SEAL(1)                    OpenBSD Reference Manual                    SEAL(1)

NAME
     seal - use encrypted filesystems via the Vnode Disk Driver vnd(4)

SYNOPSIS
     seal [-abuv device] [-C configfile]

DESCRIPTION
     seal can be used to faciliate working with encrypted filesystems that are
     stored in a file on a hotpluggable memory device like e.g. a USB memory
     stick.  seal is used in conjuction with hotplugd(8) to make using en-
     crypted vnd(4) files very user friendly:  When a hotpluggable device is
     attached, hotplugd(8) will get notified from the system by a hotplug
     event and will call a script /etc/hotplugd/attach.  This script will then
     use seal to notify a process running in background under the users uid
     that the device has been attached.  The seal process running under the
     user uid will then use sudo(8) to mount the device to a primary mount-
     point, ask the user for a password using ssh-askpass(1) and mount the
     filesystem in a vnd file present on the primary mountpoint to a secondary
     mountpoint.

     Before removing a hotplugable device, enter the command seal on a shell
     to properly unmount the device (e.g. ``sealing'' it, whence the name).

     All path names, partition types, device names etc. are user configurable.

     The options are as follows:

     -a device
             Notify a seal process running in background mode that a device
             has been attached.  Used from a hotplugd(8) atttach script.

     -b      Run seal in background mode.  This is normally started when you
             login to you machine, i.e. from xinitrc.

     -u device
             Manually unseal device.

     -v      Run in verbose mode.

CAVEAT
     Only one seal instance can run on a machine.

FILES
     /etc/seal.conf    seal configuration file

SEE ALSO
     syslog(3), seal.conf(5),

HISTORY
     The seal command was developed on OpenBSD 4.0.

AUTHORS
     Marc Balmer <marc@msys.ch>

OpenBSD 4.1                    January 12, 2007                              1
