Fyksen.Me

Not all apps play nice with the mount the Nextcloud package in Linux provide. I want to use systemd automount to mount webdav using davfs.

Some quick references you need to know. Make sure to change for your needs.

Mount point: /home/linuxuser/nextcloud
Webdav address: https://nextcloud.user.com/remote.php/dav/files/user/
linux user: linuxuser
nextcloud user: nextclouduser
nextcloud app password: this-is-App-Password

Install and configuration

Install davfs

# Fedora
sudo dnf install davfs2
# Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install davfs2

Create mount point folder:

mkdir /home/linuxuser/nextcloud

Store username and password for nextcloud webdav share:

$ cat << EOF | sudo tee -a /etc/davfs2/secrets

# personal webdav nextcloud, application password
/home/linuxuser/nextcloud nextclouduser this-is-App-Password
EOF

Create systemd mount unit:

$ cat << EOF | sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/home-linuxuser-nextcloud.mount
[Unit]
Description=Nextcloud WebDAV Mount
Requires=network-online.target
After=network-online.target

[Mount]
What=https://nextcloud.user.com/remote.php/dav/files/user/
Where=/home/linuxuser/nextcloud
Type=davfs
Options=noauto,user,uid=linuxuser,gid=linuxuser,rw,noatime

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

Create systemd automount unit:

$ cat << EOF | sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/home-linuxuser-nextcloud.automount
[Unit]
Description=Nextcloud WebDAV Mount
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Automount]
Where=/home/linuxuser/nextcloud
TimeoutIdleSec=15

[Install]
WantedBy=remote-fs.target
EOF

Enable automount systemd service.

systemctl enable --now home-linuxuser-nextcloud.automount

The mountpoint will now automatically mount when you try to access it.

Bash script install

I also created a bash script to this fast to setup this fast on new installs. Of course you should not use it, it is dangerous to run random bash scripts from the interwebs, but you can wget it and have a look. You can run this script by running:

wget https://fyksen.me/scripts/webdav-nextcloud.sh
chmod +x webdav-nextcloud.sh
./webdav-nextcloud.sh \
 --nextcloud_user=<nextcloudUser> \
 --nextcloud_app_password=<nextcloutAppPassword> \
 --nextcloud_webdav_address=<https://nextcloud.test.com/remote.php/dav/files/user> \
 --mount_point=</home/user/nextcloud>

Here's the script.

#!/bin/bash

# Function to display help text
show_help() {
    echo "Usage: $0 [--nextcloud_user=<user>] [--nextcloud_app_password=<password>] [--nextcloud_webdav_address=<address>] [--mount_point=<mount_point>]"
    echo "Options:"
    echo "  --nextcloud_user       Nextcloud User"
    echo "  --nextcloud_app_password Nextcloud App Password"
    echo "  --nextcloud_webdav_address Nextcloud WebDAV Address"
    echo "  --mount_point          Nextcloud Mount Point"
    exit 0
}

# Parse command-line arguments
for arg in "$@"; do
    case $arg in
        --nextcloud_user=*)
            nextcloud_user="${arg#*=}"
            ;;
        --nextcloud_app_password=*)
            nextcloud_app_password="${arg#*=}"
            ;;
        --nextcloud_webdav_address=*)
            nextcloud_webdav_address="${arg#*=}"
            ;;
        --mount_point=*)
            nextcloud_mount_point="${arg#*=}"
            ;;
        --help)
            show_help
            ;;
        *)
            echo "Error: Unknown option '$arg'. Use --help for usage."
            exit 1
            ;;
    esac
done

# Ask for user inputs if any argument was not provided
if [ -z "$nextcloud_user" ]; then
    read -p "Nextcloud User: " nextcloud_user
fi

if [ -z "$nextcloud_app_password" ]; then
    read -p "Nextcloud App Password: " nextcloud_app_password
fi

if [ -z "$nextcloud_webdav_address" ]; then
    read -p "Nextcloud WebDAV Address: " nextcloud_webdav_address
fi

if [ -z "$nextcloud_mount_point" ]; then
    read -p "Nextcloud Mount Point: " nextcloud_mount_point
fi

# Replace '/' with '-' in the mount point path
nextcloud_mount_point_file=${nextcloud_mount_point//\//-}

# Remove leading dash from mount point filename
if [[ ${nextcloud_mount_point_file:0:1} == "-" ]]; then
    nextcloud_mount_point_file=${nextcloud_mount_point_file:1}
fi

# Get the current user's username
current_user=$(whoami)

# Install davfs2 package
if command -v dnf &>/dev/null; then
    PKG_MANAGER="dnf"
elif command -v apt &>/dev/null; then
    PKG_MANAGER="apt"
else
    echo "Error: Unsupported package manager (dnf or apt is required)."
    exit 1
fi

sudo $PKG_MANAGER install -y davfs2

# Create the mount point
sudo mkdir -p "$nextcloud_mount_point"

# Add credentials to /etc/davfs2/secrets
echo -e "$nextcloud_mount_point $nextcloud_user $nextcloud_app_password" | sudo tee -a /etc/davfs2/secrets

# Create systemd mount unit file
cat <<EOF | sudo tee "/etc/systemd/system/$nextcloud_mount_point_file.mount"
[Unit]
Description=Nextcloud WebDAV Mount
Requires=network-online.target
After=network-online.target

[Mount]
What=$nextcloud_webdav_address
Where=$nextcloud_mount_point
Type=davfs
Options=noauto,user,uid=$current_user,gid=$current_user,rw,noatime

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

# Create systemd automount unit file
cat <<EOF | sudo tee "/etc/systemd/system/$nextcloud_mount_point_file.automount"
[Unit]
Description=Nextcloud WebDAV Automount
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Automount]
Where=$nextcloud_mount_point
TimeoutIdleSec=15

[Install]
WantedBy=remote-fs.target
EOF

# Enable and start the automount service
sudo systemctl enable "$nextcloud_mount_point_file.automount"
sudo systemctl start "$nextcloud_mount_point_file.automount"

# Output the changes made to the system
echo -e "\n \n"
echo "Nextcloud WebDAV automount service has been set up successfully."
echo "Summary of changes:"
echo "1. davfs2 package has been installed."
echo "2. Mount point directory created: $nextcloud_mount_point"
echo "3. Credentials added to /etc/davfs2/secrets"
echo "4. Systemd mount unit file created: /etc/systemd/system/$nextcloud_mount_point_file.mount"
echo "5. Systemd automount unit file created: /etc/systemd/system/$nextcloud_mount_point_file.automount"
echo "6. Automount service enabled and started."

Automount Nextcloud webdav using systemd automount

Install and configuration

Bash script install