ssfs annotate README @ rev 21

README: update info about a web interface
author Christophe Lincoln <pankso@slitaz.org>
date Sun Jun 12 01:34:42 2011 +0200 (2011-06-12)
parents 02ab6ce37eb0
children 6034fcc9741c
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@14 27 Overview
pankso@14 28 --------
pankso@14 29
pankso@14 30 * Online live sync with encrypted data
pankso@17 31 * Drop files in a folder and they will be sync
pankso@14 32 * Even without connection you have your data
pankso@17 33 * Fast and light using stable and mature GNU tools
pankso@17 34 * Easy to setup on the client and server side
pankso@14 35 * Virtual disk for storage with minimal chroot
pankso@17 36 * Easy to backup, update and maintain vdisk
pankso@14 37
pankso@14 38
pankso@16 39 Quick start guide
pankso@16 40 -----------------
pankso@16 41
pankso@16 42 * Install ssfs on server and clients if not yet done
pankso@16 43 * Create a vdisk on server # ssfs-server gen-vdisk
pankso@16 44 * Check if chroot works (exit to quit) # ssfs-server chroot
pankso@16 45 * Add a chrooted user to the Ssfs virtual disk so it can sync
pankso@16 46 files or connect via SSH from a client:
pankso@16 47 # ssfs-server adduser --login=demo --id=2000 --pass=demo
pankso@16 48 * On the client side: ssfs-box setup or from the cmdline:
pankso@16 49 $ ssfs setup --login=demo --host="server name or ip"
pankso@16 50 * On client you can start ssfs on user login via the WM
pankso@18 51 autostart script and or the command $ ssfs sync
pankso@16 52
pankso@16 53
pankso@1 54 Installation
pankso@1 55 ------------
paul@11 56 To work you need a SSH client, 'rsync' and 'lsyncd' installed. On SliTaz you
paul@11 57 can simply install ssfs and it's dependencies or 'make install' from the
pankso@8 58 source directory (see the Development section).
pankso@1 59
pankso@1 60
pankso@1 61 Client help and setup
pankso@1 62 ---------------------
paul@11 63 The cmdline interface ssfs lets you setup a client and start the daemon and
paul@11 64 synchronize live with your system session via the Window Manager autostart
paul@11 65 script or your personal ~/.profile file. To get a list of commands with
pankso@8 66 a short description:
pankso@1 67
pankso@1 68 $ ssfs help
pankso@1 69
pankso@1 70 To setup a client by creating a Lua configuration file and sending the RSA key
pankso@1 71 to the server, you can use the command 'setup'. Setup needs a login name and
paul@11 72 server name or IP address and it will also create a secure RSA if none exists:
pankso@1 73
pankso@1 74 $ ssfs setup --login=user --host=server
pankso@1 75
pankso@1 76
pankso@1 77 GUI & Web interface
pankso@1 78 -------------------
paul@11 79 Actually there is a small GTK/Yad but no web interface. The tool ssfs-box will
pankso@21 80 display info if a configuration file exists or start the setup box. Ther is no
pankso@21 81 plan for a users files web interface since security if more important, actually
pankso@21 82 user home have 0700 mode as so standard web server running user www can't see
pankso@21 83 the files. We may implemnt a HTTP Public dir wich coul handle xHTML pages, a
pankso@21 84 wiki, etc. Actually they is some work on a Ssfs server web interface with the
pankso@21 85 goal to provide service status an information.
pankso@1 86
pankso@1 87
pankso@1 88 Get configs on boot
pankso@1 89 -------------------
paul@11 90 Ssfs can be used in a boot scripts to connect to a remote host and retrieve data
paul@11 91 before a user session is started. It can be useful to provide persistent data for
pankso@1 92 Live systems and web boot.
pankso@1 93
pankso@1 94
pankso@20 95 Quota management
pankso@20 96 ----------------
pankso@20 97 Actually the quota storage is based on a shared idea, the vdisk have a size and
pankso@20 98 all users share the space. For a pay service the vdisk can grow follwing the
pankso@20 99 users donations or monthly subscription.
