ecryptfs-setup-private(1)

✨ ecryptfs-setup-private(1) ✨

okay bestie, welcome to the eCryptfs corner of the manual 💖 this is ecryptfs-setup-private, and it's about to set you up with your very own private encrypted directory. no cap.

🎀 NAME 🎀

ecryptfs-setup-private — setup an eCryptfs private directory.

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

ecryptfs-setup-private [-f|--force] [-w|--wrapping] [-b|--bootstrap]
[-n|--no-fnek] [--nopwcheck] [-u|--username USER] [-l|--loginpass
LOGINPASS] [-m|--mountpass MOUNTPASS]

💅 OPTIONS 💅

here's everything you can pass to ecryptfs-setup-private, and yes, we're going through all of them, no skipping 🙈

• -f, --force — Force overwriting of an existing setup. it's giving "idc, do it anyway" energy 🔥
• -w, --wrapping — Use an independent wrapping passphrase, different from the login passphrase. main character passphrase energy, separate from the login one ✨
• -u, --username USER — User to setup, default is current user if omitted. yeah just say the name, or don't, and it'll assume it's you 🫶
• -l, --loginpass LOGINPASS — System passphrase for USER, used to wrap MOUNTPASS, will interactively prompt if omitted. if you leave it out it will literally ask you 💬
• -m, --mountpass MOUNTPASS — Passphrase for mounting the ecryptfs directory, default is 16 bytes from /dev/random if omitted. random 16 bytes, iconic 🎲
• -b, --bootstrap — Bootstrap a new user's entire home directory. the whole home dir, bestie 🏠
• --undo — Display instructions on how to undo an encrypted private setup. regret? we've all been there, here are the instructions 🔄
• -n, --no-fnek — Do not encrypt filenames; otherwise, filenames will be encrypted on systems which support filename encryption. yes, the names of your files get encrypted too by default, unless you say no 🙈
• --nopwcheck — Do not check the validity of the specified login password (useful for LDAP user accounts). LDAP besties, this one's for you 💜
• --noautomount — Setup this user such that the encrypted private directory is not automatically mounted on login. no auto-mounting, you'll do it yourself, periodt 💅
• --noautoumount — Setup this user such that the encrypted private directory is not automatically unmounted at logout. it just stays mounted, lowkey 👑

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

ecryptfs-setup-private is a program that sets up a private cryptographic mountpoint for a non-root user. you're getting your own little encrypted hideaway, fr fr.

Be sure to properly escape your parameters according to your shell's special character nuances, and also surround the parameters by double quotes, if necessary. Any of the parameters may be:

1. exported as environment variables
2. specified on the command line
3. left empty and interactively prompted

🚨 THE USER SHOULD ABSOLUTELY RECORD THE MOUNT PASSPHRASE AND STORE IN A SAFE LOCATION. If the mount passphase file is lost, or the mount passphrase is forgotten, THERE IS NO WAY TO RECOVER THE ENCRYPTED DATA. no cap. not a vibe. write it down, put it somewhere safe, like actually 😭

Using the values of USER, MOUNTPASS, and LOGINPASS, ecryptfs-setup-private will:

• Create ~/.Private (permission 700)
• Create ~/Private (permission 500)
• Backup any existing wrapped passphrases
• Use LOGINPASS to wrap and encrypt MOUNTPASS
• Write to ~/.ecryptfs/wrapped-passphrase
• Add the passphrase to the current keyring
• Write the passphrase signature to ~/.ecryptfs/Private.sig
• Test the cryptographic mount with a few reads and writes

The system administrator can add the pam_ecryptfs.so module to the PAM stack which will automatically use the login passphrase to unwrap the mount passphrase, add the passphrase to the user's kernel keyring, and automatically perform the mount. See pam_ecryptfs(8). slay, it just handles itself ✨

🧚 FILES 🧚

• ~/.ecryptfs/auto-mount
• ~/.Private — underlying directory containing encrypted data
• ~/Private — mountpoint containing decrypted data (when mounted)
• ~/.ecryptfs/Private.sig — file containing signature of mountpoint passphrase
• ~/.ecryptfs/Private.mnt — file containing path of the private directory mountpoint
• ~/.ecryptfs/wrapped-passphrase — file containing the mount passphrase, wrapped with the login passphrase
• ~/.ecryptfs/wrapping-independent — this file exists if the wrapping passphrase is independent from login passphrase

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

• ecryptfs-rewrap-passphrase(1), mount.ecryptfs_private(1), pam_ecryptfs(8), umount.ecryptfs_private(1)
• /usr/share/doc/ecryptfs-utils/ecryptfs-faq.html
• http://ecryptfs.org/

👑 AUTHOR 👑

This manpage and the ecryptfs-setup-private utility was written by Dustin Kirkland <kirkland@ubuntu.com> for Ubuntu systems (but may be used by others). Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Version 2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.

On Debian and Ubuntu systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public License can be found in /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL.

and that's the whole thing bestie 🫶 this page came from ecryptfs-utils, dated 2008-11-17, and it's literally the ecryptfs-setup-private(1) manual. go forth and encrypt 💖🌈🔐