After you have enabled a shared folder, you can mount one or more directories or subdirectories in the shared folder to any location in the file system in addition to the default location of /mnt/hgfs.

Use the mount command to mount all shares, one share, or a subdirectory within a share to any location in the file system.

Table 1. Mount Command Syntax

Command

Description

mount -t vmhgfs .host:/ /home/user1/shares

Mounts all shares to /home/user1/shares

mount -t vmhgfs .host:/foo /tmp/foo

Mounts the share named foo to /tmp/foo

mount -t vmhgfs .host:/foo/bar /var/lib/bar

Mounts the subdirectory bar within the share foo to /var/lib/bar

You can use VMware-specific options in addition to the standard mount syntax. For usage information for the host-guest file system options, type the command /sbin/mount.vmhgfs -h.

When you install VMware Tools, an entry is made to etc/fstab to specify the location of shared folders. You can edit this file to change or add entries. For example, to auto-mount at startup, edit /etc/fstab and add the line: 

.host:/ /mnt/hgfs vmhgfs defaults 0 0

The VMware Tools services script loads a driver that performs the mount. If the mount fails, a message appears regarding mounting HGFS shares.

Note:

The mount can fail if shared folders are disabled or if the share does not exist. You are not prompted to run the VMware Tools vmware-config-tools.pl configuration program again.