After installing and attempting to use sshfs (Secure Shell File System) for the first time in a few months, the permissions for the fuse device were giving me grief.
guyp@q9550 ~$ sshfs -p 62002 root@10.254.7.56:/ /mnt/sshfs fuse: failed to open /dev/fuse: Permission denied
Ok, what happens if we prefix with sudo?
guyp@q9550 ~$ sudo sshfs -p 62002 root@10.254.7.56:/ /mnt/sshfs guyp@q9550 ~$ ls -lah /mnt/sshfs ls: cannot access /mnt/sshfs: Permission denied
Well dammit, now what? Forget sudo and go back to the issue. Let's see what the permissions on /dev/fuse look like...
guyp@q9550 ~$ ls -lah /dev/fuse crw-rw---- 1 root fuse 10, 229 2009-10-17 01:57 /dev/fuse
According to that, members of the "fuse" group can read and write to /dev/fuse; excellent, so here's how to fix the issue once and for all:
guyp@q9550 ~$ sudo usermod -a -G fuse guyp guyp@q9550 ~$ groups guyp root adm wheel audio operator fuse guyp@q9550 ~$ sshfs -p 62002 root@10.254.7.56:/ /mnt/sshfs guyp@q9550 ~$ cat /mnt/sshfs/etc/debian_version 5.0.3 guyp@q9550 ~$
Congratulations, you're transferring files securely. Use sshfs to map remote drives for music, movies, remote backups, off-site surveillance recordings, whatever your heart desires.
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