SSHFS — Mount a Remote Linux Filesystem over SSH¶

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Transcript from tecmint.com.

SSHFS (Secure SHell FileSystem) lets you mount a remote filesystem and interact with remote directories and files on a local machine using SFTP over SSH. It relies on the FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace) kernel module, so no privileged kernel changes are required.

Step 1: Install the SSHFS client¶

# yum install sshfs
# dnf install sshfs              # Fedora 22+
$ sudo apt-get install sshfs     # Debian/Ubuntu

Step 2: Create the mount directory¶

# mkdir /mnt/tecmint
$ sudo mkdir /mnt/tecmint        # Debian/Ubuntu

Step 3: Mount the remote filesystem¶

Replace x.x.x.x with the remote IP address:

# sshfs tecmint@x.x.x.x:/home/tecmint/ /mnt/tecmint
$ sudo sshfs -o allow_other tecmint@x.x.x.x:/home/tecmint/ /mnt/tecmint     # Debian/Ubuntu

If the server uses SSH key-based authentication, specify the key path:

# sshfs -o IdentityFile=~/.ssh/id_rsa tecmint@x.x.x.x:/home/tecmint/ /mnt/tecmint
$ sudo sshfs -o allow_other,IdentityFile=~/.ssh/id_rsa tecmint@x.x.x.x:/home/tecmint/ /mnt/tecmint     # Debian/Ubuntu

Step 4: Verify the mount¶

# cd /mnt/tecmint
# ls

Step 5: Check the mount point with `df -hT`¶

# df -hT

Sample output:

Filesystem                          Type        Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
tecmint@192.168.0.102:/home/tecmint fuse.sshfs  324G   55G  253G  18% /mnt/tecmint

Step 6: Mount permanently via `/etc/fstab`¶

# vi /etc/fstab
$ sudo vi /etc/fstab     # Debian/Ubuntu

Add to the bottom of the file (requires SSH passwordless login for auto-mount on reboot):

sshfs#tecmint@x.x.x.x:/home/tecmint/ /mnt/tecmint fuse.sshfs defaults 0 0

Or, with SSH key-based authentication:

sshfs#tecmint@x.x.x.x:/home/tecmint/ /mnt/tecmint fuse.sshfs IdentityFile=~/.ssh/id_rsa defaults 0 0

Apply the changes:

# mount -a
$ sudo mount -a   # Debian/Ubuntu

Step 7: Unmount the remote filesystem¶

# umount /mnt/tecmint