Adding Vim Encyption

Prerequisites¶

To see if version of Vim supports cryptv, run the following command within Vim

:version

If the present version of Vim supports encryption, the following will be displayed in the list of features.

+cryptv

To check what types of encryption are supported by your version of Vim, run:

:help cryptmethod

This will list some or all of the following encryption methods. - zip - blowfish - blowfish2 - xchacha20

Vim’s default cryptmethod is blowfish2. To display your Vim’s current cryptmethod, run either of the following equivalent commands.

:set cryptmethod?
:set cm?

Starting with Vim v8.1.0606, the default cryptmethod is blowfish2. Hence if the Vim version is updated, it should show,

cryptmethod=blowfish2

If it does not display this, do one of the following. 1. Update Vim version v8.1.0606⁠ or newer.⁠(Recommended) 2. Put the following in vimrc.

set cryptmethod=blowfish2

Using Vim encryption¶

To encrypt a file with Vim:

1. Open the file in Vim.

2. In command mode, run :X (note that X must be upper case).

3. At the Enter encryption key: prompt, type a password.

4. At the Enter same key again: prompt, retype the password.

5. Save the file.

6. Quit Vim.

To decrypt, edit, and re-encrypt a file with Vim:

1. Attempt to open the file in Vim.

2. At the Enter encryption key: prompt, type the file’s password.

3. If you mistyped the file’s password, close the file without saving it and retry.