Unix: add zotero setup

src/content/unix/zotero-webdav.md

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+---
+title: 'Zotero + Webdav'
+description: 'Setting up Zotero with unlimited storage with Webdav'
+updateDate: 'Sept 05 2024'
+---
+
+[Zotero](https://www.zotero.org/) is an open source "reference manager". For
+students, it's an effective way to annotate and organize research papers. It
+also does automatic citation!
+
+By default, Zotero offers 300MB of cloud storage for free. If you're reading
+lots of papers and need to backup many pdfs, you'll need to upgrade to a [paid
+plan](https://www.zotero.org/storage)... unless you self-host!
+
+In this guide, we'll setup a webdav server to give us unlimited cloud storage we
+control. You'll need:
+ - A computer that's always on (or a cloud vm)
+
+
+## Zotero Setup
+
+Start by [installing Zotero](https://www.zotero.org/download/) on your client
+device. The client device can also be the server! You can have any number of
+clients later. The AUR has zotero for archlinux, and `brew` has it for macos.
+It's also available on the ios app store.
+
+Register for a zotero account... we need to do this even if we're self-hosting
+the cloud. Go to Edit -> Settings -> Sync -> File Syncing, and sign in there. We
+will revisit this page shortly.
+
+## Webdav
+
+Webdav serves files over http. This is the underlying protocol zotero uses to
+synchronize your files. There are many options to [self-host
+webdav](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/WebDAV#rclone), but I would recommend
+[rclone](https://rclone.org/). Rclone is a sort of cloud multi-tool, able to
+interact with almost every type of cloud storage. It can both serve and receive
+webdav requests!
+
+I assume you're using caddy as a reverse proxy. Caddy can use a third-party
+module to serve webdav directly, but rclone feels more closely suited to this
+task.
+
+Switch into `/etc/rclone`. Generate a random password. Something like the
+following will work:
+
+```
+tr -dc A-Za-z0-9 </dev/urandom | head -c 40; echo
+```
+
+Next, `touch /etc/rclone/htpasswords`. Now you'll use `htpasswd` to fill this
+file. Choose a username and paste the password you generated above into the
+propmpt.
+
+```
+htpasswd -B /etc/rclone/htpasswords <username>
+```
+
+I'd also recommend putting a plaintext copy of the password into `/etc/rclone`,
+as you'll need it for every single device using your webdav cloud. You should
+also lock down permissions on both these files. Make them owned by root, and
+readable by root only.
+
+Next up, we need our rclone script. Choose a directory to store your webdev
+cloud backup, for example `/home/emiliko/mycloud/zotero`. It must be a directory
+with a `zotero` directory inside it. The `zotero` directory must be empty. The
+rclone script will look something like this, and should be at
+`/usr/local/bin/rclone_webdav.sh`:
+
+```bash
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+declare -r serve='/home/emiliko/mycloud'
+declare -r port='8080'
+
+rclone serve webdav "$serve" --addr ":$port" --htpasswd /etc/rclone/htpasswords
+```
+
+Make sure the port you choose is accessible from the outside internet. You may
+need to open it up in your firewall and router. You'll also need to point a
+domain at your server, which is assumed to be running caddy. For example, my
+Caddyfile could look like:
+
+```
+webdav.mydomain.com {
+    reverse_proxy localhost:8080
+}
+```
+
+Please see the "Reaching Yourself Over the Internet" guide for more details
+about caddy.
+
+Lastly, we need to setup a systemd unit to start our webdav server on boot. For
+example the file `/etc/systemd/system/rclone_webdav.service` could contain:
+
+```
+[Unit]
+Description=Rclone WebDAV Service for Zotero
+After=network.target
+
+[Service]
+ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/rclone_webdav.sh
+Restart=always
+
+[Install]
+WantedBy=multi-user.target
+```
+
+Run `systemctl enable --now rclone_webdav.service` and you should be able to
+visit it at its webpage now (eg `webdav.mydomain.com`). It should ask you for a
+username and password the first time, though the browser will cache these for
+subsequent logins.
+
+## Zotero Setup part 2
+
+On each client, go to Edit -> Settings -> Sync -> File Syncing and set Sync
+attachments files in My Library to WebDAV. Fill in the username and password
+that you set when making htpasswd.
+
+You should now be synchronizing using webdav! Make sure to update the File
+Syncing section on all of your devices!