decrypt encfs on startup

Question

I would like to decrypt an EncFS "volume" on startup. Usually I decrypt the volume like this :

cat "/home/user1/encfs.pw" | encfs -S /mnt/encryptedVolume /mnt/decryptedVolume

In /etc/init I have a myService.conf file :

start on startup
stop on shutdown
respawn

pre-start script
  cat "/home/user1/encfs.pw" | encfs -S /mnt/encryptedVolume /mnt/decryptedVolume
end script

exec /home/user1/myService

Without the pre-start section, myService starts okay. With the pre-start section, it doesn't because as stated in documentation, if the script lines fail it exists.

My issue is that the script line works in a shell but not in this pre-start.

Can someone please help ? Thank you for your assistance.

Answer 1

(I guess my comment should be an answer...)

I'm guessing "/mnt/encryptedVolume" is not mounted yet when the startup script is being run.

You could wait for a while to run the script until after the needed volume is mounted,

• using a sleep 20 in the script.
• Or run the script after everything's "up" and mounted and you're logged in, running initctl start myService should work.