How to Install Git-crypt on Windows?

Git-crypt is a command-line-based tool for protecting confidential data in Git repositories. A developer typically uses this tool to keep confidential data like passwords, keys, and other personal data in his Git repository. This tool uses symmetric key cryptography. That is, the same key is used for both encrypting and decrypting data. This key is not stored in his Git repository and is protected by a password or key file. Only authorized people can access it. Git-crypt integrates extensions into Git repositories, automatically encoding and decoding files as they are added or removed. This makes it easier to use and eliminates the need for programmers to remember how to manually encode and decode confidential data. 

Steps to follow to install Git-crypt on Windows

Step 1. Install Git for Windows: A basic requirement of Git-crypt is Git. So, our first task is to install git on Windows. 

Step 2. Install GPG4Win: Git-crypt uses GPG to encode and decode confidential data. So, Download GPG from the official website. Now, To install GPG, Double click on the setup of the GPG4Win-XXXXX.exe file. As a result, you will see the below screen and click on the next button.

Again, click on the next button.

Now, update the path of the destination directory if you want to change it and click on the install button.

Once the GPG4Win is installed in your system, the below dialog box will appear on your screen. Click on the next button.

At last, Click on the finish button. Now, GPG4Win is installed successfully in your system.

Step 3. Install Git-crypt: Once Git and GPG4Win are set up in our system, we can install Git-crypt using the following steps:

 1. As an administrator, launch a command prompt window.

 2. Browse to the location where you wish to install Git-crypt.

 3. In the command prompt, use the following command to download and install Git-crypt:

git clone https://github.com/AGWA/git-crypt.git

cd git-crypt

make

make install

Step 4. Set up Git-crypt:  Once installed, we must configure Git-crypt for our Git repository. To do this, follow these steps:

 1. Go to your Git repository.

 2. To get Git-crypt up and running, use the following command:

git-crypt init

 3. In your Git repository, create a .gitattributes file with the following contents:

* filter=git-crypt diff=git-crypt

4. Encrypt the files you want to protect using the command prompt with the following command:

git-crypt add-gpg-user <key-id>

<Key-id> should be replaced with the ID of the GPG key you want to use to encrypt the files. We can now secure our data in the git repository with the help of Git-crypt.