How do I use Alph in windows? The sysntax in the manual is in linux format. If someone can help I am interested in the use of:
CAESER,
VERNAM and
VIGENERE
Also, can I only encrypt text or can you feed it a source file?
Must it be just plain text or can it encrypt any file?
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Hi,
Alph uses the standard input / standard output to process text. It only functions as a filter... Doesn't want to be more than that.
Yes, you are right, the manual and even program has a "linux-style" command interface. But don't let that get you off track... The windows version is as dumb as its linux couneterpart! Takes input from stdin and flushes to stdout.
I didn't test too much the windows version, but I just downloaded it and here's what I did: Extracted everything to the desktop, opened cmd.exe and browsed to the Desktop folder and issued:
echo hello mrelusive2k4 | alph.exe --CAESAR
and i got:
khoor puhoxvlyh2n4
Then to decrypt, I did:
echo khoor puhoxvlyh2n4 | alph.exe --CAESAR -d
and got as expected:
hello mrelusive2k4
(I didn't use the " " because the winx echo takes them as text too.)
The same for all others... I know pipes are not exactly the m$ version of message passing but it seems to work quite decently.
There is no binary encryption yet. Just plain ASCII text. Of course, you can pipe a text file through alph, although I don't know the outcome of pipe-ing a word document through alph, my impression is it will just gibberish up the data.
Alph works at character level, not on bits. It may be supported in the future but an implementation of CAESAR at bit level won't be CAESAR but just some other bit shifting algorithm. But then again, what good would CAESAR be when you have strong solid cyphers out there implemented in freeware programs? :)
The best of luck, and thanks to you for using this program.
Cheers,
r.
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Sorry, didn't look at subject. Now in right place.
Thanks for the reply, but I still can't get it to work. When I enter the test string you used It doesn't do the same. It only echos the string (eg.ehco hello mrelusive2k4 and echo mrelusive2k4 | alph.exe --CAESER gives same reult: hello mrelusive2k4) and ignores the rest after the"|" sign
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Yep. I tried my example on a w2k3 server which supports pipes. Older versions of windows my not support them. I can't say for sure but win 2k, win xp, win 2k3 all seem to support named pipes (maybe NT too). Sad but true...
The alternate way of running Alph would be like this:
Open cmd.exe again, issue for example:
alph.exe --CAESAR
then press enter and type your text. When you're done, press ctrl+z and then hit enter again and it should give you the processed text.
Of course this could proove terribly annoying if you wish to process a large text file (or a source file as you said). I will implement in the next release a hook so you can open an input and output file from the command line in order to process text. This will hopefully make it more avilible to windows users.
Cheers,
r.
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How do I use Alph in windows? The sysntax in the manual is in linux format. If someone can help I am interested in the use of:
CAESER,
VERNAM and
VIGENERE
Also, can I only encrypt text or can you feed it a source file?
Must it be just plain text or can it encrypt any file?
Hi,
Alph uses the standard input / standard output to process text. It only functions as a filter... Doesn't want to be more than that.
Yes, you are right, the manual and even program has a "linux-style" command interface. But don't let that get you off track... The windows version is as dumb as its linux couneterpart! Takes input from stdin and flushes to stdout.
I didn't test too much the windows version, but I just downloaded it and here's what I did: Extracted everything to the desktop, opened cmd.exe and browsed to the Desktop folder and issued:
echo hello mrelusive2k4 | alph.exe --CAESAR
and i got:
khoor puhoxvlyh2n4
Then to decrypt, I did:
echo khoor puhoxvlyh2n4 | alph.exe --CAESAR -d
and got as expected:
hello mrelusive2k4
(I didn't use the " " because the winx echo takes them as text too.)
The same for all others... I know pipes are not exactly the m$ version of message passing but it seems to work quite decently.
There is no binary encryption yet. Just plain ASCII text. Of course, you can pipe a text file through alph, although I don't know the outcome of pipe-ing a word document through alph, my impression is it will just gibberish up the data.
Alph works at character level, not on bits. It may be supported in the future but an implementation of CAESAR at bit level won't be CAESAR but just some other bit shifting algorithm. But then again, what good would CAESAR be when you have strong solid cyphers out there implemented in freeware programs? :)
The best of luck, and thanks to you for using this program.
Cheers,
r.
Sorry, didn't look at subject. Now in right place.
Thanks for the reply, but I still can't get it to work. When I enter the test string you used It doesn't do the same. It only echos the string (eg.ehco hello mrelusive2k4 and echo mrelusive2k4 | alph.exe --CAESER gives same reult: hello mrelusive2k4) and ignores the rest after the"|" sign
Yep. I tried my example on a w2k3 server which supports pipes. Older versions of windows my not support them. I can't say for sure but win 2k, win xp, win 2k3 all seem to support named pipes (maybe NT too). Sad but true...
The alternate way of running Alph would be like this:
Open cmd.exe again, issue for example:
alph.exe --CAESAR
then press enter and type your text. When you're done, press ctrl+z and then hit enter again and it should give you the processed text.
Should look something like this:
C:\>alph.exe --CAESAR
hello mrelusive2k4
^Z
khoor puhoxvlyh2n3
Of course this could proove terribly annoying if you wish to process a large text file (or a source file as you said). I will implement in the next release a hook so you can open an input and output file from the command line in order to process text. This will hopefully make it more avilible to windows users.
Cheers,
r.