go-ipfs
makes it possible to mount /ipfs
and /ipns
namespaces in your OS,
allowing arbitrary apps access to IPFS.
You will need to install and configure fuse before you can mount IPFS
Note: while this guide should work for most distributions, you may need to refer to your distribution manual to get things working.
Install fuse
with your favorite package manager:
sudo apt-get install fuse
On some older Linux distributions, you may need to add yourself to the fuse
group.
(If no such group exists, you can probably skip this step)
sudo usermod -a -G fuse <username>
Restart user session, if active, for the change to apply, either by restarting ssh connection or by re-logging to the system.
It has been discovered that versions of osxfuse
prior to 2.7.0
will cause a
kernel panic. For everyone's sake, please upgrade (latest at time of writing is
2.7.4
). The installer can be found at https://osxfuse.github.io/. There is
also a homebrew formula (brew cask install osxfuse
) but users report best results
installing from the official OSXFUSE installer package.
Note that ipfs
attempts an automatic version check on osxfuse
to prevent you
from shooting yourself in the foot if you have pre 2.7.0
. Since checking the
OSXFUSE version [is more complicated than it should be], running ipfs mount
may require you to install another binary:
go get github.com/jbenet/go-fuse-version/fuse-version
If you run into any problems installing FUSE or mounting IPFS, hop on IRC and speak with us, or if you figure something new out, please add to this document!
By default ipfs uses /ipfs
and /ipns
directories for mounting, this can be
changed in config. You will have to create the /ipfs
and /ipns
directories
explicitly. Note that modifying root requires sudo permissions.
# make the directories
sudo mkdir /ipfs
sudo mkdir /ipns
# chown them so ipfs can use them without root permissions
sudo chown <username> /ipfs
sudo chown <username> /ipns
Depending on whether you are using OSX or Linux, follow the proceeding instructions.
You'll need to stop the IPFS daemon if you have it started, otherwise the mount will complain.
# Check to see if IPFS daemon is running
ps aux | grep ipfs
# Kill the IPFS daemon
pkill -f ipfs
# Verify that it has been killed
ipfs daemon --mount
If you wish to allow other users to use the mount points, edit /etc/fuse.conf
to enable non-root users, i.e.:
# /etc/fuse.conf - Configuration file for Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE)
# Set the maximum number of FUSE mounts allowed to non-root users.
# The default is 1000.
#mount_max = 1000
# Allow non-root users to specify the allow_other or allow_root mount options.
user_allow_other
Next set Mounts.FuseAllowOther
config option to true
:
ipfs config --json Mounts.FuseAllowOther true
ipfs daemon --mount
Verify that the config file can be read by your user:
sudo ls -l /etc/fuse.conf
-rw-r----- 1 root fuse 216 Jan 2 2013 /etc/fuse.conf
In most distributions, the group named fuse
will be created during fuse
installation. You can check this with:
sudo grep -q fuse /etc/group && echo fuse_group_present || echo fuse_group_missing
If the group is present, just add your regular user to the fuse
group:
sudo usermod -G fuse -a <username>
If the group didn't exist, create fuse
group (add your regular user to it) and
set necessary permissions, for example:
sudo chgrp fuse /etc/fuse.conf
sudo chmod g+r /etc/fuse.conf
Note that the use of fuse
group is optional and may depend on your operating
system. It is okay to use a different group as long as proper permissions are
set for user running ipfs mount
command.
sudo umount /ipfs
sudo umount /ipns
If you manage to mount on other systems (or followed an alternative path to one above), please contribute to these docs :D