Previous: Getting GNU fcrypt and installation, Up: Introduction


1.2 Quick start

GNU fcrypt not touch your real hard disks. Instead GNU fcrypt use a normal file and write encrypted data on it.

You can create partition's Using fcrypt -c <some file name> In this case <some file name> not need exists. GNU fcrypt can create it. You can use -z instead -c. If you need hide some data, in the case the attacker force you to reveal the password.

In GNU/Linux after created. You can activate the partition using fcrypt -a <file name>. Once activated, the partitions are accessed in /dev/fcrypt[some letter] (eg. /dev/fcrypta). Encryption is automatic and transparent, so you can access as if you were accessing a volume that is not encrypted.

You can create a file system using mkfs and then mount it using mount(eg. mkfs.ext4 /dev/fcrypta and mount /dev/fcrypta /mnt).

To deactivate GNU fcrypt. Make sure that no program is using: /dev/fcrypt(It is not the same /dev/fcrypt_info). If /dev/fcrypt is mounted, umount it(eg. umount /dev/fcrypta). Then simply interrupt GNU fcrypt. Once stopped GNU fcrypt will not process any more requests. Programs that try to write/read data from /dev/fcrypt will get a Input/Output error. New opened programs can no longer open /dev/fcrypt, these programs will get the error: Device or resource busy.

If you want to finalize GNU fcrypt, I recommend you to not use kill -9 or killall -9. Instead you can use the simply kill or killall(without the -9). Because, when correctly finalized, GNU fcrypt, will write the remaining data to disk and delete all it's allocated data from memory.