AMCRYPTSIMPLE(8)

💖 NAME 💖

okay so bestie, this is amcryptsimple — the reference simple crypt program for Amanda symmetric data encryption, and the manual page is literally AMCRYPTSIMPLE(8). it's giving “quiet little crypt helper that Amanda calls behind the scenes” energy. 🎀

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

amcryptsimple  to be called by Amanda only

no cap: Amanda is the one calling this, not you casually in a terminal. 🫶

🔥 DESCRIPTION 🔥

so amcryptsimple calls gpg to perform symmetric data encryption on Amanda backup. it will search for the gpg program in the following directories:

/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin

it uses one passphrase to encrypt the Amanda data and uses the same passphrase to decrypt the Amanda backup data. same passphrase, both directions, that's the whole vibe. and the symmetric cipher is AES256 — iconic, secure, slay. 🔐

🎀 HOW TO CREATE PASSPHRASE 🎀

store the passphrase inside the home-directory of the Amanda user ($amanda_user) and protect it with proper permissions:

echo my_secret_passphrase > ~$amanda_user/.am_passphrase
chown $amanda_user:disk ~$amanda_user/.am_passphrase
chmod 700 ~$amanda_user/.am_passphrase

like, put it in the Amanda user's home-directory, lock it down with proper permissions, done. 💅

🌸 NOTES 🌸

choose a good passphrase and protect it properly. backup data can only be restored with the passphrase. there is no backdoor. periodt. 😭

if storing and securing the passphrase in your environment presents challenges, Amanda provide public-key data encryption through amgpgcrypt. public-key encryption uses the public key to encrypt and uses the private key to decrypt. different whole vibe, same goal. 🦋

🫶 SEE ALSO 🫶

amanda(8), amanda.conf(5), amcrypt(8), amgpgcrypt(8), amrestore(8), gpg(1)

The Amanda Wiki: : http://wiki.zmanda.com/

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Kevin Till <kevin.till@zmanda.com> Zmanda, Inc. (http://www.zmanda.com)

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💖 xoxo, your fav crypt bestie — this iconic little page is from Amanda 3.5.4, dated 07/23/2025, and yes bestie, it's the AMCRYPTSIMPLE(8) manual. 🎀✨