nginx-docker

This simply takes the official nginx docker image and turns on autoindex.

This way you can do a simple mount to easily serve files from your local file system with nginx. To serve the current working directory on port 8080, use this command:

docker run --rm -it --name nginx-file-server -p '8080:80' \
    -v $(pwd):/usr/share/nginx/html:ro docker.io/freedomben/nginx

Or to serve /home/bryan/www daemonized:

docker run --rm -d --name nginx-file-server -p '8080:80' \
    -v /home/bryan/www:/usr/share/nginx/html:ro docker.io/freedomben/nginx

For convenience I added this function to my .bashrc that defaults to the current directory and port 8080:

declare -rx color_cyan='\033[0;36m'
# ...
declare -rx color_restore='\033[0m'

nginx-serve ()
{
    local port=${1:-8080}
    local root_dir=$(pwd)
    echo -e "${color_cyan}Starting nginx docker container serving $root_dir on port ${port}...${color_restore}"
    echo -e "${color_cyan}Stop the server with Ctrl+C when finished${color_restore}"
    docker run                                      \
        --interactive                               \
        --tty                                       \
        --rm                                        \
        --name nginx-file-server                    \
        --publish "$port:80"                        \
        --volume $root_dir:/usr/share/nginx/html:ro \
        docker.io/freedomben/nginx

}

Then just cd to whatever directory you want to serve, then run the command nginx-serve.

Then hit http://<yourip>:8080/ and see the nice index page. This is especially useful for transferring files across a local network where SSH access is not available (like to smart phones and such).

Building

You can just pull it down from Docker Hub if you want:

docker pull docker.io/freedomben/nginx`

Or if you want to build it locally:

docker build -t docker.io/freedomben/nginx:latest -t docker.io/freedomben/nginx:1.21-alpine -f Dockerfile .

Then push (if you have push rights, which you probably don't, but this is useful for me or for you if pushing to //nginx

docker push docker.io/freedomben/nginx:latest && \
docker push docker.io/freedomben/nginx:1.21-alpine

FAQ

Is this secure? Is it safe?

There may be open CVEs since upstream gets them occasionally. I try to update this image often but it's not a prod image for me so it can fall behind sometimes.

As far as safety, be careful not to serve up some directory with potentially sensitive things in it. For example you probably don't want to serve your home directory since basically all of your files are exposed unsecured over your network. Stick the stuff you want to be available into a directory with no subdirectories in it, then expose that.

Also make sure to stop the server when you're done with it. If you ran it in the foreground just hit Ctrl+C or docker stop nginx-file-server. If you daemonized it, use docker stop nginx-file-server (or whatever name you gave the container).

Can I use this in prod to serve my static website?

Sure I suppose. It is nginx after all. However you probably want to fine-tune the nginx config file for your app targeting security and performance. No effort has been done on this image by me here toward those goals.

Also, I try to keep up with the current version but that's not a high priority since this is a simple convenience tool that I use to move files over my local network. As such, the version being run might be outdated and have security vulnerabilities in it. For this reason I wouldn't use this in prod.