gnupg plaintext encryption?

[Alphax]

eruistonuena wrote:
> I've been using gpg no for a while and I've always wondered why it says "go
> ahead and type your message" if you run gpg without any commands or options.
> 
> does it encrypt text or something?

It waits for you to give it some sort of data. For example, if you were
to do (on Windows):

> $gpg
> gpg: Go ahead and type your message ...
> The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
> ^Z

It replies:

> gpg: no valid OpenPGP data found.
> gpg: processing message failed: eof

But if you do something like:

> $gpg
> gpg: Go ahead and type your message ...
> -----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
> Version: GnuPG v1.4.4-svn4147:IDEA-TIGER192-DSA2 (MingW32)
>
> owNCWmg2MUFZJlNZMOjPVwAAGt+EQBJAAQUABAAEAD////CACCAAUMMjAmmBMhia
> MDGagAGRoNHpHhS4KdS4JwsGCri7t74sjMbZF0dHjGpIH+kEBMETOdUX5fxdyRTh
> QkDDoz1c
> =5OsL
> -----END PGP MESSAGE-----
> ^Z

You get:

> The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

HTH,
-- 
                Alphax
        Death to all fanatics!
  Down with categorical imperative!
OpenPGP key: http://tinyurl.com/lvq4g

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