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Installation

File Browser is a single binary and can be used as standalone executable. However, it is also available as a Docker image. The installation and first time setup is quite straightforward independently of which system you use.

Binary

The quickest and easiest way to install File Browser is to use a package manager, or our download script, which automatically fetches the latest version of File Browser for your platform.

brew tap filebrowser/tap
brew install filebrowser
filebrowser -r /path/to/your/files

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/filebrowser/get/master/get.sh | bash
filebrowser -r /path/to/your/files

iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/filebrowser/get/master/get.ps1 | iex
filebrowser -r /path/to/your/files

File Browser is now up and running. Read some first boot for more information.

Docker

File Browser is available as two different Docker images, which can be found on Docker Hub: a bare Alpine image and an S6 Overlay image.

Bare Alpine Image

docker run \
    -v filebrowser_data:/srv \
    -v filebrowser_database:/database \
    -v filebrowser_config:/config \
    -p 8080:80 \
    filebrowser/filebrowser

Where filebrowser_data, filebrowser_database and filebrowser_config are Docker volumes, where the data, database and configuration will be stored, respectively. The default configuration and database will be automatically initialized.

The default user that runs File Browser inside the container has PID 1000 and GID 1000. If, for one reason or another, you want to run the Docker container with a different user, please consult Docker’s user documentation.

Note

When using bind mounts, that is, when you mount a path on the host in the container, you must manually ensure that they have the correct permissions. Docker does not do this automatically for you. The host directories must be readable and writable by the user running inside the container. You can use the chown command to change the owner of those paths.

File Browser is now up and running. Read the “First Boot” section for more information.

S6 Overlay Image

The s6 image is based on LinuxServer and leverages the s6-overlay system for a standard, highly customizable image. It should be used as follows:

docker run \
    -v /path/to/srv:/srv \
    -v /path/to/database:/database \
    -v /path/to/config:/config \
    -e PUID=$(id -u) \
    -e PGID=$(id -g) \
    -p 8080:80 \
    filebrowser/filebrowser:s6

Where:

  • /path/to/srv contains the files root directory for File Browser
  • /path/to/config contains a settings.json file
  • /path/to/database contains a filebrowser.db file

Both settings.json and filebrowser.db will automatically be initialized if they don’t exist.

File Browser is now up and running. Read the “First Boot” section for more information.

First Boot

Your instance is now up and running. File Browser will automatically bootstrap a database, in which the configuration and the users are stored. You can find the address in which your instance is running, as well as the randomly generated password for the user admin, in the console logs.

Warning

The automatically generated password for the user admin is only displayed once. If you fail to remember it, you will need to manually delete the database and start File Browser again.

Although this is the fastest way to bootstrap an instance, we recommend you to take a look at other possible options, by checking config init --help and config set --help, to make the installation as safe and customized as it can be.

If your goal is to have a public-facing deployment, we recommend taking a look at the deployment page for more information on how you can secure your installation.