GoboHide
To simplify the users’ view of filesystem, GoboHide conceals legacy unix
directories such as /usr, /lib, /sbin, and /etc, which contain links to
files placed elsewhere under The GoboLinux Filesystem
Hierarchy.
GoboHide works by hooking directory read operations directly in the root of the
problem: since every readdir() call is translated and performed by the kernel,
we have added a list which is kept in kernel, checking every readdir()
operation. If the current inode being read is stored in this list, then it
simply doesn’t get copied onto the destination buffer, which should be returned
to the user.
The user’s interface to the GoboHide ioctl’s is through a userspace tool, called
gobohide, and has the following options:
In order to hide a directory, one would need to run gobohide with -h, passing
the target entry. A subsequent ls will not show the hidden entry, then:
This allows entries to be really hidden from the filesystem. But don’t worry, this can be only performed by the superuser, and he/she has power to ask the kernel for the entries being hidden. This ensures that nothing gets hidden without the superuser’s conscience:
And the best of it all: you can still access your files inside these hidden entries, and even bash would tell you that files exist in these directories:
GoboHide currently supports hiding entries on any mounted filesystem. Because it is implemented at the level of the Linux virtual filesystem, it is independent of specific filesystems.