GPG and PGP compatibility

[Leigh S. Jones]

In order to get full compatibility between gpg and PGP it is
necessary to add the IDEA plug-in.  Keys created by PGP
can be exported to gpg and keys created using gpg can
be exported to PGP.  The updated gpg 1.0.7 is not yet
available in the "official" Windows (MingW32) version,
although there are unofficial releases of this software that
are available for windows.

Your PGP public keys contain a request for encryption
using the IDEA algorithm.  It is possible to change this,
if desired, but the effect of this characteristic of PGP
keys is that someone who uses your public key to send
you encrypted messages is likely to encrypt using IDEA.
As a result, your gpg installation should be prepared to
decrypt using IDEA.  Due to patent issues within the
USA, the IDEA algorithm plug in is not available on
the GnuPG.org web site, but it is widely available
elsewhere.

You will probably want to add the pgp6 option to your
options file (assuming gpg 1.0.7) to improve the
compatibility.  If you want to edit keys preferences
using gpg and export your secret keys back to PGP
again, then you will probably want to include the option
simple-sk-checksum in your options file, or use the
command-line option --simple-sk-checksum when
you edit your keys immediately prior to exporting them
to PGP.  Note that the exported secret key is not as
secure wen using this option, but without it your secret
key is incompatible with PGP after editing with gpg
1.0.7.

WinPT and other graphical user interfaces are quite
helpful with gpg.  Some of these products are not
fully polished.  The MingW32 implementations of
gpg don't access keyservers properly when used
with WinNT, Win2000, and WinXP, but should
work OK with Win98.  On WinNT, Win2000,
and WinXP the WinPT GUI fixes the keyserver
problem.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Witoslaw Koczewski" <wi@koczewski.de>
To: <gnupg-users@gnupg.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2002 4:48 AM
Subject: GPG and PGP compatibility


> Hello,
>
> I am a PGP and Windows user and I would like to try GPG. Is it
possible to
> use my existing PGP keys with GPG? What about compatibility between
PGP
> and GPG?
>
> Please cc to wi@koczewski.de, I'm not in your mailing list.
>
> Thanx!
> Witoslaw Koczewski
>
>
>
>
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