Re: [gentoo-user] [OT encfs] When encfs gets hungup

[Neil Bothwick]

On Fri, 08 Jul 2011 19:40:58 -0400, Albert Hopkins wrote:

> > Apart from the need to access legacy data, which Harry has resolved by
> > reformatting, is there any benefit in using encfs rather than the
> > in-kernel ecryptfs these days?
>
> Admittedly there isn't much difference, so if what you are using works
> for you why not stick with it.

Fair enough, except this thread is about encfs not working :(

> I still prefer encfs, although I have
> admittedly never tried ecryptfs, for the following reasons:
>
>       * It's FUSE, completely userspace and requires no kernel support
>         (other than FUSE) and no special privileges to mount (other than
>         fusermount).

On the other hand, it does seem quite a bit slower. Also, it means that
your encrypted files much be user readable (IIRC) so someone could copy
them for a more leisurely attempt at reading them.

>       * You can have multiple layers of encryption on on source
>         directory.  E.g. two different passwords can give you two
>         different views of the filesystem.

That's interesting, a bit of an edge case but interesting nonetheless.

>       * In the documentation at least, it says when you upgrade ecryptfs
>         you should first copy the files from the old ecryptfs to an
>         unencrypted filesystem, and then copy it to the new ecryptfs.
>         That seems like something some people won't want to do.

That does seem a major drawback. I've not used ecryptfs that much,
although I use to use encfs. I did try using it on a remote box on top of
sshfs and the performance was appalling.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

"We are Microsoft of Borg. Prepare to...."
The application "assimilation" has caused a General Protection Fault
and must exit immediately.