Mount FTP Site as Folder

Mounting FTP Sites as Local Directories

You can mount an FTP site as a local directory in Linux using curlftpfs, allowing you to interact with remote FTP content as if it were on your local filesystem.

Installation

First, install the required package:

sudo apt-get install curlftpfs

For other distributions:

# For Fedora/RHEL/CentOS
sudo dnf install curlftpfs

# For Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S curlftpfs

Basic Usage

Mount an FTP site to a local directory:

curlftpfs ftp://user:password@example.com /mnt/ftp_mounted

Prerequisites

Ensure your mount point exists:

# Create the mount point if it doesn't exist
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/ftp_mounted

Advanced Options

Mount with Specific Permissions

curlftpfs -o uid=1000,gid=1000 ftp://user:password@example.com /mnt/ftp_mounted

Connect to a Specific Port

curlftpfs ftp://user:password@example.com:2121 /mnt/ftp_mounted

Use SSL/TLS (FTPS)

curlftpfs -o ssl ftp://user:password@example.com /mnt/ftp_mounted

Unmounting

When you’re done, unmount the FTP site:

fusermount -u /mnt/ftp_mounted

Automounting at Boot

To automatically mount at boot time, add to /etc/fstab:

curlftpfs#ftp://user:password@example.com /mnt/ftp_mounted fuse rw,uid=1000,gid=1000,allow_other,_netdev 0 0

Security Note: Storing passwords in plain text in /etc/fstab is not recommended for sensitive systems. Consider using a credentials file with restricted permissions instead.