UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

How to set password in zip files under unix?

There are password protection available in various os.
Does unix has password protection for zip files?

Is zip and gzip command has it?

a better way to "protect" a zip file would be to change is permissions. search here for "file permissions" and you will get lots of examples, and different methods to accomplish your goal.

a password protected zip file, like in windows would be a bad idea in a unix OS. this is for two main reasons that i can think of. one, the password protection would depend upon the program you are using to access the zip file. so, write a program that dosnt honor the password protection. two, is that it would muck up the whole unix way of doing things. at the command line, every common utility is designed to take input, and give ouput. so every command can work together (using a pipe |, for example) in a shell script. if someone had a script that unzipped a zip file, having it password protected would mess up the whole thing.

so anyway, my point is: use the built in security measures that unix OSs have.

Is there Password Protection in gzip.

There is nothing worse than impatience.
I think you failed to understand the point of view expressed. So, for my 2 cents, I will tell you to RTM. Read the man pages and you will have your answer.
man gzip

p, you never responded to your other post either, so I'd guess this is just another homework question?

It usually is when someone refuses to look at the possibilities and requires something to be done only one way. If it irritates you at all to read this, then please explain why you need things this way so badly.

Hi ALL,

Thanks for the replies.

I think, I 'm not clear in my question.

Let me try again.


gzip doesn't support password protection.

But to set password protected, unix has crypt , pgp, gpg and so on.

I just require how does those encrytion can be done in gzip.

As a way like on guzip or gzip -d , I can get a password request prompt and thus decrypt the file.

Is this can be done?
Or
Do I need to go with encrypt & gzip and gunzip & decrypt?

if it is more then 1 file.

gzip then encrypt.

if it is 1 file just encrypt.