Side Space

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Linux mount

Mount every space as an ordinary folder on a render node, server or CI machine with no desktop, through FUSE, with a token and a systemd service.

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On Linux machines without a desktop (render nodes, servers, CI runners), one command mounts all your spaces as an ordinary folder that any program can read and write:

Shell
sidespace login [email protected]        # or use a token, see "Unattended" below
sidespace mount --at ~/SideSpace       # Ctrl-C or umount ~/SideSpace to stop
ls ~/SideSpace                          # one folder per space

How it works

  • It mounts through FUSE, with the same logic as the Mac's mount.
  • Reading a large file fetches only the part you use: a player that jumps to minute 40 downloads only the chunks around it, not the whole file first.
  • Writes stay on the machine first. Once a file has been quiet for 2 seconds it is saved as a new version; fsync saves at once.
  • Programs that save through a temporary file and a rename keep the file's history: the result is a new version of the original.
  • mv and mkdir reach the space. rm moves a file to the trash for 30 days. rmdir removes only empty folders.
  • Changes others save show up within about a second: new files appear, and reopening a file reads the new content.
  • When it stops (Ctrl-C, SIGTERM, umount) it saves pending writes first, then unmounts. A mount point left behind by a crash is cleared on the next start.
  • Running as root needs nothing else. Other users need fusermount3 from the fuse3 package: apt install fuse3.
  • Only the user who mounted can see the files. Add --allow-other to let other users on the machine in; without root, also enable user_allow_other in /etc/fuse.conf.

How fast it feels, measured, is on the performance page.

Unattended: a token and a mount at boot

To avoid signing in to an account on the machine, give it a token of its own, limited to the spaces and permissions it needs:

Shell
# on your own computer
sidespace token create render-01 --scope files:read --scope files:write --space "Film A"

Put the token in ~/.config/sidespace/mount.env on the machine:

Shell
SIDESPACE_TOKEN=ssp_…

The package includes a systemd user service that keeps the spaces mounted at ~/SideSpace, restarts it after a crash and saves before it stops:

Shell
systemctl --user enable --now sidespace-mount
loginctl enable-linger $USER            # mount at boot, even with nobody logged in
journalctl --user -u sidespace-mount    # logs

The token sees only the spaces it was given. Revoke it with sidespace token revoke and the machine loses access at once.

Packages

scripts/package-linux.sh builds a static sidespace in a rust:alpine container, so it doesn't depend on the glibc version and runs on any distribution. It makes two files:

  • sidespace-<version>-linux-<arch>.tar.gz: the binary, the service file and these instructions.
  • sidespace_<version>_<arch>.deb: installs /usr/bin/sidespace and the user service in /usr/lib/systemd/user/, and recommends fuse3.

They are not on a public download page yet; build them from the repository, or ask us for the current build.

Or NFS

Where FUSE isn't available (a container without /dev/fuse, for example), sidespace mount --nfs serves the spaces over NFS and prints the matching sudo mount -t nfs … line. It needs nfs-common.