Hoffman2:Sharing Filesystems

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There are apps for linking filesystems so that you can access data across machines. It's like mounting a shared drive. Here we present a GUI and a command line way of accomplishing this.

MacFusion

MacFusion is no longer working as of macOS 10.12 (Sierra). Please use the command line instructions below.

sshfs

Installation

macOS

Download and install the two packages on this website: https://osxfuse.github.io/

• FUSE for macOS
• SSHFS

Linux

Red Hat

yum install sshfs

Debian

apt install sshfs

Usage

Let's say you want to mount Hoffman2 locally. In your Mac terminal, using the command line, execute:

$ id
uid=1010(joebruinuser) gid=20(bruingroup1),23(bruingroup2),...
$ mkdir ~/MOUNTPOINT
$ sshfs -o idmap=user -o uid=1010 -o gid=20 USERNAME@hoffman2.idre.ucla.edu:/path/to/mount ~/MOUNTPOINT

Where,

id

Gets information about your local user, including your numerical ID and group ID(s)

-o idmap=user -o uid=1010 -o gid=20

Translates your local user and group IDs to that of the remote user so you can read and write files as if you were on the remote machine. Make sure to put the correct user and group IDs that were returned by the id command.

USERNAME

Is your username at the remote computer.

hoffman2.idre.ucla.edu

Is the address of the remote computer you are connecting to.

/path/to/mount

Could be left blank to mount your home directory from the remote computer, or it could specify any point in the remote filesystem.

MOUNTPOINT

Is the name of the directory where the remote filesystem will be mounted.

To unmount:

• Use the command

umount ~/MOUNTPOINT

or

• Right click on the desktop icon that appears and select "Eject."

Permission Error

SSHFS has two permission checks, one performed by the macOS and one performed by the remote filesystem. In certain cases, the remote host will allow access to the directory but the macOS encounters issues translating the filesystem permissions. This will result in a permission denied error.

If you run into this permission denied error:

• Double check that you are using the correct user and group IDs that were returned by the id command.
• Include the option defer_permissions.

Where,

-o defer_permissions

Disables local permission checks and defers all permission requests to the remote server.