WinFsp - FUSE for Windows

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billziss
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Jul 23, 2016 2:57 am

WinFsp - FUSE for Windows

Post by billziss »

Hello, ReactOS folks.

My name is Bill Zissimopoulos and I am the author of WinFsp (Windows File System Proxy). WinFsp allows the creation of user mode file systems on Windows. In that sense it is similar to FUSE on UNIX-like computers.

WinFsp consists of a kernel mode file system driver (FSD) and user mode components. It has a native API, but it also has a FUSE 2.8 compatible API. The license is currently AGPLv3. I hold all copyright to the source code.

Would there be any interest for me to port WinFsp to ReactOS?

The project source is available on GitHub: https://github.com/billziss-gh/winfsp
The project home page is here: http://www.secfs.net/winfsp/
Z98
Release Engineer
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Re: WinFsp - FUSE for Windows

Post by Z98 »

In theory there should not be any need to port the driver, it should run as is in ReactOS. If it doesn't, that's a bug on our end and bug reports submitted to jira would be useful.
billziss
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Jul 23, 2016 2:57 am

Re: WinFsp - FUSE for Windows

Post by billziss »

That's very useful to know, thank you.

The WinFsp FSD (file system driver) does use some Vista only DDIs and it also uses the Vista MUP functionality. Grepping through the source at git.reactos.org suggests that the FsRtlRegisterUncProviderEx DDI does not exist, for example:

https://git.reactos.org/?p=reactos.git& ... ncProvider

[Please stop me if I am becoming too technical or if I should just try it and see if it works or not.]

Bill
Z98
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Joined: Tue May 02, 2006 8:16 pm
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Re: WinFsp - FUSE for Windows

Post by Z98 »

We're still officially targeted at Server 2003 SP2. The work to add Vista+ functionality is a work in progress, but there isn't much emphasis on it right now due to the simple fact that we need a solid 5.2 kernel first before we can credibly attempt 6.x features. If we had more manpower we could do more of the work in parallel, but finding people that actually intimately understand the NT kernel that don't already work for Microsoft is, challenging.
billziss
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Jul 23, 2016 2:57 am

Re: WinFsp - FUSE for Windows

Post by billziss »

I hear you there.

I may still have a look to see if I could port WinFsp to the pre-Vista DDI's although changing it to use the pre-Vista MUP functionality is probably beyond the effort that I would be willing to put into this at this time.

Thank you for being so helpful though. It is rare to get such a quick and precise answer to what is not the average technical question.
dumblob
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Aug 07, 2016 6:05 pm

Re: WinFsp - FUSE for Windows

Post by dumblob »

I didn't know about WinFsp, but I know about Dokany (https://github.com/dokan-dev/dokany/ ) as FUSE layer for Windows. Dokany is well-tested and we use it even in production in conjunction with security products. Unfortunately Dokany supports only Windows 7 and higher.

I just wanted to make a public note about it as Dokany is really quite advanced and tested.

@billziss did you do some comparison before starting WinFsp in Nov 2015 from scratch? Could you please add to the WinFsp github page some highlights about the differences, (dis)advantages of either of the two?

Anyway, you have my respect @billziss!
billziss
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Jul 23, 2016 2:57 am

Re: WinFsp - FUSE for Windows

Post by billziss »

@billziss did you do some comparison before starting WinFsp in Nov 2015 from scratch? Could you please add to the WinFsp github page some highlights about the differences, (dis)advantages of either of the two?
I have made some public comments in the following forums:

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/dokan/B ... snjdiiBQAJ
https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/co ... ws/d5irclf

At this point I do not have any additional public comments regarding WinFsp vs Dokany. I encourage people who have an interest in the subject to try both projects and decide on their own.

You are also welcome to email me directly if you have specific questions (I am currently on vacation and may be slow to respond).
Anyway, you have my respect @billziss!
Thank you :)

Bill
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