GVFS(7)

📦
version 1.62.0 · 14 versions
, in arch rolling

💅 gvfs(7) — the GLib virtual file system, explained by your tech bestie

okay so you opened the gvfs man page and it's giving "wall of daemon names" 😭 don't panic, bestie, I got you. This is the convention-and-miscellaneous page for gvfs, the GIO virtual file system. Let's get into it ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

gvfs — the GIO virtual file system. That's the whole vibe. Short, iconic, does what it says 🎀

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So GIO gives GLib applications a VFS API — a virtual file system API, meaning apps can talk to files without caring where they physically live. Out of the box it ships with a 'local' implementation built on POSIX, which is fine and all, but gvfs is the one that goes beyond that 💅 It gives you implementations that let apps access files and storage over a whole lineup of protocols — think ftp, http, sftp, dav, nfs, etc. — plus support for trash folders, for cd burning, and for monitoring interesting devices and volumes on the computer. Obsessed, honestly.

Here's the key thing though: apps never touch gvfs directly 🙈 They use it indirectly, because GIO loads up the gvfs module that implements the GIO extension points. And the gvfs support for volume monitoring? That lives in a separate loadable module, so it's its own little main character.

Also, the actual gvfs implementation is distributed over a number of processes — like, a whole friend group — and none of these are expected to be started from the commandline, except for debugging purposes. So if you're typing these names into a shell just for fun, that's not the intended vibe, bestie. 😌

👑 Main processes

  • gvfsd — the main gvfs daemon
  • gvfsd-fuse — mounts gvfs as a fuse filesystem
  • gvfsd-metadata — writes gvfs metadata

🌈 Volume monitors

  • gvfs-afc-volume-monitor — a volume monitor for Apple iPhone/iPod Touch devices
  • gvfs-goa-volume-monitor — a volume monitor for GNOME Online Accounts
  • gvfs-gphoto2-volume-monitor — a volume monitor for PTP devices
  • gvfs-mtp-volume-monitor — a volume monitor for MTP devices
  • gvfs-udisks2-volume-monitor — a udisks2-based volume monitor

🔥 Mount backends

  • gvfsd-admin — mounts local filesystem with admin privileges
  • gvfsd-afc — mounts iPhone/iPod touch volumes
  • gvfsd-afp — mounts Apple Filing Protocol volumes
  • gvfsd-afp-browse — browses Apple Filing Protocol volumes
  • gvfsd-archive — mounts archive files in various formats
  • gvfsd-burn — provides a location for burning CDs
  • gvfsd-cdda — mounts audio CDs
  • gvfsd-computer — provides computer://
  • gvfsd-dav — mounts DAV filesystems
  • gvfsd-dnssd — browses dnssd
  • gvfsd-ftp — mounts over FTP
  • gvfsd-google — mounts Google Drive shares
  • gvfsd-gphoto2 — mounts over PTP
  • gvfsd-http — mounts over HTTP
  • gvfsd-localtest — a test backend
  • gvfsd-mtp — mounts over MTP
  • gvfsd-network — provides network://
  • gvfsd-nfs — mounts over NFS
  • gvfsd-recent — provides recent://
  • gvfsd-sftp — mounts over sftp
  • gvfsd-smb — mounts Windows Shares Filesystem volumes
  • gvfsd-smb-browse — browses Windows Shares Filesystem volumes
  • gvfsd-trash — provides trash://

✨ ENVIRONMENT ✨

Env vars, the sneaky little settings that change everything 🌸

  • GIO_USE_VFS — if set, this specifies the GIO vfs implementation to use. Possible values include 'local' and 'gvfs'.
  • GIO_USE_VOLUME_MONITOR — if set, this specifies the GIO volume monitor implementation to use. Possible values include 'unix', 'GProxyVolumeMonitorUDisks2', as well as other native volume monitors that are described in the key files in $XDG_DATA_DIRS/gvfs/remote-volume-monitors.

🎀 FILES 🎀

  • $XDG_DATA_DIRS/gvfs/mounts — this directory contains key files describing mount daemons.
  • $XDG_DATA_DIRS/gvfs/remote-volume-monitors — this directory contains key files describing remote volume monitors.

💜 SEE ALSO 💜

sending you to the right pages, bestie 🫶

🍓 NOTES 🍓

  1. GIO documentation — http://developer.gnome.org/gio
fr fr, that's the whole page — no flags to memorize, no exit statuses, just vibes and daemons 😭💅

and that's a wrap on the gvfs manual page, bestie! This one came from the gvfs source/version and is dated GVFS(7) — go off and mount something iconic 👑✨

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