Intro
It’s a great idea to encrypt your identity such as username and password for the services that you use. Since version 23, Emacs has been integrated with a package called EasyPG to help us with those task. It’s an interface to GnuPG so make sure that you have GnuPG installed on your computer. If you’re on MacOS, you can easily install it from Macports by executing the command sudo port install gnupg.
Usage
First, make sure that you have GnuPG installed on your computer by typing which gpg in terminal. On MacOS, you can install it from Macports. After finishing installing gnupg, add this to your .emacs
(when (file-executable-p "/opt/local/bin/macports/bin/gpg")
(setq epg-gpg-program "/opt/local/bin/macports/bin/gpg"))To use EasyPG, simply just add .gpg to anyfile that you want to encrypt. For example, I wish to use markdown mode to organize my password file, visit that file by typing C-x C-f and then type in the file name password.md.gpg. (Make sure you have markdown mode installed in your emacs). Emacs will now open that file in markdown mode like any other .md files. It’s really simple and can not be easier. Everything you need to do now is just store any data that you want in that file. When finish, save that file by typing C-x C-s. Emacs will ask for encryption type that you want to use. Choose OK to use the default symmetric encryption. Type in the passphrase for your password file and remember that passphrase. It’s will be the key for you to open the file again.
Always use symmetric encryption
To prevent EPG from prompting for a key every time you save a file, put the following at the top of your file:
-*- epa-file-encrypt-to: ("[email protected]") -*-EPA will prompt for the key only the first time you save the file, assuming you have the email address you specified in your keyring.