ARJ Password Behavior and File Renaming

You’ve discovered an important feature of ARJ! Let me explain what’s happening:

Using -g? Option

When you use -g? instead of just -g, ARJ will prompt you to enter a password interactively:

arj a -r -jm -g? archive_name.arj /sdcard/music/

This is more secure than including the password in the command line because:

1. The password won’t be saved in your command history
2. The password won’t be visible to others who might see your screen

File Renaming and Password Protection

Yes, the password protection will still work if you rename the ARJ file.

The password is embedded in the encryption of the file contents themselves, not tied to the filename. When you try to extract or view the contents of the renamed ARJ file, ARJ will still prompt for the same password.

Example:

1. You create: music_backup.arj with password “secret123”
2. You rename it to: my_music_2023.arj
3. When you run: arj x my_music_2023.arj
4. ARJ will still prompt for the password “secret123”

Important Notes

1. Remember your password: There’s no way to recover contents if you forget the password
2. ARJ’s encryption is outdated: For sensitive data, consider more modern tools like 7zip with AES encryption
3. Verification: You can test that the password works with:

   arj t renamed_file.arj
   

The password protection is tied to the file’s contents, not its name, so renaming won’t affect the encryption.