ssfs annotate README @ rev 13

Implement Ssfs virtual disk (more secure, easier to backup and readicaly minimal chroot include using 2.1Mb!
author Christophe Lincoln <pankso@slitaz.org>
date Sat Jun 11 22:26:13 2011 +0200 (2011-06-11)
parents 4384bbec9d9a
children 048464223866
rev   line source
pankso@1 1 SliTaz Secure File Storage
pankso@1 2 ===============================================================================
pankso@1 3
pankso@1 4
paul@11 5 Ssfs is personal, secure, fast and light online file storage powered by
paul@11 6 SSH, Rsync, Lsyncd and SHell script. It monitors a local folder and automatically
paul@11 7 synchronizes the remote server. When files are transferred they are compressed and
paul@11 8 encrypted with SSH. Connections to the remote host are automated with a RSA key,
paul@11 9 and for each client the key must be sent to the server via a SSH password login.
pankso@1 10
paul@11 11 Using ssfs lets you have a live synchronized and secure folder between many
paul@11 12 computers with an online copy on a secure Linux server. But even without any
paul@11 13 connections you have access to your files. Connections to the remote server
pankso@1 14 can also be done using the command line and 'ssh' from any clients such as
pankso@1 15 BSD, Android, OSX or Windows via Putty.
pankso@1 16
paul@11 17 Ssfs is very easy to install, setup and configure to make your own secure online
paul@11 18 file storage. It provides a cmdline tool for the client and the server with a
paul@11 19 built in help. This README is also a howto in itself.
pankso@1 20
pankso@1 21 On the server side admin can choose by creating standard accounts or chrooted
paul@11 22 accounts which enforce server security by restricting available commands in a
pankso@1 23 minimal chroot environment. User $HOME should be set to 0700 so users can't see
pankso@1 24 other users files.
pankso@1 25
pankso@1 26
pankso@1 27 Installation
pankso@1 28 ------------
paul@11 29 To work you need a SSH client, 'rsync' and 'lsyncd' installed. On SliTaz you
paul@11 30 can simply install ssfs and it's dependencies or 'make install' from the
pankso@8 31 source directory (see the Development section).
pankso@1 32
pankso@1 33
pankso@1 34 Client help and setup
pankso@1 35 ---------------------
paul@11 36 The cmdline interface ssfs lets you setup a client and start the daemon and
paul@11 37 synchronize live with your system session via the Window Manager autostart
paul@11 38 script or your personal ~/.profile file. To get a list of commands with
pankso@8 39 a short description:
pankso@1 40
pankso@1 41 $ ssfs help
pankso@1 42
pankso@1 43 To setup a client by creating a Lua configuration file and sending the RSA key
pankso@1 44 to the server, you can use the command 'setup'. Setup needs a login name and
paul@11 45 server name or IP address and it will also create a secure RSA if none exists:
pankso@1 46
pankso@1 47 $ ssfs setup --login=user --host=server
pankso@1 48
pankso@1 49
pankso@1 50 GUI & Web interface
pankso@1 51 -------------------
paul@11 52 Actually there is a small GTK/Yad but no web interface. The tool ssfs-box will
paul@11 53 display info if a configuration file exists or start the setup box.
pankso@1 54
pankso@1 55
pankso@1 56 Get configs on boot
pankso@1 57 -------------------
paul@11 58 Ssfs can be used in a boot scripts to connect to a remote host and retrieve data
paul@11 59 before a user session is started. It can be useful to provide persistent data for
pankso@1 60 Live systems and web boot.
pankso@1 61
pankso@1 62
pankso@1 63 Server setup
pankso@1 64 ------------
pankso@1 65 On the server you must have a SSH server running and an user account with a
pankso@13 66 ~/Sync folder in user home. You can have both, staandard accounts or chrooted
pankso@13 67 accounts, for a hosted service it is recommended to use a chroot and Ssfs
pankso@13 68 virtual disk. The vdisk can be any size you want and have a minimal chroot
pankso@13 69 environment that is under 3Mb.
