File management

2025-07-23T23:37:15Z

Alectronic: fix missing "s" in "udisksctl" command

File management and storage access in Alpine Linux [[Desktop environments and Window managers|Desktop environments]] involves various components. In Alpine Linux, [[#File managers|file managers]] require additional software packages to:

* Automatically mount removable media
* Browse storage across shared networks
* Display and access partitions using different [[Filesystems|filesystems]] with other installed operating systems

== Prerequisites ==

* Enable [[Polkit]]

== File managers ==

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_manager File managers] are computer programs that provides a user interface to file management i.e manage files and folders. A partial list of file managers available in Alpine Linux is given below:

{| class="wikitable" align="center" style="width:100%; border:1px #0771a6 solid; background:#f9f9f9; text-align:left; border-collapse:collapse;"
|-style="background:#333333; color:#ffffff; font-size: 1.2em; text-align:center;"
|width="18%" | Tool
|width="10%"| Graphical/CLI
|Brief Notes
|-
|{{pkg|caja}} ||Graphical||The file manager for the [[MATE|MATE desktop]]
|-
|{{pkg|dolphin}} ||Graphical||File manager for [[KDE]] Plasma desktop
|-
|{{pkg|konqueror}} ||Graphical||[[KDE]] File Manager & Web Browser
|-
|{{pkg|lf}} ||CLI||Terminal filemanager written in Go with vim-style keybindings
|-
|{{pkg|mc}} ||CLI||Filemanager/shell that emulates Norton Commander
|-
|{{pkg|nautilus}}||Graphical||[[Gnome|GNOME]] file manager also known as 'GNOME Files'
|-
|{{Pkg|nemo}} ||Graphical||File manager for Cinnamon desktop environment
|-
|{{pkg|nnn}} ||CLI||The unorthodox terminal file manager
|-
|{{pkg|pcmanfm}} ||Graphical||Extremely fast and lightweight file manager for LXDE
|-
|{{pkg|pcmanfm-qt}} ||Graphical|| Qt port of pcmanfm
|-
|{{pkg|ranger}} ||CLI||VIM-inspired filemanager for the console
|-
|{{pkg|thunar}} ||Graphical||File manager for [[Xfce]]
|}

== Disk management ==

Managing disks including removable drives like USB is much easier with [https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/udisks/ udisks]. Install the {{pkg|udisks2}} package:{{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|udisks2}}}}

To see the mounted disks:{{Cmd|$ udisksctl status}}
To mount a disk {{Path|/dev/sdb1}}:{{Cmd|$ udisksctl mount -b /dev/sdb1}}
To unmount a disk {{Path|/dev/sdb1}}:{{Cmd|$ udisksctl unmount -b /dev/sdb1}}

== Automounting USB drives ==

[https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gvfs GVfs] is a userspace virtual filesystem implementation for GIO,a library available in GLib. GVfs comes with a set of backends, including trash support, SFTP,SMB, HTTP, DAV, and many others. This also provides FUSE support that provides limited access to the GVfs filesystems for applications not using GIO.

To enable automatic mounting of USB drives, install the following packages: {{Cmd|# apk add gvfs udisks2}}

Depending on what devices you intend to mount, additional packages may be installed from the below list:
{{Cmd|# apk add \
ntfs-3g \ # Stable, full-featured, read-write NTFS (driver)
gvfs-cdda \ # CDDA support for gvfs
gvfs-afp \ # AFP support for gvfs
gvfs-goa \ # GNOME Online Accounts support for gvfs
gvfs-mtp \ # MTP support for gvfs
gvfs-smb \ # Windows fileshare support for gvfs
gvfs-lang \ # Languages for package gvfs
gvfs-afc \ # Apple mobile devices support for gvfs
gvfs-nfs \ # NFS support for gvfs
gvfs-dev \ # Backends for the gio framework in GLib (development files)
gvfs-archive \ # Archiving support for gvfs
gvfs-dav \ # WebDAV support for gvfs
gvfs-fuse \ # FUSE support for gvfs
gvfs-gphoto2 \ # gphoto2 support for gvfs
gvfs-avahi \ # DNS-SD support for gvfs}}

To list descriptions of all gvfs- packages:{{cmd|$ apk info -d gvfs-*}}

== Network browsing ==

For browsing of network shares that works seamlessly with file associations, install the gvfs packages for the required network protocols. For example, to browse in a SMB/cifs windows network:{{Cmd|# apk add gvfs-smb}}

The OpenRC script for fuse is in a separate package.{{Cmd|# apk add fuse-openrc}}

Then the fuse service can be started manually. {{Cmd|# rc-service fuse start}}

If the desktop sessions are already in progress, they need to be restarted for the changes to take effect, i.e. log out and log in again.

Test the network browsing with your favourite file manager and if it works, the fuse service can be added to start up automatically at boot time:{{Cmd|# rc-update add fuse}}

== Troubleshooting ==

=== Error due to missing polkit ===

''Error mounting /dev/sda1: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.UDisks2.Error.NotAuthorized: Not authorized to perform operation (polkit authority not available and caller is not uid 0)''

If [[Polkit]] is not available, the above error will occur. In this case either install and enable [[Polkit]] or using [[Setting up a new user#doas|doas]] is recommended.

[[Category:Storage]]
[[Category:Desktop]]

Alpine Linux - User contributions [en]

File management