Virtualbox : shared folder with guest

This how-to works independently of the host platform.

On virtualbox :

  1. Open the Configuration window of the VM (guest)
  2. Select Shared folder on the left menu
  3. Click on the icon corresponding to Add a shared folder
  4. Complete Folder path and Folder name fields, ex: /folder/to/share and folder-shared

On the guest VM:

  1. Create a folder (an existant one can be used), ex:
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$ mkdir /home/user/vbox-shared
  1. Mount the shared folder and is file system as root, ex:
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# mount -t vboxsf [FOLDER_NAME] [GUEST_PATH]

with [FOLDER_NAME] the name of the shared folder created on virtualbox and [GUEST_PATH] the folder path where the share file system have to be mounted.

So here that will give:

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# mount -t vboxsf folder-shared /home/user/vbox-shared

Note : Even if a permanent shared folder was created, the mount command will have to be runned each time the guest restart.

Mounting a file system requires root privileges, but instead of mounting the file system as roor like previously, it's preferable to mount it as a user:

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$ mount -t vboxsf -o umask=0022,gid=1000,uid=1000 folder-shared /home/user/vbox-shared

Where the gid and uid value math with the ones of the user (it can be check with the id command).

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