How To Install vagrant-sshfs on Ubuntu 18.04

In this tutorial we learn how to install vagrant-sshfs on Ubuntu 18.04. vagrant-sshfs is vagrant plugin that adds synced folder support with sshfs

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install vagrant-sshfs on Ubuntu 18.04.

What is vagrant-sshfs

vagrant-sshfs is:

This is a vagrant plugin that adds synced folder support for mounting folders from the Vagrant host into the Vagrant guest via FUSE SSHFS. In the default mode it does this by executing the SSHFS client software within the guest, which creates an SSH connection from the Vagrant guest back to the Vagrant host.

The benefits of this approach:

  • Works on any host platform and hypervisor type - Windows, Linux, Mac OS X - Virtualbox, Libvirt, Hyper-V, VMWare
  • Seamlessly works on remote Vagrant solutions - Works with vagrant aws/openstack/etc.. plugins

The drawbacks with this approach:

  • Performance is worse than an implementation like NFS
  • There must be sftp-server software on the Vagrant host

There are three methods to install vagrant-sshfs on Ubuntu 18.04. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.

Install vagrant-sshfs Using apt-get

Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.

sudo apt-get update

After updating apt database, We can install vagrant-sshfs using apt-get by running the following command:

sudo apt-get -y install vagrant-sshfs

Install vagrant-sshfs Using apt

Update apt database with apt using the following command.

sudo apt update

After updating apt database, We can install vagrant-sshfs using apt by running the following command:

sudo apt -y install vagrant-sshfs

Install vagrant-sshfs Using aptitude

If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Ubuntu. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.

sudo aptitude update

After updating apt database, We can install vagrant-sshfs using aptitude by running the following command:

sudo aptitude -y install vagrant-sshfs

How To Uninstall vagrant-sshfs on Ubuntu 18.04

To uninstall only the vagrant-sshfs package we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get remove vagrant-sshfs

Uninstall vagrant-sshfs And Its Dependencies

To uninstall vagrant-sshfs and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Ubuntu 18.04, we can use the command below:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove vagrant-sshfs

Remove vagrant-sshfs Configurations and Data

To remove vagrant-sshfs configuration and data from Ubuntu 18.04 we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y purge vagrant-sshfs

Remove vagrant-sshfs configuration, data, and all of its dependencies

We can use the following command to remove vagrant-sshfs configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge vagrant-sshfs

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install vagrant-sshfs package on Ubuntu 18.04 using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.