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Local drives and mounted filesystems ​

Two different things share this page: attaching a remote folder so your own applications can open it as a local drive, and seeing the drives that exist on the remote machine.

Prerequisites ​

  • For Drive Bridge, the optional helper: a connected workspace with file access, the separate Drive Bridge application, and a filesystem driver — WinFsp on Windows (its installation needs administrator rights), FUSE on Linux or macFUSE on macOS.
  • For Drives, nothing beyond a connected workspace. Mounting and unmounting on the remote machine additionally need udisksctl on Linux or diskutil on macOS.

Drive Bridge is a separate, free application under GPL-3.0; the ShellCanvas core stays MPL-2.0. ShellCanvas ships neither it nor the drivers.

Steps ​

Install Drive Bridge ​

  1. Open Settings → Files → Drive Bridge and choose Choose executable….
  2. Review what you are trusting: ShellCanvas shows the file, its size and its SHA-256, and states plainly that the hash identifies the reviewed bytes. It is not a publisher signature.
  3. Choose Trust and install. The helper runs with your own account's permissions when you attach a folder, so install only a build you trust.

Attach a remote folder ​

  1. In Files, right-click a folder and choose Attach to this computer…. The item is greyed out when the provider does not support attachments.
  2. Choose the local target: on Windows a drive letter from D: to Z:; elsewhere an empty folder, chosen in the next step.
  3. Choose the access level — Read only (the default) or Read and write. With read and write, anything your local applications save goes to the remote host immediately.
  4. Choose Attach. The folder appears as a local drive, and the attachment is listed in Settings → Files.

Manage attachments ​

Settings → Files → Local attachments lists each one with its local path, access level, remote path and host, and its phase: Starting, Attached, Detaching, Detached, Failed or Canceled. Buttons offer Open folder, Detach, Cancel attachment and Retry cleanup.

Detach before disconnecting the host or quitting ShellCanvas. Both are blocked while a drive is attached, with a message telling you where to detach it.

See the remote machine's drives ​

Drives in the Files sidebar lists volumes the connected system reports. Where the provider supports it, you can mount and unmount them — a reviewed, explicit action, never automatic. On Windows hosts, drives are detected but assigning new access paths is not available.

Expected result ​

An attached folder behaves like a local drive for ordinary applications: open a remote file in your own editor, or copy into it from Explorer or Finder. ShellCanvas and the host connection must stay open the whole time, because every read and write travels over that connection.

Limitations ​

  • A development preview. The Windows path has been exercised end to end — attach, use from Explorer and Notepad, refuse detach while files are open, detach and quit — and native Linux FUSE acceptance has passed. Modern macOS with macFUSE is unverified.
  • Extra software, and a driver. Nothing works without the separate helper and the filesystem driver, and driver installation needs administrator approval.
  • Read-only by default, deliberately. Switch to read and write only when you mean it.
  • Windows letters D: to Z: only, and letters that are in use or remembered by a network drive are excluded. Elsewhere the mount point must be an empty folder, so nothing local is hidden.
  • Detach is not always instant. If local applications still hold files open, detaching is refused until they release them; if the helper stops while the mount remains, ShellCanvas keeps the connection reserved and tells you to unmount with your system's tools.
  • Attachments do not survive quitting, and whether one resumes after a reconnect is not documented behaviour.
  • Links and special files are not exposed through an attachment, and an attachment's root cannot be replaced or removed.

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