How to share files with kpf
kpf provides simple file sharing using HTTP (the Hyper Text
Transfer Protocol,) which is the same protocol used by web sites to provide
data to your web browser. kpf is strictly a public fileserver, which means
that there are no access restrictions to shared files: whatever you select
for sharing is available to anyone.
kpf is designed to be used for sharing files with friends, not to
act like a fully-fledged web server such as
Apache. kpf was primarily conceived as an easy
way to share files with others while chatting on IRC
(Internet Relay Chat, or “chat rooms”.)
kpf runs as an applet inside Kicker. This means that it takes up
little space on your screen and its status is always visible. To start the
kpf applet, right click on Kicker and choose
to open the
Add
Applet
dialog. Select
Public File Server
and
click the
Add to Panel
button.
kpf employs the concept of shared folders. You may choose one or
more folders to make public, and all files in that folder (and any
subfolders) will be shared.
Note
Please be extremely careful about which folders you share. Remember
that all files in the folder and its subfolders, including
“hidden” files (“dotfiles” to the techies) will be
made available to the world, so be careful not to share sensitive
information, such as passwords, cryptographic keys, your addressbook,
documents private to your organization, etc..
Once kpf is running, you will see a square applet with a thin sunken
bevel and an icon depicting an hot air balloon. The
balloon is visible when no folders are being shared.
To share a folder, right click on the
balloon icon and a pop-up menu will appear, containing only one item,
. Selecting this entry will cause a
“wizard” to appear, which will ask you a few simple
questions. Completing the questions will set up a folder for sharing.
There is an alternative to using the applet directly when you want to
share a folder. kpf is integrated with Konqueror.
With Konqueror open and displaying a folder,
right click on the background and bring up the
“Properties” dialog. On install, kpf added a
Sharing
tab to this dialog. You will be offered the
option of starting kpf if it is not running. Choosing
Ok
will send a signal to the kpf applet, asking it
to add a new share.
For more detailed information, such as how to share different
directories to different people, see the
kpf
handbook.
