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Kendor
Asked: 2012-01-14 04:48:26 +0800 CST

Is it possible to Encrypt Home drive after install w/o 2.5x the space?

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I was about to use the encryptfs procedure to migrate my existing home folder and discovered that the process needs 2.5x the size of home to complete. I have 258GB in my home, but only 430GB free. Is there a way that I can encrypt home without reinstalling?

encryption

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Full disclosure here, I'm the co-author and maintainer of the ecryptfs-migrate-home utility.

    Note that the 2.5x multiplier is perhaps an aggressive overestimation of the required disk space, but I've published that recommendation as a safety precaution

    To answer your question, yes, it is possible, though perhaps slightly risky, and not generally recommended.

    You could accomplish this by editing the shell script, /usr/bin/ecryptfs-migrate-home, and modify the line that looks like this:

    rsync -aP "$orig/" "$USER_HOME/" 1>&2

    to:

    mv -vf "$orig/"* "$orig/".* "$USER_HOME/" 1>&2

    This will move files in place, instead of copying them.

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