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+# Passoword Managemet from the Command Line
+
+    February 8, 2018
+
+Today we will look at some simple, portable yet effective ways to manage 
+your passwords from the command line. You will need nothing more than 
+**apg** and one of **gnugpg** or **openssl** along with your favorite 
+text editor.
+
+~~~~~~~~~~ {.bash}
+apt install apg gnupg openssl
+~~~~~~~~~~
+
+## Generate your Password
+
+Before you can manage your passwords, you will obviously first have to 
+generate them. Since your brain might be a very poor random number 
+generator you can use `/dev/random` here.
+
+A few examples for generating random passwords with **apg** follow:
+
+~~~~~~~~~~ {.bash}
+# generate a few random passwords with default settings using /dev/random
+apg -c /dev/random    
+ 
+# set password length to 20-30 characters and generate 10 passwords
+apg -m20 -x30 -n10 -c /dev/random
+ 
+Example output:
+   gootCoHuecJarItOojBouFrag
+   OignisholWulfisOdPearshed
+   fekfedsornUgbacyoimyab
+   ...
+ 
+# Other useful flags: 
+#- a0    pronouncable
+# -a1    random 
+ 
+# If you use -a1 you can specify the symbolset with -M 
+# You can combine multiple -M options as in: -MCnS
+ 
+# -MC / -Mc must/can use small leters set
+# -MC / -Mc must/can use capital symbol set
+# -MN / -Mn must/can use numeral symbol set
+# -MS / -Ms must/can use special symbol set
+ 
+ 
+# Finally we can exclude specific characters from the symbol set with -E
+apg -a1 -m10 -MN -E 02345678 -c /dev/random
+ 
+Example output:
+   9119191199
+   9919119919
+   1199999911
+   ...
+~~~~~~~~~~
+
+## Managing your Password Safe
+
+Just put the passwords in a plaintext file (named mypasswords in the examples below), 
+along with related data and encrypt them symmetrically via **gnupg**. 
+Decrypt them as needed. You will be prompted for a passphrase in each case.
+
+Note that **gnupg** might cache your password for a few minutes, 
+so don’t worry if you can decrypt them without beeing prompted.
+
+~~~~~~~~~~ {.bash}
+#encrypyt. Don't forget to delete the source file
+gpg -c mypasswords
+ 
+#decrypt and write to STDOUT
+gpg -d mypasswords.gpg
+~~~~~~~~~~
+
+You might prefer openssl, which some claim to be even more portable
+
+~~~~~~~~~~ {.bash}
+#encrypyt. Don't forget to delete the source file
+openssl aes-256-cbc -salt -in mypasswords > mypasswords.aes
+ 
+#decrypt and write to STDOUT
+openssl aes-256-cbc -d -in mypasswords.aes
+~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Adding, Editing or Deleting a password constitutes simply of the three steps:
+
+* decrypt your password file and save it in a safe place
+* edit the passwordfile as needed with your favorite text editor
+* encrypt the password flie back again