gnupg/announce.txt

To: gnupg-announce@gnupg.org, info-gnu@gnu.org
Mail-Followup-To: gnupg-users@gnupg.org


Hello!

We are pleased to announce the availability of a new stable GnuPG-2
release:  Version 2.0.18.

The GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG) is GNU's tool for secure communication
and data storage.  It can be used to encrypt data, create digital
signatures, help authenticating using Secure Shell and to provide a
framework for public key cryptography.  It includes an advanced key
management facility and is compliant with the OpenPGP and S/MIME
standards.

GnuPG-2 has a different architecture than GnuPG-1 (e.g. 1.4.11) in
that it splits up functionality into several modules.  However, both
versions may be installed alongside without any conflict.  In fact,
the gpg version from GnuPG-1 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 is its smaller size and the lack of dependency on
other modules at run and build time.  We will keep maintaining GnuPG-1
versions because they are very useful for small systems and for server
based applications requiring only OpenPGP support.

GnuPG is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License
(GPLv3+).  GnuPG-2 works best on GNU/Linux and *BSD systems but is
also available for other Unices, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.


What's New
===========

 * Bug fix for newer versions of Libgcrypt.

 * Support the SSH confirm flag and show SSH fingerprints in ssh
   related pinentries.

 * Improved dirmngr/gpgsm interaction for OCSP.

 * Allow generation of card keys up to 4096 bit.


Getting the Software
====================

Please follow the instructions found at http://www.gnupg.org/download/
or read on:

GnuPG 2.0.18 may be downloaded from one of the GnuPG mirror sites or
direct from ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/gnupg/ .  The list of mirrors
can be found at http://www.gnupg.org/mirrors.html .  Note, that GnuPG
is not available at ftp.gnu.org.

On the FTP server and its mirrors you should find the following files
in the gnupg/ directory:

  gnupg-2.0.18.tar.bz2 (3922k)
  gnupg-2.0.18.tar.bz2.sig

      GnuPG source compressed using BZIP2 and OpenPGP signature.

  gnupg-2.0.17-2.0.18.diff.bz2 (188k)

      A patch file to upgrade a 2.0.17 GnuPG source tree.  This patch
      does not include updates of the language files.

Note, that we don't distribute gzip compressed tarballs for GnuPG-2.


Checking the Integrity
======================

In order to check that the version of GnuPG which you are going to
install is an original and unmodified one, you can do it in one of
the following ways:

 * If you already have a trusted version of GnuPG installed, you
   can simply check the supplied signature.  For example to check the
   signature of the file gnupg-2.0.18.tar.bz2 you would use this command:

     gpg --verify gnupg-2.0.18.tar.bz2.sig

   This checks whether the signature file matches the source file.
   You should see a message indicating that the signature is good and
   made by that signing key.  Make sure that you have the right key,
   either by checking the fingerprint of that key with other sources
   or by checking that the key has been signed by a trustworthy other
   key.  Note, that you can retrieve the signing key using the command

     finger wk ,at' g10code.com

   or using a keyserver like

     gpg --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --recv-key 4F25E3B6

   The distribution key 4F25E3B6 is signed by the well known key
   1E42B367.

   NEVER USE A GNUPG VERSION YOU JUST DOWNLOADED TO CHECK THE
   INTEGRITY OF THE SOURCE - USE AN EXISTING GNUPG INSTALLATION!

 * If you are not able to use an old version of GnuPG, you have to verify
   the SHA-1 checksum.  Assuming you downloaded the file
   gnupg-2.0.18.tar.bz2, you would run the sha1sum command like this:

     sha1sum gnupg-2.0.17.tar.bz2

   and check that the output matches the first line from the
   following list:

5ec2f718760cc3121970a140aeea004b64545c46  gnupg-2.0.18.tar.bz2
998cde3e4383bea771930e9f4934494fa09ed669  gnupg-2.0.17-2.0.18.diff.bz2


Documentation
=============

The gnupg.info file has the complete user manual of the system.
Separate man pages are included as well; however they have not all the
details available in the manual.  It is also possible to read the
complete manual online in HTML format at

  http://www.gnupg.org/documentation/manuals/gnupg/

or in Portable Document Format at

  http://www.gnupg.org/documentation/manuals/gnupg.pdf .

The chapters on gpg-agent, gpg and gpgsm include information on how
to set up the whole thing.  You may also want search the GnuPG mailing
list archives or ask on the gnupg-users mailing lists for advise on
how to solve problems.  Many of the new features are around for
several years and thus enough public knowledge is already available.

Almost all mail clients support GnuPG-2.  Kmail might be the most
prominent user of all GnuPG-2 features.  In fact it has been developed
in cooperation with the Kmail folks.  Mutt users may want to use the
configure option "--enable-gpgme" during build time and put a
"set use_crypt_gpgme" in ~/.muttrc to enable S/MIME support along with
the reworked OpenPGP support.


Support
=======

Please consult the archive of the gnupg-users mailing list before
reporting a bug <http://gnupg.org/documentation/mailing-lists.html>.
We suggest to send bug reports for a new release to this list in favor
of filing a bug at <http://bugs.gnupg.org>.  We also have a dedicated
service directory at:

  http://www.gnupg.org/service.html

Maintaining and improving GnuPG is costly.  For more than 10 years
now, g10 Code, a German company owned and headed by GnuPG's principal
author Werner Koch, is bearing the majority of these costs.  To help
them carry on this work, they need your support.  Please consider to
visit the GnuPG donation page at:

  http://g10code.com/gnupg-donation.html


Thanks
======

We have to thank all the people who helped with this release, be it
testing, coding, translating, suggesting, auditing, administering the
servers, spreading the word or answering questions on the mailing
lists.


Happy Hacking,

  The GnuPG Team