I currently have Nextcloud running, and it’s stable, performant…no issues whatsoever. But it’s also a LOT more than what I need, and stores files in an “unusable” state if I want to look at them outside of Nextcloud. The real kicker is that the linux client wants to download the entire cloud drive, which simply doesn’t work for me.
For most cases, I think a samba share is all I need, but I do have times when I don’t have internet access, so the ability to save specific files locally to sync back when I’m home would be great. Nextcloud and OneDrive have a “always keep on this device” option which has been perfect in the past.
I use Syncthing for some specific cases, but it adds extra steps I don’t want to deal with all the time.
Specifically, I’m looking for something with these requirements:
- provide a virtual drive for Linux and Windows
- can keep specific files/folders from that drive offline
- point the server to a folder (or folders), and that’s what it shares
And “would be nice, but not required”
- web interface to view/download files
- user-level access
- web and virtual drive can be accessed via reverse proxy
I’ve tried poking around, and can’t find anything that seems to fit. I’m surprised there isn’t a webdav client or samba config option that would do what I want, but I may also be in a mental rut and missing a key term.
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There’s opencloud which seems to be exactly what you’re looking for – a files-only lightweight alternative for nextcloud. When I was looking for the post on hacker news I also ran across karadav which seems like it might be a nice hybrid between the DAVs suggested by other users and your existing nextcloud install.
Nextcloud Linux client has an option to selectively sync folders no?
You can access all Nextcloud files over WebDAV. That is natively supported by many file browsers, including explorer.exe on Windows.
And you can choose in the Linux client what folders to sync.
What the Linux client (in contrast to the Windows client) does not support is having virtual files in a folder and only downloading files on demand.
Apart from that, have you looked at Opencloud?
On Windows, Nextcloud seems to tap into some Windows function to provide files on demand. Is there any Linux cloud file service that can do it?
Nextcloud implements webdav, which you can use rclone to mount as a remote.
Also many distros have an online account option which does the same thing
You could probably do this with FUSE. Guess nobody cared to make that yet.
It exists and I’ve tried it - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davfs2
Thing is, when an app thinks a directory is on a local disk, it does things which do not scale well over a network. e.g. reading every file in the directory to make thumbnails.
Seafile has fuse for accessing it as a folder.
What the Linux client (in contrast to the Windows client) does not support is having virtual files in a folder and only downloading files on demand.
This is specifically what I want.
And…somehow I missed opencloud in all of my searching? I think I may have mentally combined it with OwnCloud/OCIS. It looks promising. Diving into the docs, now.
Opencloud is a fork of the new Owncloud, I think. Similar to how Nextcloud was forked from the old Owncloud.
I use Syncthing and Resilio Sync for this stuff.
Both of them sync according to rules you define.
I sync my mobile devices to home this way, and access the folders on the server via SMB shares (which are unrelated to ST or Resilio).
No web interface required, as you just use whatever network sharing you want at home.
What “extra steps” are you running into with SyncThing? Its really flexible (especially Syncthing-Fork for Android). Maybe it or Resilio can be configured to do what you need.
For example, I use the Selective Sync feature in Resilio so that I can access any file at home whenever I want without using a VPN.
Pretty sure you should have the ability to choose what to sync, either from the server, or the client. Seems kind of dumb for it to automatically assume you have the space on the client device to sync EVERYTHING.
I thought the same thing, but I’ve spent a good chunk of time looking at every button in the linux client, and it’s just options of “sync: y/n”, with an initial choice of “do not sync if folder size is 500MB+”. And the files/folders not synced do not show up locally. The windows client lets you see everything, but only download when you open or pick “save locally”. But not on Linux.
Docs say you can choose what to sync, and disable syncing entirely where you don’t want it: https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/latest/user_manual/en/desktop/usage.html
There should be a nearly identical menu to the Windows version that lets you select or deselect folders.
Click on your account > settings. And then it will show the list of folders available to sync.
It’s not free but it’s awesome and cheap. Setup a WebDAV share and join it using “Mountainduck.io”. It connects to everything like SMB but I find WebDAV’s multichannel is more performant in the long run. Checks notes Win/Mac only sorry.
I’m searching too. Seafile keeps popping up, but I haven’t looked at it yet.
Seafile apparently obfuscates the files, which is not great. If it dies, or they pull some weird shutdown shenanigans, what happens to my files? Nexcloud, at least, is readable and organized, if (in my opinion) weird.
