How about swap on pingfs so you aren't relying on some cloud provider?
https://github.com/yarrick/pingfs
In Making RAM at Home [video]yarrick
pingfs
C2015–2026
yarrick / pingfs
pingfs
Stores your data in ICMP ping packets
31Distinct people
32Mentions
1Explicit recommenders
3.9KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
Stores your data in ICMP ping packets
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
Of the more obscure file systems, pingfs is still my favorite. https://github.com/yarrick/pingfs
torvald used a recommendation phrase. One indexed comment matches. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:56:07 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year32 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2015-06-04 23:50:16 UTC to 2026-04-22 09:07:21 UTC.
* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| 2016 | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 1 | 4 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 2026 (partial) | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
From the project README
An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.
Read the project’s introduction
pingfs - "True cloud storage"
by Erik Ekman <erik@kryo.se>
pingfs is a filesystem where the data is stored only in the Internet itself,
as ICMP Echo packets (pings) travelling from you to remote servers and
back again.
It is implemented using raw sockets and FUSE, so superuser powers are required.
Linux is the only intended target OS, portability is not a goal.
Both IPv4 and IPv6 remote hosts are supported.
Compile by just running 'make'
How to start it:
- Create a textfile with hostname and IP addresses to target
- As root, run ./pingfs <filename> <mountpoint>
It will resolve all hostnames, and then test each resolved address
if it responds properly to a number of pings.
Some statistics will be printed and then the filesystem will be mounted.
- Pingfs will stay in the foreground and print stats on packets and bytes
each second.
How to stop it:
- Stop with ^C, and it should unmount itself.
- Otherwise unmount with fusermount -u <mountpoint>
Supported operations
- Creating/removing normal files
- Listing files
- Renaming files
- Reading/writing/truncating files
- Setting/getting file permissions
Unsupported operations
- Creating/removing directories
- Creating soft/hard links
- Timestamps (they are always 0)
Notes:
The performance is too low right now to handle LAN hosts, it will
lose data right away. Use pingfs with care.
License:
Copyright (c) 2013-2015 Erik Ekman <yarrick@kryo.se>
Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any purpose
with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice
and this permission notice appear in all copies.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH
REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND
FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT,
INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM
LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR
OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR
PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
Read the full README on GitHubWhat Hacker News says
32 sourcesWaiting for Doom over https://github.com/yarrick/pingfs next
In DOOM Over DNSExcellent for pingfs (https://github.com/yarrick/pingfs)
In World-first gigabit laser link between aircraft and geostationary satellitePingfs: Stores your data in ICMP ping packets (2020)
78 points · Open discussionOf course. A message queue is database, and software that handles it in a specific way to make it a message queue. So, HN could basically be that database backend for that imaginary software that turns it into a message queue.
I don't have fun examples with message queues, but I do remember some with filesystems - a popular target to connect cursed backends to. You can store data in Ping packets [0]. You can store data in the digits of Pi - achieving unbelievable compression [1]. You can store data in the metadata and other unused blocks of images - also known as steganography [2]. People wrote software to use Gmail emails as a file system [3].
That's just from the top of my head, and it really shows that sky's the limit with software.
[0] https://github.com/yarrick/pingfs
[1] https://github.com/ajeetdsouza/pifs
[2] https://en.wikipedia.o
Read the rest
pingfs: A filesystem where data is stored in ICMP Echo packets
3 points · Open discussionFor prior art in this field, see:
https://github.com/yarrick/pingfs
"pingfs is a filesystem where the data is stored only in the Internet itself,
as ICMP Echo packets (pings) travelling from you to remote servers and
back again."
Also
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay-line_memory
Storing data as acoustic waves gave a higher capacity in practice, as propagation is slower thus fitting a larger number of symbol per time unit.
In First images from Euclid are inNot exactly what you're looking for, but your comment about abusing pings made me remember pingfs [1]. It brings an entirely new definition of cloud computing!
[1] - https://github.com/yarrick/pingfs
In How does Linux NAT a ping?https://github.com/yarrick/pingfs
> pingfs is a filesystem where the data is stored only in the Internet itself, as ICMP Echo packets (pings) travelling from you to remote servers and back again.
In Happy 50th Birthday, EthernetReminds me of https://github.com/yarrick/pingfs
In Record-breaking chip can transmit 1.8 petabits per secondYou can technically do this today. Just target a remote server and run pingfs. Store your data in the transatlantic fibres! https://github.com/yarrick/pingfs
In Record-breaking chip can transmit 1.8 petabits per secondThere's some prior art for the ping-based storage: https://github.com/yarrick/pingfs , but the tetris storage is amazing.
In Harder Drive: Hard drives we didn't want or need [video]Well, if you can store data in icmp packets, I bet you can do math, too.
https://github.com/yarrick/pingfs
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