WEB-DAV Linux File System(davfs)

Hi,

I am trying to set up a davfs client (linux Fedora Core 5 
kernel 2.6.17-1.2157_FC5smp) to connect to a server 
(already set up in my university), and I can't get it to 
work. Any suggestions would be very helpful. I need to get 
this running to start on a class project!

I used the latest stable version, davfs2-0.2.8 and 
followed the instructions in section 4.1 and 4.2 of the 
HOWTO. Now if I try to connect, following the instructions 
in section 5.1

su
/sbin/mount.davfs http://dav.myserver.edu/uploads/ 
/mnt/dav

I get a username and password prompt, but then it says
/sbin/mount.davfs: Could not open /dev/davfs0:
     Kernel does not support coda,or the coda-module is 
not loaded.

But I know the coda-module is loaded: I checked with 
lsmod, and I can connect to testserver.coda.cs.cmu.edu

Incidentally, I didn't find any davfs kernel module in
/lib/modules/2.6.17-1.2157_FC5smp/kernel/fs/
as section 4.3 says. I looked in /dav/davfs2-0.2.8 (which 
is my $DAVFS directory) in order to follow the 
instructions in section 4.3 but I didn't find a davfs 
directory here. Nor can I find a davfsd in /usr/local/sbin 
(or anywhere else) as persection 5.2.

Also, strangely, on another computer I installed 
davfs-1.0.2, which isn't supposed to be stable. This 
allowed me to connect to the dav server, and I could read 
and write files there, but not delete them. I guess this 
confirms that coda is really working.

Thanks,
Janaki

Hello Janakai,

sorry for the late answer, but I am much engaged to debug the latest 
release davfs2 1.1.1

Howto:
------
This Howto is really out of date (it was out of date when I startet to 
engage in davfs2). Please only use the documentation that is included in 
the package. There is a README file, and after installation there is 
also a manpage, but it is for 'mount.davfs' (man mount.davfs).
There is no more davfs module in the kernel. There is only the 
mount.davfs program that communicates with the coda (or fuse) file 
system in the kernel and the webdav-server.

version 0.2.8 and coda:
-----------------------
If the coda module really is running when you try to launch mount.davfs, 
this message indicates, that another module uses the coda device, but 
mount.davfs could not detect this. Do you run the real coda file system 
(with venus) in parallel? In this case you might try without the coda 
file system running.

version 1.0.2
-------------
Allthough this version is called beta (it needs some more testing by 
real users), it has a lot of advantages over 0.2.8; and I consider it 
just as stabel as 0.2.8.
As you can read and write, it is really curious that you can not delete 
files. Some questions:
- what are the access permissions of the directory that contains the 
file to delete?
- owner und group of this directory, who is the user that tries to 
delete them? This user must have write and execute permissions for this 
directory?
- access permissions, owner and group of the file. Has the user that 
wants to delete it, write permission on that file?
-What is the exact error message you get when you try to delete the file?
- Are there any restrictions set on the server?

If everthing seems to be ok up to here, we are in trouble. In this case 
it would be useful if you could access the server logs, to see what 
requests davfs2 send to the server, and what was the answer.

Tracing the HTTP traffic, using Ethereal or tcpdump, would even be better.

Directories etc.:
-----------------
If you install the package the standard way (./configure, make, su, make 
install), the documentation should be in /usr/local/share/davfs2 (this 
is a mistake, it really should be in /usr/local/share/doc/davfs2).

It is much preferable to add an entry into /etc/fstab and use the 
standard mount program, instead of calling mount.davfs directly. Please 
see the examples in the man page.

Remark:
I just released version 1.1.1; at the moment we do some debugging and I 
would not suggest to use this package. But the version in the CVS 
repository seems fairly stable. And can use the fuse kernel file system, 
if there are troubles with coda.


Nevertheless: I think it is easiest to stick with davfs2-1.0.2 and try 
to solve the delete problem.

Waiting for answer to the above questions
Greetings
Werner