OSXFuse

OSXFuse, formerly known as OSXFUSE, is an open-source software package that implements the Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE) interface for macOS. It enables the development and use of file systems that run in user space, while the macOS kernel provides the underlying access to the system.

OSXFuse provides a user-space API compatibility layer (libfuse) that lets applications written for FUSE run on macOS. It includes a kernel component—historically a kernel extension and more recently a system extension or kext replacement depending on the macOS version—that translates kernel requests to the user-space file system, allowing the actual file system logic to run in user space. The package also ships command-line tools to manage and mount FUSE file systems and provides sample implementations such as sshfs and encfs.

In practice, OSXFuse enables mounting of SSHFS, EncFS, and other FUSE-based file systems on macOS, without modification to the file system implementations themselves.

OSXFuse originated as a macOS-specific port of the Linux FUSE interface. In response to macOS platform security changes, the project has evolved to support newer delivery mechanisms (system extensions) while retaining compatibility with existing FUSE-based software. It remains one of the primary means to run user-space file systems on macOS alongside other projects such as macFUSE.

The project is hosted publicly, with source code, documentation, and issue tracking available online. It is used by developers and advanced users to experiment with and deploy custom or community-maintained file systems on macOS.