{"id":600,"date":"2013-11-08T15:56:07","date_gmt":"2013-11-08T20:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/acts\/?p=600"},"modified":"2013-11-08T15:56:07","modified_gmt":"2013-11-08T20:56:07","slug":"the-newbie-how-to-set-up-sshfs-on-mac-os-x","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/acts\/2013\/11\/08\/the-newbie-how-to-set-up-sshfs-on-mac-os-x\/","title":{"rendered":"The Newbie: How to Set Up SSHFS on Mac OS X"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently, I wanted to find a simple way of mounting a remote Linux file system from my Macintosh laptop. And by “simple,” I wanted the procedure to consist of mostly downloading and installing a tool, running a command, and not having to delve too deeply into editing configuration files. Fortunately, I was able to figure this out without too much trouble, and thought I would record my experience here. The procedure involves two applications, FUSE For OS X and SSHFS, both of which can be found on the FUSE for OS X web site<\/a>. FUSE for OS X is a library\/framework for Mac OS X developers to establish remote connections; SSHFS is an application built upon the FUSE framework.<\/p>\n

First, let’s establish some terminology. We’ll simply refer to the remote server that I wanted to connect to as the “Linux server” (at the domain “remoteserver”) and define my local machine as simply “my laptop.” We’ll call the file directory that I wanted to access on the Linux server as “\/webapps”. In essence, I wanted to be able to access the folder “\/webapps” on the Linux server as if it were a folder sitting on my laptop.<\/p>\n

I’ll also note that I had already set up my SSH keys on my laptop and the Linux server. That needs to be accomplished before anything else. If you need guidance on that, here’s a simple tutorial<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After SSH had been set up:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. I downloaded the latest version of FUSE for OS X at the FUSE for OS X web site<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  2. I installed FUSE for OS X on my laptop by double-clicking the disk image, then double-clicking on the installation package. There is pretty standard Mac OS X stuff; it went without a hitch.<\/li>\n
  3. I downloaded the latest version of SSHFS for OS X at the FUSE for OS X web site<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  4. I installed SSHFS by double-clicking on the downloaded file. I ran into an issue here where Mac OS X refused to install the package because SSHFS comes from an “unidentified developer.” To get around this, you need to override the Gatekeeper in Mac OS X<\/a>, which can be as simple as right-clicking on the package and selecting “Open” from the context menu.<\/li>\n
  5. Both FUSE for OS X and SSFHS were now installed.<\/li>\n
  6. Next, I needed to create a new folder on my laptop which would serve as the mount point. Let’s call that folder “~\/mountpoint.”<\/li>\n
  7. Now, it was a matter of learning how to invoke the appropriate command<\/a> to have my laptop mount the Linux server. The command I used was:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \r\n\r\nsshfs -p 22 username@remoteserver:\/webapps\/ ~\/mountpoint -oauto_cache,reconnect,defer_permissions,noappledouble,negative_vncache,volname=myVolName\r\n\r\n<\/pre>\n
    Using the above steps, I was able to successfully mount the Linux server. Unmounting is a piece of cake:<\/p>\n
    \r\n\r\numount ~\/mountpoint\r\n\r\n<\/pre>\n
     <\/p>\n
    Additional notes:<\/h2>\n
    The SSHFS command used to mount the remote server is lengthy; indeed, filled to the brim with arguments that I cut and pasted. If you would like to know what each argument does, there is a helpful guide<\/a> that describes them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
    Recently, I wanted to find a simple way of mounting a remote Linux file system from my Macintosh laptop. And by “simple,” I wanted the procedure to consist of mostly downloading and installing a tool, running a command, and not having to delve too deeply into editing configuration files. Fortunately, I was able to figure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4634,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[910,1],"tags":[111243,111242,111241],"class_list":["post-600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-development","category-uncategorized","tag-fuse","tag-macosx","tag-sshfs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/acts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/acts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/acts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/acts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4634"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/acts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/acts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":619,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/acts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600\/revisions\/619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/acts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/acts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/acts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}