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gnupg/README
Werner Koch ade32464a2
Release 2.1.17
Signed-off-by: Werner Koch <wk@gnupg.org>
2016-12-20 11:25:45 +01:00

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The GNU Privacy Guard 2
=========================
Version 2.1
Copyright 1997-2016 Werner Koch
Copyright 1998-2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
* INTRODUCTION
GnuPG is a complete and free implementation of the OpenPGP standard
as defined by RFC4880 (also known as PGP). GnuPG enables encryption
and signing of data and communication, and features a versatile key
management system as well as access modules for public key
directories.
GnuPG, also known as GPG, is a command line tool with features for
easy integration with other applications. A wealth of frontend
applications and libraries are available that make use of GnuPG.
Starting with version 2 GnuPG provides support for S/MIME and Secure
Shell in addition to OpenPGP.
GnuPG is Free Software (meaning that it respects your freedom). It
can be freely used, modified and distributed under the terms of the
GNU General Public License.
We are currently maintaining three branches of GnuPG:
- 2.1 (i.e. this release) is the latest stable version with a lot of
new features.
- 2.0 is an often used stable version. This branch will reach
end-of-life on 2017-12-31.
- 1.4 is the old standalone version which is most suitable for older
or embedded platforms.
You may not install 2.1 and 2.0 at the same time. However, it is
possible to install 1.4 along with any of the 2.x versions.
* BUILD INSTRUCTIONS
GnuPG 2.1 depends on the following GnuPG related packages:
npth (ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/npth/)
libgpg-error (ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/libgpg-error/)
libgcrypt (ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/libgcrypt/)
libksba (ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/libksba/)
libassuan (ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/libassuan/)
You should get the latest versions of course, the GnuPG configure
script complains if a version is not sufficient.
For some advanced features several other libraries are required.
The configure script prints diagnostic messages if one of these
libraries is not available and a feature will not be available..
You also need the Pinentry package for most functions of GnuPG;
however it is not a build requirement. Pinentry is available at
ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/pinentry/ .
After building and installing the above packages in the order as
given above, you may continue with GnuPG installation (you may also
just try to build GnuPG to see whether your already installed
versions are sufficient).
As with all packages, you just have to do
./configure
make
make install
(Before doing install you might need to become root.)
If everything succeeds, you have a working GnuPG with support for
OpenPGP, S/MIME, ssh-agent, and smartcards. Note that there is no
binary gpg but a gpg2 so that this package won't conflict with a
GnuPG 1.4 installation. gpg2 behaves just like gpg.
In case of problem please ask on the gnupg-users@gnupg.org mailing
list for advise.
Instruction on how to build for Windows can be found in the file
doc/HACKING in the section "How to build an installer for Windows".
This requires some experience as developer.
Note that the PKITS tests are always skipped unless you copy the
PKITS test data file into the tests/pkits directory. There is no
need to run these test and some of them may even fail because the
test scripts are not yet complete.
You may run
gpgconf --list-dirs
to view the default directories used by GnuPG.
To quickly build all required software without installing it, the
Speedo method may be used:
make -f build-aux/speedo.mk native
This method downloads all required libraries and does a native build
of GnuPG to PLAY/inst/. GNU make is required and you need to set
LD_LIBRARY_PATH to $(pwd)/PLAY/inst/lib to test the binaries.
** Specific build problems on some machines:
*** Apple OSX 10.x using XCode
On some versions the correct location of a header file can't be
detected by configure. To fix that you should run configure like
this
./configure gl_cv_absolute_stdint_h=/usr/include/stdint.h
Add other options as needed.
*** Systems without a full C99 compiler
If you run into problems with your compiler complaining about dns.c
you may use
./configure --disable-libdns
Add other options as needed.
* MIGRATION from 1.4 or 2.0 to 2.1
The major change in 2.1 is gpg-agent taking care of the OpenPGP
secret keys (those managed by GPG). The former file "secring.gpg"
will not be used anymore. Newly generated keys are stored in the
agent's key store directory "~/.gnupg/private-keys-v1.d/". The
first time gpg needs a secret key it checks whether a "secring.gpg"
exists and copies them to the new store. The old secring.gpg is
kept for use by older versions of gpg.
