Hey,

So I’ve been connecting to an ftp server which I worked on with apps like GNOME Builder, and backed up the contents of with Pika Backup, connecting to it via the GNOME Files application, Nautilus, from the Network tab.

Recently, apps stopped being able to read files I opened with the file picker hosted on the ftp server, and after a lot of debugging I realised that was because Nautilus had for some reason switched from mounting the files under /run/user/1000/gvfs/ftp_address to the more abstract path ftp://ftp_address, under the virtual directory computer:///. Now apps can’t read those files as they are not mounted under an actual path.

I couldn’t find a way in Nautilus, FileZilla, or Dolphin to mount the ftp server files under a specified path /mnt/ftp_username, or even to put it back to the unwieldy but still working path it was under before, using a GUI.

I was recommended by an LLM assistant to use the curlftpfs command, but even with several variations of a command such as the following

sudo curlftpfs -v -o "uid=$UID,gid=$GID" ftp://username:correct%20password@ftp_address /mnt/ftp_username

it always gave the same error

Error setting curl:

The curl command worked by itself, just not with curlftpfs, but with just curl I can’t mount it.

I’m not sure what else to try, could I have some advice please?

Edit: it seems the error message was a bug with a combination of using curlftpfs and curl v8.9.1

A commenter also suggested using rclone or gio, as apparently curlftpfs is unmaintained and that’s why it’s not working.

  • a14o@feddit.org
    2·
    2 days ago

    Error setting curl:

    That doesn’t seem like a complete error message to me. Is there any more information? Maybe with the -d (debug) flag?

        • JackGreenEarth@lemm.eeOPEnglish
          1·
          2 days ago

          Hmm, that also says it should have been fixed last year

          This bug is fixed in current master, set to be released in curl 8.10.0 on September 11, 2024.

          • a14o@feddit.org
            2·
            2 days ago

            Fixed in curl, but not in a curlftpfs, apparently. Look at the comments on the accepted answer.

            • JackGreenEarth@lemm.eeOPEnglish
              1·
              2 days ago

              Idk how to downgrade it, it doesn’t seem to be working

              aarvi@fedora:~$ sudo dnf dg curl-8.8.0
Updating and loading repositories:
Repositories loaded.
Failed to resolve the transaction:
No match for argument: curl-8.8.0
You can try to add to command line:
  --skip-unavailable to skip unavailable packages
aarvi@fedora:~$
              • a14o@feddit.org
                2·
                2 days ago

                I don’t think downgrading the curl library is promising here. curlftpfs seems to be unmaintained. I recommend looking for alternatives or alternative workflows.