--- layout: page category-page: intermediate category-title: Intermediate commands tags: password dashlane keypass manager gpg encrypt sync author: Claudio Maggioni title: pass --- The pass command, also known as Password Store, is an entirely offline password manager that uses GPG for encryption with the ability to sync the (entirely encrypted) passwords using git. pass works on MacOS (avaliable via Homebrew), Linux and on Android (with a GUI app). Think of it as an entirely FLOSS alternative to services like Keypass or Dashlane.
Excluding the initial setup (that requires the creation of a GPG key), pass is very easy and straightforward to use: instead of printing passwords to stdout, pass copies them in the system clipboard, erasing them after a certain number of seconds (usually 45).
pass has many unofficial GUI clients and migration scripts from other password managers. For more information, check out the official website.

Setup

An accurate walkthrough through the setup of pass, in addition to some other useful sets of commands (such as how to migrate the password repository to another computer) is provided in this GitHub Gist by flbuddymooreiv.
For more detailed explainations on the setup process or on any commands please check out the online version of the man page, which is surprisingly more readable that most of the man pages for other utilities.

Usage

Common pass commands are shown below. For more information refer to the documentation linked above.
Example: Initialize the password repository with a GPG key with id "0DEADBEEF"

pass init 0DEADBEEF
Example: Insert a password for example.com with username bob in the password repository interactively
pass insert example.com/bob
Please note that the password name here follows the most common naming convention in pass, which is {website}/{username}. Passwords can be stored in hierarchical structures (i.e. in nested folders), but the naming is up to the user.
Example: Generate a password for zombo.com of 16 characters and copy it in the clipboard
pass generate -c zombo.com/bob 16
Example: Retrieve the password for google.com and copy it in the system clipboard (-c flag)
pass -c google.com/bob@gmail.com
Example: Edit the password for facebook.com using the default editor
pass edit facebook.com/bob
Edit: Convert the password repository to a git repository for synchronization
pass git init
Every git command on the password repository must be given with the prefix pass git (e.g. pass git push). An automatic commit is performed whenever a password is created, edited or deleted.