1 The GNU Privacy Guard 2
2 =========================
5 Copyright 1997-2016 Werner Koch
6 Copyright 1998-2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
11 GnuPG is a complete and free implementation of the OpenPGP standard
12 as defined by RFC4880 (also known as PGP). GnuPG enables encryption
13 and signing of data and communication, and features a versatile key
14 management system as well as access modules for public key
17 GnuPG, also known as GPG, is a command line tool with features for
18 easy integration with other applications. A wealth of frontend
19 applications and libraries are available that make use of GnuPG.
20 Starting with version 2 GnuPG provides support for S/MIME and Secure
21 Shell in addition to OpenPGP.
23 GnuPG is Free Software (meaning that it respects your freedom). It
24 can be freely used, modified and distributed under the terms of the
25 GNU General Public License.
27 We are currently maintaining three branches of GnuPG:
29 - 2.1 (i.e. this release) is the latest stable version with a lot of
32 - 2.0 is an often used stable version. This branch will reach
33 end-of-life on 2017-12-31.
35 - 1.4 is the old standalone version which is most suitable for older
36 or embedded platforms.
38 You may not install 2.1 and 2.0 at the same time. However, it is
39 possible to install 1.4 along with any of the 2.x versions.
44 GnuPG 2.1 depends on the following GnuPG related packages:
46 npth (ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/npth/)
47 libgpg-error (ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/libgpg-error/)
48 libgcrypt (ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/libgcrypt/)
49 libksba (ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/libksba/)
50 libassuan (ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/libassuan/)
52 You should get the latest versions of course, the GnuPG configure
53 script complains if a version is not sufficient.
55 For some advanced features several other libraries are required.
56 The configure script prints diagnostic messages if one of these
57 libraries is not available and a feature will not be available..
59 You also need the Pinentry package for most functions of GnuPG;
60 however it is not a build requirement. Pinentry is available at
61 ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/pinentry/ .
63 After building and installing the above packages in the order as
64 given above, you may continue with GnuPG installation (you may also
65 just try to build GnuPG to see whether your already installed
66 versions are sufficient).
68 As with all packages, you just have to do
74 (Before doing install you might need to become root.)
76 If everything succeeds, you have a working GnuPG with support for
77 OpenPGP, S/MIME, ssh-agent, and smartcards. Note that there is no
78 binary gpg but a gpg2 so that this package won't conflict with a
79 GnuPG 1.4 installation. gpg2 behaves just like gpg.
81 In case of problem please ask on the gnupg-users@gnupg.org mailing
84 Instruction on how to build for Windows can be found in the file
85 doc/HACKING in the section "How to build an installer for Windows".
86 This requires some experience as developer.
88 Note that the PKITS tests are always skipped unless you copy the
89 PKITS test data file into the tests/pkits directory. There is no
90 need to run these test and some of them may even fail because the
91 test scripts are not yet complete.
97 to view the default directories used by GnuPG.
99 To quickly build all required software without installing it, the
100 Speedo method may be used:
102 make -f build-aux/speedo.mk native
104 This method downloads all required libraries and does a native build
105 of GnuPG to PLAY/inst/. GNU make is required and you need to set
106 LD_LIBRARY_PATH to $(pwd)/PLAY/inst/lib to test the binaries.
108 ** Specific build problems on some machines:
110 *** Apple OSX 10.x using XCode
112 On some versions the correct location of a header file can't be
113 detected by configure. To fix that you should run configure like
116 ./configure gl_cv_absolute_stdint_h=/usr/include/stdint.h
118 Add other options as needed.
121 *** Systems without a full C99 compiler
123 If you run into problems with your compiler complaining about dns.c
126 ./configure --disable-libdns
128 Add other options as needed.
131 * MIGRATION from 1.4 or 2.0 to 2.1
133 The major change in 2.1 is gpg-agent taking care of the OpenPGP
134 secret keys (those managed by GPG). The former file "secring.gpg"
135 will not be used anymore. Newly generated keys are stored in the
136 agent's key store directory "~/.gnupg/private-keys-v1.d/". The
137 first time gpg needs a secret key it checks whether a "secring.gpg"
138 exists and copies them to the new store. The old secring.gpg is
139 kept for use by older versions of gpg.
