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| 1 | +Hello! |
| 2 | + |
| 3 | +The GNU project is pleased to announce the availability of a new |
| 4 | +stable GnuPG release: Version 2.0.0. |
| 5 | + |
| 6 | +The GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG) is GNU's tool for secure communication |
| 7 | +and data storage. It can be used to encrypt data, create digital |
| 8 | +signatures, help authenticating using Secure Shell and to provide a |
| 9 | +framework for public key cryptography. It includes an advanced key |
| 10 | +management facility and is compliant with the OpenPGP and S/MIME |
| 11 | +standards. |
| 12 | + |
| 13 | +GnuPG-2 has a different architecture than GnuPG-1 (e.g. 1.4.5) in that |
| 14 | +it splits up functionality into several modules. However, both |
| 15 | +versions may be installed alongside without any conflict. In fact, |
| 16 | +the gpg version from GnuPG-1 is able to make use of the gpg-agent as |
| 17 | +included in GnuPG-2 and allows for seamless passphrase caching. The |
| 18 | +advantage of GnuPG-1 is its smaller size and the lack of dependency on |
| 19 | +other modules at run and build time. We will keep maintaining GnuPG-1 |
| 20 | +versions because they are very useful for small systems and for server |
| 21 | +based applications requiring only OpenPGP support. |
| 22 | + |
| 23 | +GnuPG is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License |
| 24 | +(GPL). GnuPG-2 works best on GNU/Linux or *BSD systems. Other POSIX |
| 25 | +compliant systems are also supported but have not yet been tested very |
| 26 | +well. |
| 27 | + |
| 28 | + |
| 29 | +What's New in GnuPG-2 |
| 30 | +===================== |
| 31 | + |
| 32 | + * The *gpg-agent* is the central place to maintain private keys and |
| 33 | + to cache passphrases. It is implemented as a daemon to be started |
| 34 | + with a user session. |
| 35 | + |
| 36 | + * *gpgsm* is an implementation of the X.509 and CMS standards and |
| 37 | + provides the cryptographic core to implement the S/MIME protocol. |
| 38 | + The command line interface is very similar to the one of gpg. This |
| 39 | + helps adding S/MIME to application currently providing OpenPGP |
| 40 | + support. |
| 41 | + |
| 42 | + * *scdaemon* is a daemon run by gpg-agent to access different types |
| 43 | + of smart cards using a unified interface. |
| 44 | + |
| 45 | + * *gpg-connect-agent* is a tool to help scripts directly accessing |
| 46 | + services of gpg-agent and scdaemon. |
| 47 | + |
| 48 | + * *gpgconf* is a tool to maintain the configuration files of all |
| 49 | + modules using a well defined API. |
| 50 | + |
| 51 | + * Support for Dirmngr, a separate package to maintain certificate |
| 52 | + revocation lists, do OCSP requests and to run LDAP queries. |
| 53 | + |
| 54 | + * Support for the Secure Shell Agent protocol. In fact, gpg-agent |
| 55 | + may be used as full replacement of the commonly used ssh-agent |
| 56 | + daemon. |
| 57 | + |
| 58 | + * Smart card support for the Secure Shell. |
| 59 | + |
| 60 | + * Documentation is now done in Texinfo. Thus besides Info, HTML and |
| 61 | + PDF versions may easily be generated. |
| 62 | + |
| 63 | + * Man pages for all tools. |
| 64 | + |
| 65 | + |
| 66 | +Getting the Software |
| 67 | +==================== |
| 68 | + |
| 69 | +Please follow the instructions found at http://www.gnupg.org/download/ |
| 70 | +or read on: |
| 71 | + |
| 72 | +GnuPG 2.0.0 may be downloaded from one of the GnuPG mirror sites or |
| 73 | +direct from ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/ . The list of mirrors can be |
| 74 | +found at http://www.gnupg.org/mirrors.html . Note, that GnuPG is not |
| 75 | +available at ftp.gnu.org. |
| 76 | + |
| 77 | +On the mirrors you should find the following files in the *gnupg* |
| 78 | +directory: |
| 79 | + |
| 80 | + gnupg-2.0.0.tar.bz2 (3.8M) |
| 81 | + gnupg-2.0.0.tar.bz2.sig |
| 82 | + |
| 83 | + GnuPG source compressed using BZIP2 and OpenPGP signature. |
| 84 | + |
| 85 | +Please try another mirror if exceptional your mirror is not yet up to |
| 86 | +date. GnuPG-2 requires a couple of libraries to be installed; see the |
| 87 | +README file or the output of the configure run for details. |
| 88 | + |
| 89 | + |
| 90 | +Checking the Integrity |
| 91 | +====================== |
| 92 | + |
| 93 | +In order to check that the version of GnuPG which you are going to |
