Can't decrypt .gpg file

[Jack McKinney]

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    I created a file using gpg with a command like this:

tar -cvf - . | gpg --passphrase-fd 3 -c 3<<< "my key" > backup.tar.gpg

    I created a script with this command in it to make sure that I always
used the commands correctly.  I just ran it on some data, and the file
it created had a size approxiamately corresponding to the size of the
input (around 650MB).
    When I created this script, I am CERTAIN that I test the resulting
file to make sure that I could decrypt it.  However, just today, after
processing the 650M directory, I tried to decrypt the file with
'gpg backup.tar.gpg'.  It responded with 'gpg: no valid OpenPGP data found.'
'tar -tf' said it wasn't a tar file either.
    Any idea what happened to my data?  Why is the output the same size
as the input if it is not in either gpg or tar format???

--
"There is no parameter that makes it impossible        Jack McKinney
     for you to perform still more excellently."       jackmc@lorentz.com
   -Mario Cuomo, on the lack of a clock in baseball    http://www.lorentz.com
1024D/D68F2C07 4096g/38AEF076

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