SshFs on OS-X for remote editing larger repositories

Captured at: 2014-02-21 20:39:18 UTC

During a recent project I ran into the need of being able to work on a fairly large remote code-base (the Android Open Source Project). I needed a solution where I could use an editor I’ve recently grown to like a lot (Sublime Text) on this repository on my Mac. The solution I chose was to use SSHFS (Secure Shell File System) which uses Fuse4x or osxfuse (both based on MacFuse). It was very easy to install using homebrew.

brew install osxfuse
brew install sshfs
brew install xquartz

Now, I can simply mount say the home directory of the remote machine locally and modify code using my favorite editor using it. SSHFS will handle syncing it.

This blog is a good one to follow if you’re interested in using sshfs. I recommend using osxfuse instead of fuse4x which the author of that blog uses though – it appeared to be more stable for me.