Mounting Your offsite Filesystem in Linux

It is possible to mount your offsite filesystem as a local filesystem on your Linux system using sshfs (part of the Filesystem in Userspace, or FUSE package).

FUSE and sshfs are available on Linux 2.4.x and 2.6.x. Further, 2.6.14 and above will have FUSE support included in the official kernel.

The official FUSE website is:

http://fuse.sourceforge.net/

They have a wiki here:

http://fuse.sourceforge.net/wiki/

And there is a page for sshfs here:

http://fuse.sourceforge.net/sshfs.html

There is a very good HOWTO for Gentoo Linux users here:

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_FTP_Mount

(don't let the name of the page fool you - it deals with using sshfs to mount a filesystem over ssh)

And a very good HOWTO for Ubuntu users here:

http://myy.helia.fi/~karte/mount_sshfs.html

Below, this document will describe obtaining and installing FUSE, and using sshfs to mount your offsite filesystem as a local mount point on your Linux system.

Installing FUSE and sshfs

Step 1: Obtain the FUSE source tarball

(if you are running kernel 2.6.14 or above, skip this, as FUSE is (likely) already part of your kernel)

You can download FUSE by following the "download" link on the main project page, which is:

http://fuse.sourceforge.net/

After unpacking the source tarball, simply:

> ./configure
> make
> make install

Step 2: Download and Install sshfs

You can download sshfs by following the "download" link on the main sshfs project page, which is:

http://fuse.sourceforge.net/sshfs.html

Again, after unpacking the source tarball, simply:

> ./configure
> make
> make install

Step 3: Mount your offsite filesystem locally

First, create a mount point:

# mkdir /mnt/sync.coaly

Then issue the sshfs command:

# sshfs This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it : /mnt/sync.coaly

You will then be asked for your sync.coaly.net password. After entering your password, the command will complete with no messages or indication of success, however, issuing the mount command with no arguments:

# mount

Will show you that your filesystem is indeed mounted.

Later, you can unmount the filesystem with:

# fusermount -u /mnt/sync.coaly