Ipfs-desktop: Mount MFS

[hacdias]

Should IPFS Desktop allow the user to mount MFS to the file system or should this feature be incorporated into js-ipfs and go-ipfs?

@alanshaw has taken a step ahead and created a module to let us mount MFS.

I noticed there was another issue referencing something like this from 2015 (#154). I'll close that one and copy its content here to keep our discussion.

@almereyda (jon r) on Dec 23, 2015

As ipfs/go-ipfs:docs/fuse.md@master mentions, we can use the daemons --mount option to hook IPFS into the filesystem. As a station user, I want to be able to use the FUSE options as exposed via the config at http://127.0.0.1:5001/ipfs/QmR9MzChjp1MdFWik7NjEjqKQMzVmBkdK3dz14A6B5Cupm/#/config

Which scenario like this is supported by it? Maybe a checkbox below the "Start Node" button, which is only shown with manually stopping the deamon, may do?

/cc @ipfs-shipyard/ipfs-gui-team

[lidel]

Not sure about low level implementation, but IPFS Desktop is a natural fit for UI responsible for enabling/disabling this.

It is worth highlighting that @alanshaw started work towards that goal:

• https://github.com/tableflip/ipfs-fuse
  
  
  
  • Demo: "Mount IPFS MFS as a FUSE volume" https://youtu.be/jXkTEBdM6aA
  
  

[hacdias]

@lidel yeah, I was thinking about using that package to enable/disable the mounting.

[lidel]

See also: https://github.com/piedar/js-ipfs-mount

[hacdias]

Uhhh, that's cool. I'll try and see if it works on Windows with Dokany

[lidel]

Hey, @djdv IIRC last time we talked about this you mentioned mounting MFS will be a part of go-ipfs, is that still the case?
Do you have any ideas on how we could integrate it with ipfs-desktop?
Would it be a plugin, config key, cli parameter or something else?

[djdv]

@lidel

mounting MFS will be a part of go-ipfs

At this time, yes!

Do you have any ideas on how we could integrate it with ipfs-desktop?

Since we're just exposing it as a writable filesystem, you should be able to interact with it in a standard way.
I haven't nailed everything down yet, but in theory you should be able to parse the config to find the mountpoint, and add some wrapping around it.

You can see the status of the mount implimentation here:
https://github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/issues/5003
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrZxGPqQuwHC_cZF2assuM0Vl3D5s5OSN

[hacdias]

@djdv just read the whole issue and I have to say that what I read is just amazing and the progress you've made is incredible. I can't wait to be able to easily mount MFS on Windows.

Just as a side note: I was wondering if it would be possible to have an IPFS implementation independent mount that would work with any IPFS implementation - via HTTP API or connecting directly maybe. The drawback I see here is that the connection might be a bit slower. Not sure. Needs thought.

[hacdias]

@djdv what's the state of MFS mount?

[djdv]

@hacdias
Current status is being tracked here:
https://github.com/ipfs/package-managers/issues/74

At the moment I'm making an effort to develop versions of the concepts demoed before, in a way that can be merged into go-ipfs gradually. I'd like to have some kind of read support under an experimental flag ASAP.

I wrote a big summary here but the tl;dr is that above ^