My first thought was pipe it to /dev/null but it sounds like you want it to linger for a bit before it goes into the shredder
this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2026
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An airgapped machine is certainly going to be most robust from external attack, but even then you should probably encrypt your files to ensure privacy should you ever discard, or otherwise lose control of, the storage media.
An encrypted partition may be sufficient, but your journal entries will still be "plain text" when it is mounted, and so you will be able to read them without extra effort. If you want to make it so that once an entry is written it is encrypted and can only be read with deliberate effort, you could use GPG encryption.
First generate a key pair with a really strong passphrase, and store it on a USB drive. Then import just the public key onto your journaling machine and store the USB drive somewhere safe. With just the public key on your machine you can encrypt files, but you can't decrypt them. Ideally you'll set up your journalling tool to only write via GPG, but if not, you can just encrypt each entry after you write it.
As to what journalling tool to use, I like VIM, although I know not everyone gets on with it. You can have it start up with a template ready to go, not write temporary files, and save via GPG so the plaintext never hits persistent storage.
Thank you. This is really insightful and something that I think might be a robust solution for me. I’ll research GPG more, I clearly need to.
The fundamental difference between GPG encryption and encrypted partition is that of asymmetric vs. symmetric encryption. Whether you mount encrypted storage or decrypt a file with GPG, there's some "effort" in putting in the passphrase and in both cases the system's keyring is briefly aware of it and the plaintext is saved to memory (volatile, unless you have encrypted swap or other edge cases).
Asymmetric encryption is not normally used for personal stuff but mostly to exchange material with one party holding the private key, and other having access to the public key (which is public). Of course you can act as both parties if you like. If you do, keep in mind:
- Asymmetric encryption algorithms may be vulnerable to quantum computing attacks in the coming years. There are quantum-resistant algorithms, but to my understanding they are not necessarily quantum-proof and could potentially be broken in the more distant future.
- If you do choose to use GPG, make sure that the plaintext never touches the disk, for example save it to
/dev/shmbefore encryption. - You can also protect your private key with a passphrase.
Personally I use Joplin. On the clients it's secure because the database is saved on encrypted storage secured by my login phrase. On the server it's secure by Joplin encrypting the files saved to WebDAV storage. Is it 100% safe? Probably not, but probably good enough to stop all but a nation-state level actor.
any inactive sub on lemmy
If you don't want to retain it at all
like, you just want the catharsis of typing it, and definitely want it to go into the void
then I suppose you could use a laptop with no writeable storage and a live-boot Linux distro that boots off a USB key. That never gets retained. Don't put it on a network.
Or just save the files to /dev/null on any Linux box
I appreciate that a lot. The more I consider it I think for completely destroyed data, paper and a lighter will be best. The odds of me looking back on anything else are low, but part of me thinks keeping them is something I’ll one day wish I’d done from day one.
I guess I don't understand the issues you think you're facing with straightforward approaches. You probably don't want it on an internet server, right? Maybe just scrounge an old laptop with no internet connection and set it up with an encrypted disk. Then use it as your journalling box. So you're fairly safe from network attacks. You might have to worry about someone snagging the laptop itself and recovering the key somehow. Yes there are approaches you can take to mitigate that. I don't know of any super simple ready made methods though.
Thank you, the more I’m thinking about it, perhaps a raspberry pi with LUKS disk that’s airgapped would be best.
Though I still don’t know of a relatively nice journaling app.
Just use a text editor. I use Emacs org files but that's just me.
Many thanks for your help
Journiv, first featured here at https://lemmy.ca/post/55005402 might be what you’re looking for as a self hosted solution
Thank you very much. I’ll look into this.
The weight of being unable to share things with literally anyone is totally fine until for some reason the crushing reality of your life comes crashing down on your consciousness and you start seeking some new form of mental relief like a cockroach looking for shelter in the midst of a nuclear fallout.
Massively offtopic and definitely over reaching, I know, but... from reading this post, as well as journalling, I'd recommend you also consider a counsellor if it's heavy life issues.
Seeing one myself has helped me a hell of a lot... I only wake at 3am due to work stress now, rather than (all the other stuff)
Thanks for your care and personal experience. I’ll say that perhaps one day I can re-examine whether this is something I can reasonably do. It’s nice to hear that it helped you.