Windows

Existing solutions

Encfs4win (GitHub)

EncFSMP (GitHub)

Mainline EncFS with Cygwin (detailed below)

Comparison

Solution	FUSE replacement	GUI
Encfs4win	Dokany (GitHub)	Yes
EncFSMP	Pismo File Mount	Yes
Mainline EncFS with Cygwin	WinFsp (GitHub)	Yes, using SiriKali (GitHub)

Mainline EncFS with Cygwin

Installation

An installer may be on the way. For now, follow the steps below.

Installation from sources

EncFS can be compiled and used on Cygwin.

Here are the required steps.

You'll also find a Chinese guide written by @youngh070 here.

1. Install Cygwin (64 bits version preferred because of this) with the following packages :

• cmake
• make
• gcc-g++
• gettext-devel
• openssl-devel
• procps-ng
• perl-test-harness

2. Install WinFsp, latest stable is preferred.

3. Using Cygwin terminal, install WinFsp FUSE into Cygwin :

cd /cygdrive/c/Program*/WinFsp/opt/cygfuse

sh install.sh

4. In /usr/include/fuse/winfsp_fuse.h :

If needed, modify : return cygwin_create_path(

To : return (char *)cygwin_create_path(

(see https://github.com/billziss-gh/winfsp/pull/154)

5. Get last EncFS version.

6. Using Cygwin terminal, compile, test and install following the INSTALL.md file from the version you use.
   For example, for 1.9.5 : https://github.com/vgough/encfs/blob/v1.9.5/INSTALL.md

Usage

Use as usual, from a Cygwin or Windows terminal.

You should provide EncFS with a drive-like mountpoint, such as X: (or /cygdrive/x).
Example : encfs /cygdrive/c/enc /cygdrive/x
Example : encfs C:\enc X:

You may also consider SiriKali GUI (GitHub).

Tuning

Symlinks are not fully supported, their integration tests may then partially fail.
Symlinks behavior depends on some options, so if you care about them, you may consider :

• value of winsymlinks in CYGWIN environment variable ;
• usage (or not) of the limited -o rellinks option (see more in billziss-gh/winfsp#153).

For performance matters, you may consider :

• the exec / notexec Cygwin mount option.

For performance and ACLs matters, you may also consider :

• the noacl Cygwin mount option.

Warnings

Regarding IVs, which are based on inode numbers : depending on configuration, they may lead to some problems, as file IDs (used by Cygwin to compute inode numbers) may not be consistent on Windows (see 1 and 2). If not sure, they can be disabled during EncFS configuration.