Services

A compact, practical overview of what you get — and a tiny quickstart for each item.

Shell access

SSH to Ubuntu 24.04 LTS server with many tools and apps. Liberal fair-use limits.

  • Hostname: freeshell.de
  • Location: German data center
  • SSH in the browser: ShellInABox
  • Shell/Interpreter: Defaults to bash (choose via chsh)
  • Quota: 42 GB
  • Network: IPv4 + IPv6
  • SSH forwarding: allowed on request (contact)
  • Private TCP/UDP port: yes — on request
  • Default limits (ulimit):
    nofile=unlimited
    nproc=150
    fsize=unlimited
    mem=4 GB
  • Background processes: yes · screen/tmux: yes · personal crontab: yes
  • Software: 3,000+ installed – missing one? Tell us
  • Backups: daily, 30 days retention
  • Privacy: /proc with hidepid=2

Webspace

Static & dynamic content. Multiple PHP versions and
CGI support (Perl/Python).

  • URLs: https://freeshell.de/yourlogin
    and https://freeshell.de/~yourlogin
  • DocumentRoot: /home/<first-letter>/yourlogin/public_html
  • Quota: shares the shell quota (42 GB)
  • PHP: v7.4 (legacy), v8.3 and v8.4
    • The ppa from “ondrej” is used here for that.
  • PHP wrapper: /home/<first-letter>/yourlogin/public_html/fcgi-bin/php-wrapper
  • Default .htaccess points to wrapper (edit/remove)
    • Needed .htaccess perms: 0644
    Minimum directory perms: 0711
    Minimum script-file perms: 0600
    Minimum html perms: 0644
  • Custom php.ini: yes — edit the wrapper
  • Expected extensions for CGI: .cgi, .pl and .py
  • VHosts: available — use contact form
  • Privacy: suexec-style — everything runs under your UID

Containers

Podman (Docker-compatible). Find, run, build, share and deploy apps in your own environment here.

  • Storage: images/volumes live under ~/.local/share/containers/ (counts to your quota)

  • Random Quickstart commands: $ podman run --rm alpine:latest echo "Hello world!"
    • $ podman run -it --rm debian:stable-slim bash

    Looking at images & containers:
    $ podman ps -a
    $ podman images

Email & webmail

Mail account with Web-GUI, IMAP/POP3 and SMTP submission.

  • Address: yourlogin@freeshell.de
  • Server: freeshell.de
  • Mailbox quota: shares the shell quota (42 GB)
  • Storage: Maildir
  • MTA: postfix
  • POP3/IMAP: dovecot
  • Ports: All default (25,465,587,993,995)
  • procmail: Yes – fetchmail: Yes – .forward: Yes
  • Webmail: Roundcube · SquirrelMail

Databases

MySQL 8.0 databases. CLI access plus phpMyAdmin.

  • CLI: mysql -u [user] -p
  • GUI: phpMyAdmin
  • Quota: technically none – fair-use

Personal cloud

OwnCloud for sync & share — fat client, browser or WebDAV.

  • Web-GUI: ownCloud
  • WebDAV: yes
  • Quota: additional 42 GB (separate from shell quota)

Cron & services

Schedule jobs with crontab and run daemons in the background.

  • Cron: crontab -e
  • Detaching: screen and tmux are available

Donate

Online since 2002 and non-profit. Your support keeps the spirits up, the service fast, friendly, and free.

  • Please contact me for details.
  • Every contribution is very much appreciated!