1mount.davfs(8) 1.6.0 mount.davfs(8)
2
6 mount.davfs - Mount a WebDAV resource as davfs2 file system
7
11 mount.davfs [-h | --help] [-V | --version]
12 mount {dir | webdavserver}
13
17 mount -t davfs [-o option[,...]] webdavserver dir
18 mount.davfs [-o option[,...]] webdavserver dir
19
23 mount.davfs allows you to mount the WebDAV resource identified by web‐
24 davserver into the local filesystem at dir. WebDAV is an extension to
25 HTTP that allows remote, collaborative authoring of Web resources,
26 defined in RFC 4918. mount.davfs is part of davfs2.
27 davfs2 allows documents on a remote Web server to be edited using stan‐
30 dard applications. For example, a remote Web site could be updated
31 in-place using the same development tools that initially created the
32 site. Or you may use a WebDAV resource for documents you want to
33 access and edited from different locations.
34 davfs2 supports TLS/SSL (if the neon library supports it) and proxies.
37 mount.davfs runs as a daemon in userspace. It integrates into the vir‐
38 tual file system by the fuse kernel files system. Currently FUSE_KER‐
39 NEL_VERSION 7 is supported.
40 mount.davfs is usually invoked by the mount(8) command when using the
43 -t davfs option. After mounting it runs as a daemon. To unmount the
44 umount(8) command is used.
45 webdavserver is the URL of the server. It must at least contain the
48 host name. It may additionally contain the scheme, the port and the
49 path. Missing components are set to sensible default values. The path
50 component must not be %-encoded, but when entering the URL at the com‐
51 mand line or in /etc/fstab the escaping rules of the shell or fstab
52 must be obeyed.
53 dir is the mountpoint where the WebDAV resource is mounted on. It may
56 be an absolute or relative path.
57 fstab may be used to define mounts and mount options as usual. In place
60 of the device the url of the WebDAV server must be given. There must
61 not be more than one entry in fstab for every mountpoint.
62
66 -V --version
67 Output version.
68 -h --help
71 Print a help message.
72 -o A comma-separated list defines mount options to be used. Avail‐
75 able options are:
76 [no]auto
79 Can (not) be mounted with mount -a.
80 Default: auto.
81 comment=some comment
84 This option is ignored by mount.davfs but other programs
85 may require it to be present in fstab.
86 conf=absolute path
89 An alternative user configuration file. This option is
90 intended for cases where the default user configuration
91 file in the users home directory can not be used.
92 Default: ~/.davfs2/davfs2.conf
93 [no]dev
96 (Do not) interpret character or block special devices
97 on the file system. This option is only included for
98 compatibility with the mount(8) program. It will always
99 be set to nodev
100 dir_mode=mode
103 The default mode bits for directories in the mounted file
104 system. Value given in octal. s-bits for user and group
105 are always silently ignored.
106 Default: calculated from the umask of the mounting user;
107 an x-bit is associated to every r-bit in u-g-o.
108 [no]exec
111 (Do not) allow execution of any binaries on the
112 mounted file system.
113 Default: exec. (When mounting as an ordinary user, the
114 mount(8) program will set the default to noexec.)
115 file_mode=mode
118 The default mode bits for files in the mounted file sys‐
119 tem. Value given in octal. s-bits for user and group are
120 always silently ignored.
121 Default: calculated from the umask of the mounting user;
122 no x-bits are set for files.
123 gid=group
126 The group the mounted file system belongs to. It may be a
127 numeric ID or a group name. The mounting user, if not
128 root, must be member of this group.
129 Default: the primary group of the mounting user.
130 [no]grpid
133 When this option is set a newly created file will take
134 the group id of the directory in which it is created.
135 This will also apply to all files that are on the server
136 and not in the local cache. (That is because the group id
137 is not stored on the server.)
138 If the group id of the directory is root this option is
139 ignored.
140 Default: nogrpid.
141 [no]_netdev
144 The file system needs a (no) network connection for oper‐
145 ation. This information allows the operating system to
146 handle the file system properly at system start and when
147 the network is shut down.
