regexfs

A FUSE filesystem for changing filenames via regex

1. Introduction

regexfs is a FUSE filesystem that allows the user to mirror a local directory to another, somewhat like using mount --bind. In that process, it is able to change the existing filenames via a regex, thus allowing dynamic renaming.

2. Setup

2.1. Compilation

Firstly you need the FUSE library and headers, these can be installed via your package manager. Afterwards, a simple call to `make' is normally all you will need to compile regexfs:

$ make

You can override the CFLAGS variable to provide optimisation flags e.t.c. The DEBUG variable can be used to enable debugging - if you are using gcc, setting DEBUG to "-g" would probably do.

2.2. Installation

First verify with make -n install the installation paths. By default, the installation prefix is /usr/local and the fuseflect binary is installed in $(prefix)/bin. You can set the prefix and bindir variables to override these defaults. Then run make install as root to perform the actual installation:

# make install

2.3. Running

Please read the FUSE documentation before using regexfs.

Run regexfs -h to see the various command line options. All you have to do in most cases is:

$ regexfs source_directory/ -o 'regex=regex1:replace1;replace2;regex2:replace3;...' mountpoint/

If you want to use regexfs from /etc/fstab, the following example shows its use:

regexfs#/usr/share/doc /fs/vfs/doc fuse defaults,regex=... 0 0

If you do use regexfs in your /etc/fstab, you will probably want to add the allow_other and default_permissions options. The first option allows non-root users to access regexfs, while the second one activates the in-kernel permission checking, since regexfs does no access control on its own.

Please note that you may need to replace whitespace characters in the regex and escape others to allow proper parsing of the file.

If a regex with an empty replacement is matched, the file will not be shown in the mountpoint. This is useful for hiding files.

WARNING: NEVER USE allow_other WITHOUT default_permissions, OR YOU RISK ALLOWING UNPRIVILEDGED PROCESSES TO ACCESS FILES THEY SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO.

3. License

Regexfs is released under the GNU General Public License version 2. The full text of the license can be found in the COPYING file that should be included in the regexfs distribution.

4. Authors

Regexfs author: Jendrik Weise [email protected]

Original author: Theodoros V. Kalamatianos [email protected]