Encryption with no recipient

[Paul Richard Ramer]

On Tue, 31 Aug 2010 07:49:48 -0400, Ted Rolle Jr. wrote:
> I tried -ace and it aways asked for a userid.  -c and -ac worked just
> fine.  Apparently when -e is specified that triggers the request for a
> recipient.

Hi Ted.  "-c" or "--symmetric" encrypts with a symmetric key that is
derived from a passphrase.  No public key is used.  Because of that,
using "gpg -c some_file" will ask for a passphrase, and that passphrase
must be used when you want to decrypt the file.

But when you specify "-e" or "--encrypt", GnuPG will use a public key to
encrypt the file, and a recipient's public key must be specified.  This
means that when you specify both "-c" and "-e", you will get a file that
is encrypted by a symmetric key and a public key.  That is why GnuPG is
asking for a recipient.


-Paul

--
PGP Key ID: 0x3DB6D884
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