pankso@20 100
pankso@20 101
pankso@1 102 Server setup
pankso@1 103 ------------
pankso@1 104 On the server you must have a SSH server running and an user account with a
pankso@13 105 ~/Sync folder in user home. You can have both, staandard accounts or chrooted
pankso@13 106 accounts, for a hosted service it is recommended to use a chroot and Ssfs
pankso@13 107 virtual disk. The vdisk can be any size you want and have a minimal chroot
pankso@13 108 environment that is under 3Mb.
pankso@1 109
pankso@13 110 If you want to create a vdisk and chroot automaticaly you can use use the tool
pankso@13 111 ssfs-server. Here is a short example to create a chroot and create a user
pankso@13 112 login 'tux-sync' with a protected $HOME in the chroot, the root directory can
pankso@13 113 be specified on the command line or changed in the configuration file. The
pankso@13 114 vdisk creation size is set in Gb and can be changed in config file or from
pankso@13 115 the cmdline:
pankso@13 116
pankso@13 117 # ssfs-server gen-vdisk --size=2
pankso@1 118 # ssfs-server adduser --login=tux-sync --id=2000 --pass=tuX0cc
pankso@1 119
paul@11 120 Users can be listed or completely deleted including all files in home. More
paul@11 121 information can be found with: ssfs-server usage
pankso@1 122
pankso@1 123
pankso@13 124 Ssfs virtual disk
pankso@13 125 -----------------
pankso@13 126 A virtual Ssfs disk is a raw file created with dd and formated in ext3. It is
pankso@13 127 mounted by default on /ssfs and contain a minimal chroot environemt with users
pankso@13 128 home directory. We use a virtual disk to enforce securiry and use a separate
pankso@13 129 media for Ssfs secure files, it also protect the host and limit storage size.
pankso@13 130 The tool ssfs-server handle vdisk creation but you can also create one manually
pankso@13 131 or use a separate HD if the server have more than one disk. To create 2Gb
pankso@13 132 vdisk and format it to ext3:
pankso@13 133
pankso@21 134 # dd if=/dev/zero of=/home/ssfs.disk bs=1G count=2
pankso@13 135 # mkfs.ext3 -T ext3 -L "Ssfs" -F /home/ssfs.ext3
pankso@13 136
pankso@13 137 Now you have a virtual disk you can mount it, the path must match SSFS_CHROOT
pankso@13 138 found in ssfs-server.conf, default mount point is /ssfs to clearly separate
pankso@13 139 the filesystem from the standard host file hierarchy:
pankso@13 140
pankso@13 141 # mkdir /ssfs
pankso@21 142 # mount -o loop -t ext3 /home/ssfs.disk /ssfs
pankso@13 143
pankso@13 144 To automaticaly mount the vdisk on boot you may want to add a ssfs system user
pankso@13 145 and a line into the file /etc/fstab:
pankso@13 146
pankso@13 147 # adduser -S -g "Ssfs Server" -h /ssfs -s /bin/false ssfs
pankso@21 148 /home/ssfs.disk /ssfs ext3 rw,loop,ssfs,ssfs 0 0
pankso@13 149
pankso@20 150
pankso@1 151 Server users config
pankso@1 152 -------------------
pankso@1 153 When adding a user with 'ssfs-server adduser', the user is added to the host
pankso@1 154 /etc/passwd and a custom user config file is created in SSFS_USERS with the
pankso@10 155 login name.
pankso@1 156
pankso@1 157
pankso@1 158 Development and Bugs
pankso@1 159 --------------------
paul@11 160 If you want to install the latest code to test and help in development you can
paul@11 161 clone the ssfs Mercurial repository. As usual, closely follow the SliTaz light
paul@11 162 philosophy with speed and security in mind:
pankso@1 163
pankso@13 164 $ hg clone http://hg.slitaz.org/ssfs
pankso@1 165
paul@11 166 Install with 'make install' (DESTDIR is supported for packaging), update the POT
paul@11 167 file if any new strings have been added with 'make pot', and merger PO files with
paul@11 168 the command 'make msgmerge'. Any ideas are welcome and can be discussed. If you
pankso@1 169 are searching for something to do you can have a look to the TODO file :-)
pankso@1 170
pankso@13 171 Bugs can be reported on the SliTaz mailing list, forum or scn since the devel
pankso@13 172 forum is synced. All sites are liked from the main website at:
pankso@13 173
pankso@13 174 http://www.slitaz.org/
pankso@1 175
pankso@1 176
pankso@1 177 ===============================================================================
pankso@1 178