encrypted diary

This collection of simple bash scripts provide an easy way to write confidential notes with strong encryption. It uses asymetric GnuPG for encryption, therefore you can write entries without entering the gpg password. You only have to decrypt (and enter your key-password) when you actually want to read something.

Hint: Can be combined mit https://github.com/synox/secret-letterbox

setup (on osx)

• brew install fswatch
• install GnuPG (https://gpgtools.org/)
• create a new GPG key only for this purpose (choose a strong passphrase!)
• add the scripts to your PATH.

configuration

You have to configure some variables with your .bash_profile (or edit the source files). bash example:

export DIARY_KEYID=1234567
export DIARY_EDITOR=/Applications/Mou.app/Contents/MacOS/Mou
export DIARY_DIRECTORY=/home/joe/diary
export DIARY_READER=subl

fishshell example:

set -x DIARY_KEYID 1234567
set -x DIARY_EDITOR /Applications/Mou.app/Contents/MacOS/Mou
set -x DIARY_DIRECTORY /home/joe/diary
set -x DIARY_READER subl

usage

write an entry (add)

use diary-add which reads stdin:

echo my first entry | diary-add

diary-add < notes.html

diary-add
 my first entry
 <CTRL-D>

diary-add-hidden is just like diary-add, but without echoing what you type.

or you can attach a file

diary-add /home/john/photo.jpg

edit encrypted entry

use diary-edit to open gpg-file in a fancy text/markdown editor. When saving, the content is automatically encrypted again.

diary-edit path/to/file.txt.gpg

or use the vim gpg plugin: https://github.com/jamessan/vim-gnupg

vi path/to/file.txt.gpg

decrypt one entry console

diary-print simply prints an entry to stdout.

diary-print path/to/file.txt.gpg

read all entries

diary-read-all decrypts all entries and prints in $DIARY_READER. It used gpg2 for to use the gpg-agent on OSX. The implementation can be changed with the environment variable GPG_CMD.

diary-read-all

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similar projects

There are a few similar projects. I didn't use them because I want the scripts to be short and validatable.

• https://github.com/matthiasbeyer/diary.sh/
• https://github.com/colinux/GPG-Editor/blob/master/GPG-Editor.sh
• https://github.com/almien1/NoPeeking

Articles:

• http://abesto.net/journaling-for-geeks/