cfuse

cfuse is a user-space file system that allows the mounting of compressed archives as regular file systems. It enables direct access to the contents of compressed files without the need for prior decompression. This means files within the archive can be read, written, and executed as if they were part of a standard file system.

The primary advantage of cfuse is its ability to provide on-the-fly decompression. This eliminates the storage overhead associated with uncompressed files and speeds up access to archived data, especially for large files. It can be particularly useful for distributing software or data where space is a concern, or for accessing infrequently used but large archives.

cfuse is implemented as a FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace) module. FUSE allows non-privileged users to create their own file systems without modifying the kernel. This makes cfuse portable and relatively easy to install and use on various Unix-like operating systems.

When a cfuse file system is mounted, applications interact with it as they would any other file system. cfuse intercepts these file system operations and handles the decompression and compression of data as needed. It supports various compression algorithms, making it versatile. However, performance can be dependent on the compression algorithm used and the speed of the underlying storage.