keybase / keybase/client

KBFS mounts as a "local disk" on Windows, but should be considered a network drive

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#8,627 5 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Dominant language
Go
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Description

The current behaviour causes issues when programs attempt to recurse through "all local drives" - for example, this is the default behaviour of WinDirStat, and when it tries to count up the file sizes inside K: things get really messy. Additionally, labeling as a local drive is misleading to the user, since KBFS won't work without Internet access.

I believe specially mounted drives on Windows do have control of what "kind" of drive they show up as, since VeraCrypt can mount drives as local or as removable. Could Keybase therefore change its mount behaviour and mark K: as a network drive instead?

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by locating the Windows KBFS mount implementation and how it reports the mounted drive type to the operating system. Reproduce the current behavior with WinDirStat or another tool that scans local drives, then verify that the K: mount is identified as a network drive and no longer treated as a local disk.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
go
Domain
operating-systems
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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