I just want to doc the basics of this and will add as I find more info, with the initial overview coming from:
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/ubuntu/how-to-mount-a-remote-folder-using-ssh-on-ubuntu/
Beware the line for changing ownership of /dev/fuse or any other fuse related commands at that link for Ubuntu!
My Mint PC lost my user mdm (mint desktop manager) access so now I cannot log in to my user desktop!
I still haven't fixed it yet!
I found I did NOT need to do any other than install sshfs in both Mint and Raspbian for sshfs to work and create a share on a remote host by opening a SSH session, so I don't know why the geek site had to chown /dev/fuse etc, but then I don't use Ubuntu.
SSHFS works for a local network shared PC and the Internet.
To solve the issue of Motion sending large appended time-lapse films - which is their nature - you can create real time .avi files instead and access them remotely by still sending them manually as a sendemail attachment if you want of course, from the command line, after getting an SSH session going, or using SSHFS to create a local directory of the remote share.
You only need the -o nonempty switch if the share has sub-directories.
This is of the form:
$ sshfs root@pinoir:/Share/motion/ /remotenoir -o nonempty
First:
apt-get install sshfs
Open a SSH session to the remote PC:
ssh user@80.x.x.x
password etc.
Organise your remote directory structure how you want that will mount to a local directory - where depends on who you are, whether root etc. e.g.
On the local PC create a local mount point for the remote share e.g.:
mkdir /home/stevee/Remblanc/
The command form is then:
sshfs root@80.x.x.x:/Share/motion/ /home/stevee/Remblanc/ -o nonempty
I don't like using commands relating to the (~) pwd, I use full paths as I find it less confusing, so the /home/stevee/Remblanc/ part of the above command is the LOCAL PC dir where the remote share will mount to.
The "/Share/motion" part of the command is for the /Share existing on the root dir of the remote linux PC, but note there is no space between the "user@address:/Share" part of the command.
When run, this just mounts the remote directory by opening a new SSH session - great!
Files on the remote PC can then be copied/deleted etc. as any network share like Samba access allows, permissions depending. I did this as root first so I know if the command structure is correct first, and not a permission issue if it failed.
In the case of Motion, I have the Pi cam writing its movies to the /Share/motion directory, so they are visible by samba - Win and Lin PCs locally - so can be viewed with VLC, or deleted etc. by any PC on my home network.
I already opened ports on my router for the Picams streams, so I just added another NAT port for SSH (use a different port than 22 that only you would know for extra security if you like).
I can now copy these to any remote PC I have SSH on, should I receive an email that motion has occurred and wish to view either jpgs or an .avi movie when at work by looking at the file size remotely, and judging if I want copy and view it or not.
You can use GUIs for this too of course, or secure copy (SCP) if you want encryption with a transfer, as shown in the link for Ubuntu GUIs above.
I always like to know the command line ways primarily, should you be dealing with headless servers, and because it's efficient (mostly).
What I found interesting is running netstat -nat - which is numeric, all, tcp - to find the port 22 NAT translation does not show end to end between my work PC and home router, but between a BT server (presumably the last hop gateway to my router) so the Inet address is NOT my home router WAN address that I get from my noip.com DynDNS account. This is confirmed by using a whois service webpage.
$ netstat -nat
Active Internet connections (servers and established)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address State
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:22 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 224 192.168.1.13:22 81.156.224.195:49032 ESTABLISHED
tcp 0 0 192.168.1.13:22 81.156.224.195:49041 ESTABLISHED
IP Address 81.156.224.195
% Abuse contact for '81.154.0.0 - 81.157.255.255' is ''
inetnum: 81.154.0.0 - 81.157.255.255
remarks: ***
remarks: * Report abuse via: https://bt.custhelp.com/app/contact/c/346,3024 *
remarks: ***
netname: BT-CENTRAL-PLUS
descr: IP pools
country: GB
MintRecPC stevee # netstat nat | grep ssh
tcp 0 0 192.168.1.11:48677 46.59.189.80.dyn.pl:ssh ESTABLISHED
But if you run netstat nat (no - switch) to show NAT translations I believe, though can't find that in the man page or with --help, you DO get PC to router end to end info:
MintRecPC stevee # netstat nat | grep ssh
tcp 0 0 192.168.1.11:48677 x.x.x.80.dyn.pl:ssh ESTABLISHED
They are very different commands if you look at the output or count the output lines between them:
MintRecPC stevee # netstat nat | wc -l
420
MintRecPC stevee # netstat -nat | wc -l
19
These SSH connections can be persistent - they stayed attached even after logging out - I had to reboot to close them.