{"id":43604,"date":"2023-01-22T16:06:58","date_gmt":"2023-01-22T16:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/?p=43604"},"modified":"2024-09-05T06:51:39","modified_gmt":"2024-09-05T06:51:39","slug":"transfer-file-ubuntu-22-04","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/2023\/01\/transfer-file-ubuntu-22-04\/","title":{"rendered":"Stupid Easy Way to Transfer Small Files to or from Ubuntu 22.04"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There are quite a few ways to transfer files between different machines. For Ubuntu and most other Linux, here’s an easy way for choice.<\/p>\n

Usually, I use a USB cable or a messenger app for transferring photo images between my personal PC and mobile devices.<\/p>\n

However, my USB cable is always NOT near at hand and I hate to scan QR code again and again on PC for logging 3rd app. In this case, creating a temporary http file server with Python is an easy and good choice.<\/p>\n

Upside and downside<\/h3>\n

Python is pre-installed in most Linux Distros. So this is an universal method for Linux.<\/strong> It also works in Windows and macOS with Python programming language installed.<\/p>\n

As a simply http server, any devices with a web browser<\/i> can download (or upload) files from\/to the server side either over local network or internet.<\/p>\n

However, http is NOT designed for transferring files. It’s OK to handle small files (e.g., photo images and short videos less than a few hundred MB). But for large files with a few GB or more file size, it may not work! As well, it’s NOT secure for accessing important files outside from local network.<\/p>\n

Single command to create a Python http server:<\/h3>\n

For those who are new to Linux, user may first open file manager, navigate to the folder that contains the files to share with other device, right-click on blank area and select “Open in Termina<\/strong>l”.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It will open a terminal window and automatically navigate to that folder as working directory.<\/p>\n

Or, you can also open terminal from start menu and run cd<\/code> command to navigate directory. For example, run the command below to navigate to user’s Pictures folder:<\/p>\n

cd ~\/Pictures<\/pre>\n
Then, run the single command to start a http file server<\/b> (For some Linux, replace python3<\/code> with python<\/code> in command):<\/p>\n
python3 -m http.server<\/pre>\n
By default, it listens to port 8000. If the port is already in use, use python3 -m http.server 9090<\/code> to set another port number (change number 9090 as you want).<\/p>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
After that, visit http:\/\/ip-address:8000<\/u> (change number 8000 if you set another port) in any device via a web browser. You can then open and\/or right-click save as to download any file from that folder.<\/b><\/p>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
Create python http server with upload support<\/h3>\n
1. If you want to send files from any device to Ubuntu Linux, open terminal and run command:<\/p>\n
python3 -m pip install --user uploadserver<\/pre>\n
Install pip first via sudo apt install python3-pip<\/code> if the command above does not work<\/i>. This command will install a Python module uploadserver<\/a>.<\/p>\n
NOTE: For Ubuntu 24.04, this pip install<\/code> command does NOT work due to policy change. You may either follow this tutorial for workaround<\/a>, or use the command below instead:<\/b><\/p>\n
python3 -m pip install --user uploadserver --break-system-packages<\/pre>\n
2. Then open or navigate to your desired folder in terminal window, and run command to create simple http file server with both download and upload support<\/b>:<\/p>\n
python3 -m uploadserver<\/pre>\n
Also specify port number if you want, for example, python3 -m uploadserver 9990<\/code><\/i><\/p>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
3. Finally, visit http:\/\/ip-address:8000<\/u> in any device via web browser can access and download files. Or, go to http:\/\/ip-address:8000\/upload<\/u> for uploading files.<\/p>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
For security reason, you may add a token authentication so client machines need to verify before being able to upload a file. To do so, run the command below instead in Ubuntu Linux:<\/p>\n
python3 -m uploadserver -t password_here<\/pre>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are quite a few ways to transfer files between different machines. For Ubuntu and most other Linux, here’s an easy way for choice. Usually, I use a USB cable or a messenger app for transferring photo images between my personal PC and mobile devices. However, my USB cable is always NOT near at hand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1317],"class_list":["post-43604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-howtos","tag-network"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}