Re: gnus-PGP

[Nathan Williams <nwilliams@primeon.com>]

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psadhukhan@hss.hns.com writes:

> Hi,
> I am using PGPi 6.5.1
> I get from the NEWS file in the /usr/lib/xemacs-20.4/lisp/mailcrypt
> directory that the version is 3.4.
> is there any other way of knowing the mailcrypt version?

I've recently (in the last few days) been trying to make Mailcrypt
3.5.4, and PGP 6.5.1 (command line) talk to each other (with FSF Emacs
20.3.1 and pGnus 0.92, all on a Windows 98 system). Here's what I've
learned:

 - 6.5.1 is close enough to 2.6.2 that mods should be based on
       mc-pgp.el rather than mc-pgp5.el.

 - Signing and encrypting can be made to work either by using the
       +COMPATIBLE flag throughout mc-pgp.el or changing key-regexp in
       mc-pgp-lookup-key to:
       "^\\(\\(DSS\\|RSA\\)\\s +\\S +\\s +0x\\(\\S *\\)\\s +\\S +\\s +\\(.*\\)\\)$"

 - The bug that prevents -f and +BATCHMODE from working together
       triggers a bug in mc-pgp-decrypt-region such that if one
       naievely removes +BATCHMODE, you get wedged asking for a
       password. This can be worked around with the following patch
       (which is more like what mc-pgp5.el and mc-gpg.el do; I presume
       that it isn't fixed here because it doesn't cause problems with
       PGP 2.6.2):


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*** src/mailcrypt-3.5.4/mc-pgp.el	Tue Jul 20 10:20:56 1999
--- share/elisp/mc-pgp.el	Thu Sep 23 15:28:38 1999
***************
*** 255,267 ****
       passwd
       (if key
  	 (mc-activate-passwd (cdr key)
! 			     (and id
! 				  (format "PGP passphrase for %s (%s): "
! 					  (car key) (cdr key))))
         (mc-activate-passwd id "PGP passphrase for conventional decryption: ")))
      (if passwd
  	(setenv "PGPPASSFD" "0"))
!     (setq args '("+verbose=1" "+batchmode" "+language=en" "-f"))
      (if mc-pgp-alternate-keyring
  	(setq args (append args (list (format "+pubring=%s"
  					      mc-pgp-alternate-keyring)))))
--- 253,264 ----
       passwd
       (if key
  	 (mc-activate-passwd (cdr key)
! 			     (format "PGP passphrase for %s (%s): "
! 					  (car key) (cdr key)))
         (mc-activate-passwd id "PGP passphrase for conventional decryption: ")))
      (if passwd
  	(setenv "PGPPASSFD" "0"))
!     (setq args '("+verbose=1" "+language=en" "-f"))
      (if mc-pgp-alternate-keyring
  	(setq args (append args (list (format "+pubring=%s"
  					      mc-pgp-alternate-keyring)))))

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 - mc-pgp-decrypt-parser needs a lot of work. As-is, you get no data
       because the "Signature good" output (on stderr) from pgp ends
       up after the actual message, the opposite of what
       mc-pgp-decrypt-parser expects (This might also be a result of
       Windows or Emacs on Windows mixing stdout and stderr
       differently; <insert flame about start-process not having a way
       to handle stderr separately from stdout and depending on
       unreliable mixing semantics>). 
       This might be a place where ripping off from mc-pgp5.el
       would be productive. I'm still working on it. 

I hope this helps some.

        - Nathan