sshfs

The linux category will be about tools, applications and techniques I encounter on my work with the linux desktop and server. The main reason for me blogging this is that as time goes by I tend to forget names and details. In future I can look-up them here. And maybe others will find it interesting, too.

Since version 2.6.14 the linux kernel has Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE) support. Among others, one such file system in user space is sshfs.

With sshfs you can mount any directory of a machine for which you have an ssh account to any local directory. You simply say sshfs host:directory /path/to/mount/point and that's it. Then you can access the remote content without having to frequently rsync. To unmount you simply say fusermount -u /path/to/mount/point.

Currently I use sshfs for the following setup: I am doing performance measurements on a remote server. The result of one pass is a bunch of plots which are generated on the server. I mount the target directory of the generated plots with sshfs and use display them with gqvieq. Since gqview automatically reloads if the displayed files change I can see the results of a new pass immediately without any further action.

Of course sshfs is integrated with the normal ssh environment, which means that ssh keys, agents and configs work as expected. Since I use sshfs I can't imagine how I have ever worked without it.