[Cialug] encrypting a file

[kristau]

On Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 1:08 PM, Zachary Kotlarek <zach at kotlarek.com> wrote:
>TrueCrypt has support for sparse images but AFAIK it
> only works with NTFS, so it's Windows-only and requires standard
> pre-allocation for cross-platform use.
>
>        Zach

You can format a TrueCrypt image with just about any filesystem, but
it requires a bit of advanced knowledge if you are trying to set up a
filesystem which is not native to the machine you are using to create
the image.

On my Ubuntu laptop, the GUI interface lists FAT, Ext2 and Ext3.
Using command line options and mkfs, however, I can create an image in
just about any format.

On my Windows Vista VM (32-bit), the GUI interface only lists FAT and
NTFS.  I don't know of any way to format other filesystems under
Windows.  It may be possible if you can get a version of FUSE for
Windows installed, though.  I've never tried to do that.

On my Mac, however, the GUI interface only gives me FAT as an option
when creating a new image.  Not sure why the native filesystems are
NOT listed on the Mac, but I have successfully created Mac-native and
NTFS volumes using some TrueCrypt command-line options, Disk Utility
and MacFUSE.

TrueCrypt is a good fit for the original problem Matthew presented,
given that the recipients of the files (who may not need to create an
image) are on a Windows platform.  Even if a two-way transfer is
required, these are read/write images.  The technically savvy party
can create an appropriately sized and formatted image, then both
parties can modify and exchange the image over and over again.  Think
of it as passing a virtual floppy disk back and forth.

-- 
Tired programmer
Coding late into the night
The core dump follows