Annotation of /fuse/trunk/README

General Information
===================

FUSE (Filesystem in USErspace) is a simple interface for userspace
programs to export a virtual filesystem to the linux kernel.  FUSE
also aims to provide a secure method for non privileged users to
create and mount their own filesystem implementations.

You can download the source code releases from

  http://sourceforge.net/projects/avf

or alternatively you can use CVS to get the very latest development
version by setting the cvsroot to

  :pserver:anonymous@cvs.avf.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/avf

and checking out the 'fuse' module.

Installation
============

./configure
make
make install

Also see the file 'INSTALL'

How To Use
==========

FUSE is made up of three main parts:

 - A kernel filesystem module

 - A userspace library

 - A mount/unmount program


Here's how to create your very own virtual filesystem in five easy
steps (after installing FUSE):

  1) Edit the file example/fusexmp.c to do whatever you want...

  2) Build the fusexmp program

  3) run 'example/fusexmp /mnt/fuse -d'

  4) ls -al /mnt/fuse

  5) Be glad

If it doesn't work out, please ask!  Also see the file 'include/fuse.h' for
detailed documentation of the library interface.

Security
========

If you run 'make install', the fusermount program is installed
set-user-id to root.  This is done to allow normal users to mount
their own filesystem implementations. 

There must however be some limitations, in order to prevent Bad User from
doing nasty things.  Currently those limitations are:

  - The user can only mount on a mountpoint, for which it has write
    permission

  - The mountpoint is not a sticky directory which isn't owned by the
    user (like /tmp usually is)

  - No other user (including root) can access the contents of the mounted
    filesystem.
1	dpavlin	4	General Information
2			===================
3
4			FUSE (Filesystem in USErspace) is a simple interface for userspace
5			programs to export a virtual filesystem to the linux kernel. FUSE
6			also aims to provide a secure method for non privileged users to
7			create and mount their own filesystem implementations.
8
9			You can download the source code releases from
10
11			http://sourceforge.net/projects/avf
12
13			or alternatively you can use CVS to get the very latest development
14			version by setting the cvsroot to
15
16			:pserver:anonymous@cvs.avf.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/avf
17
18			and checking out the 'fuse' module.
19
20			Installation
21			============
22
23			./configure
24			make
25			make install
26
27			Also see the file 'INSTALL'
28
29			How To Use
30			==========
31
32			FUSE is made up of three main parts:
33
34			- A kernel filesystem module
35
36			- A userspace library
37
38			- A mount/unmount program
39
40
41			Here's how to create your very own virtual filesystem in five easy
42			steps (after installing FUSE):
43
44			1) Edit the file example/fusexmp.c to do whatever you want...
45
46			2) Build the fusexmp program
47
48			3) run 'example/fusexmp /mnt/fuse -d'
49
50			4) ls -al /mnt/fuse
51
52			5) Be glad
53
54			If it doesn't work out, please ask! Also see the file 'include/fuse.h' for
55			detailed documentation of the library interface.
56
57			Security
58			========
59
60			If you run 'make install', the fusermount program is installed
61			set-user-id to root. This is done to allow normal users to mount
62			their own filesystem implementations.
63
64			There must however be some limitations, in order to prevent Bad User from
65			doing nasty things. Currently those limitations are:
66
67			- The user can only mount on a mountpoint, for which it has write
68			permission
69
70			- The mountpoint is not a sticky directory which isn't owned by the
71			user (like /tmp usually is)
72
73			- No other user (including root) can access the contents of the mounted
74			filesystem.