LOSETUP

Section: MAINTENANCE COMMANDS (8)
Updated: Nov 24 1993
 

NAME

losetup - set up and control loop devices  

SYNOPSIS

losetup [ -e encryption ] [ -o offset ] loop_device file
losetup [ -d ] loop_device  

DESCRIPTION

losetup is used to associate loop devices with regular files or block devices, to detach loop devices and to query the status of a loop device. If only the loop_device argument is given, the status of the corresponding loop device is shown.  

OPTIONS

-d
detach the file or device associated with the specified loop device.
-e encryption
enable data encryption. The following keywords are recognized:
NONE
use no encryption (default).
XOR
use a simple XOR encryption.
DES
use DES encryption. DES encryption is only available if the optional DES package has been added to the kernel. DES encryption uses an additional start value that is used to protect passwords against dictionary attacks.
-o offset
the data start is moved offset bytes into the specified file or device.
 

FILES

/dev/loop0,/dev/loop1,...   loop devices (major=7)
 

EXAMPLE

If you are using the loadable module you must have the module loaded first with the command
# insmod loop.o

The following commands can be used as an example of using the loop device.

dd if=/dev/zero of=/file bs=1k count=100 losetup -e des /dev/loop0 /file Password: Init (up to 16 hex digits): mkfs -t ext2 /dev/loop0 100 mount -t ext2 /dev/loop0 /mnt ... umount /dev/loop0 losetup -d /dev/loop0

If you are using the loadable module you may remove the module with the command

# rmmod loop

 

RESTRICTION

DES encryption is painfully slow. On the other hand, XOR is terribly weak.  

AUTHORS

Original version: Theodore Ts'o <tytso@athena.mit.edu>
Maintained by: Werner Almesberger <almesber@bernina.ethz.ch>
Original DES by: Eric Young <eay@psych.psy.uq.oz.au>
Modularized and updated 28-5-94: Mitch DSouza <m.dsouza@mrc-apu.cam.ac.uk>