Using SSHFS

One of the easiest ways to access your CSE home directory from your own computer is to attach it as a network drive.

This lets you browse your files in Windows Explorer or the OSX Finder, and access them directly from any application.

To do this directly, you need to either be on the CSE wired network, or use the CSE VPN - which isn't convenient for everyone.

Luckily, there's a system called SSHFS that can attach over an SSH connection, and works from anywhere without needing a VPN.

On Windows

Setting up SSHFS on Windows is very straightforward:

Install WinFSP
Install SSHFS-Win
If you see a Windows SmartScreen warning, click More Information, then Run Anyway
Open Windows Explorer and right-click This PC
Select Map Network Drive...
Select the drive letter you want to use
Enter \\sshfs\yourzID@login.cse.unsw.edu.au in the Folder box
Tick the Reconnect at sign-in and Connect using different credentials boxes
Click Finish, and enter your zID and zPass when prompted.

You should now have a new drive in your computer, connected to your CSE home directory.

The drive will disconnect when your computer switches off, goes to sleep, or loses its internet connection.

When this happens, just open This PC and double-click the drive to open it - it will reconnect automatically.

If you don't know what a symlink is, you don't need to worry about this.

By default, SSHFS-Win doesn't handle absolute-path symlinks properly, as Windows will try to interpret them as paths on your own computer.

Symlink targets without a leading slash, such as current_version or ../src will work fine.

But if a link target has a leading slash, such as /home/z1234567/foo or /tmp/foo, SSHFS-Win won't follow it correctly

If you need to use absolute-path symlinks over ssh, download and install follow_symlinks.reg which will set an option to fix this.

However, if you have invalid symlinks in a directory with this option enabled, the whole directory will appear to be empty over SSHFS.

If this happens, you'll need to check the directory in a terminal with find . -maxdepth 1 -type l -exec ls -al {} \;

Just rm any links that point to nonexistent places, and the directory should be visible again

To install on Mac:

Install osxfuse
Install SSHFS for osxfuse
If you're prompted about a kernel extension, follow the prompts to go to Security and Privacy and click Allow for the new software.

Now you need to create a launcher on your desktop to connect you to CSE:

Open Go -> Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal
Copy the contents of this script, paste it into the terminal and enter your zID when prompted
Close the terminal window.

There should now be a connect_cse icon on your desktop - double click it to connect, and enter your zPass when prompted.

(You can close the terminal window afterwards.)

You should now have a CSE drive available in Finder.

If you lose your connection at any point, double-click the launcher again to reconnect.

This is simplest of all - SSHFS is built into the Ubuntu file browser.

Open the file browser
click + Other Locations
In the Connect to Server box, enter sftp://yourzID@login.cse.unsw.edu.au/home/yourzID
Enter your zPass when prompted
You should now have your CSE home directory available in the sidebar of the file browser.