VMWare Fusion & Linux: uid/gid
debian, shared folders, vmware
Today I created a new Debian Virtual Machine. I like to use shared folders to have my code on my mac, but use the VM to create a production like environment. The shared folders are great, but they have one big drawback: the uid & gid are the ones inherited from your Mac.
I looked on the net how to change it to something usefull and I found a lot of articles about changing the uid/gid and then changing this on disk level. It was quite a lot of hastle and an attempt to do so didn't go very well.
There is however a very good and simple solution!
First of all, detect the uid and gid of the user/group you want to use for your shared folders. For instance if you want to use www-data, you issue following command:
debian:~# id www-data uid=33(www-data) gid=33(www-data) groups=33(www-data)
Remember the uid and gid and edit the file /etc/fstab. Look for following line:
.host:/ /mnt/hgfs vmhgfs defaults,ttl=5 0 0
Now, replace it by following line (enter your uid and gid of course):
.host:/ /mnt/hgfs vmhgfs defaults,ttl=5,uid=33,gid=33 0 0
Next time you mount your shared folder, it will use the new uid/gid.
Hope this saves you a lot of headaches!
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