Allowing user to read only parts of NTFS filesystem

Question

After installing ntfs-3g I have an option in nautilus to mount a Windows directory but I need to give root password. While I have no objection to giving root password I would prefer to be restricted to permission of corresponding Windows user (i.e. disallowing modification of system files). Is is easily achievable or do I need to post feature request?

Answer 1

There IS a way to recognize Windows permissions on a ntfs-3g mount. You have to create a user-mapping file. See here.

This can be done from within Linux too, with the ntfs-3g.usermap utility. See the manual pages for mount.ntfs-3g and ntfs-3g.usermap. (I use Fedora 14.)

EDIT: I don't know what effect enabling this will have on Nautilus' mount feature. Me, I like to mount the partitions in /etc/fstab and leave it at that.

Answer 2

Disclaimer: I did not try this, so it may or may not work; I don't have an NTFS volume around.

Mount the whole FS with permissions that prevent target users from reading it.

Mount a directory of the resulting tree at an accessible mount point with mount --bind and subsequent mount --o remount with different uid and umaks that allow target users to read it.