mirror of
https://github.com/vgough/encfs.git
synced 2024-11-24 17:03:13 +01:00
96 lines
3.5 KiB
Markdown
96 lines
3.5 KiB
Markdown
# EncFS - an Encrypted Filesystem
|
|
|
|
_Build Status_
|
|
- Travis: [](https://travis-ci.org/vgough/encfs)
|
|
|
|
## About
|
|
|
|
EncFS provides an encrypted filesystem in user-space. It runs in userspace,
|
|
using the FUSE library for the filesystem interface. EncFS is open source
|
|
software, licensed under the LGPL.
|
|
|
|
EncFS is now over 15 years old (first release in 2003). It was written because
|
|
older NFS and kernel-based encrypted filesystems such as CFS had not kept pace with Linux
|
|
development. When FUSE became available, I wrote a CFS replacement for my own
|
|
use and released the first version to Open Source in 2003.
|
|
|
|
EncFS encrypts individual files, by translating all requests for the virtual
|
|
EncFS filesystem into the equivalent encrypted operations on the raw
|
|
filesystem.
|
|
|
|
For more info, see:
|
|
|
|
- The excellent [encfs manpage](encfs/encfs.pod)
|
|
- The technical overview in [DESIGN.md](DESIGN.md)
|
|
|
|
## Status
|
|
|
|
Over the last 15 years, a number of good alternatives have grown up. Computing
|
|
power has increased to the point where it is reasonable to encrypt the entire
|
|
filesystem of personal computers (and even mobile phones!). On Linux, ecryptfs
|
|
provides a nice dynamically mountable encrypted home directory, and is well
|
|
integrated in distributions I use, such as Ubuntu.
|
|
|
|
EncFS has been dormant for a while. I've started cleaning up in order to try
|
|
and provide a better base for a version 2, but whether EncFS flowers again
|
|
depends upon community interest. In order to make it easier for anyone to
|
|
contribute, it is moving a new home on GitHub (2014). Since then project has
|
|
been updated a few times thanks to several contributors, so if you're
|
|
interested in EncFS, please dive in!
|
|
|
|
## Unique Features
|
|
|
|
EncFS has a few features still not found anywhere else (as of Dec 2014)
|
|
that may be interesting to you:
|
|
|
|
### Reverse mode
|
|
|
|
`encfs --reverse` provides an encrypted view of an unencrypted folder.
|
|
This enables encrypted remote backups using standard tools like rsync.
|
|
|
|
### Fast on classical HDDs
|
|
|
|
EncFS is typically *much* faster than ecryptfs for stat()-heavy workloads
|
|
when the backing device is a classical hard disk.
|
|
This is because ecryptfs has to to read each file header to determine
|
|
the file size - EncFS does not. This is one additional seek for each
|
|
stat.
|
|
See [PERFORMANCE.md](PERFORMANCE.md) for detailed benchmarks on
|
|
HDD, SSD and ramdisk.
|
|
|
|
### Works on top of network filesystems
|
|
|
|
EncFS works on network file systems (NFS, CIFS...), while ecryptfs
|
|
is known to still have [problems][1].
|
|
|
|
[1]: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ecryptfs/+bug/277578
|
|
|
|
## Development
|
|
|
|
The master branch contains the latest stable codebase. This is where bug fixes
|
|
and improvments should go.
|
|
|
|
The [dev](https://github.com/vgough/encfs/tree/dev) branch contains experimental
|
|
work, some of which may be back-ported to the master branch when it is stable. The
|
|
dev branch is not stable, and there is no guarantee of backward compatibility
|
|
between changes.
|
|
|
|
## Donations
|
|
|
|
How about a nice email instead?
|
|
|
|
## Windows
|
|
|
|
A Windows port exists and is maintained by JetWhiz in the GitHub
|
|
[jetwhiz/encfs4win](https://github.com/jetwhiz/encfs4win) repository.
|
|
|
|
## FAQ
|
|
|
|
### What settings should I use for Dropbox?
|
|
|
|
Use **standard mode**. There [have](https://github.com/vgough/encfs/issues/141)
|
|
been [reports](https://github.com/vgough/encfs/issues/388)
|
|
of a pathological interaction of paranoia mode with Dropbox' rename
|
|
detection. The problem seems to be with `External IV chaining`, which is
|
|
not active in standard mode.
|