ssfs view README @ rev 33
Tiny edits
| author | Paul Issott <paul@slitaz.org> |
|---|---|
| date | Sun Jun 12 12:02:48 2011 +0100 (2011-06-12) |
| parents | bb7a9ec53298 |
| children | 14edf6b2273d |
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 Ssfs chroot SHell
90 -----------------
91 The tool ssfs-sh is used to chroot a user on login and sets minimal environment
92 variables. For each user ssfs-sh is the default SHell on the server and is
93 executed inside the new root. So ssfs-sh must be installed on the server and
94 in the virtual disk minimal chroot. Using a custom tool such as Ssfs SHell
95 enforces security and lets you execute commands on login, ssfs-sh also exports the
96 new user $HOME and changes the directory to it since chroot will drop us in / by
97 default.
100 Get configs on boot
101 -------------------
102 Ssfs can be used in a boot script to connect to a remote host and retrieve data
103 before a user session is started. It can be useful to provide persistent data for
104 Live systems and web boot.
107 Quota management
108 ----------------
109 Actually the quota storage is based on a shared idea, the vdisk has a size and
110 all users share the space. For a pay service the vdisk can grow following the
111 users donations or monthly subscription.
114 Server setup
115 ------------
116 On the server you must have a SSH server running and an user account with a
117 ~/Sync folder in user home. You can have both, standard accounts or chrooted
118 accounts, for a hosted service it is recommended to use a chroot and a Ssfs
119 virtual disk. The vdisk can be any size you want and have a minimal chroot
120 environment that is under 3Mb.
122 If you want to create a vdisk and chroot automatically you can use use the tool
123 ssfs-server. Here is a short example to create a chroot and create a user
124 login 'tux-sync' with a protected $HOME in the chroot, the root directory can
125 be specified on the command line or changed in the configuration file. The
126 vdisk creation size is set in Gb and can be changed in the config file or from
127 the cmdline:
129 # ssfs-server gen-vdisk --size=2
130 # ssfs-server adduser --login=tux-sync --id=2000 --pass=tuX0cc
132 Users can be listed or completely deleted including all files in home. More
133 information can be found with the built in help:
135 # ssfs-server help
138 Ssfs virtual disk
139 -----------------
140 A virtual Ssfs disk is a raw file created with dd and formated in ext3. It is
141 mounted by default on /ssfs and contains a minimal chroot environment with a user's
142 home directory. We use a virtual disk to enforce security and use a separate
143 media for Ssfs secure files, it also protects the host and limits storage size.
144 The tool ssfs-server handles vdisk creation but you can also create one manually
145 or use a separate HD if the server has more than one disk. To create a 2Gb
146 vdisk and format it to ext3:
148 # dd if=/dev/zero of=/home/ssfs.disk bs=1G count=2
149 # mkfs.ext3 -T ext3 -L "Ssfs" -F /home/ssfs.ext3
151 Now you have a virtual disk you can mount it, the path must match SSFS_CHROOT
152 found in ssfs-server.conf, default mount point is /ssfs to clearly separate
153 the filesystem from the standard host file hierarchy:
155 # mkdir /ssfs
156 # mount -o loop -t ext3 /home/ssfs.disk /ssfs
158 To automaticaly mount the vdisk on boot you may want to add a ssfs system user
159 and a line into the file /etc/fstab:
161 # adduser -S -g "Ssfs Server" -h /ssfs -s /bin/false ssfs
162 /home/ssfs.disk /ssfs ext3 rw,loop,ssfs,ssfs 0 0
165 Server users config
166 -------------------
167 When adding a user with 'ssfs-server adduser', the user is added to the host
168 /etc/passwd and a custom user config file is created in SSFS_USERS with the
169 login name.
172 Server web interface
173 --------------------
174 Ssfs package provides a small CGI SHell web interface to the server. The goal is
175 to provide a service status and information. It uses the server configuration to
176 know the Ssfs virtual disk path and display statistics about the filesystem.
179 Development and Bugs
180 --------------------
181 If you want to install the latest code to test and help in development you can
182 clone the ssfs Mercurial repository. As usual, closely follow the SliTaz light
183 philosophy with speed and security in mind: hg clone http://hg.slitaz.org/ssfs
185 Install with 'make install' (DESTDIR is supported for packaging), update the POT
186 file if any new strings have been added with 'make pot', and merger PO files with
187 the command 'make msgmerge'. Any ideas are welcome and can be discussed. If you
188 are searching for something to do you can have a look to the TODO file :-)
190 Bugs can be reported on the SliTaz mailing list, forum or scn since the devel
191 forum is synced. All sites are linked from: http://www.slitaz.org/
193 To share ideas and get involved in the Ssfs project you can join the Ssfs group
194 on the SliTaz Community Network website : http://scn.slitaz.org/groups/ssfs/
197 ===============================================================================