Table of Contents

CurlFtpFS

This program allows you to connect remote storage to your system, where it looks such an local drive. You can use standard UN*X programs (ls, rm, cp, …etc.). This program could be installed via packaging system or via downloading the source codes from Curl homepage and consequential compilation.

If the program has been successfully installed first we need to create the directory, where we will attach remote storage: 

mkdir /path_to_directory/ftp
If you see the message:
fusermount: failed to open /etc/fuse.conf: Permission denied
check whether you are member of the group fuse for example with command id.
Adding to the group can be done via command:
usermod -a -G fuse username

It is possible that the message will be displayed even you have passed mentioned procedure, however to mount the volume will be smooth. You can check it via command ls /dir_to_path/ftp.

The actual connection is made by using the command: 

curlftpfs -o ssl -o user="username" ftp://server/path_to_directory/ftp

ownCloud

Address of the service is: https://owncloud.cesnet.cz

FileSender

Address of the service is: https://filesender.cesnet.cz

In case you want to give the data storage access to other users of the system, we need to add to the file /etc/fuse.conf line: 

user_allow_other

Now we can use the command: 

curlftpfs -o allow_other -o ssl -o user="username" ftp://server /path_to_directory/ftp

Other useful options are:

  • -o uid=N sets owner of the files user with the given UID
  • -o gid=N sets group of the files with the given UID

In case you want to remote storage reconnect automatically after OS startup, it is necessary to add in the file /etc/fstab line: 

curlftpfs#username:password@server /path_to_directory/ftp fuse rw,ssl,auto 0 0

List of the parameters for /etc/fstab settings:

  • ro - read only
  • rw - read write
  • ssl - mandatory option allowing SSL/TLS
  • auto - volume automatically connects at startup
  • noauto - volume doesn't automatically connect at startup. To connect you can use: mount /path_to_file/ftp
  • user - worh with volume (connecting/disconnecting) for common (non-root) user
  • umask - set permissions on files

If you do not want to wait for a reboot or just want to test the accuracy of the settings, then you can use: 

mount /path_to_file/ftp

If connection to the remote data storage was without problems, we should see our files in directory /dir_to_path/ftp and for manipulation with them we can use the standard UN*X programs (ls, rm, cp, etc.).

To disconnect the data storage we can use: 

fusermount -u /path_to_directory/ftp

References

http://sourceforge.net/projects/curlftpfs/support