Accessing WebDAV as a Filesystem With davfs2

More about open source software Most admins know WebDAV, but davfs2 isn't as well known. With this open source software tool, you can connect to WebDAV server as a regular filesystem, thus allowing applications that don't support WebDAV to access shared resources via WebDAV.

I had a request this week to check out davfs2. This neat open source utility allows you to connect to a WebDAV server as a regular filesystem, meaning that applications that don't support WebDAV can still access resources shared via WebDAV. Basically, it provides another protocol for mount to use.

davfs2 is available as a Debian/Ubuntu package, so it's easy to install with apt-get install davfs2. Once installed, you can connect via the commandline straight away, if you have sudo access:

sudo mount -t davfs http://webdav.example.com/directory /mnt/

This will mount the specified WebDAV share at /mnt. You'll be asked for the username and password to connect with, if the share is secured. When you're done, unmount with

sudo umount /mnt

This isn't entirely convenient, though; it's better to be able to mount the directory as a normal user. Edit

/etc/fstab

http://webdav.example.com/directory /home/juliet/mnt/webdav davfs rw,noauto,user 0 0

You'll need to create the mountpoint with

mkdir -p /home/juliet/mnt/webdav

if it doesn't already exist.

If you try running mount

/home/juliet/mnt/webdav

/sbin/mount.davfs

sudo dpkg-reconfigure davfs2

and answering 'yes' to the setuid question. You'll also need to add your user to the davfs group (either

edit /etc/group

Now try mount

~/mnt/webdav

Juliet Kemp has been messing around with Linux systems, for financial reward and otherwise, for about a decade. She is also the author of "Linux System Administration Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach" (Apress, 2009).

Follow ServerWatch on Twitter