I have a small document.That is my personal one.I want to encrypt that and then i need to decrypt when i need.I heard about gpg encryption tool in linux.I have looked in web and man pages but i can not understand.I tryied as far as i can.I have installed gpg command.

Can u pls tell me the simple step's to encrypt and decrypt and create a key.
Let us take file is personal.txt.

The command:

...should output most of the commands you need. ie. to generate a new key pair it's:

...and to encrypt/decrypt it would be:

...where personal.gpg is the created, encrypted file.

Check this out,
GPG Docs

First you need to make a public - private key for your self.

gives clear instructions as to how to encrypt a document. If you don't like that follow this.

There are GUI's available...seahorse, KGpg, GPA come to mind for Linux. WinPT for windows.

Everything you need is on the gnupg website. You might also have to install few libraries if you don't already have them but since you are using Mandrake, it would be easy to urpmi.

Tux,

at the end i got this where this finger print is used.


generator a better chance to gain enough entropy.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++.++++++++++.++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++.++++++++++.+++++.++++++++++.++++ +.+++++++++++++++.+++++++++++++++.++++++++++......>+++++............................................ ........................................................+++++
We need to generate a lot of random bytes. It is a good idea to perform
some other action (type on the keyboard, move the mouse, utilize the
disks) during the prime generation; this gives the random number
generator a better chance to gain enough entropy.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++.++++++++++++++++++++.+++++++++++++++.++++++++++..+++++...+++++++ ++++++++++++++++++.+++++++++++++++..++++++++++++++++++++>..++++++++++>+++++............>+++++....... ..+++++^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
gpg: key 81D1D7B2 marked as ultimately trusted
public and secret key created and signed.

gpg: checking the trustdb
gpg: 3 marginal(s) needed, 1 complete(s) needed, PGP trust model
gpg: depth: 0 valid: 2 signed: 0 trust: 0-, 0q, 0n, 0m, 0f, 2u
pub 1024D/81D1D7B2 2005-10-19
Key fingerprint = 0679 3CD3 B363 5E8B A035 C453 8092 083C 81D1 D7B2
uid navaladi
sub 2048g/1BC32883 2005-10-19

should i need this finger print key.

thanks.Can we encrypt a directory?Which has a lot of files.Or only the files?.

Afaik, it's only for files, so I'd tar (+gzip) the dir, then gpg the result.