NOTE: this project is not being maintained. You might be interested in https://github.com/higlass/simple-httpfs which implements a similar concept!
Experimental FUSE filesystem that lets you read HTTP/HTTPS/FTP files as if they were present on your own Linux box.
Requires the following Python libraries, all installable via PyPi, etc:
- requests
- fusepy
Create a directory to be used as a mountpoint. The directory should be named “http:”, “https:” or “ftp:” and be placed on your home directory.
Run the filesystem: ./httpfs.py <mountpoint> <http|https|ftp>
(Example: /.httpfs.py /home/daniboy/http: http - this will “mount” the HTTP schema to /home/daniboy/http:
To access a file just paste the URL as part of your command and append two dots at the end. For example, with the URL http://placekitten.com/g/400/300 we can:
cp ~/http://placekitten.com/g/400/300.. ~/kitty.jpg- this will copy the file to the home directory under the name kitty.jpgxdg-open ~/http://placekitten.com/g/400/300..- this will open the file with the user's preferred application- Using GIMP's “Open Image” dialog open
http://placekitten.com/g/400/300..in the home directory
To stop the filesystem run fusermount -u <mountpoint>. DO NOT kill the Python process as this will NOT clear the mountpoint, allowing all sorts of extra dimensional critters to invade our universe through your device.
- See instructions on how to stop the filesystem!
- Linux ignores multiple
/-slashes, so trying to access the filehttp:/example.com/,http://example.com/andhttp:///////////example.com/will all lead to the same file - The filesystem caches all files that were accessed with it in RAM for approximately 60 seconds
- This FUSE filesystem is EXPERIMENTAL and far from being stable enough for any work, and comes under NO WARRANTY (and any other big scary all-caps things that can be said)