Published by manu on 08 July 2009 at 8:19 PM

sshfs

Using SSHFS to mount distant filesystems

Sometimes you want ("need") to mount a distant filesystem but you don't want ("have the time") to install NFS or something like that just for this particular need. .. and then you also realize that NFS (in a simple config) is not crypted and that doesn't seem right.. well in those cases you could use SSHFS. ... .

The client

The computer on which you wish to mount the file system will require adding packages: sshfs and fuse-utils :

apt-get install sshfs fuse-utils

You shall then need to add the module

modprobe fuse

Add your user to the fuse group

adduser manu fuse

You should then logout (for real) and log back in.. . .(some people like to do "newgrp", i'm not sure it works)

The server

All the server needs is an SSH server, that should be already the case. . .actually with sshfs you don't need to do anything on the server to be able to connect, hence you can mount file systems on servers on which you are not root.

BTW

. . I almost forgot the fun part, mounting an SSH filesystem.. ... .well you could do something like this:

sshfs server:/somewhere/on/the/server /home/your_local_home_dir/sshfs

and for umounting:

fusermount -u /home/your_local_home_dir/sshfs