Mount Windows Shared Folders

Linux Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples

∟Mount Windows Shared Folders

This section provides a tutorial example on how to mount Windows shared folders on Linux systems. 'cifs-utils' device driver is needed.

If you have a Windows computer on the local network, you can share a folder with your Linux computer. Here is what I did to share a folder on my Windows 10 with my CentOS 8 computer.

1. On my Windows 10 computer, create share folder and make it available for sharing:

Go to "Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center > Change advanced sharing settings", select "Turn on file and printer sharing", and lick "Save changes" to turn on the CIFS (Common Internet File System) service.
Create the share folder C:\share.
Open the Properties dialog box on C:\share, select "Share" tab, and click "Share" button to open the Network Access dialog box.
Enter "Everyone" and click "Add" to grant access permission for every user on this Windows 10 computer.
Change the permission level to Read/Write and click "Share" button to save changes.

2. On my CentOS 8 computer, install cifs-utils device drive and mount the shared folder. Note that "192.168.1.7" is the IP address of my Windows 10 computer. "herong" is the username on Windows 10 computer.

herong$ sudo dnf install cifs-utils
...
installed:
  cifs-utils-6.8-3.el8.x86_64

herong$ sudo mkdir /mnt/share

herong$ sudo mount -t cifs -o username=herong //192.168.1.7/share /mnt/share
Password for herong@//192.168.1.7/share:  ********

3. Verify the shared folder. It works as expected!

herong$ sudo touch /mnt/share/junk

herong$ sudo ls -l /mnt/share/junk
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 0 Oct 10 22:31 /mnt/share/junk

4. To mount it under a private user and group, you need to specify additional options on the "mount" command. For example, the following command mounts the shared folder for me to access only:

herong$ sudo mount -t cifs \
  -o username=herong,uid=herong,gid=herong,dir_mode=0700,file_mode=0700 \
  //192.168.1.7/share /mnt/share

herong$ ls -l /mnt
drwx------. 2 herong herong     78 Oct 10 22:49 share

Cool. This is perfect for me to transfer files between my Windows 10 and CentOS 8 computer!

5. To mount it for the Apache Web server to use, you need to give "read/execute" permission and override its SELinux context type from "cifs_t" to "tmp_t":

[herong@mail ~]$ ls -lZ /mnt
drwx------.  2 herong herong unconfined_u:object_r:cifs_t:s0 share

herong$ sudo mount -t cifs \
  -o username=herong,uid=herong,gid=herong,dir_mode=0755,file_mode=0755,\
  context=unconfined_u:object_r:tmp_t:s0 //192.168.1.7/share /mnt/share

drwxr-xr-x.  2 herong herong unconfined_u:object_r:tmp_t:s0 share

By the way, if you try to mount CIFS file system without installing "cifs-utils", you will get a "cannot mount ... read-only" error message, which is very misleading:

(Mount without cifs-utils installed)
herong$ sudo mount -t cifs -o username=herong //192.168.1.7/share /mnt/share
mount: /mnt/share: cannot mount //192.168.1.66/share read-only.