2014-08-22 04:46:43 +02:00
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# EncFS - an Encrypted Filesystem
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2014-10-12 18:49:41 +02:00
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[](https://travis-ci.org/rfjakob/encfs)
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2014-08-22 04:46:43 +02:00
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## About
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EncFS provides an encrypted filesystem in user-space. It runs in userspace,
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using the FUSE library for the filesystem interface. EncFS is open source
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software, licensed under the LGPL.
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EncFS is now over 10 years old (first release in 2003). It was written because
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older NFS-based encrypted filesystems such as CFS had not kept pace with Linux
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development. When FUSE became available, I wrote a CFS replacement for my own
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use and released the first version to Open Source in 2003.
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EncFS encrypts individual files, by translating all requests for the virtual
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EncFS filesystem into the equivalent encrypted operations on the raw
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filesystem.
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## Status
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Over the last 10 years, a number of good alternatives have grown up. Computing
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power has increased to the point where it is reasonable to encrypt the entire
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filesystem of personal computers (and even mobile phones!). On Linux, ecryptfs
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provides a nice dynamically mountable encrypted home directory, and is well
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integrated in distributions I use, such as Ubuntu.
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EncFS has been dormant for a while. I've started cleaning up in order to try
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and provide a better base for a version 2, but whether EncFS flowers again
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depends upon community interest. In order to make it easier for anyone to
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contribute, it is moving a new home on Github. So if you're interested in
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EncFS, please dive in!
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## GitHub Transition
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GitHub hosting for EncFS is a work in progress. See also the original, and
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more complete, introduction page at http://www.arg0.net/encfs
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## Development
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Development is ongoing in the [dev](https://github.com/vgough/encfs/tree/dev)
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branch. The code there is not guaranteed to be stable, and there is no
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guarantee of backward compatibility.
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