VPS: Setting Up Image Hosting with Apache and PHP

Introduction

This guide demonstrates the process of setting up an image hosting server on a Linux-based VPS and blend it with ShareX for seamless image uploads.

Prerequisites

The following requirements are recommended to ensure best performance.

Hardware Requirements:

Software Requirements:

Preparation

A connection has to be established via a SSH client in order to begin the setup on your Linux server. Please view our Initial access (SSH) guide to learn more about this.

Once the connection is established, you can begin to install the necessary packages that are required for the actual setup.

Step 1: Installing Dependencies

First, you have to install the required dependencies and web server before starting the actual setup. Use the following commands to install all the required dependencies in your Linux server.

sudo apt update && sudo apt install apache2 php libapache2-mod-php unzip curl -y

Enable required Apache modules:

sudo a2enmod rewrite ssl
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Step 2: Create Upload Folder and Upload Script

Create the uploads directory:

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/html/uploads
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/uploads

Open the upload.php script file using the nano file editor:

sudo nano /var/www/html/upload.php

Now, paste the following script into the script file:

<?php
if(isset($_FILES['image'])){
    $target_dir = "uploads/";
    $target_file = $target_dir . basename($_FILES["image"]["name"]);

    if(move_uploaded_file($_FILES["image"]["tmp_name"], $target_file)){
        echo "http://YOUR_DOMAIN_OR_IP/" . $target_file; // Replace with your real IP
    } else {
        echo "File upload failed!";
    }
}
?>

Save the file (Ctrl+O, then Enter) and exit (Ctrl+X).

Set permissions:

sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/uploads

Step 3: Auto Expiry Script (Cron Job)

To automatically delete expired images( It'll automatically delete images that are older than the time you specify), create a script that regularly checks for expired files and removes them as needed ( Only do this if you want to delete older images. If you want to keep them, skip this step ). Create a new script file:

sudo nano /usr/local/bin/expire-images.sh

Add the following code to the script:

#!/bin/bash
UPLOAD_DIR="/var/www/html/uploads"

find "$UPLOAD_DIR" -type f -name "*.meta" | while read meta; do
    expiry=$(cat "$meta")
    [ "$(date +%s)" -gt "$expiry" ] && {
        file="${meta%.meta}"
        rm -f "$file" "$meta"
        echo "Deleted expired image: $file"
    }
done

Save and exit the file.

Make the script executable:

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/expire-images.sh

Now, set up a cron job to run this script daily. Open the crontab editor:

sudo crontab -e

Add the following line to run the cleanup script every day at midnight:

echo "0 3 * * * root /usr/local/bin/expire-images.sh" | sudo tee /etc/cron.d/image-cleanup

Save and exit the crontab editor.

Step 4: Domain & SSL Setup

If you don't have a domain, you can skip this step and use your server's IP address instead.

1. Point Domain to Server IP: Update DNS A record for yourdomain.com to your VPS IP.

2. Enable Virtual Host with SSL: Create Apache config file:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/uploader.conf

Add the following configuration:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName yourdomain.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html

    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
    RewriteRule ^ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName yourdomain.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html

    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/fullchain.pem
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/privkey.pem

    <Directory /var/www/html>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Enable the site and restart Apache:

sudo a2ensite uploader.conf
sudo systemctl reload apache2

3. Install SSL Certificate (Let’s Encrypt):

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-apache -y
sudo certbot --apache -d yourdomain.com

Follow the prompts to set up SSL.

Step 5: Configure ShareX

1. Open ShareX: Go to Destinations > Custom uploader settings...
2. Create a New Uploader:

• Name: Give it a name as you wish.
• Request URL: Enter your server's upload script URL (e.g., http://yourdomain.com/upload.php).
• Method: Set to POST.
• File Form Name: Set it to the input field name (image).
• Destination type: Tick the image uploader option.

Step 6: Testing

Upload an image using ShareX. Verify it appears in the upload directory.

Conclusion

Congratulations, you have successfully setuped image hosting on your Linux server which has introduced searmless image hosting using ShareX!