* What's this?
-EasyPG is yet another GnuPG interface for Emacs. It consists of two
-parts: transparent file encryption utility and easy-to-use elisp
-library to interact with GnuPG.
+EasyPG is a GnuPG interface for Emacs. It has two aspects: convenient
+tools which allow to use GnuPG from Emacs (EasyPG Assistant), and a
+fully functional interface library to GnuPG (EasyPG Library.)
* Requirements
-** GNU Emacs 21.4 or later
+** GNU Emacs 21.4 or XEmacs 21.4
-** XEmacs 21.4 or later
-
-** GnuPG 1.4.3 or later
+** GnuPG 1.4.3
* Quick start
-(0) Put (require 'epg-file) in your ~/.emacs.el
+** Installation
+
+ $ ./configure
+ $ sudo make install
+
+Add the following line to your ~/.emacs
+
+ (require 'epa-setup)
+
+Then you can browse your keyring by `M-x epa-list-keys'. In addition,
+you can do some cryptographic operations on dired.
+
+ M-x dired
+ (mark some files)
+ : e (or M-x epa-dired-do-encrypt)
+ (select recipients by 'm' and click [OK])
+
+* MUA Integration
+
+The EasyPG Library can be used in combination with various MUA (Mail
+User Agents.)
+
+** CVS version of Gnus
+
+CVS version of Gnus supports EasyPG natively, simply put the following
+line into your ~/.emacs.
+
+ (setq mml2015-use 'epg)
+
+Other options which affect on the binding are
+
+ mml2015-signers
+ mml2015-encrypt-to-self
+ mml2015-cache-passphrase
+ mml2015-passphrase-cache-expiry
+ mml2015-verbose
+
+NOTE: You need not to install pgg-epg.el in this case.
+
+** PGG based MUA
+
+PGG is somewhat outdated PGP library used by old Gnus, MH-E, etc.
+
+There is a PGG backend using EasyPG called pgg-epg.el. However,
+EasyPG API is a superset of PGG, so pgg-epg.el just emulates the old
+behavior of pgg.el. Major features which PGG lacks are
+
+- Key selection user interface
+- Diagnosis interface to the verify operation
+- Web of trust
+- S/MIME using gpgsm
-(1) Restart emacs
+** SEMI based MUA
-(2) C-x C-f ~/test.gpg
+SEMI is the MIME library used by Wanderlust, cmail, T-gnus, etc.
-* Advantages over other competitors
+There is an EasyPG capable SEMI library called EMIKO-EasyPG. It can
+be downloaded from the same site of the EasyPG distribution point.
-There are many competitors of EasyPG such as Mailcrypt, PGG, gpg.el,
-etc. EasyPG has some advantages over them.
+* Security
-** EasyPG avoides potential security flaws of Emacs.
+There are security pitfalls around Emacs.
-*** `call-process-region' writes data in region to temporary files.
+** Passphrase may leak to a temporary file.
-`call-process-region' writes data in region to temporary files. PGG
-and gpg.el use `call-process-region' to communicate with a gpg
-subprocess. Your passphrases leak to the filesystem!
+The function call-process-region writes data in region to a temporary
+file. If your PGP library used this function, your passphrases would
+leak to the filesystem.
-*** There is no way to clear strings safely.
+The EasyPG Library does not use call-process-region to communicate
+with a gpg subprocess.
-If Emacs crashed and dumps core, passphrase strings in memory are also
-dumped within the core file. `read-passwd' function clears passphrase
-strings by `(fillarray string 0)'. However, Emacs performs compaction
-in gc_sweep phase. If GC happens before `fillarray', passphrase
-strings may be moved elsewhere in memory. It is recommended that as
-soon as you are done with passphrase you should clear it manually.
-However, PGG and gpg.el can keep passphrase strings in cache for a
-while and this behavior is their default!
+** Passphrase may be stolen from a core file.
-** Most GnuPG features are accessible from Emacs
+If Emacs crashes and dumps core, Lisp strings in memory are also
+dumped within the core file. read-passwd function clears passphrase
+strings by (fillarray string 0) to avoid this risk. However, Emacs
+performs compaction in gc_sweep phase. If GC happens before fillarray,
+passphrase strings may be moved elsewhere in memory. Therefore,
+passphrase caching in elisp is generally a bad idea.
-Other competitors provide only specific features of GnuPG. As the
-name indicates, EasyPG is inspired by GPGME (GnuPG Made Easy), and the
-library interface is close to GPGME. With EasyPG you can handle
-binary messages, sign/encrypt combined messages, etc.
+The EasyPG Library dares to disable passphrase caching. Fortunately,
+there is more secure way to cache passphrases - use gpg-agent.
projects / elisp / epg.git / blobdiff