How to use the ElephantDrive Server Edition on Linux?

See How do I install ElephantDrive Linux? to learn how to install ElephantDrive on Linux.

After installing ElephantDrive, you will be guided through the initial setup wizard to connect your ElephantDrive account to your device. All the backup management is done through the ElephantDrive website, which means that ElephantDrive on Linux is only a client that backs up files and does not offer administrative tools.

This article will instruct you on the following actions:

1. Log in/out of ElephantDrive
2. Start/Stop/Restart ElephantDrive
3. Upload files to the cloud through the command line
4. Download files from the cloud through the command line

1. Log in/out of ElephantDrive

ElephantDrive creates a file on your device named elephantdrive.config. This file is usually located at /etc/elephantdrive.config.

The configuration file accepts many configuration parameters used by the application to connect your account to ElephantDrive. To connect an account to ElephantDrive, modify/add the following lines in the elephantdrive.config file and restart ElephantDrive:

Username example@elephantdrive.com
Password YourPassword

Note that after restarting ElephantDrive, the application will connect to the service and log into your account using the credentials provided in the configuration file. After logging into your account, the password in plain text is replaced by a hashed password for security.

2. Start/Stop/Restart ElephantDrive

ElephantDrive runs as a service on Linux, which can be started, stopped, and restarted. You can perform those actions using the commands below:

$ sudo service elephantdrive start 
$ sudo service elephantdrive stop 
$ sudo service elephantdrive restart 

3. Upload files to the cloud using the command line interface

Unlike the Desktop Edition, the Server Edition does not offer support to upload files directly via browsers. However, it's possible to upload files to the cloud through the command line, which can be done using the following command:

$ /sbin/elephantdrive -c "/etc" cli cp "/home/user/Desktop/file.txt" "edfs:///Everywhere"

This command uses the ElephantDrive binary located in /sbin/elephantdrive to upload the file /home/user/Desktop/file.txt to the cloud, using the credentials available in the configuration file (-c) located in /etc. The file will be available in the cloud in the path /Everywhere.

4. Download files from the cloud using the command line interface

Unlike the Desktop Edition, the Server Edition does not offer support to download files directly via browsers. However, it is possible to download files from the cloud through the command line, which can be done by using the following command:

$ /sbin/elephantdrive -c "/etc" cli cp "edfs:///Everywhere/file.txt" "/home/user/Downloads"

This command uses the ElephantDrive binary located in/sbin/elephantdrive to download the file /Everywhere/file.txt from the cloud to the local path /home/user/Downloads using the credentials available in the configuration file (-c) located in /etc.