How to encrypt files in Ubuntu with GPG

In the next practical tutorial I am going to teach them how to encrypt a text file to protect it with a password totally sure.

We will do this with gpg, a simple command to use through the comfort o terminal our Ubuntu or distribution based on Debian.

GPG It is extremely easy to use, since only accessing from the terminal to the path where we have the file to encrypt, and just by putting gpg -c, we will secure our file with a password totally safe and will be safe out of the gaze of the curious, ideal for people who share their personal computer.

So that you can see better how easy it is to use, we are going to do it with a text file called experiment and located in our Main desk, so let's get to work and let's get started with the hands-on exercise.

How to encrypt a file in Ubuntu

The first thing we should do is open a new terminal and go to Desktop:

cd Desk

Once in the correct path of our file to encrypt, in this case the text file called experiment, we just have to type the command gpg -c plus the "name of the file to encrypt":

gpg -c test

The terminal will return a new window in which we will have to enter the desired password, as it always will. click it twice to make sure we haven't been wrong.

Finally a new file will appear with the same name but with the extension gpg, now we just have to delete the original test file that is unencrypted.

How to decrypt the previously encrypted file

For decrypt the file It will be as easy as accessing the path, remembering that in this case it was Desktop, and using the gpg command plus the name of the file to decrypt including its extension, in this case it would be: