nfs-rb

nfs-rb

An NFS v2 server implemented in pure Ruby.

Adapted from code written by Brian Ollenberger, available here.

What is NFS?

NFS, or "Network File System," is a protocol developed by Sun Microsystems in the 1980s that allows a filesystem to be accessed remotely over a network. MacOS, Windows, and Linux natively support mounting NFS volumes such that they appear alongside normal directories in the operating system's user interface.

Running the Server

First, install the gem by running gem install nfs-rb, or add it to your Gemfile.

Start the server with the default options by running nfs-rb. The various options can be seen by running nfs-rb --help:

Usage: nfs-rb [options]
    -d, --dir [DIR]         The directory to serve. Defaults to the current directory.
        --host [HOST]       The host to bind to. Defaults to 127.0.0.1.
    -p, --port [PORT]       The port to bind to. Defaults to 2049.
    -u, --udp               Communicate using UDP (default is TCP).
    -v, --verbose           Enable verbose logging
    -h, --help              Prints this help message

The server can also be started and managed in your Ruby code:

require 'nfs'

server = NFS::Server.new(
  dir: '.',
  host: '127.0.0.1',
  port: 2049,
  protocol: :tcp  # or :udp
)

# start server, return immediately
server.start

# start server, join to current thread
server.join

# shut server down
server.shutdown

Mounting

Once the server is started, mount it using the following command.

mount -t nfs -o \
  rsize=8192,wsize=8192,timeo=1,nfsvers=2,proto=tcp,\
  retry=1,port=1234,mountport=1234,hard,intr,nolock \
  127.0.0.1:/ path/to/mount/location

You should then be able to navigate to /path/to/mount/location and see a listing of all the files available on the networked filesystem.

Running Tests

Run bundle exec rspec to run the test suite.

License

Licensed under the MIT license. See LICENSE for details.

Authors

• Cameron C. Dutro: https://github.com/camertron
• Brian Ollenberger: https://github.com/bollenberger