tips-computer-sync

(see also the email sync and the unison filex in the oqo folder)

sshfs and afuse

sshfs lets you mount a remote computer as a local folder via ssh -- it's really sweet.

To install:

apt-get install fuse-utils sshfs

Example usage:

mkdir /home/bshanks/w   # create a mount point
sshfs -o reconnect bshanks@example.com: /home/bshanks/w

The -o reconnect enables sshfs's reconnect option, which i assume means it reconnects if it gets disconnected. the bshanks@example.com: says to login as user bshanks at example.com, and to go to bshanks's home directory there. The /home/bshanks/w is the local mount point.

To unmount, use

fusermount -u -z /home/bshanks/w

The -u means unmount, and the -z means "lazy unmount", which means that it unmounts even if the directory is busy.

You can put sshfs into /etc/fstab like this:

sshfs#bshanks@example.com:    /home/bshanks/w    fuse    defaults,user,reconnect    0 0

The "user" means that ordinary users are authorized to issue mount and umount commands.

But I am just too lazy to type mount and umount. Using afuse, you can make it mount and unmount automatically when you access the local directory.

To install:

apt-get install afuse

afuse creates a virtual directory; when you try to access a subdirectory inside of it, the name of the subdirectory is taken as the address of the remote computer. So what we'll do is create a mountpoint for the virtual directory, and then create a symbolic link inside of that for a frequently used remote computer.

Example usage:

First, create a mountpoint for afuse

mkdir /home/bshanks/afused # create
ln -s /home/bshanks/afused/bshanks@example.com:

Now, put something like this into ~/.bashrc:

fusermount -u -z /media/afused/bshanks
afuse -o timeout=1800 -o mount_template='sshfs -o reconnect %r %m' -o unmount_template='fusermount -u -z %m' /home/bshanks/afused/ &

First, the fusermount command unmounts things in case something is screwed up.

The afuse command create a virtual directory at the mount point /home/bshanks/afused/. The

The afuse command is backgrounded so that in case it hangs, it doesn't lock you out (since this is in .bashrc).