CLI Machines Mount

`ed machines mount`

Hangs a machine's file system off a folder on this Mac, from / down. Finder shows it as a disk and every local tool, an editor, grep, rsync, reads and writes it in place.

ed machines mount <machine> [path] [--at <dir>] [--read-only] [--json]

Arguments

Name	Type / values	Default	What it does
`<machine>`	string, required	none	Machine name, ssh alias, id or unambiguous prefix.
`[path]`	remote directory	`/`, the whole file system	What to mount.

Options

Name	Type / values	Default	What it does
`--at`	local directory, `~` expanded	`~/Edith/<machine name>`	Where to mount it.
`--read-only`	flag	off	Mount it `ro`, so nothing local can write to the machine.
`--json`	flag	off	Emit JSON on stdout instead of the line.
`--help`, `-h`	flag	off	Print the help for this command on stdout and exit 0.

$ ed machines mount tuf
tuf:/  ->  /Users/pulkit/Edith/tuf

`--json` shape

{
  "machine": "Asus TUF 7",
  "mountPoint": "/Users/pulkit/Edith/tuf",
  "readOnly": false,
  "remotePath": "/",
  "source": "tuf:/"
}

Examples

ed machines mount tuf
ed machines mount tuf /srv --read-only
ed machines mount tuf --at ~/mnt/tuf --json
ed machines tuf mount /var/log

Behaviour notes

This needs an sshfs on this Mac, which Edith does not install:

$ ed machines mount tuf
error: sshfs is not installed on this Mac.
hint: install FUSE-T, which needs no kernel extension: brew install --cask macos-fuse-t/cask/fuse-t macos-fuse-t/cask/fuse-t-sshfs

Either FUSE works. FUSE-T is the one to reach for first because it is a user space NFS server rather than a kernel extension, so it installs without loading a kext, without Reduced Security on an Apple Silicon Mac, and without a restart. macFUSE with gromgit/fuse/sshfs-mac works too, at the cost of approving a kernel extension. Edith drives whichever sshfs is first on PATH, and it tries the mount twice: once with the macFUSE-only options, volname, idmap=user, defer_permissions and the Apple metadata switches, and then without them, so an sshfs that rejects the first set still mounts.

The mount rides the same ControlMaster socket everything else on this page uses. ed opens the connection first, then points sshfs at that socket with ControlPath, ControlMaster=no and BatchMode=yes, so the mount is a second channel on the connection already there and no password or passphrase is asked for twice. The socket path is quoted inside the option, because it lives under Application Support and ssh would otherwise stop at the space. Because it never prompts, a mount attempted while the machine is unreachable fails rather than hanging.

sshfs stays running as the mount's own process, so ed does not wait for it to exit: it watches the mount table for up to 16 seconds and reports the mount the moment it appears, or stops the process and reports what it printed.

Files show up owned by you: idmap=user maps the remote account to yours, and uid and gid are this Mac's. The volume is named after the machine, so that is the name in Finder's sidebar. reconnect is on, so the mount survives a short network drop instead of turning into stale handles.

The default mount point is created if it is missing. A folder that already has something in it is refused, and so is a machine that is already mounted and answering, both exiting 1:

$ ed machines mount tuf
error: That machine is already mounted at /Users/pulkit/Edith/tuf.

A mount that is recorded but dead is the case this command repairs instead of refusing. With no path and no --at it takes whatever is left down and mounts again where it was, with the same remote path and the same read-only setting:

$ ed machines mounts
MACHINE     REMOTE  AT                       MODE  STATE
Asus TUF 7  /       /Users/pulkit/Edith/tuf  rw    gone

$ ed machines mount tuf
remounted tuf:/  ->  /Users/pulkit/Edith/tuf

Naming a path or an --at turns that off, because then you are asking for a different mount rather than for the one that broke.

The default is the whole file system, so ~/Edith/tuf/etc/hosts is the machine's /etc/hosts. Mounting one directory instead is the same command with a path, and --read-only is worth having on anything you only meant to read: a mounted machine is as easy to delete from as a local disk, root included.

The mount belongs to the login session, not to Edith. It stays up when Edith quits, and it goes away on logout or restart. ed machines disconnect closes the control socket; the mount then keeps itself alive on its own connection.

What Edith keeps is a small record in ~/Library/Application Support/Edith/machines/mounts.json, one line per mount it made: the machine, the remote path and the mount point. That is what ties a mount back to a machine, because not every FUSE reports the user@host:/path source in the mount table, and it is what a repair puts back.

When the connection goes. A mount is its own sshfs process rather than a channel on the shared connection, so a dropped master does not take it down and -o reconnect rides out a short network blip on its own. What it does not survive is the machine sleeping or rebooting, or the process being killed: the mount either disappears or turns into a folder that hangs when you touch it. Both are named by the state in ed machines mounts, and both are repaired the same way, by taking whatever is left down and mounting again from the record.

Three things trigger the repair. The app checks every machine it is connected to every 20 seconds, and again after this Mac wakes, which is the same shape the port forward replay has. ed machines mount <machine> with no path repairs rather than refusing, and says remounted when it did. Opening the machine's Tools tab checks once on the spot, and the dot beside the mount point says whether it is answering.

Nothing repairs a mount you took down yourself: ed machines unmount and the Unmount button both drop the record, and a mount with no record is left alone. That also means a mount you drop with a bare umount behind Edith's back comes back on the next check, because from here it looks exactly like a mount that died. Use ed machines unmount when you mean it.