FTP Backup — Self-Hosted Online File Repository

A lightweight, self-hosted web application for backing up personal files from any device. Access your files anywhere through a modern browser UI (HTTP/HTTPS) or push them from any machine using the bundled rsync helper script over SSH.

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Features

Feature	Details
Web UI	Directory browser, upload (drag & drop), download, rename, delete, create folders
Drag & Drop upload	Select multiple files at once
REST-style API	GET /api/list/<path> — JSON directory listing for scripted access
Session auth	Username + password login protecting all routes
Docker	Single docker compose up deploys the app + Nginx reverse-proxy
HTTPS	Let's Encrypt / Certbot integration out of the box
rsync helper	scripts/sync.sh pushes local folders to the server over SSH
Health-check	GET /health — used by Docker and load-balancers

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Quick Start (local dev)

# 1. Clone & enter the repo
git clone https://github.com/DarkModder33/FTP_backup.git
cd FTP_backup

# 2. Create a virtual environment and install dependencies
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate   # Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

# 3. Copy the example env file and set your credentials
cp .env.example .env
#   → edit .env: set SECRET_KEY, ADMIN_USERNAME, ADMIN_PASSWORD

# 4. Run
python app.py

Open http://localhost:5000 and log in with the credentials you set.

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Production Deployment (tradehax.net)

Prerequisites

• A Linux server (Ubuntu 22.04+ recommended) with Docker + Docker Compose installed
• DNS A record for tradehax.net (and optionally www.tradehax.net) pointing to the server IP
• Ports 80 and 443 open in your firewall

Step 1 — Copy files to the server

rsync -avz ./ user@tradehax.net:/opt/ftpbackup/

Step 2 — Configure environment

cd /opt/ftpbackup
cp .env.example .env
nano .env   # set SECRET_KEY, ADMIN_USERNAME, ADMIN_PASSWORD

Step 3 — Issue a TLS certificate (first time only)

# Temporarily bring up Nginx on port 80 for the ACME challenge
docker compose up -d nginx

docker compose run --rm certbot certonly \
  --webroot -w /var/www/certbot \
  -d tradehax.net -d www.tradehax.net \
  --email your@email.com --agree-tos --non-interactive

Step 4 — Start everything

docker compose up -d

The site is now live at https://tradehax.net.

Certificate renewal

Certbot auto-renews certificates every 12 hours. Nginx will pick up new certificates on the next reload. You can trigger a manual reload with:

docker compose exec nginx nginx -s reload

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Pushing Files from Your Devices (rsync over SSH)

The scripts/sync.sh helper wraps rsync to push a local folder to the server.

# Make the script executable (once)
chmod +x scripts/sync.sh

# Push your Documents folder into a "documents" directory on the server
./scripts/sync.sh ~/Documents documents

# Dry-run first to preview what will be transferred
./scripts/sync.sh --dry-run ~/Photos photos

# Override server settings inline
BACKUP_HOST=tradehax.net BACKUP_USER=myuser ./scripts/sync.sh ~/Music music

Default environment variables:

Variable	Default	Description
BACKUP_HOST	tradehax.net	Server hostname or IP
BACKUP_USER	$USER (current)	SSH username
BACKUP_PORT	22	SSH port
BACKUP_DEST	/data/uploads	Remote base directory

Tip: Add an SSH key pair (ssh-keygen) and copy your public key to the server (ssh-copy-id user@tradehax.net) so the sync script runs without a password prompt.

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SSH Access

Files are stored under /data/uploads on the server (mapped to the uploads Docker volume). To browse or manage files over SSH:

ssh user@tradehax.net
ls /data/uploads

Or mount the volume directly from the host:

# Find the volume mount point
docker volume inspect ftpbackup_uploads

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Environment Variables

See .env.example for all available options.

Variable	Default	Description
SECRET_KEY	random	Flask session secret — must be set in production
ADMIN_USERNAME	admin	Login username
ADMIN_PASSWORD	changeme	Login password — must be changed
UPLOAD_FOLDER	./uploads	Path where files are stored
MAX_UPLOAD_BYTES	10 GB	Maximum upload size
SESSION_LIFETIME	28800 s	Session cookie lifetime
ALLOW_PUBLIC_READ	false	Allow unauthenticated read-only access
FLASK_DEBUG	false	Never enable in production

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Project Structure

FTP_backup/
├── app.py                  # Flask application
├── config.py               # Configuration (reads from env vars)
├── requirements.txt        # Python dependencies
├── Dockerfile              # Container image
├── docker-compose.yml      # Multi-service stack (app + nginx + certbot)
├── .env.example            # Environment variable template
├── nginx/
│   ├── nginx.conf          # Main Nginx config
│   └── conf.d/
│       └── tradehax.conf   # Virtual host for tradehax.net (HTTP→HTTPS + proxy)
├── scripts/
│   └── sync.sh             # rsync helper for client-side backups
├── static/
│   ├── css/app.css         # Stylesheet
│   ├── js/app.js           # Client-side JavaScript
│   └── favicon.svg
├── templates/
│   ├── base.html           # Base layout
│   ├── login.html          # Login page
│   └── browse.html         # File browser
└── uploads/                # Local dev storage (git-ignored)

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Security Notes

• Always set a strong, unique SECRET_KEY and ADMIN_PASSWORD in your .env file.
• The app runs as a non-root user inside Docker.
• TLS is required in production — the Nginx config redirects all HTTP traffic to HTTPS.
• Path traversal is prevented: all file operations are validated to stay within UPLOAD_FOLDER.
• Files are saved with werkzeug.utils.secure_filename to sanitise uploaded filenames.