PairDrop/docs/host-your-own.md

Deployment Notes

Deployment with node

git clone https://github.com/schlagmichdoch/PairDrop.git && cd PairDrop

Install all dependencies with NPM:

npm install

Start the server with:

node index.js

or

npm start

Remember to check your IP Address using your OS command to see where you can access the server.

By default, the node server listens on port 3000.

Environment variables

Port

On Unix based systems

PORT=3010 npm start

On Windows

$env:PORT=3010; npm start 

Specify the port PairDrop is running on. (Default: 3000)

Options / Flags

Local Run

npm start -- --localhost-only

Only allow connections from localhost.

Use this when deploying PairDrop with node. This prevents connections to the node server from bypassing the proxy server, as you must use a server proxy to point to PairDrop (See #HTTP-Server).

Automatic restart on error

npm start -- --auto-restart 

Restarts server automatically on error

Rate limiting requests

npm start -- --rate-limit 

Limits clients to 100 requests per 5 min

Websocket Fallback (for VPN)

npm start -- --include-ws-fallback

Provides PairDrop to clients with an included websocket fallback if the peer to peer WebRTC connection is not available to the client.

This is not used on the official https://pairdrop.net, but you can activate it on your self-hosted instance using this option. This is especially useful if you connect to your instance via a VPN as most VPN services block WebRTC completely in order to hide your real IP address (read more).

Warning: All traffic sent between devices using this fallback is routed through the server and therefor not peer to peer! Beware that the traffic routed via this fallback is readable by the server. Only ever use this on instances you can trust. Additionally, beware that all traffic using this fallback debits the servers data plan.

Production (autostart and rate-limit)

npm run start:prod

Production (autostart, rate-limit, localhost-only and websocket fallback for VPN)

npm run start:prod -- --localhost-only --include-ws-fallback

To prevent connections to the node server from bypassing the proxy server you should use "--localhost-only" on production.

Deployment with Docker

The easiest way to get PairDrop up and running is by using Docker.

Build the image

docker image pull node:lts-alpine

Prevents Docker from using an old node:lts-alpine image by pulling the latest

docker build . -f Dockerfile -t pairdrop

A GitHub action is set up to do this step automatically

Run the image

docker run -p 127.0.0.1:3000:3000 -it pairdrop npm run start:prod

By default, PairDrop is started with auto-start and rate-limit enabled. By including "127.0.0.1" the docker container is only available on localhost (same as "--localhost-only" when deploying with node).

You must use a server proxy to point to PairDrop (See #HTTP-Server).

To specify options replace npm run start:prod according to the documentation above.

HTTP-Server

When running PairDrop, the X-Forwarded-For header has to be set by a proxy. Otherwise, all clients will be mutually visible.

Using nginx

Allow http and https requests

server {
    listen       80;

    expires epoch;

    location / {
        proxy_connect_timeout 300;
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-for $remote_addr;
    }
}

server {
    listen       443 ssl http2;
    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/pairdrop-dev.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/certs/pairdrop-dev.key;

    expires epoch;

    location / {
        proxy_connect_timeout 300;
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-for $remote_addr;
    }
}

Automatic http to https redirect:

server {
    listen       80;

    expires epoch;

    location / {
        return 301 https://$host:3000$request_uri;
    }
}

server {
    listen       443 ssl http2;
    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/pairdrop-dev.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/certs/pairdrop-dev.key;

    expires epoch;

    location / {
        proxy_connect_timeout 300;
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-for $remote_addr;
    }
}

Using Apache

install modules proxy, proxy_http, mod_proxy_wstunnel

a2enmod proxy

a2enmod proxy_http

a2enmod proxy_wstunnel

Create a new configuration file under /etc/apache2/sites-available (on debian)

pairdrop.conf

Allow http and https requests

<VirtualHost *:80>	
	ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:3000/
	RewriteEngine on
	RewriteCond %{HTTP:Upgrade} websocket [NC]
	RewriteCond %{HTTP:Connection} upgrade [NC]
	RewriteRule ^/?(.*) "ws://127.0.0.1:3000/$1" [P,L]
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:443>	
	ProxyPass / https://127.0.0.1:3000/
	RewriteEngine on
	RewriteCond %{HTTP:Upgrade} websocket [NC]
	RewriteCond %{HTTP:Connection} upgrade [NC]
	RewriteRule ^/?(.*) "wws://127.0.0.1:3000/$1" [P,L]
</VirtualHost>

Automatic http to https redirect:

<VirtualHost *:80>	
   Redirect permanent / https://127.0.0.1:3000/
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:443>	
	ProxyPass / https://127.0.0.1:3000/
	RewriteEngine on
	RewriteCond %{HTTP:Upgrade} websocket [NC]
	RewriteCond %{HTTP:Connection} upgrade [NC]
	RewriteRule ^/?(.*) "wws://127.0.0.1:3000/$1" [P,L]
</VirtualHost>

Activate the new virtual host and reload apache:

a2ensite pairdrop

service apache2 reload

Local Development

Install

All files needed for developing are available on the branch dev.

First, Install docker with docker-compose.

Then, clone the repository and run docker-compose:

    git clone https://github.com/schlagmichdoch/PairDrop.git

    cd PairDrop

    git checkout dev
    
    docker-compose up -d

Now point your browser to http://localhost:8080.

• To restart the containers run docker-compose restart.
• To stop the containers run docker-compose stop.
• To debug the NodeJS server run docker logs pairdrop_node_1.

Testing PWA related features

PWAs require that the app is served under a correctly set up and trusted TLS endpoint.

The nginx container creates a CA certificate and a website certificate for you. To correctly set the common name of the certificate, you need to change the FQDN environment variable in docker/fqdn.env to the fully qualified domain name of your workstation.

If you want to test PWA features, you need to trust the CA of the certificate for your local deployment. For your convenience, you can download the crt file from http://<Your FQDN>:8080/ca.crt. Install that certificate to the trust store of your operating system.

• On Windows, make sure to install it to the Trusted Root Certification Authorities store.
• On MacOS, double click the installed CA certificate in Keychain Access, expand Trust, and select Always Trust for SSL.
• Firefox uses its own trust store. To install the CA, point Firefox at http://<Your FQDN>:8080/ca.crt. When prompted, select Trust this CA to identify websites and click OK.
• When using Chrome, you need to restart Chrome so it reloads the trust store (chrome://restart). Additionally, after installing a new cert, you need to clear the Storage (DevTools -> Application -> Clear storage -> Clear site data).

Please note that the certificates (CA and webserver cert) expire after a day. Also, whenever you restart the nginx docker, container new certificates are created.

The site is served on https://<Your FQDN>:8443.

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