+scpoptions="$sshoptions"
+[ "$bandwidthlimit" == 0 ] || scpoptions="$scpoptions -l $bandwidthlimit"
+
+if [ -z "$sftpoptions" ]; then
+ execstr="$options --no-print-statistics --scp-command 'scp $scpoptions' --ssh-command 'ssh $sshoptions' "
+else
+ execstr="$options --no-print-statistics --scp-command 'scp $scpoptions' --sftp-command 'sftp $sftpoptions' --ssh-command 'ssh $sshoptions' "
+fi
+
+# deal with symmetric or asymmetric (public/private key pair) encryption
+if [ -n "$encryptkey" ]; then
+ execstr="${execstr}--encrypt-key $encryptkey "
+ debug "Data will be encrypted with the GnuPG key $encryptkey."
+else
+ debug "Data will be encrypted using symmetric encryption."
+fi
+
+# deal with data signing
+if [ "$sign" == yes ]; then
+ # duplicity is not able to sign data when using symmetric encryption
+ [ -n "$encryptkey" ] || fatal "The encryptkey option must be set when signing."
+ # if needed, initialize signkey to a value that is not empty (checked above)
+ [ -n "$signkey" ] || signkey="$encryptkey"
+ execstr="${execstr}--sign-key $signkey "
+ debug "Data will be signed will the GnuPG key $signkey."
+else
+ debug "Data won't be signed."
+fi
+
+# deal with GnuPG passphrase
+[ -n "$password" ] || fatal "The password option must be set."
+
+if [ "$keep" != "yes" ]; then
+ if [ "`echo $keep | tr -d 0-9`" == "" ]; then