How to encrypt an existing unencrypted database using sqlitemc shell?

[sheltongeosx]

Hi, this is not an issue report but rather a newbie question - what are the exact command sequences to encrypt an existing non-encrypted database using sqlitemc shell ? I tried quite a few combinations of pragma statements but no success, It is greatly appreciated if you can provide with an example. Thank you very much in advance!

[utelle]

Since this is not an issue with the implementation, I'm going to convert this topic into a discussion.

The required SQL statements to encrypt an existing non-encrypted database depend on what exactly you want to accomplish.

For the default encryption scheme, usually ChaCha20-Poly1305, it is as simple as issuing a single pragma:

PRAGMA rekey='passphrase';

If you want to use a different encryption scheme, you have to select it, before issuing the rekey pragma:

PRAGMA cipher=aes256cbc;
PRAGMA rekey='passphrase';

selects the encryption scheme wxSQLite3 AES 256-bit.

If you want to use the SQLCipher scheme in legacy mode (to be compatible with existing SQLCipher databases), you specify:

PRAGMA cipher=sqlcipher;
PRAGMA legacy=4;
PRAGMA rekey='passphrase';

[sheltongeosx]

Thank you very much for your quick response! Yes it works! Further more, it behaves in the way that is more favorable to me - doing encryption in-place, instead of having users go through the route to create a new separate file for encrypting a non-encrypted file like SQLcipher does (using sqlcipher_export()).