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by skissane 783 days ago
Recent macOS versions do have a general purpose built-in API for user mode filesystems. That API is incompatible with FUSE. The big problem is it is undocumented and you need an entitlement from Apple to use it, and Apple won’t give you that.

Apple do have a publicly available API for cloud file systems (Dropbox-style products), but it makes a lot of assumptions which makes it effectively unusable for other use cases.

Then there are third party solutions like osxfuse. These have the problem that they rely on kernel extensions and Apple keeps on making those harder and harder, and is aiming to get rid of them; plus, they are all now proprietary licensed, albeit often with a free license for open source use.

One approach that does work without any kernel extensions or private APIs is to make your user filesystem an NFS server and then mount that. One competitor to osxfuse does that, but it also is proprietary
2 comments
ranger_danger 782 days ago
According to the MacFUSE author, their specific approach is not actually undocumented:

> Apple has put it in an umbrella called "unsupported" (in the kernel interfaces section) ... either Apple will not take this interface away, and if they do, it will be to provide a better interface

http://preserve.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.23/23.03/Ma...

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skissane 782 days ago
Yes, that’s not what I’m talking about though

MacFUSE uses the kernel mode VFS API

I’m talking about the undocumented user mode filesystem LiveFS/UserFS/com.apple.filesystems.lifs API which was added in Monterey (macOS 12), and since Ventura (macOS 13) is used to implement the OOTB FAT and exFAT filesystem support. Using that requires private entitlements (e.g. com.apple.private.LiveFS.connection) which Apple (thus far) won’t give to anyone else

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ranger_danger 782 days ago
What about the File Provider API?
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skissane 782 days ago
It is designed for the cloud storage use case (Dropbox, Google Drive, etc) - it creates local copies of files and synchs them with remote ones. Not what you want to do in the general case.
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skissane 782 days ago
I take it from the downvotes people think what I said is factually wrong?

If that's the case, I wish someone would point out where I've got it wrong instead of just silently downvoting

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w10-1 782 days ago
> it makes a lot of assumptions which makes it effectively unusable for other use cases

What use-cases are foreclosed and why?

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