I currently have Nextcloud running, and it’s stable, performant…no issues whatsoever. But it’s also a LOT more than what I need, and stores files in an “unusable” state if I want to look at them outside of Nextcloud. The real kicker is that the linux client wants to download the entire cloud drive, which simply doesn’t work for me.

For most cases, I think a samba share is all I need, but I do have times when I don’t have internet access, so the ability to save specific files locally to sync back when I’m home would be great. Nextcloud and OneDrive have a “always keep on this device” option which has been perfect in the past.

I use Syncthing for some specific cases, but it adds extra steps I don’t want to deal with all the time.

Specifically, I’m looking for something with these requirements:

  • provide a virtual drive for Linux and Windows
  • can keep specific files/folders from that drive offline
  • point the server to a folder (or folders), and that’s what it shares

And “would be nice, but not required”

  • web interface to view/download files
  • user-level access
  • web and virtual drive can be accessed via reverse proxy

I’ve tried poking around, and can’t find anything that seems to fit. I’m surprised there isn’t a webdav client or samba config option that would do what I want, but I may also be in a mental rut and missing a key term.

  • Björn@swg-empire.deEnglish
    11·
    12 hours ago

    You can access all Nextcloud files over WebDAV. That is natively supported by many file browsers, including explorer.exe on Windows.

    And you can choose in the Linux client what folders to sync.

    What the Linux client (in contrast to the Windows client) does not support is having virtual files in a folder and only downloading files on demand.

    Apart from that, have you looked at Opencloud?

    • Dave@lemmy.nzEnglish
      4·
      11 hours ago

      On Windows, Nextcloud seems to tap into some Windows function to provide files on demand. Is there any Linux cloud file service that can do it?

      • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.techEnglish
        4·
        10 hours ago

        Nextcloud implements webdav, which you can use rclone to mount as a remote.

        Also many distros have an online account option which does the same thing

        • Dave@lemmy.nzEnglish
          2·
          9 hours ago

          In my experience it’s not quite the same. Using webdav through the distro account seems that it’s fully online. And folder access or file access contacts the server.

          The virtual file experience is more of a hybrid. All the folders actually exist on disk, as well as shells for every file. If you try to open a virtual file, in the background Windows will seamlessly download it for you. At that point the file is actually on your disk. This way regularly accessed files on on your hard drive and seldom accessed ones are not, saving local hard drive space while providing an experience almost like if all the files were actually on your drive.

      • Björn@swg-empire.deEnglish
        21·
        11 hours ago

        You could probably do this with FUSE. Guess nobody cared to make that yet.

    • naate@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
      4·
      12 hours ago

      What the Linux client (in contrast to the Windows client) does not support is having virtual files in a folder and only downloading files on demand.

      This is specifically what I want.

      And…somehow I missed opencloud in all of my searching? I think I may have mentally combined it with OwnCloud/OCIS. It looks promising. Diving into the docs, now.

      • Björn@swg-empire.deEnglish
        4·
        11 hours ago

        Opencloud is a fork of the new Owncloud, I think. Similar to how Nextcloud was forked from the old Owncloud.