If you happen to be running Linux in VMware on Windows, this article describes how you can use CIFS on Linux to access shared files on the host Windows system (alternatively, you could use VMware to share folders on the host with the virtual system). CIFS is the Common Internet File System, which is a network file system compatible with Windows.
First, on the Windows system, you must share any directory that you want the Linux system to have access to.
Then, on Linux, you can verify the directory is shared using the following command. This will list the services that are available on a Windows system. (Just press return at the password prompt if there is no password.)
$ /usr/bin/smbclient -L WindowsHostName
$ /usr/bin/smbclient '\\WindowsHostName\directoryName'
smb> ls
...
smb> quit
$ mkdir /windows/directoryName
$ mount -t cifs -o password="" '\\WindowsHostName\directoryName' \
/windows/directoryName
\\WindowsHostName\directoryName /windows/directoryName cifs \
uid=userName,password=password 0 0
Copyright © 2008 by Bruce Blinn