16. Connect a Second Computer — studiofs discover¶

Work in progress

The first computer already has a volume and its first files. Now we want to open them on another machine: for example, move work from a studio workstation to a laptop at home, or give a colleague access to project materials.

That is what studiofs discover is for. It finds an existing volume in PostgreSQL and prepares its local metadata on the new computer. The name sounds a little adventurous, but the command will not search the entire internet for a lost drive: you need to know the server address and volume name.

You do not need to run studiofs init again on the second computer. The volume has already been created. We are attaching another client to the same space.

Prepare the second computer¶

Install StudioFS and the mounting tools for your system: WinFSP on Windows, macFUSE on macOS, or libfuse3 on Linux. The steps are in chapters 10, 11, and 12.

Connect the computer to the same private Tailscale or NetBird network and check PostgreSQL access using chapter 08.

On the first computer, finish writing a small test file and give StudioFS time to publish the changes. PostgreSQL must have a valid metadata checkpoint available for the new client. Having files in S3 alone is not enough to connect.

Fetch the local metadata¶

On the second computer, open a terminal or PowerShell. The general command format is:

studiofs discover <disk-name> --meta "<your-postgres-connection>"

Angle brackets mark the places for your values; do not type them literally. For example, the command might look like this:

studiofs discover myvolume --meta "postgres://studiofs:YOUR_PASSWORD@100.101.102.103:5432"

Replace the user, password, address, and port with your own. The address here is an example: use your server's VPN address or private hostname.

During discover, StudioFS fetches the published checkpoint and volume settings from PostgreSQL and creates a local metadata database. It does not download all your video, audio, and images to disk at once. The client will read the contents of the files it needs from S3 as you work, using its own local cache.

This command has no separate --access-key or --secret-key options. S3 settings, including saved access keys, arrive as part of the existing volume's configuration.

Mount the discovered volume¶

discover prepares the client, but does not mount a drive. Once it finishes successfully, run mount as described in chapter 14.

On Windows, choose an unused drive letter:

studiofs mount myvolume Z:

On macOS:

studiofs mount myvolume /Volumes/Studiofs

On Linux:

studiofs mount myvolume /mnt/StudioFS

On Windows, open Z:\; on macOS, open /Volumes/Studiofs/myvolume; on Linux, open /mnt/StudioFS/myvolume. StudioFS appends the volume name to the parent folder you provide. The second computer can use a different drive letter or path from the first; it is still the same shared volume.

Run discover and mount as the same user and with the same client root. By default, local state lives in ~/.studiofs. If you set STUDIOFS_CLIENT_ROOT, both commands must use the same value. Switching users, running through sudo, or changing this variable may cause mount to look for metadata somewhere else entirely.

By default, mount keeps running in the terminal. Leave that window open and check your files through a file manager or a second terminal window.

Check changes in both directions¶

The new client starts from the checkpoint it received. After mounting, it catches up with later changes in the background. At first, the volume may be read-only: writing becomes available after the initial catch-up completes and the client obtains the required authority. This is not a reason to repeat init.

A small text file is enough for the first check:

1. On the first computer, create hello-from-studio.txt in the mounted volume, write a short line, and close the editor.
2. Give the first client time to publish the changes. On the second computer, refresh the file listing, wait for the file to appear, and open it. Check the actual text inside: seeing the name does not yet prove that the contents are available from S3.
3. Once the second client allows writing, create a different file there: hello-from-home.txt. Close the editor, then check that this file appears on the first computer and that its contents are correct.

Keep both computers connected to the network and both StudioFS processes running during this check. Do not edit the same file simultaneously: for now, we are checking that changes arrive; we will get to conflicts later.

Files do not have to appear instantly, but since we are testing with a small text file, they should appear almost instantly.

If something goes wrong¶

Volume not found. Check the exact name, the PostgreSQL server, and whether the first client has published the metadata needed to connect. Do not create a volume with the same name on the second computer to “help the search.”

Local metadata already exists. discover refuses to overwrite an existing local database. If this client has been connected before, try a normal mount with the same name and client root. Do not delete local metadata blindly: it may contain changes that have not yet been published. A different name is not a workaround either: it changes the name of the volume being searched for on the server.

Connection error. Check the VPN, PostgreSQL port availability, credentials, and access rules. A successful network test does not confirm that the password is correct.

Files are visible but will not open. Check the second computer's access to S3, the validity of the keys, and whether publication has finished on the first computer. A successful PostgreSQL connection does not check that whole path.

New changes do not appear. Make sure both volumes are actually mounted and the clients have network access. Read the terminal messages; further steps are in the troubleshooting chapter. You do not need to repeat discover after every save or normal restart.

After this check, you have two separate clients of one volume, each with its own metadata and cache. Next, we will learn how to shut them down without unnecessary adventures.

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