141 Note that gpg-agent now uses a fixed socket. All tools will start
142 the gpg-agent as needed. The formerly used environment variable
143 GPG_AGENT_INFO is ignored by 2.1. The SSH_AUTH_SOCK environment
144 variable should be set to a fixed value.
146 The Dirmngr is now part of GnuPG proper and also used to access
147 OpenPGP keyservers. The directory layout of Dirmngr changed to make
148 use of the GnuPG directories. Dirmngr is started by gpg or gpgsm as
149 needed. There is no more need to install a separate Dirmngr package.
154 The complete documentation is in the texinfo manual named
155 `gnupg.info'. Run "info gnupg" to read it. If you want a a
156 printable copy of the manual, change to the "doc" directory and
157 enter "make pdf" For a HTML version enter "make html" and point your
158 browser to gnupg.html/index.html. Standard man pages for all
159 components are provided as well. An online version of the manual is
160 available at [[https://gnupg.org/documentation/manuals/gnupg/]] . A
161 version of the manual pertaining to the current development snapshot
162 is at [[https://gnupg.org/documentation/manuals/gnupg-devel/]] .
165 * GnuPG 1.4 and GnuPG 2.0
167 GnuPG 2.0 is a newer version of GnuPG with additional support for
168 S/MIME. It has a different design philosophy that splits
169 functionality up into several modules. Both versions may be
170 installed simultaneously without any conflict (gpg is called gpg2 in
171 GnuPG 2). In fact, the gpg version from GnuPG 1.4 is able to make
172 use of the gpg-agent as included in GnuPG 2 and allows for seamless
173 passphrase caching. The advantage of GnuPG 1.4 is its smaller size
174 and no dependency on other modules at run and build time.
177 * HOW TO GET MORE INFORMATION
179 A description of new features and changes in version 2.1 can be
180 found in the file "doc/whats-new-in-2.1.txt" and online at
181 "https://gnupg.org/faq/whats-new-in-2.1.html" .
183 The primary WWW page is "https://www.gnupg.org"
184 or using Tor "http://ic6au7wa3f6naxjq.onion"
185 The primary FTP site is "ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/"
187 See [[https://gnupg.org/download/mirrors.html]] for a list of
188 mirrors and use them if possible. You may also find GnuPG mirrored
189 on some of the regular GNU mirrors.
191 We have some mailing lists dedicated to GnuPG:
193 gnupg-announce@gnupg.org For important announcements like new
194 versions and such stuff. This is a
195 moderated list and has very low traffic.
196 Do not post to this list.
198 gnupg-users@gnupg.org For general user discussion and
201 gnupg-de@gnupg.org German speaking counterpart of
204 gnupg-ru@gnupg.org Russian speaking counterpart of
207 gnupg-devel@gnupg.org GnuPG developers main forum.
209 You subscribe to one of the list by sending mail with a subject of
210 "subscribe" to x-request@gnupg.org, where x is the name of the
211 mailing list (gnupg-announce, gnupg-users, etc.). See
212 https://www.gnupg.org/documentation/mailing-lists.html for archives
213 of the mailing lists.
215 Please direct bug reports to http://bugs.gnupg.org or post them
216 direct to the mailing list <gnupg-devel@gnupg.org>.
218 Please direct questions about GnuPG to the users mailing list or one
219 of the PGP newsgroups; please do not direct questions to one of the
220 authors directly as we are busy working on improvements and bug
221 fixes. The English and German mailing lists are watched by the
222 authors and we try to answer questions when time allows us.
224 Commercial grade support for GnuPG is available; for a listing of
225 offers see https://www.gnupg.org/service.html . Maintaining and
226 improving GnuPG requires a lot of time. Since 2001, g10 Code GmbH,
227 a German company owned and headed by GnuPG's principal author Werner
228 Koch, is bearing the majority of these costs. To keep GnuPG in a
229 healthy state, they need your support.
231 Please consider to donate at https://gnupg.org/donate/ .
234 # This file is Free Software; as a special exception the authors gives
235 # unlimited permission to copy and/or distribute it, with or without
236 # modifications, as long as this notice is preserved. For conditions
237 # of the whole package, please see the file COPYING. This file is
238 # distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
239 # WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law; without even the implied
240 # warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.