LOSETUP(8)						       System Administration							LOSETUP(8)

NAME

       losetup - set up and control loop devices

SYNOPSIS

       Get info:

	    losetup loopdev

	    losetup -a

	    losetup -j file [-o offset]

       Delete loop:

	    losetup -d loopdev...

       Print name of first unused loop device:

	    losetup -f

       Setup loop device:

	    losetup [{-e|-E} encryption] [-o offset] [--sizelimit size]
		    [-p pfd] [-r] {-f[--show]|loopdev} file

       Resize loop device:

	    losetup -c loopdev

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 loopdev argument is given, the status of the corresponding loop device is shown.

   Encryption
       It is possible to specify transfer functions (for encryption/decryption or other purposes) using one of the -E and -e options.	There  are
       two  mechanisms to specify the desired encryption: by number and by name. If an encryption is specified by number then one has to make sure
       that the Linux kernel knows about the encryption with that number, probably by patching	the  kernel.  Standard	numbers  that  are  always
       present	are  0	(no  encryption)  and 1 (XOR encryption).  When the cryptoloop module is loaded (or compiled in), it uses number 18.  This
       cryptoloop module will take the name of an arbitrary encryption type and find the module that knows how to perform that encryption.

OPTIONS

       The size and offset arguments may be followed by binary (2^N) suffixes KiB, MiB, GiB, TiB, PiB and EiB (the "iB" is optional, e.g. "K"  has
       the same meaning as "KiB") or decimal (10^N) suffixes KB, MB, GB, PB and EB.

       -a, --all
	      show status of all loop devices

       -c, --set-capacity loopdev
	      force loop driver to reread size of the file associated with the specified loop device

       -d, --detach loopdev...
	      detach the file or device associated with the specified loop device(s)

       -e, -E, --encryption encryption_type
	      enable data encryption with specified name or number

       -f, --find
	      find the first unused loop device. If a file argument is present, use this device. Otherwise, print its name

       -h, --help
	      print help

       -j, --associated file
	      show status of all loop devices associated with given file

       -k, --keybits num
	      set the number of bits to use in key to num.

       -N, --nohashpass
	      Do not hash the password.  By default, Debian systems run the password through a hash function, non-Debian systems tend not to.

       -o, --offset offset
	      the data start is moved offset bytes into the specified file or device

       --sizelimit size
	      the data end is set to no more than size bytes after the data start

       -p, --pass-fd num
	      read the passphrase from file descriptor with number num instead of from the terminal

       -r, --read-only
	      setup read-only loop device

       --show print device name if the -f option and a file argument are present.

	      The short form of this option (-s) is deprecated.  This short form could be in collision with Loop-AES implementation where the same
	      option is used for --sizelimit.

       -v, --verbose
	      verbose mode

RETURN VALUE

       losetup returns 0 on success, nonzero on failure. When losetup displays the status of a loop device, it returns 1 if the device is not con-
       figured and 2 if an error occurred which prevented losetup from determining the status of the 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

	      # modprobe loop

       Maybe also encryption modules are needed.

	      # modprobe des # modprobe cryptoloop

       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.  Both are insecure nowadays. Some ciphers may require a licence
       for you to be allowed to use them.

       Cryptoloop is deprecated in favor of dm-crypt. For more details see cryptsetup(8).

AVAILABILITY

       The losetup command is part of the util-linux package and is available from ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.

util-linux							     July 2003								LOSETUP(8)