Run HFS HTTP File Server as a Daemon on Ubuntu 22.04 – Step‑by‑Step Guide

Running HFS without daemon (Ubuntu 22.04)

Step 1: Create the HTTP root directory. mkdir -vp /home/budgie/mirrorsHTTP Step 2: Extract the hfs-linux.zip package to a custom directory, e.g., /usr/bin/hfsFolder.

Step 3: Create a symbolic link for the HFS binary in /usr/bin. ln -s /usr/bin/hfsFolder/hfs /usr/bin/ Step 4: Run hfs interactively, keep the session open, type help, then configure the listening port. config port 8011 Step 5: Open a browser to http://localhost:8090/~/admin/ and add the shared folder path /home/budgie/mirrorsHTTP.

Step 6: View the current configuration file at $HOME/.hfs/config.yaml.

Step 7: Access the shared folder from another machine via http://192.168.136.136:8090/.

Running HFS as a daemon (Ubuntu 22.04)

The initial steps (1‑5) are identical to the non‑daemon method: create the root directory, extract the package, link the binary, start hfs to set the port, and add the shared folder.

Additional steps for daemonization:

Step 8: Extract the Node.js binary package to /usr/bin/hfsFolder/ (required for the latest HFS version).

tar -xf /home/budgie/Downloads/node-v20.9.0-linux-x64.tar.xz -C /usr/bin/hfsFolder/

Step 9: Create symbolic links for node and npm in /usr/bin.

ln -s /usr/bin/hfsFolder/node-v20.9.0-linux-x64/bin/node /usr/bin/

ln -s /usr/bin/hfsFolder/node-v20.9.0-linux-x64/bin/npm /usr/bin/

Step 10: Verify the installations. node --version Step 11: Use npx to run the latest HFS and check for errors. npx -y hfs@latest Step 12: Create a systemd service file /etc/systemd/system/hfs.service (content omitted for brevity) to run HFS as a background service.

Step 13: Reload systemd, enable and start the service, then check its status.

systemctl daemon-reload && systemctl enable hfs && systemctl start hfs && systemctl status hfs

Step 14: Open a browser to http://192.168.136.136:8090/ to verify the shared folder is accessible.

This procedure provides a complete, repeatable method for deploying HFS as either an interactive tool or a persistent systemd service on Ubuntu 22.04.