View source for FTPFS

'''FTPFS''' refers to file systems that support access to a [[File Transfer Protocol]] (FTP) server through standard file system [[Application programming interface|application programming interface]]s (APIs).

The ftpfs command in [[Software:Plan 9 from Bell Labs|Plan 9]] was originated by [[Biography:Dennis Ritchie|Dennis Ritchie]] and was included in the first release of the system (1992). It arranged for a remote file system reachable via FTP to appear as part of the local file system.

In [[Software:Linux|Linux]] systems, FTPFS was initially implemented as a [[Software:Linux kernel|Linux kernel]] module that allows the user to mount a [[File Transfer Protocol|FTP]] server onto the local filesystem, but it was never seen as the perfect way to do it. By 2003, it has been converted to use LUFS, and later to FUSE. Now it is called CurlFtpFS because it uses the universal libcurl for FTP transactions, and is becoming part of the major [[Software:Linux distribution|Linux distribution]]s. There also exists LftpFS for smart mirroring of FTP sites.

In [[Software:MacOS|macOS]], a read-only FTP file system is included that can be used either via the GUI (with {{Keypress|Command|K}}) or the command line (mount_ftp). The read-only limitation is noted in the man page for mount_ftp (on a macOS system, in Terminal.app, see "man mount_ftp"). However, the free application Macfusion includes a working implementation of FTPFS. Additionally, macOS Fuse is reported to enable this but the method to do so is undocumented (as of March 4, 2013) either via various obvious man page (e.g. sshfs) or in the macOS Fuse wiki.

For [[Software:Windows XP|Windows XP]], [[Software:Windows 7|Windows 7]] and other [[Software:Windows|Windows]] operating systems, this functionality is partially provided by the "Network Places"/"Network Location" shell facility; a network place is a link to either an FTP server or a [[WebDAV]] server and can be accessed in Windows Explorer as just another network filesystem.<ref>{{cite news|last=Beroff |first=David |title=How to configure and use the Windows 7 native FTP client |url=http://d4b.livejournal.com/2834802.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140530053357/http://d4b.livejournal.com/2834802.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=30 May 2014 |access-date=30 May 2014 |newspaper=LiveJournal |date=4 Jun 2013 }}</ref>  This does not provide transparent access through the lowest-level Win32 file system APIs, however.  Such functionality can be provided by third party programs such as [[Software:WebDrive|WebDrive]] and [[Software:FTPDrive|FTPDrive]].

== See also ==
* [[Software:SSHFS|SSHFS]]
* [[Software:Dokan Library|Dokan Library]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://lftpfs.sourceforge.net/ LftpFS]
* http://macfusionapp.org

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[[Category:File Transfer Protocol]]


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