SSHFS

You can use sshfs to mount a remote system - accessible via SSH - to a local folder, so you will be able to do any operation on the mounted files with any tool (copy, rename, edit with vim, etc.). Using sshfs instead of shfs is generally preferred as a new version of shfs hasn't been released since 2004.

Installation

To install the needed packages, do:

# pacman -S sshfs

This should install fuse and sshfs, and maybe other packages.

Usage

First a kernel module should be loaded, so as root, do:

# modprobe fuse

Check if fuse is active.

#systemctl list-units --all|grep fuse
sys-module-fuse.device    loaded active   plugged       /sys/module/fuse

Mounting

You will use the command sshfs. To mount a remote directory:

$ sshfs USERNAME@HOSTNAME_OR_IP:/PATH LOCAL_MOUNT_POINT SSH_OPTIONS

For example:

$ sshfs sessy@mycomputer:/home/sessy /mnt/sessy -C -p 9876

Where 9876 is the port number.

Also, make certain that before connecting, you set the file permissions for any local client folders you will attempt to mount a remote directory to. I.e., do not have everything owned by root! You could also run the mount command as a regular user, it should work as well.

SSH will ask for the password, if needed. If you do not want to type in your password 49 times a day, then read this: How to Use RSA Key Authentication with SSH or Using SSH Keys.

Unmounting

To unmount the remote system:

# fusermount -u LOCAL_MOUNT_POINT

Example:

# fusermount -u /mnt/sessy

Tips

To quickly mount a remote dir, do some file-management and unmount it, put this in a script:

sshfs USERNAME@HOSTNAME_OR_IP:/PATH LOCAL_MOUNT_POINT SSH_OPTIONS
mc ~ LOCAL_MOUNT_POINT
fusermount -u LOCAL_MOUNT_POINT

This will mount the remote directory, launch MC, and unmount it when you exit.

Chrooting

You may want to jail a (specific) user to a directory.To do this, edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config:

/etc/ssh/sshd_config

.....
Match User someuser 
       ChrootDirectory /chroot/%u
       ForceCommand internal-sftp #to restrict the user to sftp only
       AllowTcpForwarding no
       X11Forwarding no
.....

Note: The chroot directory must be owned by root, otherwise you will not be able to connect. For more info check the manpages for Match, ChrootDirectory and ForceCommand.

Helpers

If you often need to mount sshfs filesystems you may be interested in using an sshfs helper, such as sftpman.

It provides a command-line and a GTK frontend, to make mounting and unmounting a simple one click/command process.

Automounting

Automounting can happen on boot, or on demand (when accessing the directory). For both, the setup happens in /etc/fstab.

On demand

With systemd on-demand mounting is possible using /etc/fstab entries.

Example:

user@host:/remote/folder /mount/point  fuse.sshfs noauto,x-systemd.automount,_netdev,users,idmap=user,IdentityFile=/home/user/.ssh/id_rsa,allow_other,reconnect 0 0

The important mount options here are noauto,x-systemd.automount,_netdev.

• noauto tells it not to mount at boot
• x-systemd.automount does the on-demand magic
• _netdev tells it that it's a network device, not a block device (without it "No such device" errors might happen)

On boot

An example on how to use sshfs to mount a remote filesystem through /etc/fstab

USERNAME@HOSTNAME_OR_IP:/REMOTE/DIRECTORY  /LOCAL/MOUNTPOINT  fuse.sshfs  defaults,_netdev  0  0

Take for example the fstab line

llib@192.168.1.200:/home/llib/FAH  /media/FAH2  fuse.sshfs  defaults,_netdev  0  0

The above will work automatically if you are using an SSH key for the user. See Using SSH Keys.

If you want to use sshfs with multiple users:

user@domain.org:/home/user  /media/user   fuse.sshfs    defaults,allow_other,_netdev    0  0

Again, it's important to set the _netdev mount option to make sure the network is available before trying to mount.

Options

sshfs can automatically convert your local and remote user IDs.

Add the idmap option with user value to translate UID of connecting user:

# sshfs -o idmap=user sessy@mycomputer:/home/sessy /mnt/sessy -C -p 9876

If you have a different login on the remote system, it can still work if you provide the ssh standard option User:

# sshfs -o idmap=user,User=sessy2 sessy@mycomputer:/home/sessy /mnt/sessy -C -p 9876

(I've used first form, second is based on docs, so YMMV, but it should at least be close)

Troubleshooting

Connection reset by peer

• If you are trying to access the remote system with a hostname, try using its IP address, as it can be a domain name solving issue. Make sure you edit /etc/hosts with the server details.
• If you are using non-default key names and are passing it as -i .ssh/my_key, this won't work. You have to use -o IdentityFile=/home/user/.ssh/my_key, with the full path to the key.
• Adding the option 'sshfs_debug' (as in 'sshfs -o sshfs_debug user@server ...') can help in resolving the issue.
• If you're trying to sshfs into a router running DD-WRT or the like, there is a solution here.
• Forum thread: sshfs: Connection reset by peer

Note: When providing more than one option for sshfs, they must be comma separated. Like so: 'sshfs -o sshfs_debug,IdentityFile=</path/to/key> user@server ...')

Remote host has disconnected

• If you recieve this message directly after attempting to use sshfs, try checking the path of your Subsystem listed in /etc/ssh/sshd_config on the remote machine to see if it is valid.

Note: The default value for Subsystem should be Subsystem sftp /usr/lib/ssh/sftp-server

• you can check this by typing find / grep XXXX where XXXX is the path of the subsystem

Thunar has issues with FAM and remote file access

If you experience remote folders not displaying, getting kicked back to the home directory, or other remote file access issues through Thunar, replace fam with gamin. Gamin is derived from fam.

See also

• sftpman - an sshfs helper tool
• SSH
• How to mount chrooted SSH filesystem, with special care with owners and permissions questions.