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I have a private ecryptfs directory mount set up on Linux Mint, and I was wondering about how exactly the relevant files are distributed on my computer.

Right now there's an .ecryptfsdirectory in /home, with a directory for my user which contains another .ecryptfs and .Private. In my own home directory, there are .ecryptfs and .Private symlinks to those directories.
The way I understand it, .ecryptfs contains all the keys/mounting info, and .Private contains all the actual encrypted stuff.

My questions are:
Is there any reason to have .ecryptfs and .Private symlinked to the actual directories in /home/.ecrypfts?
Can I just move them into my own home dir and remove /home/.ecryptfs?

micke
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darkfeline
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1 Answers1

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There's a very important reason that the real files/directories are in /home/.ecryptfs/* and the ones in $HOME are symlinks...

If you're using home directory encryption, $HOME is just a virtual presentation of your data in clear text. The real data is actually in /home/.ecryptfs/.

The real data exists in /home/.ecryptfs/ so that it can be mounted by the OS (pam_motd, actualy), and so that you can back it up.

Dustin Kirkland
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