papp -- Pine And PgP

This is a Perl script for sending and displaying of pgp-enhanced mails.

NOTE: I tried this script only with Linux. I don't have access to other Plattforms with recent Versions of Pine.
Possible Problems could be the stty Settings, One is -echo, the other is -cbreak. You could easily disable them, if you have problems. Better, tell me the different settings, perhaps i'll work them in.

I have taken Rolands Script for displaying mails. Thanks, Roland !
Now it can also send pgpified mail. No big Deal. No big difference until now but comfortable.

Pine has some new Features, one of them ist the _DATAFILE . This is for filters, storing Information while pine is running. One new Option is to let papp store your passphrase in this file. It is mode 600, but nonetheless a BIG security Hole.
My Intention was make PGP comfortable enough, to use it every Day, with every mail.

It is up to You, if you want to use this feature never, sometimes or all the time. This script is asking for Your pass phrase one time per session if you say so in the setup. If You don't want to give the pass phrase away, just answer No, or type a wrong pass phrase and you will be asked every time PGP needs the pass phrase.

So, what do you need ?

At first, of course the script.
Don't forget to chmod +x and give the full Path. And perl.

You have to enable the script in Pine's SETUP. For me, it looks like:

display-filters   = "-----BEGIN PGP" /home/aldo/perl/papp -passfile _DATAFILE_  
sending-filters   = /home/aldo/bin/pine.pgp -metoo -encode -passfile  _DATAFILE_ _RECIPIENTS_

Looks easy, hmm ?

Another Way to send pgpified mails is to invoke an alternate Editor. Look at your pine-config ! A sufficient alternative Editor is

#!/bin/bash
#
clear
echo "type 'e' for encryption, 's' for signing"
read options
file="`cat $1|pgp -fat$options `"
echo "$file" >$1
sleep 3

Just save this to a file, chmod +x it and set it as the alternative editor. All done.

The Options

Quite easy. Just have a look at the source. You don't want to use a script which sends your email as a BCC to me, do you ?
The script doesn't bite you, even if you don't know perl.

-metoo: shameless stolen from Rolands script, written by Peter Jaeckel <atmpj@ermine.ox.ac.uk>. Enables the (PGP-)Option to encrypt emails also for oneself.
-passfile file: Your Passphrase will be stored in this file. Remember, it is an Option.
Suited for Pines _DATAFILE_,papp expects an empty file, mode 600 owned by you.
-encode: Default is decoding of mail
-dontask: Default is ask every time if You want to use PGP

Especially Bug reporting would be nice, since it works for me, and i am a little bit tired of checking all the different options and possibilities again and again. Thanks !

Problems:

If You have Problems with the sttysettings, just remove them from the script. They are not common for all OSes !
One is for receiving single keystrokes instead of hitting [RETURN] after a Yes/No Question.
The other disables the local echo, when you are typing the passphrase to the PAPP-Script. So don't use the passfile Option in this case, otherwise anyone could see your phrase, looking over your shoulder !
Ronald Wahl submitted a bug in v1.2 . Parsing of commandline options was Braindead. If You get the Usage while sending mail to an address which contains a '-' either comment out the responsible line or just get the fixed Script.

Aldo Valente

Last modified: Sun Mar 16 1997