filebrowser Installation Guide Installation Guide

filebrowser is a free and open-source web file manager. File Browser provides a web interface for managing files with sharing capabilities

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 1 core minimum

RAM: 128MB minimum

Storage: 50MB for app

Network: HTTP/HTTPS access

Operating System:

Linux: Any modern distribution (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Arch, Alpine, openSUSE)

macOS: 10.14+ (Mojave or newer)

Windows: Windows Server 2016+ or Windows 10

FreeBSD: 11.0+

Network Requirements:

Port 80 (default filebrowser port)

None

Dependencies:

See official documentation for specific requirements

System Access: root or sudo privileges required

This guide supports installation on:

RHEL 8/9 and derivatives (CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux)

Debian 11/12

Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/24.04 LTS

Arch Linux (rolling release)

Alpine Linux 3.18+

openSUSE Leap 15.5+ / Tumbleweed

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15+

macOS 12+ (Monterey and later)

FreeBSD 13+

Windows 10/11/Server 2019+ (where applicable)

bash

# Install EPEL repository if needed
sudo dnf install -y epel-release

# Install filebrowser
sudo dnf install -y filebrowser

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now filebrowser

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=80/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
filebrowser --version

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install filebrowser
sudo apt install -y filebrowser

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now filebrowser

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow 80

# Verify installation
filebrowser --version

bash

# Install filebrowser
sudo pacman -S filebrowser

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now filebrowser

# Verify installation
filebrowser --version

bash

# Install filebrowser
apk add --no-cache filebrowser

# Enable and start service
rc-update add filebrowser default
rc-service filebrowser start

# Verify installation
filebrowser --version

bash

# Install filebrowser
sudo zypper install -y filebrowser

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now filebrowser

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=80/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
filebrowser --version

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install filebrowser

# Start service
brew services start filebrowser

# Verify installation
filebrowser --version

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install filebrowser

# Enable in rc.conf
echo 'filebrowser_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service filebrowser start

# Verify installation
filebrowser --version

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install filebrowser

# Or using Scoop
scoop install filebrowser

# Verify installation
filebrowser --version

bash

# Create configuration directory
sudo mkdir -p /etc/filebrowser

# Set up basic configuration
# See official documentation for detailed configuration options

# Test configuration
filebrowser --version

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable filebrowser

# Start service
sudo systemctl start filebrowser

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop filebrowser

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart filebrowser

# Check status
sudo systemctl status filebrowser

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u filebrowser -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add filebrowser default

# Start service
rc-service filebrowser start

# Stop service
rc-service filebrowser stop

# Restart service
rc-service filebrowser restart

# Check status
rc-service filebrowser status

bash

# Enable in /etc/rc.conf
echo 'filebrowser_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service filebrowser start

# Stop service
service filebrowser stop

# Restart service
service filebrowser restart

# Check status
service filebrowser status

bash

# Using Homebrew services
brew services start filebrowser
brew services stop filebrowser
brew services restart filebrowser

# Check status
brew services list | grep filebrowser

powershell

# Start service
net start filebrowser

# Stop service
net stop filebrowser

# Using PowerShell
Start-Service filebrowser
Stop-Service filebrowser
Restart-Service filebrowser

# Check status
Get-Service filebrowser

See the official documentation for advanced configuration options.

nginx

upstream filebrowser_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:80;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name filebrowser.example.com;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name filebrowser.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/filebrowser.example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/filebrowser.example.com.key;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://filebrowser_backend;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

apache

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName filebrowser.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://filebrowser.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName filebrowser.example.com
    
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/filebrowser.example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/filebrowser.example.com.key
    
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:80/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:80/
</VirtualHost>

haproxy

frontend filebrowser_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/filebrowser.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend filebrowser_backend

backend filebrowser_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server filebrowser1 127.0.0.1:80 check

bash

# Set appropriate permissions
sudo chown -R filebrowser:filebrowser /etc/filebrowser
sudo chmod 750 /etc/filebrowser

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=80/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Enable SELinux policies (if applicable)
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on

See official documentation for database configuration requirements.

bash

# Basic system tuning
echo 'net.core.somaxconn = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 'net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo sysctl -p

bash

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status filebrowser

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u filebrowser -f

# Monitor resource usage
top -p $(pgrep filebrowser)

bash

#!/bin/bash
# Basic backup script
BACKUP_DIR="/backup/filebrowser"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
tar -czf "$BACKUP_DIR/filebrowser-backup-$DATE.tar.gz" /etc/filebrowser /var/lib/filebrowser

echo "Backup completed: $BACKUP_DIR/filebrowser-backup-$DATE.tar.gz"

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop filebrowser

# Restore from backup
tar -xzf /backup/filebrowser/filebrowser-backup-*.tar.gz -C /

# Start service
sudo systemctl start filebrowser

1. Service won't start:

bash

# Check logs
sudo journalctl -u filebrowser -n 100
sudo tail -f /var/log/filebrowser/filebrowser.log

# Check configuration
filebrowser --version

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/filebrowser

2. Connection issues:

bash

# Check if service is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep 80

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost 80

# Check firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

3. Performance issues:

bash

# Check resource usage
top -p $(pgrep filebrowser)

# Check disk I/O
iotop -p $(pgrep filebrowser)

# Check connections
ss -an | grep 80

yaml

version: '3.8'
services:
  filebrowser:
    image: filebrowser:latest
    ports:
      - "80:80"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/filebrowser
      - ./data:/var/lib/filebrowser
    restart: unless-stopped

Maintenance

bash

# RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/AlmaLinux
sudo dnf update filebrowser

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade filebrowser

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu filebrowser

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade filebrowser

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update filebrowser

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade filebrowser

# Always backup before updates
tar -czf /backup/filebrowser-pre-update-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /etc/filebrowser

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart filebrowser

Regular Maintenance

bash

# Log rotation
sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/filebrowser

# Clean old logs
find /var/log/filebrowser -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -delete

# Check disk usage
du -sh /var/lib/filebrowser

Official Documentation: https://docs.filebrowser.org/

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/filebrowser/filebrowser

Community Forum: https://forum.filebrowser.org/

Best Practices Guide: https://docs.filebrowser.org/best-practices

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Note: This guide is part of the HowToMgr collection. Always refer to official documentation for the most up-to-date information.

1. Prerequisites

2. Supported Operating Systems

3. Installation

RHEL/CentOS/Rocky Linux/AlmaLinux

Debian/Ubuntu

Arch Linux

Alpine Linux

openSUSE/SLES

macOS

FreeBSD

Windows

Initial Configuration

Basic Configuration

5. Service Management

systemd (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, openSUSE)

OpenRC (Alpine Linux)

rc.d (FreeBSD)

launchd (macOS)

Windows Service Manager

Advanced Configuration

Reverse Proxy Setup

nginx Configuration

Apache Configuration

HAProxy Configuration

Security Configuration

Basic Security Setup

Database Setup

Performance Optimization

System Tuning

Monitoring

Basic Monitoring

9. Backup and Restore

Backup Script

Restore Procedure

6. Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Integration Examples

Docker Compose Example

Maintenance

Update Procedures

Regular Maintenance

Additional Resources

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