Cross OS virtual drive functionality
Looking for online resources to implement a virtual drive functionality similar to ones implemented in products listed
The solution should be cross OS (win, pc, linux) preferably using a well behaving framework. Currently the answer to this question is widely dispersed with no clear option on what to use:
Current suggestions I've found:
- Fuse (not really sure on the status of various windows ports)
- Dokan library
- Custom namespace extensions (windows only, sources in various CodeProject articles)
- Commercial frameworks (windows) - LogicNP, Eldos
- WebDav
Please list one suggestion per answer and I'll update the question accordingly. The purpose of the question is to create the best reference point for such questions...
It seems WebDav would be easiest to implement cross OS so further information on this would be appreciated.
A simple solution is to use the native SMB client for each of your target platforms, then use that to mount a custom Samba filesystem implemented using Samba's VFS API. Custom NFS servers have been used to implement cross platform Unix virtual file systems, but SMB is a much better choice to support Windows and Linux.
If you need the VFS to access client-side resources, you must run the Samba server with your VFS on the client and then use a loopback or localhost network to mount the drive. Samba is widely ported including a port to Win32 using Cygwin as an adapter.