[Announce] GnuPG 2.0 released
Werner Koch
wk at gnupg.org
Mon Nov 13 12:27:32 CET 2006
Hello!
The GNU project is pleased to announce the availability of a new
stable GnuPG release: Version 2.0.0.
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. 1.4.5) 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
(GPL). GnuPG-2 works best on GNU/Linux or *BSD systems. Other POSIX
compliant systems are also supported but have not yet been tested very
well.
What's New in GnuPG-2
=====================
* The *gpg-agent* is the central place to maintain private keys and
to cache passphrases. It is implemented as a daemon to be started
with a user session.
* *gpgsm* is an implementation of the X.509 and CMS standards and
provides the cryptographic core to implement the S/MIME protocol.
The command line interface is very similar to the one of gpg. This
helps adding S/MIME to application currently providing OpenPGP
support.
* *scdaemon* is a daemon run by gpg-agent to access different types
of smart cards using a unified interface.
* *gpg-connect-agent* is a tool to help scripts directly accessing
services of gpg-agent and scdaemon.
* *gpgconf* is a tool to maintain the configuration files of all
modules using a well defined API.
* Support for Dirmngr, a separate package to maintain certificate
revocation lists, do OCSP requests and to run LDAP queries.
* Support for the Secure Shell Agent protocol. In fact, gpg-agent
may be used as full replacement of the commonly used ssh-agent
daemon.
* Smart card support for the Secure Shell.
* Documentation is now done in Texinfo. Thus besides Info, HTML and
PDF versions may easily be generated.
* Man pages for all tools.
Getting the Software
====================
Please follow the instructions found at http://www.gnupg.org/download/
or read on:
GnuPG 2.0.0 may be downloaded from one of the GnuPG mirror sites or
direct from ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/ . 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 mirrors you should find the following files in the *gnupg*
directory:
gnupg-2.0.0.tar.bz2 (3.8M)
gnupg-2.0.0.tar.bz2.sig
GnuPG source compressed using BZIP2 and OpenPGP signature.
Please try another mirror if exceptional your mirror is not yet up to
date. GnuPG-2 requires a couple of libraries to be installed; see the
README file or the output of the configure run for details.
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-2.0.0.tar.bz2 you would use this command:
gpg --verify gnupg-2.0.0.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 key server like
gpg --recv-key 1CE0C630
The distribution key 1CE0C630 is signed by the well known key
5B0358A2. If you get an key expired message, you should retrieve a
fresh copy as the expiration date might have been prolonged.
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 existing version of GnuPG, you have
to verify the SHA-1 checksum. Assuming you downloaded the file
gnupg-2.0.0.tar.bz2, you would run the sha1sum command like this:
sha1sum gnupg-2.0.0.tar.bz2
and check that the output matches this:
c335957368ea88bcb658922e7d3aae7e3ac6896d gnupg-2.0.0.tar.bz2
Internationalization
====================
GnuPG comes with support for 27 languages. Due to a lot of new and
changed strings most translations are not entirely complete. However
the Turkish and German translators have been very fast in completing
their translations. The Russian one came in just a few hours too
late. Updates of the other translations are expected for the next
releases.
Documentation
=============
We are currently working on an installation guide to explain in more
detail how to configure the new features. As of now the chapters on
gpg-agent and gpgsm include brief information on how to set up the
whole thing. Please watch the GnuPG website for updates of the
documentation. In the meantime you may 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.
Support
=======
Improving GnuPG is costly, but you can help! We are looking for
organizations that find GnuPG useful and wish to contribute back. You
can contribute by reporting bugs, improve the software, or by donating
money.
Commercial support contracts for GnuPG are available, and they help
finance continued maintenance. g10 Code GmbH, a Duesseldorf based
company owned and headed by GnuPG's principal author, is currently
funding GnuPG development. We are always looking for interesting
development projects.
A service directory is available at:
http://www.gnupg.org/service.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 (David, Werner and all other contributors)
--
Werner Koch <wk at gnupg.org>
The GnuPG Experts http://g10code.com
Join the Fellowship and protect your Freedom! http://www.fsfe.org
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