itself, give it the address shown there too.
  3. Share a folder with the server from the computer.
  4. On the server, the computer appears under Computers asking. Accept it: its folders arrive within a minute or two, each in a folder of its own in the sync shared folder (<computer>/<folder>).

When a second computer shares a folder that the server already keeps for another computer (Syncthing gives the same folder the same ID on both, as with its own Default Folder), the server does not mix them by itself: the offer waits under Waiting, with the computers that folder belongs to. Sync with them... joins it, and that computer gets the files kept there and can change and delete them: do it for the same person's computers only. Ignore turns the offer down for good.

Earlier versions are kept for the time you choose (a year by default) and show in Files under Earlier versions; restoring one sends it back to the computer too. Removing a computer stops its sync; its files stay on the server.

Media streaming

Settings > Media Streaming (Install there the first time) lets TVs, game consoles and music players on your network find the videos, music and photos of the shared folders you choose (DLNA/UPnP). They play without signing in, so choose only what anyone in the home may see. New files appear by themselves.