Note that gpg-agent now uses a fixed socket. All tools will start
the gpg-agent as needed. The formerly used environment variable
GPG_AGENT_INFO is ignored by 2.1. The SSH_AUTH_SOCK environment
variable should be set to a fixed value.
The Dirmngr is now part of GnuPG proper and also used to access
OpenPGP keyservers. The directory layout of Dirmngr changed to make
use of the GnuPG directories. Dirmngr is started by gpg or gpgsm as
needed. There is no more need to install a separate Dirmngr package.
* DOCUMENTATION
The complete documentation is in the texinfo manual named
`gnupg.info'. Run "info gnupg" to read it. If you want a a
printable copy of the manual, change to the "doc" directory and
enter "make pdf" For a HTML version enter "make html" and point your
browser to gnupg.html/index.html. Standard man pages for all
components are provided as well. An online version of the manual is
available at [[https://gnupg.org/documentation/manuals/gnupg/]] . A
version of the manual pertaining to the current development snapshot
is at [[https://gnupg.org/documentation/manuals/gnupg-devel/]] .
* GnuPG 1.4 and GnuPG 2.0
GnuPG 2.0 is a newer version of GnuPG with additional support for
S/MIME. It has a different design philosophy that splits
functionality up into several modules. Both versions may be
installed simultaneously without any conflict (gpg is called gpg2 in
GnuPG 2). In fact, the gpg version from GnuPG 1.4 is able to make
use of the gpg-agent as included in GnuPG 2 and allows for seamless
passphrase caching. The advantage of GnuPG 1.4 is its smaller size
and no dependency on other modules at run and build time.
* HOW TO GET MORE INFORMATION
A description of new features and changes in version 2.1 can be
found in the file "doc/whats-new-in-2.1.txt" and online at
"https://gnupg.org/faq/whats-new-in-2.1.html" .
The primary WWW page is "https://www.gnupg.org"
or using Tor "http://ic6au7wa3f6naxjq.onion"
The primary FTP site is "ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/"
See [[https://gnupg.org/download/mirrors.html]] for a list of
mirrors and use them if possible. You may also find GnuPG mirrored
on some of the regular GNU mirrors.
We have some mailing lists dedicated to GnuPG:
gnupg-announce@gnupg.org For important announcements like new
versions and such stuff. This is a
moderated list and has very low traffic.
Do not post to this list.
gnupg-users@gnupg.org For general user discussion and
help (English).
gnupg-de@gnupg.org German speaking counterpart of
gnupg-users.
gnupg-ru@gnupg.org Russian speaking counterpart of
gnupg-users.
gnupg-devel@gnupg.org GnuPG developers main forum.
You subscribe to one of the list by sending mail with a subject of
"subscribe" to x-request@gnupg.org, where x is the name of the
mailing list (gnupg-announce, gnupg-users, etc.). See
https://www.gnupg.org/documentation/mailing-lists.html for archives
of the mailing lists.
Please direct bug reports to http://bugs.gnupg.org or post them
direct to the mailing list <gnupg-devel@gnupg.org>.
Please direct questions about GnuPG to the users mailing list or one
of the PGP newsgroups; please do not direct questions to one of the
authors directly as we are busy working on improvements and bug
fixes. The English and German mailing lists are watched by the
authors and we try to answer questions when time allows us.
Commercial grade support for GnuPG is available; for a listing of
offers see https://www.gnupg.org/service.html . Maintaining and
improving GnuPG requires a lot of time. Since 2001, g10 Code GmbH,
a German company owned and headed by GnuPG's principal author Werner
Koch, is bearing the majority of these costs. To keep GnuPG in a
healthy state, they need your support.
Please consider to donate at https://gnupg.org/donate/ .
# This file is Free Software; as a special exception the authors gives
# unlimited permission to copy and/or distribute it, with or without
# modifications, as long as this notice is preserved. For conditions
# of the whole package, please see the file COPYING. This file is
# distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
# WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law; without even the implied
# warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
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