pankso@1 70
pankso@13 71 If you want to create a vdisk and chroot automaticaly you can use use the tool
pankso@13 72 ssfs-server. Here is a short example to create a chroot and create a user
pankso@13 73 login 'tux-sync' with a protected $HOME in the chroot, the root directory can
pankso@13 74 be specified on the command line or changed in the configuration file. The
pankso@13 75 vdisk creation size is set in Gb and can be changed in config file or from
pankso@13 76 the cmdline:
pankso@13 77
pankso@13 78 # ssfs-server gen-vdisk --size=2
pankso@1 79 # ssfs-server adduser --login=tux-sync --id=2000 --pass=tuX0cc
pankso@1 80
paul@11 81 Users can be listed or completely deleted including all files in home. More
paul@11 82 information can be found with: ssfs-server usage
pankso@1 83
pankso@1 84
pankso@13 85 Ssfs virtual disk
pankso@13 86 -----------------
pankso@13 87 A virtual Ssfs disk is a raw file created with dd and formated in ext3. It is
pankso@13 88 mounted by default on /ssfs and contain a minimal chroot environemt with users
pankso@13 89 home directory. We use a virtual disk to enforce securiry and use a separate
pankso@13 90 media for Ssfs secure files, it also protect the host and limit storage size.
pankso@13 91 The tool ssfs-server handle vdisk creation but you can also create one manually
pankso@13 92 or use a separate HD if the server have more than one disk. To create 2Gb
pankso@13 93 vdisk and format it to ext3:
pankso@13 94
pankso@13 95 # dd if=/dev/zero of=/home/ssfs.ext3 bs=1G count=2
pankso@13 96 # mkfs.ext3 -T ext3 -L "Ssfs" -F /home/ssfs.ext3
pankso@13 97
pankso@13 98 Now you have a virtual disk you can mount it, the path must match SSFS_CHROOT
pankso@13 99 found in ssfs-server.conf, default mount point is /ssfs to clearly separate
pankso@13 100 the filesystem from the standard host file hierarchy:
pankso@13 101
pankso@13 102 # mkdir /ssfs
pankso@13 103 # mount -o loop -t ext3 /home/ssfs.ext3 /ssfs
pankso@13 104
pankso@13 105 To automaticaly mount the vdisk on boot you may want to add a ssfs system user
pankso@13 106 and a line into the file /etc/fstab:
pankso@13 107
pankso@13 108 # adduser -S -g "Ssfs Server" -h /ssfs -s /bin/false ssfs
pankso@13 109 /home/ssfs.ext3 /ssfs ext3 rw,loop,ssfs,ssfs 0 0
pankso@13 110
pankso@1 111 Server users config
pankso@1 112 -------------------
pankso@1 113 When adding a user with 'ssfs-server adduser', the user is added to the host
pankso@1 114 /etc/passwd and a custom user config file is created in SSFS_USERS with the
pankso@10 115 login name.
pankso@1 116
pankso@1 117
pankso@1 118 Development and Bugs
pankso@1 119 --------------------
paul@11 120 If you want to install the latest code to test and help in development you can
paul@11 121 clone the ssfs Mercurial repository. As usual, closely follow the SliTaz light
paul@11 122 philosophy with speed and security in mind:
pankso@1 123
pankso@13 124 $ hg clone http://hg.slitaz.org/ssfs
pankso@1 125
paul@11 126 Install with 'make install' (DESTDIR is supported for packaging), update the POT
paul@11 127 file if any new strings have been added with 'make pot', and merger PO files with
paul@11 128 the command 'make msgmerge'. Any ideas are welcome and can be discussed. If you
pankso@1 129 are searching for something to do you can have a look to the TODO file :-)
pankso@1 130
pankso@13 131 Bugs can be reported on the SliTaz mailing list, forum or scn since the devel
pankso@13 132 forum is synced. All sites are liked from the main website at:
pankso@13 133
pankso@13 134 http://www.slitaz.org/
pankso@1 135
pankso@1 136
pankso@1 137 ===============================================================================
pankso@1 138