How to give the keyword from command line. David Shaw

[Robert J. Hansen]

> My problem (which relates to this) I have an ODB (OpenOffice.Org) database file which I would like encrypted. The process would be to get the pass-phrase from the user, decrypt the file, run soffice -base, and then re-encrypt the results with the same password.

This sounds like a use case for TrueCrypt or Linux's encrypted loopback filesystem or BitLocker or PGPdisk or... (insert many other options here), not GnuPG.  Use the right tool for the job: don't try to drive a nail with a microwave oven.