Sharing Files Over http Using Nodejs In Docker

Sometimes we just need to share some files over network to some friends, and need a solution that is easy and fast to setup, provided we already have docker installed in our machine.

First, prepare a directory. Then, put all the files that we want to share inside the directory

$ mkdir files

Then, run a container based on nodejs:slim image, and mount the above directory to our container, which is named "fileshare" in this example

$ docker run -dit -p 8080:80 --name fileshare -v $PWD:/files -w /files node:slim

Install http-server inside the container

$ docker exec -it fileshare npm install -g http-server 

Run http-server inside the container

$ docker exec -it fileshare http-server -p 80 .

You should now be able to view your files using a web browser. Just browse to your ip with port 8080 like below

Once you are done, just press control-C on the terminal where the http-server is running, and the http-server will be terminated