148 Default: _netdev
149 ro Mount the file system read-only.
152 Default: rw.
153 rw Mount the file system read-write.
156 Default: rw.
157 [no]suid
160 Do not allow set-user-identifier or set-group-identifier
161 bits to take effect. This option is only included for
162 compatibility with the mount program. It will always be
163 set to nosuid.
164 [no]user
167 (Do not) allow an ordinary user to mount the file
168 system. The name of the mounting user is written to mtab
169 so that he can unmount the file system again. Option user
170 implies the options noexec, nosuid and nodev (unless
171 overridden by subsequent options). This option makes only
172 sense when set in fstab.
173 Default: ordinary users are not allowed to mount.
174 users Like user, but any user is allowed to unmount the file
177 system, not only the mounting user. This is generally not
178 recomended. If the user option allows an unprivileged
179 user to mount, but unmounting by the mounting user fails
180 the users may be a work around.
181 Default: only the mounting user is allowed to unmount the
182 file system.
183 uid=user
186 The owner of the mounted file system. It may be a numeric
187 ID or a user name. Only when mounted by root, this may
188 be different from the mounting user.
189 Default: ID of the mounting user.
190 username=WebDAV_user
193 Use this name to authenticate with the WebDAV server.
194 This option is intended for use with pam_mount only. When
195 this option is set the credentials in the secrets files
196 will be ignored. The password will always be read from
197 stdin, even when option askauth is set to 0. Do not use
198 it in fstab. The username will be visible for everyone in
199 the output of ps.
200 Default: no username.
201 Experimental: This option is experimental and might be
202 removed. If you think it useful and successfully use it
203 please send a short report.
204
208 mount.davfs needs root privileges for mounting. But running a daemon,
209 that is connected to the internet, with root privileges is a security
210 risk. So mount.davfs will change its uid and gid when entering daemon
211 mode.
212 When invoked by root mount.davfs will run as user davfs2 and
215 group davfs2. This may be changed in /etc/davfs2/davfs2.conf.
216 When invoked by an ordinary user it will run with the id of this
219 user and with group davfs2.
220 As the file system may be mounted over an insecure internet connection,
222 this increases the risk that malicious content may be included in the
223 file system. So mount.davfs is slightly more restrictive than mount(8).
224 Options nosuid and nodev will always be set; even root can not
227 change this.
228 For ordinary users to be able to mount, they must be member of
231 group davfs2 and there must be an entry in fstab.
232 When the mount point given in fstab is a relative file name and
235 the file system is mounted by an unprivileged user, the mount
236 point must lie within the home directory of the mounting user.
237 If in fstab option uid and/or gid are given, an ordinary user
240 can only mount, if her uid is the one given in option uid and he
241 belongs to the group given in option gid.
242 WARNING: If root allows an ordinary user to mount a file system (using
244 fstab) this includes the permission to read the associated credentials
245 from /etc/davfs2/secrets as well as the private key of the associated
246 client certificate and the mounting user may get access to this infor‐
247 mation. You should only do this, if you might as well give this infor‐
248 mation to the user directly.
249
252 Special characters like spaces in pathnames are a mess. They are inter‐
253 preted differently by different programs and protocols, and there are
254 different rules for escaping.
255 In fstab spaces must be replaced by a three digit octal escape
258 sequence. Write http://foo.bar/path\040with\040spaces instead of
259 http://foo.bar/path with spaces.
260 For the davfs2.conf and the secrets files please see the escape and
263 quotation rules described in the davfs2.conf(5) man page.
264 On command line you must obey the escaping rules of the shell.
267
271 mount.davfs tries to reduce HTTP-trafic by caching and reusing data.
272 Information about directories and files are held in memory, while down‐
273 loaded files are cached on disk.
274 mount.davfs needs to hold a local copy of all open files in the cache
277 directory. Please make sure that enough local disk space is available.
278 mount.davfs will consider cached information about directories and file
281 attributes valid for a configurable time and look up this information
282 on the server only after this time has expired (or there is other evi‐
283 dence that this information is stale). So if somebody else creates or
284 deletes files on the server it may take some time before the local file
285 system reflects this.
