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4.4 GVFS-based external methods

GVFS is the virtual file system for the GNOME Desktop, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GVFS. Remote files on GVFS are mounted locally through FUSE and TRAMP uses this locally mounted directory internally.

Emacs uses the D-Bus mechanism to communicate with GVFS. Emacs must have the message bus system, D-Bus integration active, see (dbus)D-Bus.

afp ¶

This method is for connecting to remote hosts with the Apple Filing Protocol for accessing files on macOS volumes. TRAMP access syntax requires a leading volume (share) name, for example: /afp:user@host:/volume.

dav

davs ¶

dav method provides access to WebDAV files and directories based on standard protocols, such as HTTP. davs does the same but with SSL encryption. Both methods support the port numbers.

Paths being part of the WebDAV volume to be mounted by GVFS, as it is common for OwnCloud or NextCloud file names, are not supported by these methods. See method nextcloud for handling them.

gdrive ¶

Via the gdrive method it is possible to access your Google Drive online storage. User and host name of the remote file name are your email address of the Google Drive credentials, like /gdrive:john.doe@gmail.com:/. These credentials must be populated in your Online Accounts application outside Emacs.

Since Google Drive uses cryptic blob file names internally, TRAMP works with the display-name of the files. This could produce unexpected behavior in case two files in the same directory have the same display-name, such a situation must be avoided.

mtp ¶

Media devices, like cell phones, tablets, cameras, can be accessed via the mtp method. Just the device name is needed in order to specify the host in the file name. However, the device must already be connected via USB, before accessing it. Possible device names are visible via host name completion, File name completion.

Depending on the device type, the access could be read-only. Some devices are accessible under different names in parallel, offering different parts of their file system.

TRAMP does not require a host name as part of the remote file name when a single media device is connected. TRAMP instead uses /mtp:: as the default name.

nextcloud ¶

As the name indicates, the method nextcloud allows you to access OwnCloud or NextCloud hosted files and directories. Like the gdrive method, your credentials must be populated in your Online Accounts application outside Emacs. The method supports port numbers.

sftp ¶

This method uses sftp in order to securely access remote hosts. sftp is a more secure option for connecting to hosts that for security reasons refuse ssh connections.

When there is a respective entry in your ssh configuration, do not set the RemoteCommand option.

User Option: tramp-gvfs-methods ¶

This user option is a list of external methods for GVFS. By default, this list includes afp, dav, davs, gdrive, mtp, nextcloud and sftp. Other methods to include are ftp, http, https and smb. These methods are not intended to be used directly as GVFS-based method. Instead, they are added here for the benefit of Archive file names.

If you want to use GVFS-based ftp or smb methods, you must add them to tramp-gvfs-methods, and you must disable the corresponding TRAMP package by setting tramp-ftp-method or tramp-smb-method to nil, respectively:

(add-to-list 'tramp-gvfs-methods "ftp")
(customize-set-variable 'tramp-ftp-method nil)