Mount a Gmail Account as a FUSE Filesystem

The benefit of having extra storage - outside of your virtual private server's filesystem - is evident whenever the need to back up configuration files or important documents arises. This guide explains how to configure a FUSE (Filesystem in UserSpacE) which uses a Gmail account to store and retrieve files.

Download and Compile FUSE from Source

1. Enter mkdir /root/fuse; cd /root/fuse to create a directory to store your FUSE installation and switch to the directory
2. Enter wget -S http://downloads.sourceforge.net/fuse/fuse-2.7.2.tar.gz to download the FUSE source code
3. Enter tar xzvf fuse-2.7.2.tar.gz; cd fuse-2.7.2 to unpack the source code and switch to the unpacked directory
4. Enter ./configure to begin compiling FUSE
5. Enter make and then make install to complete the installation

Download and Compile fuse-python from Source

1. Enter mkdir /root/fuse-python; cd /root/fuse-python to create a directory to store your fuse-python installation and switch to the directory
2. Enter wget -S http://downloads.sourceforge.net/fuse/fuse-python-0.2.tar.gz to download the fuse-python source code
3. Enter tar xzvf fuse-python-0.2.tar.gz; cd fuse-python-0.2 to unpack the source code and switch to the unpacked directory
4. Run python setup.py build to build the fuse-python package
5. Run python setup.py install to install fuse-python
6. Enter shutdown -r now to reboot your VPS

Download and Install libgmail from Source

1. Enter mkdir /root/libgmail; cd /root/libgmail to create a directory to store your libgmail installation and switch to the directory
2. Enter wget -S http://downloads.sourceforge.net/libgmail/libgmail-0.1.8.tar.gz to download the libgmail source code
3. Enter tar xzvf libgmail-0.1.8.tar.gz to unpack the source code
4. Switch to the unpacked directory with cd libgmail-0.1.8
5. Run python setup.py build to build the libgmail package
6. Run python setup.py install to install libgmail

Download and Configure gmailfs

1. Enter mkdir /root/gmailfs; cd /root/gmailfs to create a directory to store gmailfs and switch to the directory
2. Enter wget http://richard.jones.name/google-hacks/gmail-filesystem/gmailfs-0.8.0.tar.gz to download the gmailfs files
3. Enter tar xzvf gmailfs-0.8.0.tar.gz; cd gmailfs-0.8.0 to unpack the files and switch to the unpacked directory
4. Copy the gmailfs files into your system file structure:
   1. cp gmailfs.py /usr/local/bin/
   2. cp mount.gmailfs /sbin/
   3. cp gmailfs.conf /etc/
5. Edit /etc/gmailfs.conf to add your Gmail account e-mail address and password

Test your Gmail FUSE Drive

1. Enter mkdir /gmail to create a directory for use with the Gmail/FUSE solution
2. Enter mount -t gmailfs /usr/local/bin/gmailfs.py /gmail -o fsname=zOlRRa to map /gmail to your Gmail account as a filesystem
3. Try copying and retrieving a file to confirm that your setup was successful