Ask HN: What do you think about mounting a file system over a WebSocket?

4 points by 19eightyfour 9y ago ↗ HN

Interesting idea. Use Websocket to mount a remote file system. The system must be running some daemon.

But what does it mean to "mount" a filesystem to a webpage?

Does the webpage have access to those files? Yes.

But then what's the difference of running a HTTP server?

Hmm....Commands over websocket, programmatic access via script, authentication inline.

I like the idea...it seems interesting.

What do you think? Would this be useful or interesting to you?

Some possibly related prior art:

- https://www.npmjs.com/package/websocket-stream

- http://lukas.pokorny.eu/sftp-over-websockets/

Background:

I just used SCP for the first time to copy a file between two SSH sessions happening in browser windows, and I made the above note to myself. I didn't know more about it so I thought I'd ask here and see if anyone has any useful thoughts.

6 comments

[ 4.0 ms ] story [ 23.0 ms ] thread

ankurdhama 9y ago ↗

I have a question for you, same question I ask myself for every project. You are describing a system/solution. Can you define the problem that you want to solve?

19eightyfour 9y ago ↗

No I can't. Good question.

anilgulecha 9y ago ↗

It already exists in many webIDEs. Ex: look at codebox.

Good link. Interesting code. main.js has File model which uses lib/rpc to call service/fs over a socket.

ksherlock 9y ago ↗

Are you familiar with WebDAV?

That's a brilliant suggestion.

I love that it's part of standards tracks.

There's npm and python modules. Some JS clients for browser.

I think I came across WebDAV a long time ago, and I didn't know what it was or think it was relevant then. But now I see. I doubt I would have made the connection so quickly if it hadn't been for your comment.