Re: [gentoo-user] dmcrypt for a /home directory that already has many files on it

[Christoph Eckert]

> I was planning to use dmcrypt on my /home partition and I read the
> proceedure on the Gentoo Wiki.  I think though, that the proceedures
> given there are for new partitions without a filesystem.  Maybe I am
> wrong.

I didn't read it, but if this encryption crypts a complete partition, 
then I'd like to recommend to better use a crypted loopback mounted 
file. The reason is backup: In the latter case you can simply compress 
the crypted container and back it up - it is still crypted.

I did it this way some time ago and found it very convenient.

> Anyway, I wondered if there would be any problem with temporarily
> moving my /home data to some new directory on /usr, then using the
> dmcrypt on the /home directory, and finally copying all of the old
> /home data back onto the new encrypted partition?

Put it in a tarball preserving all file attributes (ownership and other 
flags) and untar it into the crypted container after mounting it.


Best regards


    ce


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