File sharing

Planned private homelab media store — consolidate photography, share with granular link security, and back up alongside the versioning stack.

Self-hosted file sharing goes hand in hand with the versioning project — but where that stack handles project management and version control, this one is about media management. It is still earlier in planning than homelab versioning, though the idea itself is simpler: the same home hosting device will also hold whatever media we choose to keep there.

My partner is into photography, so she is already responsible for us having large picture files spread across devices, and finding “that one picture” is harder than it should be. That library is sensitive to data loss too. Sharing photos with others without wrecking quality, wading through ads, or handing everything to a privacy-hostile platform is its own problem — so we plan to host our own service to store, sort, and back up our media.

Most importantly, we will be able to pick media and share it through special links where others can view or download what we allow. Those links will come in different forms: open to anyone, protected by a password the uploader sets, or restricted to authorised accounts — easy to share, with security granularity when we need it.

Additional info

Highlights

  • Private homelab media hub — store, sort, and back up a scattered photography & media library.
  • Share links with tiers: public, password-protected, or authorised accounts only.
  • Tagged database + remote upload/view; backups tied to the versioning homelab — not a SaaS competitor.

The service will also be reachable over the internet for viewing and uploading, so we can move large batches of media to or from anyone, anywhere, and browse our own library on the road.

The shape I have in mind is a security layer with a straightforward GUI for uploads and downloads, backed by a database that tags and tracks everything stored on the service — so old or half-forgotten pictures are easier to find again.

It will run in tandem with the self-hosting stack, which will back up the media as well, so we are not betting everything on a single disk at home. Authorised accounts could let trusted people share with us directly, or use one-time upload links when that is enough.

We are not trying to rival public file-sharing products — all media remains visible to us; this is a private-oriented store for our own use and the people we choose to share with.