NAME¶
acngfs - Virtual file system for use with apt-cacher-ng
SYNOPSIS¶
acngfs BaseURL ProxyHost [CachePath] MountPoint [-o FUSE Mount Options]
DESCRIPTION¶
acngfs is a FUSE based filesystem which represents files downloadable via HTTP
as part of a local filesystem. It has been developed for very specific
purposes and is not intended to be a general purpose HTTP filesystem.
The main use case for
acngfs is a situation where:
- •
- The files must not be stored on extra space on the user's
system (e.g. because of insufficient disk space to make a temporary copy
of downloaded files)
- •
- Local programs (e.g. apt, dpkg) need to read the packages
from a local filesystem
- •
- When reading, certain files might need to be fetched in
background (or updated) and this process needs to be triggered
somehow
- •
- Network latency and speed are not relevant, e.g. accessing
apt-cacher-ng via localhost connection
- •
- The proxy service can work efficiently with many requests
for small data ranges (apt-cacher-ng, for example)
- •
- Pattern matching on paths is sufficient to distinguish file
and directory names
If the apt-cacher-ng instance happens to run on the same system as acngfs or its
cache repository is mounted via fast remote file system, this cache repository
can be optionally specified as alternative source path. In this cache, acngfs
will attempt to read files directly from this filesystem where possible,
reducing network latency and avoiding additional load of apt-cacher-ng server.
The directory levels of BaseURL and CachePath should match.
EXAMPLES¶
Typical use may be to let apt/dpkg use package file like they are present on the
local filesystem so there is no need to download them. In sources.list, the
source appears as a file:/ type URL, like:
deb file:/var/local/acngfs_debian unstable main contrib
and the filesystem backend is prepared with a command like:
/usr/lib/apt-cacher-ng/acngfs http://ftp.uni-kl.de/debian cacheBox:3142
/var/local/acngfs_debian -o allow_root
or for a locally installed apt-cacher-ng with common Debian cache repository
stored in /var/cache/apt-cacher-ng/debrep:
/usr/lib/apt-cacher-ng/acngfs http://ftp.uni-kl.de/debian localhost:3142
/var/cache/apt-cacher-ng/debrep /var/local/acngfs_debian -o allow_root
OPTIONS¶
The command-line options supported by
acngfs are:
- BaseURL
- Remote mirror to be used as real source, like
http://ftp2.de.debian.org/debian. NOTE: the mirror subdirectory
part (like debian) should be added either to BaseURL or to
the path in sources.list, not to both.
- ProxyURL
- Complete or simplified host and port specification of the
proxy server, http://localhost:3142.
- CachePath
- Optional hint, a directory path pointing to the internal
cache subdirectory of apt-cacher-ng where it stores data downloaded from
BaseURL. For more details see apt-cacher-ng manual, chapter
"Advanced configuration".
- mountpoint
- Directory representing the URL in the local filesytem.
- --help
- Print a help summary and additional FUSE application
options
- FuseOptions
- Various options for the FUSE subsystem to control
filesystem behaviour. See --help output and FUSE documentation for more
details.
FILES¶
- /usr/lib/apt-cacher-ng/acngfs
- Executable binary documented in this manual page
NOTES¶
Permissions of the files are important when using mounting when sharing data
with other users (including root!). To mount as user and let root use the
package management tools (apt, dpkg), one may need to use FUSE options like in
the following example:
acngfs http://ftp.uni-kl.de/debian http://localhost:3142 /mnt/misc -o
allow_root
See FUSE documentation for details about file permissions representation.
BUGS¶
Software is still experimental, use at your own risk!
There are natural limitations on capabilities of the FS: no directory browsing
is allowed (only blind descending), permissions of files are inherited from
the mount point as well as other properties of the filesystem.
Should be used with apt-cacher-ng version 0.2pre2 or newer; otherwise it could
flood log files with many requests from small file chunks.
SEE ALSO¶
apt-cacher-ng(8),
fusermount(1)
For more information on Apt-Cacher NG, read the User Manual which can be found
either in the doc/pdf directory of the software source package or installed in
the documentation directory of apt-cacher-ng by your distribution.