PGP: Receiving and Decrypting Encrypted Messages from a Terminal

Decrypting messages that have been encrypted with PGP is much simpler than encrypting them. If you receive a PGP-encrypted message, all you need to do is save it to a file and specify that filename as an argument to the PGP program.

Decrypting E-mail:

When saving a message to a file it's good practice to add the '.asc' extension. Once the file has been successfully saved you can decrypt it using PGP. To do this just type: pgp filename.asc.

EXAMPLE: % pgp message.asc ---> Will produce a readable copy.

Resources used for this FAQ:

Garfinkel, Simson. Encryption for Everyone: PGP Pretty Good Privacy. O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. 1995. ISBN 1-56592-098-8.