| 94 | +install is an original and unmodified one, you can do it in one of |
| 95 | +the following ways: |
| 96 | + |
| 97 | + * If you already have a trusted version of GnuPG installed, you |
| 98 | + can simply check the supplied signature. For example to check the |
| 99 | + signature of the file gnupg-2.0.0.tar.bz2 you would use this command: |
| 100 | + |
| 101 | + gpg --verify gnupg-2.0.0.tar.bz2.sig |
| 102 | + |
| 103 | + This checks whether the signature file matches the source file. |
| 104 | + You should see a message indicating that the signature is good and |
| 105 | + made by that signing key. Make sure that you have the right key, |
| 106 | + either by checking the fingerprint of that key with other sources |
| 107 | + or by checking that the key has been signed by a trustworthy other |
| 108 | + key. Note, that you can retrieve the signing key using the command |
| 109 | + |
| 110 | + finger wk ,at' g10code.com |
| 111 | + |
| 112 | + or using a key server like |
| 113 | + |
| 114 | + gpg --recv-key 1CE0C630 |
| 115 | + |
| 116 | + The distribution key 1CE0C630 is signed by the well known key |
| 117 | + 5B0358A2. If you get an key expired message, you should retrieve a |
| 118 | + fresh copy as the expiration date might have been prolonged. |
| 119 | + |
| 120 | + NEVER USE A GNUPG VERSION YOU JUST DOWNLOADED TO CHECK THE |
| 121 | + INTEGRITY OF THE SOURCE - USE AN EXISTING GNUPG INSTALLATION! |
| 122 | + |
| 123 | + * If you are not able to use an existing version of GnuPG, you have |
| 124 | + to verify the SHA-1 checksum. Assuming you downloaded the file |
| 125 | + gnupg-2.0.0.tar.bz2, you would run the sha1sum command like this: |
| 126 | + |
| 127 | + sha1sum gnupg-2.0.0.tar.bz2 |
| 128 | + |
| 129 | + and check that the output matches this: |
| 130 | + |
| 131 | +c335957368ea88bcb658922e7d3aae7e3ac6896d gnupg-2.0.0.tar.bz2 |
| 132 | + |
| 133 | + |
| 134 | +Internationalization |
| 135 | +==================== |
| 136 | + |
| 137 | +GnuPG comes with support for 27 languages. Due to a lot of new and |
| 138 | +changed strings most translations are not entirely complete. However |
| 139 | +the Turkish and German translators have been very fast in completing |
| 140 | +their translations. The Russian one came in just a few hours too |
| 141 | +late. Updates of the other translations are expected for the next |
| 142 | +releases. |
| 143 | + |
| 144 | + |
| 145 | +Documentation |
| 146 | +============= |
| 147 | + |
| 148 | +We are currently working on an installation guide to explain in more |
| 149 | +detail how to configure the new features. As of now the chapters on |
| 150 | +gpg-agent and gpgsm include brief information on how to set up the |
| 151 | +whole thing. Please watch the GnuPG website for updates of the |
| 152 | +documentation. In the meantime you may search the GnuPG mailing list |
| 153 | +archives or ask on the gnupg-users mailing lists for advise on how to |
| 154 | +solve problems. Many of the new features are around for several years |
| 155 | +and thus enough public knowledge is already available. |
| 156 | + |
| 157 | + |
| 158 | +Support |
| 159 | +======= |
| 160 | + |
| 161 | +Improving GnuPG is costly, but you can help! We are looking for |
| 162 | +organizations that find GnuPG useful and wish to contribute back. You |
| 163 | +can contribute by reporting bugs, improve the software, or by donating |
| 164 | +money. |
| 165 | + |
| 166 | +Commercial support contracts for GnuPG are available, and they help |
| 167 | +finance continued maintenance. g10 Code GmbH, a Duesseldorf based |
| 168 | +company owned and headed by GnuPG's principal author, is currently |
| 169 | +funding GnuPG development. We are always looking for interesting |
| 170 | +development projects. |
| 171 | + |
| 172 | +A service directory is available at: |
| 173 | + |
| 174 | + http://www.gnupg.org/service.html |
| 175 | + |
| 176 | + |
| 177 | +Thanks |
| 178 | +====== |
| 179 | + |
| 180 | +We have to thank all the people who helped with this release, be it |
| 181 | +testing, coding, translating, suggesting, auditing, administering the |
| 182 | +servers, spreading the word or answering questions on the mailing |
| 183 | +lists. |
| 184 | + |
| 185 | + |
| 186 | +Happy Hacking, |
| 187 | + |
| 188 | + The GnuPG Team (David, Werner and all other contributors) |
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