From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S266223AbUBDAgP (ORCPT ); Tue, 3 Feb 2004 19:36:15 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S266230AbUBDAgP (ORCPT ); Tue, 3 Feb 2004 19:36:15 -0500 Received: from www.trustcorps.com ([213.165.226.2]:33041 "EHLO raq1.nitrex.net") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S266223AbUBDAgK (ORCPT ); Tue, 3 Feb 2004 19:36:10 -0500 Message-ID: <40203DE1.3000302@hcunix.net> Date: Wed, 04 Feb 2004 00:33:37 +0000 From: the grugq User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.6b) Gecko/20031205 Thunderbird/0.4 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Pavel Machek CC: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: PATCH - ext2fs privacy (i.e. secure deletion) patch References: <4017E3B9.3090605@hcunix.net> <20040203222030.GB465@elf.ucw.cz> In-Reply-To: <20040203222030.GB465@elf.ucw.cz> X-Enigmail-Version: 0.82.4.0 X-Enigmail-Supports: pgp-inline, pgp-mime Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Hey, > Perhaps this should still be controlled by (chattr(1)) [its already > documented, just not yet implemented]. > > When a file with the `s' attribute set is deleted, its blocks > are zeroed and written back to the disk. > > ...at which point config option is not really neccessary. > You're not the first person to mention this to me, Pádraig, brought this up on the day I posted. I certainly thing the 's' options should be implemented, however for a privacy patch I believe that the user shouldn't have to intervene to ensure a file is securely erased. It makes more sense to me, as a lazy person, that the file system should be set to always remove the file content... that way the user doesn't need to get involved. All that said, the user's content is something that the user could be considered responsible for erasing themselves. The meta-data is the part of the file which they dont' have access to, so having privacy capabilities for meta-data erasure is a requirement. User data erasure... I can take it or leave it. I think it should be automatic if at all, but I'm not really that bothered about it. peace, --gq