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From: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Compressed file system?
Date: Fri, 13 Sep 1996 10:13:21 -0700
Organization: Me
Lines: 29
Message-ID: <32399631.2044E89@lambert.org>
References: <nziB1PQ@quack.kfu.com>
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Nick Sayer wrote:
>
> There has been talk about crypto file systems, but is any work
> happening on a compressed filesystem for FreeBSD?
Two of John Heidemann's graduate students implemented a compressing
FS stacking layer as part of a class project. The code is not
available for wide release, but I'd have to say that file level
FS compression is an almost trivial task.
His thesis also shows that work in producing a cryptographic layer
has been implemented as well. Other than embedding passwords into
the path via POSIX escapes ("//password/path/to/file"), I don't
see an easy access method, apart from implementing a session
manager as a credential holder. Currently, the namei() is not
built to propagate component flags -- like "password available";
even if this were corrected, you would still want a session
manager for something like:
"/path/to/directory-with-password/inferior/file-with-password"
Which could not be handled via inheritance.
Terry Lambert
terry@lambert.org
---
Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present
or previous employers.