WebDAV

With --dav, servery exposes a WebDAV endpoint (RFC 4918) that macOS Finder, Windows Explorer, and Linux file managers can mount as a network drive — browse it like a local folder, no browser needed. It's pure stdlib (xml.etree) and reuses servery's path-safety, atomic writes, and ETags.

Read-only mount

servery --dav --bind 0.0.0.0

This advertises WebDAV (with the compliance class clients expect to mount read-write), answers PROPFIND/OPTIONS, and serves files — but rejects all writes. Good for letting people mount-and-browse safely.

Read/write mount

servery --dav --dav-write --auth me:secret --bind 0.0.0.0

--dav-write enables the write methods (PUT, DELETE, MKCOL, MOVE, COPY, PROPPATCH) so the mounted drive is writable. Because that lets clients create, move, and delete files, it's off by default, honors --auth, respects --allow-overwrite, and prints a startup warning if you enable it without auth.

Flag	Default	Meaning
--dav	off	enable a read-only WebDAV endpoint (mountable)
--dav-write	off	enable WebDAV writes (requires --dav; use with --auth)

Mounting it

macOS (Finder)Windows (Explorer)Linux

Go → Connect to Server… (Cmd+K), then enter:

http://192.168.1.42:8000/

This PC → Map network drive…, then:

http://192.168.1.42:8000/

(Windows' built-in WebDAV client has its own restrictions on Basic auth over plain HTTP and a file-size cap — both are client-side registry settings.)

gio mount dav://192.168.1.42:8000/
# or with davfs2:
sudo mount -t davfs http://192.168.1.42:8000/ /mnt/share

Safety notes

• The Destination header on MOVE/COPY goes through the same containment check as every other path, so a crafted destination can't escape the served root.
• Destructive methods are gated behind --dav-write; a plain --dav share executes no writes.
• servery advertises a "class 2" lock with a stub lock token (the industry norm for minimal servers) so Finder/Explorer will mount read-write; it does not maintain real lock state.