How to password protect a folder in linux command line

May be too naive but how about the following:

Let be the directory to be password protected with password .

This just creates a folder called inside with the contents of and removes read permissions to .

To access from terminal:

or

Note that pressing tab or typing won't reveal .

In other words you need to know to reach the original contents of .

To access from nautilus:

Navigate to . Press Ctrl+L. Type in the location bar to enter.

Changing password:

This method has quite a few issues.

1. After gaining access the password will be clearly visible for all to see in the terminal prompt or nautilus address bar.
2. Scripts inside which depend on their exact location in the filesystem won't work properly.
3. Most importantly, sys-admins will be able to access contents without the password - this may not be desirable.

Apart from these there could be other security flaws: this was never intended to be an encryption scheme.

That said, from the sound of the question, I guess this might be sufficient.