286 This will not affect the content of files and directory listings. When‐
289 ever a file is opened, the server is looked up for a newer version of
290 the file. Please consult the manual davfs2.conf(5) to see how can you
291 configure this according your needs.
292
296 WebDAV introduced locks and mount.davfs uses them by default. This will
297 in most cases prevent two people from changing the same file in paral‐
298 lel. But not always:
299 You might have disabled locks in /etc/davfs2/davfs2.conf or
302 ~/.davfs2/davfs2.conf.
303 The server might not support locks (they are not mandatory).
306 A bad connection might prevent mount.davfs from refreshing the
309 lock in time.
310 Another WebDAV-client might use your lock (that is not too dif‐
313 ficult and might even happen without intention).
314 mount.davfs will therefore check if the file has been changed on the
317 the server before it uploads a new version. If it finds it impossible
318 to upload the locally changed file, it will store it in the local
319 backup direcotry lost+found. You should check this directory from time
320 to time and decide what to do with this files.
321 Sometimes locks held by some client on the server will not be released.
324 Maybe the client crashes or the network connection fails. When
325 mount.davfs finds a file locked on the server, it will check whether
326 the lock is held by mount.davfs and the current user, and if so tries
327 to reuse and release it. But this will not always succeed. So servers
328 should automatically release locks after some time, when they are not
329 refreshed by the client.
330 WebDAV allows one to lock files that don't exist (to protect the name
333 when a client intends to create a new file). This locks will be dis‐
334 played as files with size 0 and last modified date of 1970-01-01. If
335 this locks are not released properly mount.davfs may not be able to
336 access this files. You can use cadaver(1) <http://www.web‐
337 dav.org/cadaver/> to remove this locks.
338
342 davfs2 implements Unix permissions for access control. But changing
343 owner and permissions of a file is only local. It is intended as a
344 means for the owner of the file system, to control whether other local
345 users may acces this file system.
346 The server does not know about this. From the servers point of view
349 there is just one user (identified by the credentials) connected.
350 Another WebDAV-client, connected to the same server, is not affected by
351 this local changes.
352 There is one exception: The execute bit on files is stored as a prop‐
355 erty on the sever. You may think of this property as an information
356 about the type of file rather than a permission. Whether the file is
357 executable on the local system is still controlled by mount options and
358 local permissions.
359 When the file system is unmounted, attributes of cached files (includ‐
362 ing owner and permissions) are stored in cache, as well as the
363 attributs of the direcotries they are in. But there is no information
364 stored about directories that do not contain cached files.
365
369 /etc/davfs2/davfs2.conf
370 System wide configuration file.
371 ~/.davfs2/davfs2.conf
374 Configuration file in the users home directory.The user configu‐
375 ration takes precedence over the system wide configuration. If
376 it does not exist, mount.davfs will will create a template file.
377 /etc/davfs2/secrets
380 Holds the credentials for WebDAV servers and the proxy, as well
381 as decryption passwords for client certificates. The file must
382 be read-writable by root only.
383 ~/.davfs2/secrets
386 Holds credentials for WebDAV servers and proxy, as well as
387 decryption passwords for client certificates. The file must be
388 read-writable by the owner only. Credentials are first looked up
389 in the home directory of the mounting user. If not found there
390 the system wide secrets file is consulted. If no creditentials
391 and passwords are found they are asked from the user interac‐
392 tively (if not disabled). If the file does not exist,
393 mount.davfs will will create a template file.
394 /etc/davfs2/certs
397 You may store trusted server certificates here, that can not be
398 verified by use of the system wide CA-Certificates. This is use‐
399 ful when your server uses a selfmade certificate. You must con‐
400 figure the servercert option in /etc/davfs2/davfs2.conf or
401 ~/.davfs2/davfs2.conf to use it. Certificates must be in PEM
402 format.
