Note that the low-level API needs to generate the Python interface to the local FUSE library before it can be used. For that, you have to have both the FUSE headers and the GCC-XML (http://www.gccxml.org) compiler installed. The interface is generated by running # python setup.py build_ctypes this will create the file llfuse/ctypes_api.py Please keep in mind that it's probably not wise to ship this file with your application, because it has been generated for your system only. Note that the fuse_daemonize() function is deliberately not exported by this module. If you want to daemonize a Python process, you have to do so from within Python or you will get into trouble. See - http://bugs.python.org/issue7931 - http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-3143/