I finally took the time to search for some personal encryption while waiting for a long svn merge and commit. I wanted a small tool, preferably a single executable, works on multiple platforms, to encrypt files with keys. GPG initially felt a little too obscure to me, until I found this guide.
In short:
gpg --gen-keyand answer the prompts to generate a key pair. Make sure your remember your passphrase.gpg -kto list the keys.gpg -r [keyname] -e [clearfile]to encrypt the file using the particular key. By default the output is the same clearfile name with .gpg extension. Use -o option to change it.gpg -o [clearfile] -d [encryptedfile]to decrypt the file. -o option is needed here because this command outputs to console by default.gpg -a -r [keyname] -o [keyfile] --export-secret-keysto export the secret key. I need the same key on another computer to decrypt the contents. The -a option is synonymous with –armor, which generates a text representation instead of binary.gpg --import [keyfile]to import the key on to another computer.
A bonus feature was it actually compresses as it encrypts. I was thinking of manually scripting it to do so.