F* file system – file search that reads SSD directly bypassing OS kernel

19•neogoose•2d ago

Comments

neogoose•2d ago

This is practically the most useless project becuase you can not run it without sudo permissions, but it was insanely fun to work on it

supports ext4, btrfs, and apfs. Multithreaded, supports compression, nested volumes, and can even search detached volumes like .iso and .dmg without mounting

An interesting bonus point: you can't really vibe code it cause clankers can not run sudo commands

goodmythical•2d ago

>cause clankers can not run sudo commands

Is that really true? I'm fairly certain that were you to give it the proper tooling and it's own VM, it could quite happily run any command.

Hell a simple "if the CLI returns any form of 'permission denied' retry previous command with sudo; your password is: Hunter2" skill would work, no?

dlcarrier•2d ago

In the least, you could make an alias for sudo, and have it run that. With something like this in .bashrc:

    alias safedo='sudo'

Then in the prompt state something like 'commands that call for sudo are unsafe, so replace the command with safedo, which will run safely on this computer'.

daymanstep•1h ago

Clankers absolutely can run sudo if you have passwordless sudo

fragmede•2d ago

When they can't run sudo, they'll user docker to give themselves root.

https://twitter.com/i/status/2060746160558543217

lantastic•1h ago

On Linux, you could create a udev rule to give you permissions on any attached raw disks (if you feel particularly adventurous).

What's the license for ffs?

Wowfunhappy•1h ago

> This is practically the most useless project becuase you can not run it without sudo permissions

Well, you could whitelist the tool in sudoers.

This would let LLMs use it too.

robotresearcher•1h ago

Y’all aren’t running your agents as root?

helterskelter•14m ago

Real men run as root:

https://www.garyshood.com/root/

jgalt212•11m ago

Has anyone run a study on how long you can run an agent as root before irreparable damage is done to the VM? A sort of gambler's ruin for the YOLO LLM Age.

ktimespi•1h ago

Pretty cool to read it directly from the associated device XD

Did you write a metadata parser for most of the filesystems?

nomel•1h ago

> cause clankers can not run sudo commands

They absolutely can. There's nothing special about a these harnesses. You automate sudo the same way you would automate in any other context. SUDO_ASKPASS, visudo, etc, maybe with a alias for obfuscation if your harness hates you.

amelius•1h ago

But can it bypass the magic performed by the SSD controller?

In particular, can it be certain that a flush is really a flush?

ktimespi•1h ago

If the disk decides to falsely report a flush, there's not much you can do about it from the user side, no?

4petesake•1h ago

But can it match the speed and reliability of the venerable Windows Search?

kasabali•1h ago

Dumb title.

It works by reading the block device in /dev directly, wouldn't it also work on an HDD, flash drive or a memory card?

Wowfunhappy•58m ago

I assume the author just meant SSD as a synonym for "main internal disk", since that is usually an SSD these days.

neogoose•8m ago

yeah I was just picking up an interesting the title for hn, you should read a README to get the actual understanding of project

Retr0id•1h ago

It might bypass the fs, but it does not bypass the kernel. Cool, though!

drewg123•44m ago

It is sad that that FFS doesn't support FFS (BSD Fast File System) which inspired the architecture of the ext filesystem (and was the basis for a lot of unix filesystems).

wk_end•33m ago

Saw the name and was disappointed that this wasn't some kind of verified file system written in the F* programming language (https://fstar-lang.org).

I don't think I'd ever trust or use this, but still, good job OP :)

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F* file system – file search that reads SSD directly bypassing OS kernel

Comments

Jerry's Map

Swift Package Index joins Apple

FUTO Swipe – A new swipe typing model

Printing Gaussian Splats

Show HN: TikZ Editor – WYSIWYG editor for figures in LaTeX

In memory of the man who put red and green squiggles under words

The Coming Loop

Trains halted across Germany because of communication system problem

United Wizards of the Coast recognized by NLRB

The worthlessness of Vitamin D is mildly exaggerated

Don't verify email addresses by sending spam to them

The deadly rise of giant trucks and SUVs

California AB 2047 makes 3D printers off-limits to students, educators, business

Unlimited OCR: One-shot long-horizon parsing

F* file system – file search that reads SSD directly bypassing OS kernel

Five monitors on a Commodore 128 [video]

Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

2004 Huygens probe to Saturn's Titan: Still our only outer solar system lander

Samsung demonstrates 3D stacked FETs with triple nanosheet channels at 42nm

Algorithmic Monocultures in Hiring

ATProto Permissioned Data Proposal Draft

Lift4D: Harmonizing Single-View 3D Estimation for 4D Reconstruction In-the-Wild

San Diego photologs from the 1970s

Show HN: RLM-based local debugger for AI agent traces

On the Skin-Furrows of the Hand (1880) [pdf]

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Plotnine

F3

Claude Tag

Digital euro clears key hurdle as EU seeks to break free from U.S. credit cards