mjhjmtu

I followed instructions for sshfs "on demand" mounting, but it doesn't work.

I added this to /etc/fstab:

username@hostname:/ /mnt/remotes/hostname fuse.sshfs noauto,x-systemd.automount,_netdev,users,idmap=user,IdentityFile=/home/stanley/.ssh/my_rsa_key,allow_other,reconnect 0 0

Then I ran sudo mount -a which did nothing. I also tried systemctl daemon-reload && systemctl restart proc-sys-fs-binfmt_misc.automount.

So I followed the troubleshooting tips, and used this instead:

username@hostname:/ /mnt/remotes/hostname fuse.sshfs ssh_command=ssh40-vv,sshfs_debug,debug,_netdev,users,idmap=user,IdentityFile=/home/stanley/.ssh/my_rsa_key,allow_other,reconnect 0 0

And then ran sudo mount -av. In a separate terminal I could access that mount point.

So 1) ssh and sftp are working, 2) sshfs is working, 3) permissions are fine.

So only the on-demand part isn't working - what am I doing wrong?

The instructions say:

Note: After editing /etc/fstab, (re)start the required service: systemctl daemon-reload && systemctl restart where <target> can be found by running systemctl list-unit-files --type automount

You have a problem :-(.

Mount options which are implemented by systemd, such as x-systemd.*, are not implemented by the mount command.

But the mount command is what you need to use, if you are an unprivileged user (no root/sudo), and you want to mount an fstab entry (which has been marked to allow this using the user or users mount option).

The instructions are confusing, especially for someone who doesn't understand systemd.

The correct procedure:

1. add to /etc/fstab: username@hostname:/ /mnt/remotes/hostname fuse.sshfs noauto,x-systemd.automount,_netdev,users,idmap=user,IdentityFile=/home/stanley/.ssh/my_rsa_key,allow_other,reconnect 0 0




2. run sudo systemctl daemon-reload. This creates a systemd "unit file".




3. find out which unit file by running systemctl list-unit-files --type automount. For me it was mnt-remotes-hostname.automount.




4. enable it: sudo systemctl restart mnt-remotes-hostname.automount.




5. cd /mnt/remotes/hostname or ls /mnt/remotes/hostname and it will automatically create the sftp connection!

That works, but I'm not yet sure about:

• some say allow_other is a security risk, I'll need to look into that


• I don't know how to specify when the mount should be automatically unmounted (how many seconds of idle time, etc.)

If anyone can shed light on that, please do.

UPDATE
As per @sourcejedis's answer, stopping the mount must be done in this order: systemctl stop whatever.mount && systemctl stop whatever.automount and one should NOT use umount mounpoint!