httpfs - Remote FUSE filesystem via server-side script

httpfs is a FUSE-based filesystem that uses HTTP messages to mount a remote directory on a local machine, relying on a generated server-side script (e.g. PHP) installed on the server.

Setup

1. Add the current user to the fuse group as described in the Prepare the environment paragraph.

2. Install the dependencies. For Debian based distros just run:

   sudo apt-get install fuse libfuse-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev cmake
   

3. Install:

   make
   sudo make install
   

4. If needed, uninstall:

   sudo make uninstall
   

Sample usage

1. Generate a PHP script:

   httpfs generate php > httpfs.php
   

2. Place the generated script in an accessible location inside the document root of your web server.

3. Mount the remote filesystem:

   mkdir /tmp/httpfs/
   httpfs mount http://target.com/httpfs.php /tmp/httpfs/ /home/john/
   

4. Now the remote /home/john/ is mounted in /tmp/httpfs/, head there to browse the remote files.

5. Unmount the filesystem:

   fusermount -u /tmp/httpfs/
   

Prepare the environment

Make sure the current user is in the fuse group, this preliminary step is mandatory to use any FUSE filesystem. You can list the groups you belong to with groups, if that includes fuse you're done, otherwise:

sudo adduser john fuse

Then log out and back in or start a new shell with:

newgrp fuse

to inform the system about the changes.

Resources

FUSE - http://fuse.sourceforge.net

Authors

Andrea Cardaci - http://cyrus-and.github.com

Emilio Pinna - http://disse.cting.org