gpg fails to decrypt files encrypted to the same name as the original input

[Jerome Baum]

> I noticed this very interesting behavior in my version of gpg (2.0.17):
>
> 1. take a simple text file and call it say test.txt, encrypt it to a
> file named test.txt in the same directory so that it overwrites it. (gpg
> -o test.txt -e test.txt)
> 2. decrypt file test.txt with gpg (gpg -d test.txt) and get gibberish.
>
> It does not seem to happen when I have the output renamed to something
> else. I know this is a highly unusual (and probably ineffective way) of
> using gpg but I still thought it was interesting that it would fail. Any
> thoughts on this (potential) bug? Can anyone else recreate it, or is it
> actually a feature/unavoidable side-effect?

That's actually quite common for software to do. There are a few
notable exceptions (sort(1) comes to mind), but it's not something you
normally have to worry about. People tend to append ".gpg" anyway. :)

-- 
Jerome Baum
tel +49-1578-8434336
email jerome at jeromebaum.com
web www.jeromebaum.com
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