Date: 2011jan4 Q. How can I simply use GPG (GnuPG) to encrypt a file? A. You don't have to use all the public/private key stuff you can just do:

gpg -c <file>

You will be prompted for a password (twice) and the encrypted file will be

<file>.gpg

Don't forget the password! use:

gpg -d <file>.gpg

do decrypt with the same password. That's why this is called symmetric encryption.