Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by mei0Iesh 3616 days ago
I think this is most useful for cross-compatibility. Right now if a client uses FreeBSD ZFS, and you need to mount it to access project files on your Linux desktop, you can't if they used encryption. But after this is standard, you should be able to mount the same ZFS filesystem anywhere.
1 comments
mioelnir 3616 days ago
Do you create zpools on memory sticks? Or how do you export the pool and move the device with the exported pool on it to your linux desktop?
link
mei0Iesh 3615 days ago
Yes, you can use ZFS on memory sticks. You can also "zfs send | zfs recv" to copy a single projects dataset snapshot. You don't need to use actual disks though, if someone wants to send you project files you can have them either send you a file from "zfs send > snapshot.zfs", or send it over SSH, "ssh friend zfs send | zfs recv".

Encryption could be an issue if for example someone uses a FreeBSD based NAS for large data files, and you want to skip the network and just access them directly from your Linux box. You can "zfs export; zfs import", but not if they used encryption. That's where I think this will be useful, because then we have one standard filesystem we can use everywhere.

link
mioelnir 3615 days ago
I am well aware of all of that. But all the zfs send/recv options can by their very definition not have the full disk encryption problem hinted at in the comment I replied to.

Also, if it is easier to take your NAS offline and apart to chuck the disks into your desktop (compared exporting it over the network), then your NAS is too small. What you were looking for is a Laptop.

Which leaves abusing the zpool on a memory stick as data interchange format. Most likely with copies=1, so you have to add some par2 files anyway, at which point you could simply put them on figuratively any other filesystem out there. And encrypt them with gpg/openssl etc. That way I would also not have to run a potentially maliciously crafted filesystem within my kernel.

link