Scriptalicious Blog

A good friend recently provided me with some dead-simple instructions on how to use GPG in linux so we could share a few sensitive files. I have edited them slightly and with his permission I will share them with you.

To encrypt a file for someone you first need to import their public key:

gpg –import key_file_to_import

Then you can encrypt a file for them to decrypt, like this:

gpg -r someone@email.com -a -e file_to_encrypt

You’ll end up with file_to_encrypt.asc, and that’s the file you send them.

You could also encrypt data right from stdin, like this:

gpg -r someone@email.com -a -e > outputfile.asc

Then type the information to be encrypted, and hit ctrl+d when done.

There are also GUI tools like the Enigmail plugin for Thunderbird to make it nicer, but the command line isn’t really too bad.

Oh yeah, and if you want someone to be able to encrypt stuff to send you, they need your public key. Here’s how to export it:

gpg -a –export > your_key.asc

Then send them your_key.asc.