local & mem
The reference filesystems — real local disk and an in-memory volume.
These two backends have real directories and full read/write support. They are the reference implementations the conformance suite measures every other backend against.
local
Addresses the machine's filesystem.
| Form | Meaning |
|---|---|
./a, /tmp/b | bare path |
file:///abs/p | explicit local path |
local://<alias>/path | a configured folder alias, sandboxed to its base dir |
Capabilities: random read/write, append, truncate, atomic rename, real directories, mtime, and case sensitivity matching the host filesystem.
Sandboxed aliases
local://<alias> resolves an alias from local_folders in
config and contains all access within the
alias's base directory — symlinks that try to escape the base are blocked. Use
aliases to expose a specific directory tree without handing over the whole disk.
mem
An ephemeral in-memory volume addressed as mem://vol/path. Each process gets
its own; nothing persists across runs. It supports the full filesystem contract
(real directories, random read/write, append, truncate, atomic rename), which
makes it ideal for tests and quick smoke checks:
echo hi | dumont cp - mem://scratch/note.txt
dumont cat mem://scratch/note.txt