this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2025
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I have a bunch of plain text recipe files on a NAS. If a family member wants to cook something, they ask me to print them a copy.

I’m looking for a simple as possible way to put them on a local web server via a Docker image or similar.

Basically all I need is to have http://recipes.local/ show the list of files, then you can click one to view and or print it.

Don’t want logins. Don’t need ability to edit files. Want something read-only I can set and forget while I continue to manage the content directly on the NAS.

What would you suggest?

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[–] dan@upvote.au 22 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Install Nginx, add autoindex on; to the default site config, throw the files into /var/www/html or whatever default folder it uses, and delete the default index.html file. If you need to do it via Docker then use the official Nginx image https://hub.docker.com/_/nginx

You could also just share the files via SMB. Easy to use on a PC - you could configure their computers to mount the share as a network drive on boot (e.g. R:, for recipes). Not sure about other phones but the built-in files app on my Galaxy S25 Ultra supports SMB too.

[–] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 day ago

I already have SMB but want something easier for non tech family members.

Nginx sounds like the way to go and just symlink www -> recipes

Thanks.

[–] Luckyfriend222@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Based on OPs requirements, this is the answer

[–] k4j8@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

Caddy has this feature built-in. It looks nice too.

recipes.local {
	root * /srv
	file_server
}

https://caddyserver.com/docs/caddyfile/directives/file_server

There's also File Browser.

[–] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 1 day ago

A web server with directory listing enabled would work fine for that.

[–] lorentz@feddit.it 2 points 1 day ago

Just use the directory listing of your favourite web server. You have a HTTP read only view of a directory and all of its content. If you self host likely you have already a reverse proxy, so it is just matter of updating its configuration. I'm sure it is supported by Apache, Nginx, LightHttpd, and Caddy. But I would expect every webserver supports it. Caddy is the easiest to use if you need to start from scratch.

I use dufs. Copyparty seems good too.

[–] cute_noker@feddit.dk 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Copy files and do a

python3 -m http.server

Very simple and does the job.

[–] Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Not quite what you want, but I am a huge fan of mealie.

[–] undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 day ago

Yes, that. It's a bit much, but it's really easy to use.

[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Came here to say the same thing. More than OP is asking for, but it's fantastic.

[–] curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago

Just used it to import a recipe, tweak it, and then I made it. Big fan of mealie.

I bet it would do a decent job of parsing those text files.

[–] _cryptagion@anarchist.nexus 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

why not copyparty?

[–] Tramort@programming.dev 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

sandstorm is dead simple to host and crazy secure.

it handles user accounts for you and there are lots of apps to serve files or track text files.

it rocks.

[–] HelloRoot@lemy.lol 0 points 1 day ago