How can i mount a directory without sudo permission

Question

// mount samba directory
sudo mount -t cifs //$host/$path $mountpath -o username=$user,noauto,user,uid=1001,gid=1002,forceuid,forcegid

//mount remote ftp
echo $key | sshfs $user@$host: $mount -C -p $port -o idmap=user -o password_stdin

The first command I have to perform by using sudo privilege, otherwise mount.cifs: permission denied: no match for XXXX found in /etc/fstab prompted.

However, second command that i issue can be success without using sudo privilege.

1. Both commands are mounting remote directory to linux file systems, but why behave different?

2. I thought mount action need to be performed by privilege user to ensure security policy, am I misunderstanding any ?

3. Can a user mount file while no sudo privilege permission given?

Answer 1

It depends on a specific filesystem.

sshfs is FUSE (filesystem in userspace) and does not require superuser privileges.

CIFS is a kernel module, and requires root. See: Is the CIFS driver user-mode or kernel-mode?

If you want to mount cifs shares as a regular user, use sudo. See: What sudoer spec allows users to mount cifs shares?

There is also fuse-nfs https://github.com/sahlberg/fuse-nfs