macFUSE

About

macFUSE is a software package that adds support for FUSE file systems to macOS. FUSE file systems run in user space, which the project describes as easier to develop, safer to run, and more flexible than conventional file systems. When macFUSE intercepts a file system operation, it forwards the request to a FUSE file system process, which can be an app, a background service, or any user-space process that supplies the requested data or carries out the action.

The macFUSE installer includes the runtime components, tools, the libfuse2 and libfuse3 FUSE libraries, and macFUSE.framework, an object-oriented API for developing macOS file systems in languages such as Swift and Objective-C. The installer does not include any FUSE file systems, which must be installed separately. On macOS 26, a new FSKit backend lets supported file systems run entirely in user space, so the macFUSE kernel extension no longer requires rebooting into recovery mode to enable support.

For developers, FUSE file systems can be built with the same programming tools, debuggers, and libraries used for standard macOS apps. Because the FUSE API is also available on Linux and Windows (through third-party implementations), FUSE file systems are portable across platforms with little or no modification. Third-party language bindings also allow development in languages such as Python, Java, C#, JavaScript, Go, and Rust. The project provides demo file systems to browse, compile, and build upon.