Online Storage Solutions

Problem:

I often need to have some files readily available online so that I can access them from any computer. There are many ways to go about solving this problem and each comes with its set of shortcomings:

1. Yahoo! Briefcase - 30MB limit
2. Online storage services like Box.net, Xdrive, MediaMax - usually cost money; signing up is cumbersome
3. Email to myself as an attachment - enough said there

It's time to find a home-made solution.
The solution I am about to suggest is intended for --

• A *NIX user
• someone with access to a *NIX web server

Solution:

I am a linux user and I have user level access to a web server. The web server is configured such that the public does not have access to directory structure. So, I would need to write a script that copies my files to the web server and creates an index listing my files. Password protection of the storage would follow after that.

Client Side:

Use the following script to transfer file to server, make the file readable by public and execute indexing script on the server.

#!/bin/tcsh

scp -r $1 user@server:path_to_storage_directory
ssh user@server 'chmod 644 path_to_storage_directory/$1; source path_to_storage_directory/script'

Server Side:

Put the script below in the storage and it will be executed every time a file is transferred to the storage directory. It creates a new index file every time you transfer file. The script is necessary because most web servers don't allow outsiders to see their directory/file structure. So, this script is needed to create an index of files.

#!/bin/tcsh

cd path_to_storage_directory;
echo "<html><pre>" > index.html ;
ls -lth | sort -r -k 6 | awk '{print $3"\t"$5"\t"$6"\t"$7"\t\t" "<a href=\""$8"\">"$8"</a>"}' >> index.html;
echo "</pre></html>" >> index.html

Next will come the password protection of the online storage.


P.S. The source code formatting courtesy of http://formatmysourcecode.blogspot.com/