403 Be sure to verify the certificate.
404 ~/.davfs2/certs
407 You may store trusted server certificates here, that can not be
408 verified by use of the system wide CA-Certificates. This is use‐
409 ful when your server uses a selfmade certificate. You must con‐
410 figure the servercert option in ~/.davfs2/davfs2.conf to use it.
411 Certificates must be in PEM format.
412 Be sure to verify the certificate.
413 /etc/davfs2/certs/private
416 To store client certificates. Certificates must be in PKCS#12
417 format. You must configure the clientcert option in
418 /etc/davfs2/davfs2.conf or ~/.davfs2/davfs2.conf to use it. This
419 directory must be rwx by root only.
420 ~/.davfs2/certs/private
423 To store client certificates. Certificates must be in PKCS#12
424 format. You must configure the clientcert option in
425 ~/.davfs2/davfs2.conf to use it. This directory must be rwx by
426 the owner only.
427 /var/run/mount.davfs
430 PID-files of running mount.davfs processes are stored there.
431 This directory must belong to group davfs2 with write permis‐
432 sions for the group and the sticky-bit set (mode 1775). The
433 PID-files are named after the mount point of the file system.
434 /var/cache/davfs2
437 System wide directory for cached files. Used when the file sys‐
438 tem is mounted by root. It must belong do group davfs2 and read,
439 write and execute bits for group must be set. There is a subdi‐
440 rectory for every mounted file system. The names of this subdi‐
441 rectories are created from url, mount point and user name.
442 ~/.davfs2/cache
445 Cache directory in the mounting users home directory. For every
446 mounted WebDAV resource a subdirectory is created.
447 mount.davfs will try to create missing directories, but it will not
449 touch /etc/davfs2.
450
453 https_proxy http_proxy all_proxy
454 If no proxy is defined in the configuration file the value is
455 taken from this environment variables. The proxy may be given
456 with or without scheme and with or without port
457 http_proxy=[http://]foo.bar[:3218]
458 Only used when the mounting user is root.
459 no_proxy
462 A comma separated list of domain names that shall be accessed
463 directly. * matches any domain name. A domain name starting
464 with . (period) matches all subdomains.
465 Only used when the mounting user is root.
466 Not applied when the proxy is defined in /etc/davfs2.
467
471 Non root user (e.g. filomena):
472 To allow an ordinary user to mount there must be an entry in fstab
475 http://webdav.org/dav /media/dav davfs noauto,user 0 0
476 If a proxy must be used this should be configured in
479 /etc/davfs2/davfs2.conf
480 proxy proxy.mycompany.com:8080
481 Credentials are stored in /home/filomena/.davfs2/secrets
484 proxy.mycompany.com filomena "my secret"
485 /media/dav webdav-username password
486 Now the WebDAV resource may be mounted by user filomena invoking
489 mount /media/dav
490 and unmounted by user filomena invoking
493 umount /media/dav
494 Root user only:
497 Mounts the resource https://asciigirl.com/webdav at mount point
500 /mount/site, encrypting all traffic with SSL. Credentials for
501 http://webdav.org/dav will be looked up in /etc/davfs2/secrets, if not
502 found there the user will be asked.
503 mount -t davfs -o uid=otto,gid=users,mode=775 https://asci‐
504 igirl.com/webdav /mount/site
505 Mounts the resource http://linux.org.ar/repos at /dav.
508 mount.davfs -o uid=otto,gid=users,mode=775
509 http://linux.org.ar/repos/ /dav
510
514 davfs2 does not support links.
515 A davfs2 file system cannot be moved with mount --move.
517
521 This man page was written by Luciano Bello <luciano@linux.org.ar> for
522 Debian, for version 0.2.3 of davfs2.
523 It has been updated for this version by Werner Baumann <werner.bau‐
526 mann@onlinhome.de>.
527 davfs2 is developed by Sung Kim <hunkim@gmail.com>.
530 Version 1.0.0 (and later) of davfs2 is a complete rewrite by Werner
533 Baumann.
534
538 http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/davfs2
539
543 umount.davfs(8), davfs2.conf(5), mount(8), umount(8), fstab(5)
544davfs2 2020-08-03 mount.davfs(8)