##Access to shared folders in Virtual Box

###Command line
By default Virtual Box shared folders are created with read/write permission for the guest. This can be done from the command line with:

    VBoxManage sharedfolder add "VM name" --name "sharename" --hostpath "C:\test"

By adding the option `--readonly` we can restrict these for read only access. Use the `--transient` option if you only want the shares to appear in the present session but not persistent for follwing sessions. There are some limitations for shared folders (see [this question][1] for details). If prerequisites are met we may mount these shared folders manually by running the following commands in the guest:

    mkdir /home/<user>/vboxshare
    sudo mount -t vboxsf -o uid=1000,gid=1000 share /home/<user>/vboxshare

Of course we can also use different mount options to mount as read/only or mount with read access only to root.

###Auto-Mount through Virtual Box Manager
In case we enabled auto-mounting on creating a shared folder from the Virtual Box Manager those shared folders will automatically be mounted in the guest with mount point `/media/sf_<name_of_folder>`. **To have access to these folders users in the guest need to be a member of the group `vboxsf`**.


Source and further reading: [Virtual Box User Manual][2]


  [1]: http://askubuntu.com/questions/30396/error-mounting-virtualbox-shared-folders-in-an-ubuntu-guest/30446#30446
  [2]: https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch04.html#sharedfolders