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Topic review

H.CH

Issue with external editor (.bat) for decrypting .gpg files – script receives wrong file

Hello,

I'm trying to use an external editor in WinSCP to decrypt .gpg files automatically using a batch script that calls GPG and opens the decrypted content in Notepad.

⚙️ My setup:
In WinSCP > Preferences > Editors:

  • Editor: C:\Users\h.chahid\Documents\Scripts\cmdgpg.bat
  • Arguments: %f

The batch script (cmdgpg.bat) looks like this: 
@echo off
setlocal
 
if "%~1"=="" (
    echo No file specified.
    pause
    exit /b
)
 
set "encrypted_file=%~1"
set "output_file=%TEMP%\decrypted.txt"
 
"C:\Users\h.chahid\AppData\Local\Programs\GnuPG\bin\gpg.exe" --yes --batch --output "%output_file%" --decrypt "%encrypted_file%"
 
if exist "%output_file%" (
    start notepad "%output_file%"
) else (
    echo ❌ Failed to decrypt.
    pause
)

❌ The issue:

When I double-click a .gpg file in WinSCP, I get this error:

gpg: no valid OpenPGP data found.
gpg: decrypt_message failed: Unknown system error

After checking logs, I realized that the script is sometimes receiving its own path instead of the actual .gpg file.
This causes the script to try and decrypt itself, not the target file.
✅ What I’ve tried:

  • Setting %f in the parameters field (with quotes)
  • Changing FTP mode (active/passive)
  • Enabling detailed logs
  • Verifying that the file is valid OpenPGP
  • Manually decrypting the file via GPG (works perfectly)

❓My question:

  • Why does WinSCP sometimes pass the wrong file to the script?
  • Is there a better way to reliably pass the actual .gpg file path to a custom .bat editor?
  • Could this be an issue related to FTP file handling or how WinSCP creates temporary files?

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