Add Password Protection to a file your editing in vim.

vim -x <FILENAME>

While I love gpg and truecrypt there's some times when you just want to edit a file and not worry about keys or having to deal needing extra software on hand. Thus, you can use vim's encrypted file format. For more info on vim's encrypted files visit: http://www.vim.org/htmldoc/editing.html#encryption

Sample Output

~
~
~
Enter encryption key:

By: denzuko

2009-05-05 23:24:17

vim vim edit Encryption files secure password protect

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What Others Think

Shouldn't that be 'vim -x '? 'vim -e' puts you into ex mode...

mayersj1 · 725 weeks and 3 days ago

from http://www.vim.org/htmldoc/editing.html#encryption 'The normal way to work with encryption, is to use the ":X" command, which will ask you to enter a key.' Interesting and thanks, good to learn something. vote++;

mpb · 725 weeks and 3 days ago

@mayersjl thanks, I'll fix that up for everyone @mpb Glad I could help.

denzuko · 725 weeks and 3 days ago

Note that the encryption vim uses is really weak, so it is not really an alternative to gpg and the likes (this is also noted in the documentation linked). That said, it is useful for quick and dirty obfuscation :)

spatz · 725 weeks and 3 days ago

Online docs moved, now located at http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/editing.html#encryption As noted in those docs, vim 7.3+ supports the blowfish cypher, which will give you stronger encryption (and makes the file unusable to older versions of vim). You can launch this directly from the command line with: vim -x +"set cm=blowfish" <FILENAME>

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Roman123456789 · 4 days ago

What do you think?

Any thoughts on this command? Does it work on your machine? Can you do the same thing with only 14 characters?

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