How to configure sshfs ?

[Tim]

Paul Johnson:
>>> One option is to add users one by one to the fuse group in /etc/group.
>>>  But I don't have time to do that, and there are hundreds of users.

Tim:
>> Scripting to automate changing membership?  You'd probably, also, want
>> to script the user-adding routine for the future, to add new users to
>> the groups you use on your system.

Paul Johnson:
> You are making this way too hard.  Even if I could figure it out, I
> could never teach a part time lab assistant.  I can't create an ever
> more complicated chain of tools and scripts for things like this
> because at some point an ordinary human will have to administer these
> systems, possibly adding users with a Fedora tool like
> system-config-users.

I would imagine that there's a way to specify default groups to be added
to.  And I'm fairly certain that someone would have made a way to easily
modify batches of existing users.  There are some tools around for
systems configuration, darned if I can recall the name of one of them at
the moment, other than something beginning with "s".  No, I don't mean
something like system-config-whatever, there's a third-party package.
Sab... sat... I can't remember.

Maybe start with a search query like:
<http://www.google.com.au/search?&q=remote+admin+of+a+group+of+fedora
+linux+computers>

Webmin might be worth looking at, but I haven't used it for years.

> Is Fedora supposed to be a desktop distribution for users or not? 

A lab of computers isn't exactly a default condition.  Most networks,
whether Fedora or otherwise, would probably need some customisation.  At
least with Linux, you *can* customise such things to your heart's
content.  If labs setting up computers don't have a competent
administrator for it, that's where the real problem lay.

> How in the HELL do the people who put fuse into the distribution expect
> "ordinary" people to use it?  I refuse to believe the makers of the
> program expect it to be such a massive pain in the ass.
> 
> But, then again, I'm often surprised.  I still can't get over  the
> difficulty of mounting drives when not root.

I haven't played with Fuse, but I can well understand why non-root users
shouldn't be allowed to mount drives by *default*.  It does make it all
too easy for a malcontent to introduce something unwanted, or steal
files.  Of course, you are allowed to change the defaults.

-- 
[tim at bigblack ~]$ uname -ipr
2.6.22.1-41.fc7 i686 i386

Using FC 4, 5, 6 & 7, plus CentOS 5.  Today, it's FC7.

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