hi
im doing a remote backup with one of my friends server, he backup his files on my server and i backup my files on his server..

i was wondering if i can passwrd protect a tar.gz file, i usuly do a :
tar -czf /tmp/backup.tar.gz /home/backup

i want to know if there is a way to put a password on the file backup.tar.gz so no one can open or extract the file.

dose tar support (passwords) ?

I think it doesn't support passwords.... but there should be a tool that does password protect file.... never needed it on unix thought..

There are more secure ways, but this works fairly well. Just

1) put the following in an .htaccess file in the same dir as filename.tar.gz

<Files filename.tar.gz>
AuthType Basic
AuthName "RESTRICTED"
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthUserFile DIRECTORY_PATH/.htpasswd
require valid-user
</Files>

2. Create a file named .htpasswd and add as many usernames as you like. Be sure and encrypt the passwords. They should look like the below with username:password

EXAMPLES:
username:en7cr$yp.lo
bobc:iw372.s8ew;o