Is this an efficient way of mounting a file-system via SSH (SSHFS)?

Question

#!/usr/bin/python3 

# Description: Python script that will mount FTP-Server via SSHFS protocol 
import sys
import os
import subprocess

def mount():
#Function for mounting the networked drive
    if os.path.exists('/home/user/MNT/MEDIA/'):
        print('Network drive is mounted')
        un = input("To unmount type U/u \n")
        if un == "u" or un == "U":
            subprocess.call(['sudo fusermount -u /home/user/MNT/'], shell=True)  
        else:
            pass 
        exit(0) 
    if not os.path.exists('/home/user/MNT/MEDIA/'):
        IP = input("Type I/i for local connection, E/e for external\n")
        if IP == "i" or IP == "I":
            subprocess.call(['sudo sshfs -o idmap=user -o uid=1000 -o gid=1000 -o allow_other -o default_permissions -p 100 [email protected]:/media/Hitachi/ /home/user/MNT'], shell=True)
        if IP == "e" or IP == "E":
            subprocess.call(['sudo sshfs -o idmap=user -o uid=1000 -o gid=1000 -o allow_other -o default_permissions -p 100 [email protected]/media/Hitachi/ /home/user/MNT'], shell=True) 
        elif IP == "": #returns if null value 
            return mount()


def makedir():
#Function to check and see if directory is created and if not create it
    if not os.path.exists('/home/user/MNT/'):
        subprocess.call(['sudo mkdir /home/user/MNT/'], shell=True)
    if os.path.isdir('/home/user/MNT/'):
        mount() 






makedir()

EDITED:

def sshfs():
#function to mount network drive
    while True:
        user = input("Type 'i' for internal, 'e' for external connection\n")
        fs = File_System.get(user.lower()) #Get value from the dict called File_System
        if fs is None:
            print("Invalid option, enter either 'i' for internal or 'e' for external\n")
        else:
            subprocess.call(["sudo sshfs -o uid=1000 -o gid=1000 -o idmap=user -o default_permissions -o allow_other -p 100 %s %s" % (fs, Local_Mount)], shell=True)
            exit(0)

Answer 1

Efficiency is just not an issue in this kind of task. As "glue" code, it's not computationally intensive. There are, however, some maintainability issues.

• In mount(), the basic outline is:

  def mount():
      if os.path.exists('/home/user/MNT/MEDIA/'):
          ...
          exit(0) 
      if not os.path.exists('/home/user/MNT/MEDIA/'):
          ...
  

  … which should be expressed as:

  def mount_or_unmount():
      if os.path.exists('/home/user/MNT/MEDIA/'):
          ...
      else:
          ...
  

• Using recursion for error handling is weird. That would normally be handled using a while-loop. It's also slightly odd that the empty string triggers a retry, but any other invalid input would exit the script.

• The two sudo sshfs commands differ only slightly. Your code should be structured accordingly.

  REMOTE_FS = {
      'i': '[email protected]:/media/Hitachi/',
      'e': '[email protected]/media/Hitachi/',
  }
  
  ...
  while True:
      ip = input("Type I/i for local connection, E/e for external\n")
      fs = REMOTE_FS.get(ip.lower())
      if fs is None:    # Input was not 'i' or 'e'
          continue
      subprocess.call(['sudo sshfs -o idmap=user -o uid=1000 -o gid=1000 -o allow_other -o default_permissions -p 100 %s /home/user/MNT' % (fs)], shell=True)
      break