ERFS(1)

📦 version 1.4, in debian bookworm, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble

💖 ERFS(1) 💖

okay bestie, so this is erfs, section 1 of the General Commands Manual — that's the header energy, and we're keeping it. sit down, grab a strawberry drink 🍓, and let's talk about putting your encrypted files in the clouds ☁️✨

🎀 NAME 🎀

erfs — a tool to create an encrypted file system on the cloud 💅

🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

erfs <COMMAND> [-options] <SHARE-SECRET> [<mount-point>]

that's the whole shape of it, bestie. command, maybe some options, the secret, maybe a place to put it. no cap.

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so erfs is a simple unix utility — and I mean simple in the iconic way, not the boring way — that creates and mounts an encrypted remote file system. the file system gets encrypted locally on your machine, and the encrypted data is what lives out there in the cloud. 🦋

the cloud server has no knowledge of the content. literally none. a rogue server operator can not access the data. all key material is created on the user's computer and it is never stored or transferred to the server. the way that works?? obsessed. 🔥

it also supports collaboration, so the same filesystem can be accessed from different computers at the same time, and the data is securely and seamlessly synchronized. group project but make it encrypted. 💜

👑 COMMAND 👑

  • init — initialize (create) a new file system and print the SHARE-SECRET of the newly created file system. it's giving birth announcement but for a filesystem 🍼
  • mount <SHARE-SECRET> — mount the encrypted remote file system. 🌸
  • umount <SHARE-SECRET> — unmount the encrypted remote file system. SHARE-SECRET is optional, and all filesystems will be unmounted if no specific SHARE-SECRET is given. one call, everyone goes home 😭

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • -x — read the SHARE-SECRET from standard input.

that's it. one option. she's minimal and she knows it. ⭐

🔥 SECURITY 🔥

passing the SHARE-SECRET as a command line parameter is insecure. bestie. don't. 🙈

use the -x option instead, or set the environment variable. here's the example, exactly as it is:

$ SEC=aDe5F2ik3x35x7pfAEAWdC5Y ./erfs m

see how the secret isn't just chillin' in your command history? that's the vibe. 🫶

🌸 ENVIRONEMT 🌸

(yes, it's spelled like that up top, we do not touch it, we respect the original 😌)

the following environment variable can be set to control the behavior.

  • SEC=<SHARE SECRET> — specify the SHARE-SECRET to pass it (securely) to erfs.

ERFS is entirely my own creation, although plenty of other code was used as examples. it is released under GPL. periodt. 📜

🧚 NOTES 🧚

the latest version is available from https://github.com/hackerschoice/erfs/. go get her. ✨

💀 BUGS 💀

efforts have been made to have erfs "do the right thing" in all its various modes. if you believe that it is doing the wrong thing under whatever circumstances, please notify me and tell me how you think it should behave. I certainly encourage people to make custom mods and send in any improvements they make to it. continued feedback from the Internet community is always welcome! 🫶 (this part is genuinely so wholesome, ngl.)

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

initialize a new encrypted and remote file system:

$ erfs init

mount the new file system (replace aDe5F2ik3x35x7pfAEAWdC5Y with the SHARE-SECRET from the previous step):

$ erfs mount aDe5F2ik3x35x7pfAEAWdC5Y

or mount to a specific mount-point (~/secure-drive):

$ mkdir ~/secure-drive
$ erfs mount aDe5F2ik3x35x7pfAEAWdC5Y ~/secure-drive

unmount the file system:

$ erfs umount ~/secure-drive

or unmount the file system by specifying the SHARE-SECRET:

$ erfs umount aDe5F2ik3x35x7pfAEAWdC5Y

or unmount all encrypted file systems:

$ erfs umount

💜 AUTHOR 💜

this manual page was written by skyper <skyper@thc.org>.

ERFS was written by skyper <skyper@thc.org>.

and that's the whole page, bestie 💖 this was ERFS(1) from the General Commands Manual, section 1, straight out of the erfs source — that's your footer, your version stamp, your little signature at the bottom of the page. now go encrypt something and text me when it's mounted. 🦋✨💅

📦 where this page comes from