From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S264518AbTLVVnK (ORCPT ); Mon, 22 Dec 2003 16:43:10 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S264522AbTLVVnK (ORCPT ); Mon, 22 Dec 2003 16:43:10 -0500 Received: from websrv.werbeagentur-aufwind.de ([213.239.197.241]:15287 "EHLO mail.werbeagentur-aufwind.de") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S264518AbTLVVnF (ORCPT ); Mon, 22 Dec 2003 16:43:05 -0500 Subject: loop driver, device-mapper and crypto From: Christophe Saout To: Andrew Morton Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Fruhwirth Clemens , Joe Thornber Content-Type: text/plain Message-Id: <1072129379.5570.73.camel@leto.cs.pocnet.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Ximian Evolution 1.4.5 Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2003 22:42:59 +0100 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Hello Andrew, again I've read that there are problems with the loop driver in the kernel with block device backing. In 2.6 we have a device-mapper which does such things in a much more generic way. I've already talked to a bunch of people working on loop and cryptoloop (also with Clemens Fruhwirth, the cryptoloop maintainer) and they all agreed that device-mapper is probably the most correct way to go, and would be happier if the loop driver was used for files only. I've written a device-mapper target "dm-crypt" some month ago which uses cryptoapi and is compatible with cryptoloop. I never got much feedback, some people tested it and found it to work just fine while cryptoloop didn't, back then, when the test-series started or so. Unfortunately I never got much public support on LKML itself and was mostly ignored. And I'm not a politician... Well, I just talked to Joe Thornber (again, he helped me developing the patch) and he wrote: > I'm happy to take the dm-crypt stuff into my unstable tree. I don't > think you'll get it into the kernel unless you get the cryptoloop > people to publically (ie. on lkml) support you. Well, you see, I'm a sort of difficult situation here. I would really be happy to hear what you think of it, if it's worth to invest more energy or not. The target is currently a single file and makes use of dm-daemon.c from Joe's current device-mapper patchset where the snapshot, mirror and multpath targets are being developed. The two patches (dm-daemon and the actual dm-crypt) are following. A short introduction how to use the target: http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=105967481007242&w=2 -- Christophe Saout Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments. See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html