FamilyPhotos Server

An open source self-hosted photo and video server for your family written in Rust.

How to set up

Build the docker image, set up the environment variables and run the image.

It's expected that you run a proxy like Nginx to handle TLS if you need it.

Docker

Clone the repository and run the following command to build a docker image:

docker build -t familyphotos .

Docker Compose

Here is an example of a Docker compose file

services:
   familyphotos:
     container_name: familyphotos
     image: familyphotos
     volumes:
       - /path/to/photos/folder/:/mnt/photos/
     restart: always
     ports:
        8080:3000
     environment:
       SERVER_PORT: 3000
       STORAGE_PATH: /mnt/photos/

Below you can see all the environment variables that can be configured

Env Variables

Variables in bold must be specified.

• SERVER_PORT: The port the server should listen on
• STORAGE_PATH: The path to the folder where the photos will be stored
• DATABASE_URL: Alternative path for the database. Must have the format "sqlite:://path/to/database.db" [default: in ${STORAGE_PATH}/.familyphotos.db]
• PREVIEWS_PATH: Alternative storage path for photo previews (this, for example is useful when you want to store the photos on an HDD but the previews on an SSD) [default: in ${STORAGE_PATH}/.preview]
• SCAN_NEW_FILES: Scan the storage for external changes at startup and periodically [default: true]
• BACKGROUND_THREADS_COUNT: Number of threads to use for background tasks [default: number of logical CPUs]

Creating user accounts

To create new user accounts, run the following command using the CLI:

familyphotos user create -u <user_name> -d <display_name> [-p <password>]

This will generate a new user with the given username, display name and password or a random one if not provided.

Example Nginx Config with HTTPS

http {
    upstream familyphotos {
        zone upstreams 1M;
        server 127.0.0.1:3000;
        keepalive 2;
    }

    server {
        # HTTPS Config
        listen 443 ssl http2;
        listen [::]:443 ssl http2;
        ssl_certificate /path/to/certificate.pem;
        ssl_certificate_key /path/to/privkey.pem;
        ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;

        server_name example.com;

        # Recommended for Performance (optional)
        sendfile on;
        tcp_nopush on;
        tcp_nodelay on;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header "Connection" "";
        proxy_buffers 4 2M;
        proxy_buffer_size 1M;
        proxy_busy_buffers_size 2M;

        
        location ~ ^/(.*)$ {
            client_max_body_size 1G;
            proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
            proxy_pass http://familyphotos/$1$is_args$args;
            proxy_redirect off;
        }
    }
}

Folder structure

The server will generate the following folder structure in the STORAGE_PATH folder:

├───.familyphotos.db # Database (if not specified elsewhere)
│
├───.previews/ # Folder for previews (if not specified elsewhere)
│
├───public/ # The folder of the "public" user, alas photos who belong to everyone
│   ├───<album_name>/ # Folder for albums aka "folders"
│   │   └───<photo_name> # Photo files
│   └───<photo_name> # Photo files
│
└───<user_name>/ # Folder for each individual user
    ├───<album_name>/ # Folder for albums aka "folders"
    │   └───<photo_name> # Photo files
    └───<photo_name> # Photo files