Re: PATCH - ext2fs privacy (i.e. secure deletion) patch

Bill Davidsen
2004-02-04T17:03:29Z

the grugq wrote:
>
>>
>> The obvious thing to do would be to make it a mount option, so that
>> (a) recompilation is not necessary in order to use the feature, and
>> (b) the feature can be turned on or off on a per-filesystem feature.
>> In 2.6, it's possible to specify certain mount option to be specifed
>> by default on a per-filesystem basis (via a new field in the
>> superblock).
>> So if you do things that way, then secure deletion would take place
>> either if the secure deletion flag is set (so it can be enabled on a
>> per-file basis), or if the filesystem is mounted with the
>> secure-deletion mount option.
>
>
> Makes sense to me. If either the file system, or the file, are in
> 'secure delete' mode, then erase everything about the file. Allowing the
> paranoid to have the option as default, and the concerned to target
> specific files. I like it.

It would be useful to have this as a directory option, so that all files
in directory would be protected. I think wherever you do it you have to
prevent hard links, so that unlink really removes the data.

--
bill davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com>
CTO TMR Associates, Inc
Doing interesting things with small computers since 1979