fstab and sshfs

[Mark Geisert]

Hi David,

On 5/2/2025 7:22 PM, David Christensen via Cygwin wrote:
> cygwin:
> 
> I am attempting to mount a directory from a FreeBSD computer:
> 
> 2025-05-02 19:16:01 admin@dq67sw ~
> $ ssh dpchrist@f5 freebsd-version -kru
> 13.4-RELEASE-p3
> 13.4-RELEASE-p3
> 13.4-RELEASE-p5
> 
> 2025-05-02 18:51:15 admin@dq67sw ~
> $ ssh dpchrist@f5 uname -a
> FreeBSD f5.tracy.holgerdanske.com 13.4-RELEASE-p3 FreeBSD 13.4-RELEASE- 
> p3 GENERIC amd64
> 
> 2025-05-02 19:08:29 admin@dq67sw ~
> $ ssh dpchrist@f5 ls -ld /var/local/samba/dpchrist
> drwxr-xr-x  104 dpchrist  dpchrist  105 Apr 30 00:45 /var/local/samba/ 
> dpchrist
> 
> 
> Onto a Windows 10 Home computer:
> 
> 2025-05-02 18:53:47 admin@dq67sw ~
> $ systeminfo | grep OS
> OS Name:                   Microsoft Windows 10 Home
> OS Version:                10.0.19045 N/A Build 19045
> OS Manufacturer:           Microsoft Corporation
> OS Configuration:          Standalone Workstation
> OS Build Type:             Multiprocessor Free
> BIOS Version:              Intel Corp. SWQ6710H.86A.0068.2017.0601.1423, 
> 6/1/2017
> 
> 2025-05-02 19:14:14 admin@dq67sw ~
> $ ls -al /samba
> total 4
> drwxr-xr-x 1 admin None           0 May  2 19:05 .
> drwxr-xr-x 1 admin Administrators 0 Apr 28 12:03 ..
> 
> 
> Using WinFsp and Cygwin:
> 
> 2025-05-02 18:59:11 admin@dq67sw ~
> $ /cygdrive/c/Program\ Files\ \(x86\)/WinFsp/bin/fsptool-x64.exe ver
> 2.0 (SxS=20250430T013040Z)
> 
> 2025-05-02 18:53:54 admin@dq67sw ~
> $ cygcheck -c cygwin
> Cygwin Package Information
> Package              Version    Status
> cygwin               3.6.1-1        OK
> 
> 2025-05-02 18:55:15 admin@dq67sw ~
> $ cygcheck -c sshfs
> Cygwin Package Information
> Package              Version    Status
> sshfs                3.7.2-2        OK
> 
> 
> I can mount and unmount the directory onto Windows from a Cygwin64 
> Terminal:
> 
> 2025-05-02 18:59:36 admin@dq67sw ~
> $ sshfs dpchrist@f5:/var/local/samba/dpchrist /samba/dpchrist -o 
> uid=197609 -o gid=197121
> 
> 2025-05-02 19:03:16 admin@dq67sw ~
> $ ls /samba/dpchrist | grep ^[A-Z]
> David_s_iPhone
> Downloads
> Movies
> Music
> Music-leftovers
> Pictures
> Television
> Videos
> 
> 2025-05-02 19:03:21 admin@dq67sw ~
> $ fusermount3 -u /samba/dpchrist
> fusermount3: /samba/dpchrist unmounted
> 
> 2025-05-02 19:05:08 admin@dq67sw ~
> $ ls /samba
> 
> 
> RTFM sshfs(1) states:
> 
> MOUNTING FROM /ETC/FSTAB
>         To mount an SSHFS filesystem from /etc/fstab, simply use sshfs 
> as the file system type. (For backwards compatibility, you may also use 
> fuse.sshfs).
> 
> 
> But creating an /etc/fstab entry and using mount does not work:
> 
> 2025-05-02 19:07:12 admin@dq67sw ~
> $ grep dpchrist /etc/fstab
> dpchrist@samba:/var/local/samba/dpchrist /samba/dpchrist sshfs 
> noauto,uid=197609,gid=197121 0 0
> 
> 2025-05-02 19:07:15 admin@dq67sw ~
> $ mount /samba/dpchrist
> mount: can't find /samba/dpchrist in /etc/fstab or in /etc/fstab.d/$USER
> 
> 
> Comments or suggestions?

Unfortunately Cygwin hasn't integrated FUSE filesystem types into 
'mount' and /etc/fstab.  This is why FUSE mounts are recorded in 
/var/run/fuse.mounts rather than in the usual mount table, for example.

The sshfs man page is correct for Linux and other OSs but less so for 
Cygwin.  On Cygwin any FUSE mount has a managing process; these are 
sshfs, and when available, ftpfs, memfs, etc.  They do the actual mount 
and then hang around in background to support operations on the mounted 
filesystem.  The Cygwin DLL doesn't know about these filesystems.

If your goal is to have "permanently" FUSE-mounted filesystems, about 
all I can suggest is to run sshfs from your first Cygwin shell after a 
system boot.
HTH,

..mark