How to use Emacs to recognize and automatically open GPG encrypted file in ASCII armored format?

Question

gpg -ca passwords.txt create encrypted ASCII file passwords.txt.asc. Emacs open the file as a normal text file:

-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
Version: GnuPG v2.0.19 (GNU/Linux)

jA0EAwMCkIp3+bQkLWJgyTQYLGVN8EUEG0BE42sEj/8PrnSzgviSiENxtK+/2n73
WXD7EtndVS/MX4lFJ96h8VozChUA
=zSwh
-----END PGP MESSAGE-----

How do I make Emacs auto-decrypt and encrypt the file when I open and save it?

Answer 1

Everything should work fine with the default configuration, but you can check your configuration.

First, you need to be sure that EasyPG Assistant is installed.

M-xlocate-libraryRETepaRET should return something like:

Library is file /usr/local/share/emacs/24.2.50/lisp/epa.elc

If not, then you've to install it. (or upgrade to Emacs23 or Emacs24)

1. http://emacswiki.org/emacs/EasyPG
2. http://epg.sourceforge.jp/

Then, check the value of the variable auto-mode-alist with C-hvauto-mode-alistRET and search for epa.

If you cannot find it, add this snippet to your .emacs.

(add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.gpg\\(~\\|\\.~[0-9]+~\\)?\\'" nil epa-file))

Answer 2

I did following to let Emacs open .asc files in the same way of .gpg files

(require 'epa-file)
(epa-file-enable)
(setq epa-file-name-regexp "\\.\\(gpg\\|asc\\)$")
(epa-file-name-regexp-update)