this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2025
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I find myself often having to transfer a random files from another person's device to mine. Existing file sharing solutions aren't exactly ideal because they either require me to remember a very long URL (file shares), or requiring me to log in on others' device (cloud). I'm wondering if there's a program where anyone can upload files, but can only be viewed and downloaded from the server by authenticated users. I understand it's not wise to accept files from unauthenticated users, but it would be so damn convenient. If there isn't one, I suppose that would be my next project.

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[–] dgdft@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

While I’m sure there’s a pre-canned tool out there for you, if you have basic software experience (which you seem to), this is one of those times where it’s usually most efficient to hack together a dumb CGI script and call it a day.

This prompt should get you most of the way there, using your llm of choice:

Write a minimalist cgi script to help upload files to a server. Upon a GET request, serve a light page with a centered form that takes in a file and a submission code. Submission codes will be stored on individual lines of a plaintext file. Adding new codes to this file is out of scope - but the codes will be 8-char hex strings (do validate that submission strings are not empty!). The script should accept the submission as a POST, and save the file to an upload dir if the submission code is valid.

Vet the output, harden as needed, setup a systemd service to serve with busybox httpd, and optionally reverse-proxy. If you’ve done this sorta thing before, you can probably knock it out in a half hour.