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https://github.com/Standard-Unix-Notes/unix-notes

GPG encrypted notebooks.
https://github.com/Standard-Unix-Notes/unix-notes

gpg gpg-encryption notes privacy

Last synced: 14 days ago
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GPG encrypted notebooks.

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README 

        
# Standard(?) Unix Notes



## Background

I have tried a number of different note systems over the years, from 

online notes to Vim-wiki and Org-Mode and even just plain old text files. 

All have their benefits and issues.   



More recently I have taken to GPG encrypting my notes in a process to 

improve my overall security and privacy.  



Whilst migrating my passwords into *Pass* the Standard Unix Password 

Manager I was intrigued by the simplicity and ease of use in adding, 

managing and using passwords under this system.  



Then this notes system started to brew in the back of my head. What if 

I replaced the password functionality of *pass* with a notes system. 

Sure I could include my notes into *pass* with it's multi-line ability. 

But as notes were added it would make accessing and managing my 

passwords more difficult. So I decided I really needed to keep my 

passwords and notes separate.      



I decided to take the *pass* shell script and gut it, rename the 

functions and implement a system to encrypt/decrypt notes.  



I use Yubikeys for my encryption and so have ensured that this script 

works with the Yubikey 5 NFC, Yubikey 4 and the Yubikey NEO.



## Features

 

- Secure encrypted notes

- Support for GPG resident keys on Yubikey and PIV cards

- Easily add, rename, copy and delete notes

- Import text files as notes directly into your working notebook

- Switch between notebooks easily 

- Multiple notebooks support. Easily add, rename, copy and delete notebooks 

- Bash Completion for sub commands and note/notebook names



## Licence



This application is licensed under the 3 clause BSD licence. See 

[LICENCE](LICENCE) for details.



## Contributing to the Project



Contributions are welcome. Please see [docs/CONTRIBUTING.md](docs/CONTRIBUTING.md) for details.



## Notes and Notebooks



This Notes system supports multiple notebooks. 



- To manage your notes you simply use the *[notes](docs/USING_NOTES.md)* command.

- To manage your notebooks you use the *[notebook](docs/MANAGING_NOTEBOOKS.md)* command.



## Installing and Uninstalling



Adding or removing this software is easy. See [docs/INSTALL.md](docs/INSTALL.md) 

or [UNINSTALL.md](UNINSTALL.md) for details.



## Setup and configuration



After installation you need to setup the environment. Standard Unix 

Notes does this with environment variables and the *[notes 

init](docs/USING_NOTES.md)* command.



## Managing Notes



The application manages notes in a similar way that Password-Store 

manages passwords. To add/edit/import/rename/copy/delete notes you use 

the appropriate sub-commands.



For example, to add a note you simply use 



```shell

$ notes add this is my note title

```



The *notes(1)* application automatically replaces spaces in the note title 

with underscores.



For full details of commands available see 

[docs/USING_NOTES.md](docs/USING_NOTES.md) for details or view the 

*notes(1)* man page.



## Changing GnuPG encryption keys



Encryption keys do not last forever. From time to time they expire or 

become unsafe for some reason. 



When you need to change the encryption key for a file you would normally 

decrypt and then re-encrypt it manually. Doing this for a series of 

files like you have in Notes would be a major pain. We have thought 

about this scenario and can automate it.



Notes has a special sub-command *newkey* to change the encryption keys 

of your notes. Using this command allows you to change the encryption 

keys for all of your notes at once rather than having to change them 

manually.



See [docs/USING_NOTES.md](docs/USING_NOTES.md) for details.



## Managing Notebooks



You can have multiple notebooks to organise your notes. Each notebook is 

just a plain UNIX directory and so could be managed by standard UNIX 

directory tools. 



But to make it easier we have provided a tool called *notebook* that has 

a series of sub-commands for managing notebooks. See 

[docs/MANAGING_NOTEBOOKS.md](docs/MANAGING_NOTEBOOKS.md) for full details of the 

command and sub-commands.



## Journals



Also included is a journal(1) system for encrypted journal entries. See 

[docs/JOURNAL.md](docs/JOURNAL.md) for details.



## Yubikey Integration



Standard Unix Notes supports GPG Keys on Yubikeys for GPG decryption. 

For more details see [docs/YUBIKEYS.md](docs/YUBIKEYS.md).



## PIV Integration



For more details on the proposed PIV integration see [docs/PIV.md](docs/PIV.md)



---



## RELEASE NOTES



See [docs/RELEASE-NOTES.md](docs/RELEASE-NOTES.md) for details.



## ROADMAP



See [docs/ROADMAP.md](docs/ROADMAP.md) for details.



## PACKAGING 



We currently package for the following:



- Source Tarball with makefile for installing 

- Debian .deb package suitable for Debian and Ubuntu based distributions



We are looking to package for other distributions depending on 

availability: see [docs/PACKAGING.md](docs/PACKAGING.md) for details.



## BUGS & SECURITY



See [docs/SECURITY.md](docs/SECURITY.md) for details on our security policy and 

[docs/BUGS.md](docs/BUGS.md) for reporting bugs.