In both Linux and Mac OS X, password-protected archives can be created using the command line tool “zip.” Here are the steps to create a password-protected archive using the “zip” tool:

1. Open the Terminal application on your Linux or Mac OS X computer.
2. Navigate to the directory containing the files you want to archive and encrypt.
3. Type the following command:

Replace “archive.zip” with the desired name of your encrypted archive file, and “file1 file2 file3” with the names of the files you want to include in the archive. You can include multiple files or directories separated by spaces.

1. Press Enter and you will be prompted to enter a password for the archive. Type the desired password and press Enter again to confirm it.
2. The “zip” tool will create a password-protected archive in the current directory containing the specified files.

Note that the “-e” option specifies encryption and “-r” specifies recursive mode for including all subdirectories. To extract files from the encrypted archive, you can use the “unzip” command with the “-P” option followed by the password. For example:

Replace “yourpassword” with the actual password you used to encrypt the archive, and “archive.zip” with the name of the encrypted archive file.