Hey,
So I've been connecting to an ftp server which I worked on with apps like GNOME Builder, and backed up the contents of with Pika Backup, connecting to it via the GNOME Files application, Nautilus, from the Network tab.
Recently, apps stopped being able to read files I opened with the file picker hosted on the ftp server, and after a lot of debugging I realised that was because Nautilus had for some reason switched from mounting the files under /run/user/1000/gvfs/ftp_address to the more abstract path ftp://ftp_address, under the virtual directory computer:///. Now apps can't read those files as they are not mounted under an actual path.
I couldn't find a way in Nautilus, FileZilla, or Dolphin to mount the ftp server files under a specified path /mnt/ftp_username, or even to put it back to the unwieldy but still working path it was under before, using a GUI.
I was recommended by an LLM assistant to use the curlftpfs command, but even with several variations of a command such as the following
sudo curlftpfs -v -o "uid=$UID,gid=$GID" ftp://username:correct%20password@ftp_address /mnt/ftp_username
it always gave the same error
Error setting curl:
The curl command worked by itself, just not with curlftpfs, but with just curl I can't mount it.
I'm not sure what else to try, could I have some advice please?
Edit: it seems the error message was a bug with a combination of using curlftpfs and curl v8.9.1
A commenter also suggested using rclone or gio, as apparently curlftpfs is unmaintained and that's why it's not working.
I don't think downgrading the curl library is promising here. curlftpfs seems to be unmaintained. I recommend looking for alternatives or alternative workflows.