<sect1 id="file-sharing">

<sect1info>
<authorgroup>
<author>
&Lauri.Watts;
</author>
</authorgroup>
</sect1info>


<title>File Sharing</title>
<sect2 id="file-sharing-kpf">
<title>How to share files with &kpf;</title>

<indexterm><primary>File sharing</primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>Shared Folders</primary></indexterm>

<para>&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.</para>

<para>&kpf; is designed to be used for sharing files with friends, not to
act like a fully-fledged web server such as
<application>Apache</application>. &kpf; was primarily conceived as an easy
way to share files with others while chatting on <acronym>IRC</acronym>
(Internet Relay Chat, or <quote>chat rooms</quote>.)</para>

<para>&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, <mousebutton>right</mousebutton> click on &kicker; and choose
<guimenu>Add Applet to Panel...</guimenu> to open the <guilabel>Add 
Applet</guilabel> dialog. Select <guilabel>Public File Server</guilabel> and 
click the <guibutton>Add to Panel</guibutton> button.</para>

<para>&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.</para>

<note><para>Please be extremely careful about which folders you share. Remember
that all files in the folder and its subfolders, including
<quote>hidden</quote> files (<quote>dotfiles</quote> 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;.</para></note>

<para>Once &kpf; is running, you will see a square applet with a thin sunken
bevel and an icon depicting an <guiicon>hot air balloon</guiicon>. The
balloon is visible when no folders are being shared.</para>

<para>To share a folder, <mousebutton>right</mousebutton> click on the
balloon icon and a pop-up menu will appear, containing only one item,
<guimenuitem>New Server...</guimenuitem>. Selecting this entry will cause a
<quote>wizard</quote> to appear, which will ask you a few simple
questions. Completing the questions will set up a folder for sharing.</para>

<para>There is an alternative to using the applet directly when you want to
share a folder. &kpf; is integrated with &konqueror;.</para>

<para>With &konqueror; open and displaying a folder,
<mousebutton>right</mousebutton> click on the background and bring up the
<quote>Properties</quote> dialog.  On install, &kpf; added a
<guilabel>Sharing</guilabel> tab to this dialog. You will be offered the
option of starting &kpf; if it is not running. Choosing
<guibutton>Ok</guibutton> will send a signal to the &kpf; applet, asking it
to add a new share.</para>

<para>For more detailed information, such as how to share different
directories to different people, see the <ulink
url="help:/kpf">&kpf;</ulink> handbook.</para>

</sect2>

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<title>Other strategies</title>

Samba, local cgi? nfs devices
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<title>Related Information</title>
<listitem><para>to be written</para>
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</sect1>

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