Quick encryption with gpg

Today another kind of bookmark-style post;
Scenario:
You want to protect some file with a password to

• store it on your local computer
• send it to someone else.

You need the same password on both sides (=encryption and decryption).
(If sent to someone else, make sure to transfer the password on another way than the file.. )

• encrypt:
  • % gpg --symetric foo.txt
    results in a file foo.txt.gpg which contains binary data
  • % gpg --symetric --armor foo.txt
    gives foo.txt.asc which contains ascii characters, which makes sense (for small files) when you want to paste it directly into an email
• decrypt:
  • % gpg --output foo.txt --decode foo.txt.gpg
  • % gpg --output foo.txt --decode foo.txt.asc

source: http://advosys.ca/viewpoints/2006/07/pgp-symmetric-encryption/