Command-line uploader for sending photos and videos from an SD card (or any folder) to a running photo-distributor server.

Requirements

• Node.js 20.0.0 or later

What it does

• Auto-detects mounted camera/SD card volumes by looking for a DCIM directory
• Recursively scans for supported media files
• Uploads files to the photo-distributor upload API
• Skips duplicates reported by the server
• Supports dry-run mode to preview uploads
• Saves default server credentials locally for repeat use

Install

From npm (global install):

npm install -g photo-distributor-cli

This installs the pd-upload command globally on your machine.

If you prefer not to install globally, run it with npx:

npx photo-distributor-cli <command> [options]

Quick start

# Auto-detect SD card, then upload from selected DCIM folder
pd-upload

# Upload from a specific folder
pd-upload upload /Volumes/CANON/DCIM

# Default command is upload, so this is equivalent
pd-upload /Volumes/CANON/DCIM

# Preview files without uploading
pd-upload --dry-run /Volumes/CANON/DCIM

Commands

| Command | Description | | --------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | pd-upload [source] | Default command. Upload from source, or auto-detect SD card if omitted | | pd-upload upload [source] | Explicit upload command | | pd-upload detect | List detected SD cards / camera storage volumes | | pd-upload config | Show or save default connection settings |

Connection options

These apply to upload and config:

| Option | Description | Default | | ----------------------- | ------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------- | | --url <url> | Server URL (http or https) | http://localhost:3001 | | --user <user> | Username | pd | | --password <password> | Password | prompted if missing | | --dry-run | List files that would be uploaded, do not upload | off |

Save defaults once

pd-upload config --url http://192.168.1.50:3001 --user pd --password mysecret

Then run uploads without repeating flags:

pd-upload

The CLI stores settings in:

• ~/.photo-distributor.json

SD card detection behavior

The CLI checks mounted volumes and keeps entries containing a DCIM directory.

• macOS: /Volumes/*
• Linux: /media/<user>/*, /media/*, /run/media/*, /mnt/*
• Windows: drive letters A:\ through Z:\

Supported file types

Photos:

• .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .heic, .heif, .webp, .tiff, .tif, .cr2, .cr3

Videos:

• .mp4, .mov, .avi, .mkv, .m4v, .3gp, .wmv

Typical workflow

# 1) Verify server is running
#    Example: http://localhost:3001

# 2) Save connection once
pd-upload config --url http://localhost:3001 --user pd

# 3) Detect card
pd-upload detect

# 4) Dry-run first
pd-upload --dry-run

# 5) Upload
pd-upload

Troubleshooting

Authentication failed

• Confirm --user and --password
• Re-save credentials with pd-upload config

Cannot reach server

• Confirm server URL and port, for example http://localhost:3001
• Make sure photo-distributor is running and reachable from this machine

No SD cards detected

• Provide a source path explicitly, for example:

pd-upload /path/to/media

No files found

• Confirm files are under the selected folder
• Confirm file extensions are in the supported list above