openbsd-ports/security/pgplib/pkg/DESCR
1998-09-29 00:01:13 +00:00

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PGPlib is a library that lets you generate (and manipulate) PGP
packets without having to run PGP. In particular there is code to
generate and understand the following types of PGP packets:
- Data can be signed with a private key
- Data can be encrypted with a public key
- Data encrypted with your public key can be decrypted
- You can verify signatures on public keys and on buffers (files)
- Convential encrypted (IDEA with Zimmermann's context sensitive
feedback). The library can both read (decrypt) and write
(encrypt) convential packets (in PGP format)
- Armor. You can (de)armor a buffer or a file into a buffer or a
file
- UserID packets are read and written in a variety of formats
- Literal with filename, mode, etc. You can create literate
packages from files, or from buffers, and create files from
literate packets
- Keys can be obtained from a database (which is provided) or by
parsing keyrings. Keys can be kept in buffers or on files
- You can maintain a PGP public-key database (I use this library to
maintain a database with ~40.000 keys). There is code to use DBM
as supplied from Berkeley. A copy of DBM is included for your
convinience
In general, PGPlib operates on buffers in order for you to use it in
your applications.
I have made a small program that will (de)armor anything, a parser
to parse PGP files (including decryption and so on), a shell to
manipulate a keydatabase, a keyserver to run on top of such a
database, a program to verify signatures on keys and/or files, a
program to split keyrings in smaller parts and a program that will
sign files for you. You will find all these (and many more) in the
PGPlib-1.1/applications/ directory. None of these uses PGP as they
are linked with PGPlib, which provides all the functionality that is
needed.
I believe that all parts of the library is tested against PGP by the
script PGPlib-1.1/applications/test.sh. You need to edit it in
order to make it run (to ensure that you read my warnings, sorry
about this).
What is not there for you
=========================
- Sufficient documentation.
I have written this library because I need it. In order to make
life less hard for my students, I will have to provide some
documentation. Possibly even on-line. However, quite a few manual
pages are included in the PGPlib-1.1/man/ directory.