User's guide - Using PGP/GnuPG with Mutt-ng =========================================== How do I use mutt with PGP, PGP5, or GnuPG? ------------------------------------------- Go to the contrib subdirectory of the source tree. You'll find three files there, pgp2.rc, pgp5.rc, and gpg.rc. These files contain ready-to-use configurations for using mutt with pgp2, pgp5, and gpg. Include one of these files with your Mutt-ng config file (e.g. ~/.muttngrc), and things should work out fine. You may wish to verify that all paths and the language parameters given to the PGP binaries match your needs. Frequently Asked Questions and Tips ----------------------------------- Q: "People are sending PGP messages which Mutt-ng doesn't recognize. What can I do?" A: The new way is to leave headers alone and use mutt's check-traditional-pgp function, which can detect PGP messages at runtime, and adjust content-types. The old way is to configure your mail filter so it fixes headers: Add the following lines to your ~/.procmailrc (you are using procmail, aren't you?): ------------------------------ ## ## PGP ## :0 * !^Content-Type: message/ * !^Content-Type: multipart/ * !^Content-Type: application/pgp { :0 fBw * ^-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE----- * ^-----END PGP MESSAGE----- | formail \ -i "Content-Type: application/pgp; format=text; x-action=encrypt" :0 fBw * ^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- * ^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- * ^-----END PGP SIGNATURE----- | formail \ -i "Content-Type: application/pgp; format=text; x-action=sign" } ------------------------------ For users of maildrop, "Mark Weinem" suggests the following recipe: ------------------------------ BPGPM="-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----" EPGPM="-----END PGP MESSAGE-----" BPGPS="-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----" EPGPS="-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----" if (!/^Content-Type: message/ && !/^Content-Type: multipart/ \ && !/^Content-Type: application\/pgp/) { if (/^$BPGPM/:b && /^$EPGPM/:b) xfilter "reformail -A 'Content-Type: application/pgp; format=text; \ x-action=encrypt'" if (/^$BPGPS/:b && /^$EPGPS/:b) xfilter "reformail -A 'Content-Type: application/pgp; format=text; \ x-action=sign'" } ------------------------------ Q: "I don't like that PGP/MIME stuff, but want to use the old way of PGP-signing my mails. Can't you include that with Mutt-ng?" A: No. Application/pgp is not really suited to a world with MIME, non-textual body parts and similar things. Anyway, if you really want to generate these old-style attachments, include the following macro in your ~/.muttngrc (line breaks for readability, this is actually one line): macro compose S "Fpgp +verbose=0 -fast +clearsig=on\ny^T^Uapplication/pgp; format=text; x-action=sign\n" There's a new answer, though: Set the pgp_autoinline configuration variable (it's a quad-option) to something different from "no" (that's the default). Mutt-ng will then try to use application/pgp whereever it makes sense. In particular, it does not make any sense with multiparts, or non-ASCII or non-text bodies. In all other cases, PGP/MIME is used unconditionally. Note that application/pgp is still strongly deprecated. Q: "I don't like all the ^Gs and various other verbosity PGP is presenting me with." A: Roland Rosenfeld has found a quite elegant solution to this problem: PGP has some pretty good foreign language support. So we just introduce a language called "mutt" which contains empty strings for the messages we don't want to see. To use this, copy either language.txt or language50.txt (depending on what PGP version you are using) to your $PGPPATH. Make sure the PGP command formats pass "+language=pgp" to all the PGP binaries (but not to pgpringng!). For PGP 2.6, a German version called "muttde" is available as well. Q: "My PGP signatures are being invalidated. BTW, I'm using Courier MTA." A: The author of the Courier MTA believes that the standard specifying multipart/signed is broken. For that reason, he has choosen to implement his MTA in a way which does not assure that multipart/signed body parts are left untouched. We suggest that you abandon courier and change to qmail, postfix, or exim. BACKGROUND ========== Auxiliary Programs ------------------ Mutt-ng needs two auxiliary programs for its PGP support: pgpewrapng and pgpringng. 1. pgpringng pgpringng is a key ring dumper. It extracts information from PGP's binary key ring and emits it in an (almost) readable output format understood by mutt's key selection routines. This output format mimics the one used by the GNU Privacy Guard (GPG). You'll need this program with PGP 2 and PGP 5. Command line options: -k Dump the contents of the key ring specified as an argument to -k. -2, -5 Use the default key ring for PGP 2 or 5, respectively. -s Dump the secret key ring. 2. pgpewrapng This is a little C program which does some command line munging: The first argument is a command to be executed. When pgpewrapng encounters a "--" (dash-dash) argument, it will interpret the next argument as a prefix which is put in front of all following arguments. Example: pgpewrapng pgpe file -- -r a b c will execute: pgpe file -r a -r b -r c This script is needed with PGP 5 and with GPG, since their command line interfaces can't be properly served by mutt's format mechanism. The Configuration Interface --------------------------- As usual within Mutt-ng, the configuration interface for the PGP commands relies on printf-like formats. For all PGP commands, the following %-sequences are defined. %p The empty string when no passphrase is needed, the string "PGPPASSFD=0" if one is needed. This is mostly used in conditional % sequences. %f Most PGP commands operate on a single file or a file containing a message. %f expands to this file's name. %s When verifying signatures, there is another temporary file containing the detached signature. %s expands to this file's name. %a In "signing" contexts, this expands to the value of the configuration variable $pgp_sign_as. You probably need to use this within a conditional % sequence. %r In many contexts, mutt passes key IDs to pgp. %r expands to a list of key IDs. The following command formats are defined: $pgp_decode_command Decode application/pgp messages. This command operates with and without pass phrases. $pgp_verify_command Verify a PGP/MIME signature. $pgp_decrypt_command Decrypt a PGP/MIME encrypted MIME body. This command always gets a pass phrase. $pgp_sign_command Sign a PGP/MIME body. This command always gets a pass phrase. $pgp_encrypt_sign_command Encrypt and sign a MIME body. This command always gets a pass phrase. $pgp_encrypt_only_command Encrypt a MIME body, but don't sign it. $pgp_import_command Import PGP keys from a file. $pgp_export_command Export PGP keys to a file. The output must be ASCII armored. $pgp_verify_key_command Check a public key. This is used from the key selection menu. $pgp_list_secring_command List the secret keys matching some hints given in %r. $pgp_list_pubring_command List the public keys matching some hints given in %r. The passphrase is always passed on stdin; all commands must send their output to stdout and stderr.