Linux File Explorer
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open source · self-hosted · runs anywhere Docker runs

Browse your Linux drives
like it's Windows Explorer.

An open-source, self-hosted file and drive manager for your Linux server — full filesystem access, hot-pluggable drive mounting, drag-and-drop file and folder uploads, durable background copy/move/delete jobs, a proper Trash, permissions editing, light/dark mode, and keyboard navigation that actually feels native.

Quick start with Docker View source
ASP.NET Core 10 Angular + PrimeNG SQLite Docker Compose Apache 2.0
https://files.your-server.lan
Explorer details view with date grouping and file listing
4 drivesmounted & live
Copy jobrunning in background

Built for admins who live on the terminal — but want a Windows-Explorer-grade UI when they don't.

Features

Everything a real file manager needs

Not a toy uploader — a Details-view explorer with the operations you'd expect from a desktop OS, running entirely in the browser.

Details-view listing

Sortable columns, Windows-style date grouping (Today / Yesterday / Last week…), multi-select via click, Shift/Ctrl, or a mouse rubber-band drag, and a right-click context menu.

Full keyboard navigation

Arrows, Shift+arrows, Ctrl+A, Enter, Backspace, F2, Delete, Ctrl+C/X/V, and instant type-ahead search — the grid is fully operable without a mouse.

Durable background jobs

Copy, move, and delete run as background jobs processed by a parallel worker pool that keep going even if you close the tab, with live progress on the Tasks page pushed over SignalR. Moves within the same drive are instant — a plain rename instead of a byte-for-byte copy.

Safe deletes

Deleting moves items to a per-drive hidden Trash instead of removing them immediately — restore or permanently purge from the dedicated Trash page.

Drive sidebar

Left-hand drive list with free-space usage bars. The sidebar is resizable and its width is shared across Explorer, Tasks, and Trash.

Hot-plug drive mounting

Newly connected drives appear in the sidebar under "Ready to mount" for one-click mounting; mounted drives get an eject button to unmount safely, restricted server-side to devices under /mnt.

Properties & permissions

A Properties dialog shows size/type/dates, plus a Permissions tab to view and change owner, group, and rwx bits (chmod/chown) when the API runs on Linux.

File preview

Inline preview for images, text, PDF, audio, and video, without ever leaving the folder listing.

Recursive search

Search the current folder and everything beneath it — instant type-ahead search finds what you need without switching views.

JWT-based auth

Login with a change-password flow baked in — no anonymous access. Bring your own reverse proxy for TLS termination.

Drag-and-drop upload

Dedicated buttons for uploading files or whole folders, plus native drag-and-drop straight from Windows Explorer or your OS file manager — nested folders upload recursively.

Dark mode & accent color

Switch between light and dark themes from the user menu, and pick a green, blue, or violet accent — both choices are saved to your profile and applied instantly, even on the login screen, with no flash of the default.

See it in action

A UI that feels like home

Screenshots straight from the local dev sandbox — the same views you get once it's running against your own drives.

Under the hood

Two containers. One clean API boundary.

The API treats one configured physical directory as its "root" (FileSystem:RootPath, default /host_root) — every path the client sees is relative to that. In Docker, the host's real / is bind-mounted there, so the API can reach anything the host can.

The API is designed to run as root so it can browse, chmod, and chown anywhere on the host. Keep it off the public internet, put it behind a trusted network/VPN, and always set a strong JWT_KEY and admin password.

Mounting/unmounting removable drives from the UI goes a step further: the API container runs privileged: true with pid: host so it can nsenter into the host's own namespaces to run mount/umount — a mount issued from inside the container's own namespace would never be visible on the host. Mount/unmount is restricted server-side to devices under /mnt only.

Read the full architecture doc →
project layout 
# backend — ASP.NET Core 10 Web API
backend/FileExplorer.Api/
├── Controllers/        # auth, files, drives, operations,
│                        # tasks, trash, permissions, search
└── Services/Jobs/      # background job queue + worker

# frontend — Angular (standalone + signals) + PrimeNG
frontend/src/app/
├── features/           # shell, explorer, tasks, trash, login
└── core/                # axios client, auth, typed API services

# two containers, wired by docker-compose.yml
api   Kestrel · EF Core · SQLite · SignalR
web   nginx serving Angular + proxying /api /hubs
Keyboard navigation

Fully operable without a mouse

Click a row, or Tab into the grid, to give the listing focus — then everything below just works.

Selection & navigation

  • ↑ / ↓Move focus to previous/next row
  • Shift+↑/↓Extend the current selection
  • Page Up/DownMove focus by a full page (however many rows fit the visible viewport)
  • Shift+Page Up/DownExtend the selection by a full page
  • Ctrl+ASelect every item in the folder
  • EscClear the current selection

Opening & navigating

  • EnterOpen folder, or open/preview file
  • Backspace / Alt+↑Go up one folder level
  • Click-dragRubber-band (lasso) select
  • Type to searchInstant quick-search, no click needed
  • EnterIn the search box, run the search now instead of waiting on the debounce

File operations

  • Ctrl+CCopy the selected items
  • Ctrl+XCut the selected items
  • Ctrl+VPaste (runs as a background job)
  • F2Rename the focused item
  • DeleteMove to Trash (with confirmation)
  • Enter / EscConfirm/cancel a rename or new file/folder prompt
  • Enter / SpaceActivate Yes/No in the delete confirmation dialog

Drives sidebar

  • Alt+1Jump focus straight to the drives panel
  • ↑ / ↓Move focus between drives once the sidebar has focus
Quick start

Running in five steps

The recommended path is Docker Compose — two containers, wired together, nothing else to install.

1

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/pavangayakwad/linux-drive-explorer.git
cd linux-drive-explorer
2

Configure environment variables

cp .env.example .env
openssl rand -base64 48   # paste output into JWT_KEY
3

Choose what the app can see

By default the entire host filesystem (/) is bind-mounted into the API container at /host_root. Narrow this in docker-compose.yml if you only want specific paths exposed.

4

Build and start the containers

docker compose up -d --build
5

Open the app

Navigate to http://<host>:8080. If ADMIN_PASSWORD was left blank, fetch the generated password from the logs:

docker compose logs api | grep -A2 "Password:"

Point it at your server. Browse in seconds.

Self-hosted, open source under Apache 2.0, and built to sit behind your own VPN or reverse proxy.

Get the code on GitHub Read quick start