Gnupg-devel digest, Vol 1 #709 - 5 msgs

[Michael Young]

> From: Eric Harlow <linuxgeek at yahoo.com>
...
> type backup.tar | gpg -o backup.gpg -z0 --encrypt
> 
> resulted in a file of 504,644,211 - which didn't seem
> right. 
...
> gpg -o backup.gpg --encrypt backup.tar
> 
> I end up with a 3.222 gig file.

So, you've established that the "type" program (Windows?) does not
deal with huge files.  It looks like your file was truncated from size
(2^32+X) file to X (where X is around 500M).  (For further verification,
try "type backup.tar > copy.tar" and see what you get.)

> If I decrypt it, I using 
> 
> type backup.gpg | gpg --decrypt -o backup5.tar
> 
> I end up with errors:

Given that "type ... |" truncates large files, you should expect a
problem here.  If GPG doesn't see the full input, it won't generate
full output.  (You might argue that the error messages are too techie,
but there certainly is a problem with the input.)

If you need to use "type ... |" for input, then you're out
of luck.  But, you've demonstrated that GPG deals with huge
files when they're named on the command line.  You
could also try "gpg ... < file".