Usage

Before you even start thinking about mounting FTP volumes, make sure you have a decent bandwidth or it's gonna suck.

If you're still thinking about it, the second thing to do is to load the module into kernel (as Mr. root):

insmod ftpfs.o

For the next step you need to know a few things like the FTP server IP, an username & password (not necessary for anonymous login).

Now it's time to try the real thing. The way to use the newly acquired filesystem capabilities is:

mount -n -t ftpfs none mount_point -o ip=server_ip[,user=user_name][,pass=password][,port=server_port][,root=root_dir]

You don't need to specify all the options, they default as follows:

  • user: anonymous
  • pass: ftpfs@localhost
  • port: 21
  • root: /. This should be specified without the trailing slash (that is "/home/duru", not "/home/duru/").

For example, while testing, I used the following command:

mount -n -t ftpfs none /mnt/ftpfs -o ip=127.0.0.1,user=mali,pass=my_pass

To unmount the volume, you go like

umount mount_point

A few words of wisdom:
  • Use -n mount option! I bet you don't want your user/password information listed in mtab.
  • Don't push it! (pushing it = a dozen processes reading on the mount point)
  • It works best for one process! While concurrent access (under normal circumstances) shouldn't cause any problem, the output is optimized for one process reading (the TCP connection is kept alive). So, if you're gonna watch a movie, you don't want other processes to access the mount point and kill the throughoutput (trust me!).
  • The address in IP format sucks! - I know, there'll be a ftpmount someday...

Enjoy



Email: mali@users.sourceforge.net