mount.vboxsf

mount -t vboxsf [-o options] sharename mountpoint

sharename
    The name of the shared folder as configured in the VirtualBox settings. This is a mandatory parameter.

mountpoint
    The directory in the guest operating system where the shared folder will be mounted. This is also a mandatory parameter.

-o uid=UID
    Specifies the user ID that will own the files within the mounted shared folder.

-o gid=GID
    Specifies the group ID that will own the files within the mounted shared folder.

-o dmode=MODE
    Specifies the permissions to be used for directories within the mounted shared folder (e.g., 770).

-o fmode=MODE
    Specifies the permissions to be used for files within the mounted shared folder (e.g., 660).

-o rw
    Mounts the shared folder read-write (default).

-o ro
    Mounts the shared folder read-only.

-o iocharset=CHARSET
    Specifies the character set used for file names. Common values include utf8, iso8859-1, etc.

-o convertcp=CP
    Convert file names from Code Page to UTF-8 when displaying them. defaults to cp437 on DOS/Windows hosts and cp1252 on OS/2 hosts.

-o nomntcache
    Disable the mount point cache used when automounting, This option is automatically turned on for the root filesystem or in case the containing directory is a shared folder.

The mount.vboxsf command is a helper program used by the mount(8) command to mount shared folders from a VirtualBox guest operating system. These shared folders are defined within the VirtualBox host configuration and allow the guest to access files and directories on the host system. This provides a convenient mechanism for file sharing and data transfer between the host and guest environments.

Instead of calling mount.vboxsf directly, it is usually invoked via the mount command with the -t vboxsf option (e.g., mount -t vboxsf sharename /mnt/share). The 'sharename' corresponds to the name given to the shared folder in the VirtualBox settings. When mounting, standard Linux file permissions apply within the guest OS, and can be adjusted during the mount operation.

Make sure VirtualBox Guest Additions are installed in the guest operating system, or mount.vboxsf will not function correctly. Also, the shared folder must be correctly configured within the VirtualBox settings before attempting to mount it.

The most common way to use mount.vboxsf is through the mount command. For example:

sudo mount -t vboxsf MySharedFolder /mnt/shared

This would mount the shared folder named 'MySharedFolder' to the directory '/mnt/shared'. It is important to ensure /mnt/shared exists and the user has the necessary permissions.

The mount.vboxsf command was developed as part of the VirtualBox Guest Additions to facilitate seamless file sharing between host and guest operating systems. Its introduction provided a significant improvement in usability for users of VirtualBox by simplifying the process of accessing files on the host system from within a virtualized environment. It has been maintained and updated along with VirtualBox.

mount(8), umount(8)