Terminal Tip: Interactive Command-line File Encryption

Because of this - I took it upon myself to create a dashboard widget to perform this very task - you can check it out at http://www.millshalligan.co.uk/software/fileencryption/index.shtml

An "interactive OS X flare" would probably set your keyboard on fire. Or maybe you just have a flair for amusing use of English.

I love terminal tips too. But for stuff like this, I use Yojimbo and it's built-in encryption. Then, Yojimbo syncs w/ .Mac so I can pull it down on my laptop. Very handy.

Please _don't_ mellow out on the terminal posts, they are a great source of information for people new to mac/unix. If some peeps don't want to read them, it only takes a miniscule amount of energy for them to flick their eyes to the next article and get on with their lives!

Actually, encrypted disk images are BAD, VERY BAD. To successfully decrypt something, every single encrypted bit of the disk image must be there and intact. If so much as a single-bit error were to occur anywhere within the encrypted disk image file, that would render the ENTIRE disk image undecryptable and worthless. Whereas, if you encrypt individual files, the worst that can happen is just one *file* is worthless (and if you make backups like you should, that wouldn't be so much of a problem).

Great video, thanks!

That was great- more from the point of view of learning about shell scripts than anything else. A password-protected disk image is an easy encryption alternative for anyone a bit scared of the terminal...

I bet someone could make a snappy little drap-and-drop applescript for this process

I always have a tiny little Terminal window on my desktop - just for stuff like this.

This is great. Thanks so much!

That was actually pretty informative. The easily accessible terminal is one of the great features of OSX.