ssfs view README @ rev 30
README, TODO: tiny edits
| author | Paul Issott <paul@slitaz.org> |
|---|---|
| date | Sun Jun 12 09:50:13 2011 +0100 (2011-06-12) |
| parents | d11a314ab78c |
| children | bb7a9ec53298 |
line source
1 SliTaz Secure File Storage
2 ===============================================================================
5 Ssfs is personal, secure, fast and light online file storage powered by
6 SSH, Rsync, Lsyncd and SHell script. It monitors a local folder and automatically
7 synchronizes the remote server. When files are transferred they are compressed and
8 encrypted with SSH. Connections to the remote host are automated with a RSA key,
9 and for each client the key must be sent to the server via a SSH password login.
11 Using ssfs lets you have a live synchronized and secure folder between many
12 computers with an online copy on a secure Linux server. But even without any
13 connections you have access to your files. Connections to the remote server
14 can also be done using the command line and 'ssh' from any clients such as
15 BSD, Android, OSX or Windows via Putty.
17 Ssfs is very easy to install, setup and configure to make your own secure online
18 file storage. It provides a cmdline tool for the client and server with a
19 built in help. This README is also a howto in itself.
21 On the server side admin can choose by creating standard accounts or chrooted
22 accounts which enforce server security by restricting available commands in a
23 minimal chroot environment. User $HOME should be set to 0700 so users can't see
24 other users files.
27 Overview
28 --------
30 * Online live sync with encrypted data
31 * Drop files in a folder and they will be synced
32 * Even without any connection you have your data
33 * Fast and light using stable and mature GNU tools
34 * Easy to setup on the client and server side
35 * Virtual disk for storage with a minimal chroot
36 * Easy to backup, update and maintain vdisk
39 Quick start guide
40 -----------------
42 * Install ssfs on server and clients if not yet done
43 * Create a vdisk on server # ssfs-server gen-vdisk
44 * Check if chroot works (exit to quit) # ssfs-server chroot
45 * Add a chrooted user to the Ssfs virtual disk so it can sync
46 files or connect via SSH from a client:
47 # ssfs-server adduser --login=demo --id=2000 --pass=demo
48 * On the client side: ssfs-box setup or from the cmdline:
49 $ ssfs setup --login=demo --host="server name or ip"
50 * On the client you can start ssfs on user login via the WM
51 autostart script and/or the command $ ssfs sync
52 * Get support and show your love for Ssfs on SCN group:
53 http://scn.slitaz.org/groups/ssfs/
56 Installation
57 ------------
58 To work you need a SSH client, 'rsync' and 'lsyncd' installed. On SliTaz you
59 can simply install ssfs and it's dependencies or 'make install' from the
60 source directory (see the Development section).
63 Client help and setup
64 ---------------------
65 The cmdline interface ssfs lets you setup a client and start the daemon and
66 synchronize live with your system session via the Window Manager autostart
67 script or your personal ~/.profile file. To get a list of commands with
68 a short description:
70 $ ssfs help
72 To setup a client by creating a Lua configuration file and sending the RSA key
73 to the server, you can use the command 'setup'. Setup needs a login name and
74 server name or IP address and it will also create a secure RSA if none exists:
76 $ ssfs setup --login=user --host=server
79 GUI & Web interface
80 -------------------
81 Actually there is a small GTK/Yad but no web interface. The tool ssfs-box will
82 display info if a configuration file exists or start the setup box. There is no
83 plan for a users files web interface since security if more important, actually
84 a user's home has 0700 mode so a standard web server running user www can't see
85 the files. We may implement a HTTP Public dir which could handle xHTML pages, a
86 wiki, etc.
89 Get configs on boot
90 -------------------
91 Ssfs can be used in a boot script to connect to a remote host and retrieve data
92 before a user session is started. It can be useful to provide persistent data for
93 Live systems and web boot.
96 Quota management
97 ----------------
98 Actually the quota storage is based on a shared idea, the vdisk has a size and
99 all users share the space. For a pay service the vdisk can grow following the
100 users donations or monthly subscription.
103 Server setup
104 ------------
105 On the server you must have a SSH server running and an user account with a
106 ~/Sync folder in user home. You can have both, standard accounts or chrooted
107 accounts, for a hosted service it is recommended to use a chroot and a Ssfs
108 virtual disk. The vdisk can be any size you want and have a minimal chroot
109 environment that is under 3Mb.
111 If you want to create a vdisk and chroot automatically you can use use the tool
112 ssfs-server. Here is a short example to create a chroot and create a user
113 login 'tux-sync' with a protected $HOME in the chroot, the root directory can
114 be specified on the command line or changed in the configuration file. The
115 vdisk creation size is set in Gb and can be changed in the config file or from
116 the cmdline:
118 # ssfs-server gen-vdisk --size=2
119 # ssfs-server adduser --login=tux-sync --id=2000 --pass=tuX0cc
121 Users can be listed or completely deleted including all files in home. More
122 information can be found with the built in help:
124 # ssfs-server help
127 Ssfs virtual disk
128 -----------------
129 A virtual Ssfs disk is a raw file created with dd and formated in ext3. It is
130 mounted by default on /ssfs and contains a minimal chroot environment with a user's
131 home directory. We use a virtual disk to enforce security and use a separate
132 media for Ssfs secure files, it also protects the host and limits storage size.
133 The tool ssfs-server handles vdisk creation but you can also create one manually
134 or use a separate HD if the server has more than one disk. To create a 2Gb
135 vdisk and format it to ext3:
137 # dd if=/dev/zero of=/home/ssfs.disk bs=1G count=2
138 # mkfs.ext3 -T ext3 -L "Ssfs" -F /home/ssfs.ext3
140 Now you have a virtual disk you can mount it, the path must match SSFS_CHROOT
141 found in ssfs-server.conf, default mount point is /ssfs to clearly separate
142 the filesystem from the standard host file hierarchy:
144 # mkdir /ssfs
145 # mount -o loop -t ext3 /home/ssfs.disk /ssfs
147 To automaticaly mount the vdisk on boot you may want to add a ssfs system user
148 and a line into the file /etc/fstab:
150 # adduser -S -g "Ssfs Server" -h /ssfs -s /bin/false ssfs
151 /home/ssfs.disk /ssfs ext3 rw,loop,ssfs,ssfs 0 0
154 Server users config
155 -------------------
156 When adding a user with 'ssfs-server adduser', the user is added to the host
157 /etc/passwd and a custom user config file is created in SSFS_USERS with the
158 login name.
161 Server web interface
162 --------------------
163 Ssfs package provides a small CGI SHell web interface to the server. The goal is
164 to provide a service status and information. It uses the server configuration to
165 know the Ssfs virtual disk path and display statistics about the filesystem.
168 Development and Bugs
169 --------------------
170 If you want to install the latest code to test and help in development you can
171 clone the ssfs Mercurial repository. As usual, closely follow the SliTaz light
172 philosophy with speed and security in mind: hg clone http://hg.slitaz.org/ssfs
174 Install with 'make install' (DESTDIR is supported for packaging), update the POT
175 file if any new strings have been added with 'make pot', and merger PO files with
176 the command 'make msgmerge'. Any ideas are welcome and can be discussed. If you
177 are searching for something to do you can have a look to the TODO file :-)
179 Bugs can be reported on the SliTaz mailing list, forum or scn since the devel
180 forum is synced. All sites are linked from: http://www.slitaz.org/
182 To share ideas and get involved in the Ssfs project you can join the Ssfs group
183 on the SliTaz Community Network website : http://scn.slitaz.org/groups/ssfs/
186 ===============================================================================