netdrive-connector 1.2

Introduction

netdrive-connector is a simple PyQt4 wrapper for the existing and standardized way to get SFTP and WebDAV shared folders (remote filesystems) mounted into your local filesystem. Usually a folder inside your home folder. With the optional addition of auto-mounting at desktop login and passwordless login.

It makes it quick and easy to get one of these shared folders up and running without having to know how to set them up manually.

Pros

• Simple and effective.

• Uses robust existing technologies (sshfs, davfs2).

• No unnecessary config files or metadata.

• Saves learning how to set up these remote filesystems manually.

Cons

• May inhibit learning of underlying techologies.

Current Limitations

• The auto unmount at logout is KDE centric (uses ~/.kde/shutdown). Please let me know if there is a logout script for other DE’s / WM’s.

• No UI localization support (English only).

• Only available for Linux. Hopefully FreeBSD to follow soon (sshfs only).

• Makes some assumptions about the system configuration.

Installation Notes

• Always check in your distributions’ repository first.

• If no packages are available for your distribution, install distro specific dependencies then install from PyPi (pip).

• Slackware has a SlackBuild maintained by me (primary developer).

• I’ll try to add more to the ‘release’ section as I get time and help to package for more distributions.

From PyPi (pip)

Make sure dependencies are installed (see below).

pip install netdrive-connector

From source

Make sure dependencies are installed (see below).

git clone https://github.com/ethoms/netdrive-connector.git
cd netdrive-connector
python setup.py sdist
pip install dist/netdrive-connector-*.tar.gz

From basic rpm package

Make sure dependencies are installed (see below).

Caveats: this will create a very basic rpm package without dependency information.

git clone https://github.com/ethoms/netdrive-connector.git
cd netdrive-connector
python setup.py bdist_rpm
rpm -ivh netdrive-connector-*.noarch.rpm

This may be converted to other packaging systems using ‘alien’. See this Alien How To.

Usage Notes

Any regular user accounts that intend to mount a connection may need additional unix groups ( fuse, sshfs, davfs2). This varies depending on the distribution.

In addition to the main GUI tool, there are command line utilities to add and remove connections. These are as follows:

add-sftp-connector

# add-sftp-connector

Usage (1): /usr/bin/add-sftp-connector username@server_url mount_point
Example  : /usr/bin/add-sftp-connector bill@host1.example.com:/shares /home/bill/Shares
Example  : /usr/bin/add-sftp-connector bill@host1.example.com:22/shares /home/bill/Shares

Usage (2): /usr/bin/add-sftp-connector username@server_url mount_point key
Example  : /usr/bin/add-sftp-connector bill@host1.example.com:/shares /home/bill/Shares key
Example  : /usr/bin/add-sftp-connector bill@host1.example.com:22/shares /home/bill/Shares key

Usage (3): /usr/bin/add-sftp-connector username@server_url mount_point key sftp_password
Example  : /usr/bin/add-sftp-connector bill@host1.example.com:/shares /home/bill/Shares key opensesame
Example  : /usr/bin/add-sftp-connector bill@host1.example.com:22/shares /home/bill/Shares key opensesame
!WARNING!: this method may save your password to the HISTFILE (command history)

NOTE:    : options (2) and (3) will add a local ssh key to the remote authorized_keys for password-less login.

remove-sftp-connector

# remove-sftp-connector

Usage (1): /usr/bin/remove-sftp-connector username@server_url mount_point
Example  : /usr/bin/remove-sftp-connector bill@host1.example.com:22/shares /home/bill/Shares

add-webdav-connector

# add-webdav-connector

Usage (1): /usr/bin/add-webdav-connector server_url mount_point
Example  : /usr/bin/add-webdav-connector http://webdav.example.com:80/shares /home/bill/Shares

Usage (2): /usr/bin/add-webdav-connector server_url mount_point username
Example  : /usr/bin/add-webdav-connector http://webdav.example.com:80/shares /home/bill/Shares bill

Usage (3): /usr/bin/add-webdav-connector server_url mount_point username password
Example  : /usr/bin/add-webdav-connector http://webdav.example.com:80/shares /home/bill/Shares bill opensesame
!WARNING!: this method may save your password to the HISTFILE (command history)

NOTE:    : options (2) and (3) will add an entry to the ~/.davfs2/secrets file for password-less login.

remove-webdav-connector

# remove-webdav-connector

Usage (1): /usr/bin/remove-webdav-connector server_url mount_point
Example  : /usr/bin/remove-webdav-connector http://webdav.example.com:80/shares /home/bill/Shares

Packaging Notes

• I’m always willing to assist in packaging for as many distros as possible. Create an ‘Issue’ if you need assistance from me.

• Subject to the distribution and it’s fuse, davfs2, sshfs packages, a user may need adding to additional groups (fuse, davfs/davfs2 etc.). In Slackware, only the davfs2 group is required.

• An ssh-askpass program should be installed and configured to work with sshfs.

• At some point in the operation of adding/removing connections, a temporary script is placed in /tmp and given execute permission. After use it is deleted. A regular user will need permissions to do this.

• WARNING: The webdav connection script ‘add-webdav-connector’ will turn the setuid bit on /usr/bin/mount.davfs.

Dependencies

• python v2.7 or above (not python 3).

• PyQt4 v4.8 or above (python-qt4 on debian based distros).

• ssh-askpass, or a variant of. Tested with x11-ssh-askpass.

• expect (version 5.x or above should be OK).

• fuse.

• sshfs (sshfs-fuse) v2.4 or above recommended.

• davfs2 v1.4.6 or above recommended.

• openssh-client.

• awk, grep, ls, cut, chown, cat, chmod, sed, uname, who.

Note: Either davfs2 or sshfs are not required if that connection type is unused.

Screenshots

netdrive-connector Main Window