copyparty/docs/examples/windows.md

running copyparty on windows

this is a complete example / quickstart for running copyparty on windows, optionally as a service (autostart on boot)

you will definitely need either copyparty.exe (comfy, portable, more features) or copyparty-sfx.py (smaller, safer)

• if you decided to grab copyparty-sfx.py instead of the exe you will also need to install the "Latest Python 3 Release"

then you probably want to download FFmpeg and put ffmpeg.exe and ffprobe.exe in your PATH (so for example C:\Windows\System32\) -- this enables thumbnails, audio transcoding, and making music metadata searchable

the config file

open up notepad and save the following as c:\users\you\documents\party.conf (for example)

[global]
  lo: ~/logs/cpp-%Y-%m%d.xz  # log to c:\users\you\logs\
  e2dsa, e2ts, z    # sets 3 flags; see explanation
  p: 80, 443  # listen on ports 80 and 443, not 3923
  theme: 2    # default theme: protonmail-monokai
  lang: nor   # default language: viking

[accounts]                  # usernames and passwords
  kevin: shangalabangala    # kevin's password

[/]               # create a volume available at /
  c:\pub          # sharing this filesystem location
  accs:           # and set permissions:
    r: *          # everyone can read/download files,
    rwmd: kevin   # kevin can read/write/move/delete

[/inc]            # create another volume at /inc
  c:\pub\inc      # sharing this filesystem location
  accs:           # permissions:
    w: *          # everyone can upload, but not browse
    rwmd: kevin   # kevin is admin here too

[/music]          # and a third volume at /music
  ~/music         # which shares c:\users\you\music
  accs:
    r: *
    rwmd: kevin

config explained: [global]

the [global] section accepts any config parameters listed here, also viewable by running copyparty (either the exe or the sfx.py) with --help, so this is the same as running copyparty with arguments --lo c:\users\you\logs\copyparty-%Y-%m%d.xz -e2dsa -e2ts -z -p 80,443 --theme 2 --lang nor

• lo: ~/logs/cpp-%Y-%m%d.xz writes compressed logs (the compression will make them delayed)
• e2dsa enables the file indexer, which enables searching and upload-undo
• e2ts enables music metadata indexing, making albums / titles etc. searchable too
  • but the improved upload speed from e2dsa is not affected
• z enables zeroconf, making the server available at http://HOSTNAME.local/ from any other machine in the LAN
• p: 80,443 listens on the ports 80 and 443 instead of the default 3923
• lang: nor sets default language to viking

config explained: [accounts]

the [accounts] section defines all the user accounts, which can then be referenced when granting people access to the different volumes

config explained: volumes

then we create three volumes, one at /, one at /inc, and one at /music

• / and /music are readable without requiring people to login (r: *) but you need to login as kevin to write/move/delete files (rwmd: kevin)
• anyone can upload to /inc but you must be logged in as kevin to see the files inside

run copyparty

to test your config it's best to just run copyparty in a console to watch the output:

copyparty.exe -c party.conf

or if you wanna use copyparty-sfx.py instead of the exe (understandable),

%localappdata%\programs\python\python311\python.exe copyparty-sfx.py -c party.conf

(please adjust python311 to match the python version you installed, i'm not good enough at windows to make that bit generic)

run it as a service

to run this as a service you need NSSM, so put the exe somewhere in your PATH

then either do this for copyparty.exe:

nssm install cpp %homedrive%%homepath%\downloads\copyparty.exe -c %homedrive%%homepath%\documents\party.conf

or do this for copyparty-sfx.py:

nssm install cpp %localappdata%\programs\python\python311\python.exe %homedrive%%homepath%\downloads\copyparty-sfx.py -c %homedrive%%homepath%\documents\party.conf

then after creating the service, modify it so it runs with your own windows account (so file permissions don't get wonky and paths expand as expected):

nssm set cpp ObjectName .\yourAccoutName yourWindowsPassword
nssm start cpp

and that's it, all good

if it doesn't start, enable stderr logging so you can see what went wrong:

nssm set cpp AppStderr %homedrive%%homepath%\logs\cppsvc.err
nssm set cpp AppStderrCreationDisposition 2