Re: [vile] Some questions about the -k/-K options and encryption

[Thomas Dickey]

On Tue, Jan 13, 2015 at 10:02:11PM +0000, Chris Green wrote:
> I am trying to make a few things slightly more secure on my system.  
> 
> I currently use a script to edit (using vile -k <pwd>) some files, as
> a result a ps will show the password, though it's actually not too bad
> as the non-alpha characters I use confuse the output somewhat.
> 
> However it would be nice if vile would prompt for the password and
> thus make it less visible (not totally invisible I know, but still
> better).
> 
> On the vile man page it says:-
> 
>     On systems with a getpass() library routine, the user will be
>     prompted for the encryption key if it is not given on the command
>     line. 

getpass is used in the command-line "vile-crypt" program, but not in
vile itself.  Within vile (see below) you can type
        :X

and get a prompt in the minibuffer to set the key.  If you happen to be viewing
an encrypted buffer which isn't readable, setting the key and re-reading
the buffer tends to fix that.

> So when will vile prompt for the encryption key?
> 
> If I just do "vile <encrypted file>" I'm just shown the encrypted
> data.  If I do "vile -k <encrypted file>" then it thinks the name of
> the file is the encryption key.
> 
> Is there a way to force vile to ask for the encryption key? Is there

yes - that's the "X" command.

describe-bindings shows these relevant items:

"set-crypt-key"                 ^X-X
  or    "X"
  ( set the encryption key on the current buffer )
"X"                             ^X-X
  ( set the encryption key on the current buffer )

> any difference between -k and -K options?

no - several of the options are the same for upper/lower, dating back
to VMS and MS-DOS days where the command-line might be caseless...

-- 
Thomas E. Dickey <address@hidden>
http://invisible-island.net
ftp://invisible-island.net

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