Re: why application/pgp; x-action=sign != application/pgp-signature ?

["Kari E. Hurtta" <Kari.Hurtta@ozone.fmi.fi>]

Cyrille Lefevre:
> ShengHuo ZHU <zsh@cs.rochester.edu> writes:
> 
> > Cyrille Lefevre <clefevre@citeweb.net> writes:
> > 
> > > how to configure gnus so "application/pgp; x-action=sign" behaves like
> > > application/pgp-signature ?
> > > 
> > > the former one looks like this :
> > > 
> > > <common headers>
> > > Content-Type: application/pgp; format=text; x-action=sign
> > > 
> > 
> > [...]
> > 
> > > 
> > > is there something to configure out there or something to implement ?
> > > 
> > > the problem is that I don't have any problem to read the later one.
> > > but I'm unable to read the former one. I need to save it to read it :(
> > 
> > What is the content of application/pgp, signed text or just signature?
> > Where to find the specification?
> 
> well, I go to iana to find the specs about pgp, which refer to rfc2015
> which only known about application/pgp-something. so, you are right and
> the product I'm using seems to be wrong. maybe it is (always) using an
> pre-standard. who knowns ?

ELM ME+ plus does not support RFC 2015 (execpt that there is limited
(or incomplete) support on reading cide.)

application/pgp comes from time when Elm 2.4ME+ 
was Michael Elkins' Elm2.4 PL24 MExx. ANNOUNCE.ME
(which is announce of Elm2.4 PL24 MExx) seems say:

<...>
| ELM 2.4 PL24 ME8
|  
| This is an announcement for Patchlevel ME8 for Elm 2.4pl24.                     
<...>
| What's new:             
<...>
|   * Support for application/pgp type inside multipart/mixed and message/rfc822
|      messages                                                                   

Either ANNOUNCE.ME or ChangeLog.ME gies not hint why it is application/pgp
or when where it comes to here.

Comment on source just says:

    /* This procedure implements the de-facto standard for using PGP with MIME.
     * Content-Type: application/pgp
     * Required-Parameters: none
     * Optional parameters: format, x-action
     *     format = mime | text | keys-only
     *         mime : indicates that the signed/encrypted body contains a MIME
     *                compliant body and should be parsed recursively.
     *         text : [DEFAULT if there is no format option].  This option
     *                means that the encrypted/signed data should be presented
     *                to the user after processing, no additional processing
     *                needed.
     *         keys-only:
     *                The data in the body represents public key data only
     *     x-action = encryptsign | encrypt | sign
     *         This keyword is meant to be helpful to the application, but is
     *         not required, and may not even be necessary to look at.
     *
     *         encryptsign : the application/pgp data is both signed and
     *                       encrypted.
     *         encrypt     : the data is encrypted only
     *         sign        : the data is signed only
     */                                                                                


> the following message has been created using elm 2.4ME+PL77 which is a
> popular UNIX mail reader/composer.
> it may be reached at <URL:ftp://ftp.ozone.fmi.fi/KEH/>.
> the maintainer seems to be <URL:mailto:hurtta+elm@ozone.FMI.FI (Kari Hurtta)>.
> I'll contact him right now.

elm 2.4ME+ popular UNIX mail reader/composer ?

Nice to hear :-)

/ Kari Hurtta