encfs on CentOS 6 can’t mount as normal user

On CentOS 7, using a normal user, encfs works just well.

On CentOS 6, using the root user, encfs works.

However, the problem is, on CentOS 6, using a normal user account, encfs does not work as on CentOS 7.

$ encfs -s ~/t/.enc ~/t/enc
EncFS Password: 
fuse: failed to exec fusermount: Permission denied
fuse failed.  Common problems:
 - fuse kernel module not installed (modprobe fuse)
 - invalid options -- see usage message

As the root user can mount encfs directory, the needed tools/modules should already be there.

What’s the reason and how to fix it?

On CentOS 6 (and some old systems too), to make a user be able to use FUSE which is used by encfs, you need to add the user to the “fuse” group.

For example, to make user user1 to use encfs, you can do

# usermod -G fuse user1

Eric Ma

Eric is a systems guy. Eric is interested in building high-performance and scalable distributed systems and related technologies. The views or opinions expressed here are solely Eric's own and do not necessarily represent those of any third parties.

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