The Archil client is a command-line tool that provides access to Archil disks on Linux servers.

​
Installation

You can install the Archil client with a single command: 
# Basic installation
curl -s https://s3.amazonaws.com/archil-client/install | sh
Always use archil unmount to unmount your Archil disks, not the builtin umount command. Unlike umount, the archil unmount command does not exit until all pending data is flushed to the backing disk. This is particularly important on system shutdown, in which the Linux kernel will, by default, call umount on all devices and shutdown without waiting for pending Archil writes to be synced.

​
Automatic mounting with fstab

To automatically mount Archil disks at boot time, you can add entries to your system’s /etc/fstab file. This is particularly useful for production servers that need persistent disk access.

​
fstab entry format

Add an entry to /etc/fstab with the following format: 
# Archil disk fstab entry
<disk-name> <mountpoint> archil _netdev,region=<region>,defaults 0 0
Parameters:
  • <disk-name>: An owner-qualified disk name (organization/disk-name|employee@email.com/disk-name) or disk ID (dsk-0123456789abcdef)
  • <mountpoint>: Local directory where the disk should be mounted (e.g., /mnt/archil)
  • archil: Filesystem type for Archil disks
  • _netdev: Critical option that tells systemd this is a network filesystem that requires network connectivity
  • region=<region>: Specify the region where your disk is located (e.g., aws-us-east-1)

​
Example fstab entry

# Example: Mount Archil disk to /mnt/data
<disk-name> /mnt/data archil _netdev,region=aws-us-east-1,defaults 0 0
The _netdev option is essential for proper system startup. Without it, systemd may attempt to mount the Archil disk before network connectivity is established, causing boot failures or timeouts.
After adding entries to /etc/fstab, you can test the configuration with sudo mount -a to mount all fstab entries, or sudo mount <mountpoint> to mount a specific entry.

​
Upgrading

The CLI will automatically check for updates and prompt you to upgrade if a new version is available. To perform the upgrade, simply run the installation script again: 
curl -s https://s3.amazonaws.com/archil-client/install | sh
You can see detailed release notes for each version of the client in the Archil client changelog.