Mailing List Archive

GnuPG 2.1.6 released
Hello!

The GnuPG Project is pleased to announce the availability of a new
release of GnuPG modern: Version 2.1.6.

The GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG) is a complete and free implementation
of the OpenPGP standard which is commonly abbreviated as PGP.

GnuPG allows to encrypt and sign data and communication, features a
versatile key management system as well as access modules for public key
directories. GnuPG itself is a command line tool with features for easy
integration with other applications. A wealth of frontend applications
and libraries making use of GnuPG are available. Since version 2 GnuPG
provides support for S/MIME and Secure Shell in addition to OpenPGP.

GnuPG is Free Software (meaning that it respects your freedom). It can
be freely used, modified and distributed under the terms of the GNU
General Public License.

Three different branches of GnuPG are actively maintained:

- GnuPG "modern" (2.1) is the latest development with a lot of new
features. This announcement is about this branch.

- GnuPG "stable" (2.0) is the current stable version for general use.
This is what most users are currently using.

- GnuPG "classic" (1.4) is the old standalone version which is most
suitable for older or embedded platforms.

You may not install "modern" (2.1) and "stable" (2.0) at the same
time. However, it is possible to install "classic" (1.4) along with
any of the other versions.


Noteworthy changes in version 2.1.6
===================================

* agent: New option --verify for the PASSWD command.

* gpgsm: Add command option "offline" as an alternative to
--disable-dirmngr.

* gpg: Do not prompt multiple times for a password in pinentry
loopback mode.

* Allow the use of debug category names with --debug.

* Using gpg-agent and gpg/gpgsm with different locales will now show
the correct translations in Pinentry.

* gpg: Improve speed of --list-sigs and --check-sigs.

* gpg: Make --list-options show-sig-subpackets work again.

* gpg: Fix an export problem for old keyrings with PGP-2 keys.

* scd: Support PIN-pads on more readers.

* dirmngr: Properly cleanup zombie LDAP helper processes and avoid
hangs on dirmngr shutdown.

* Various other bug fixes.


A detailed description of the changes found in the 2.1 branch can be
found at <https://gnupg.org/faq/whats-new-in-2.1.html>.

Please be aware that there are still known bugs which we are working on.
Check https://bugs.gnupg.org, https://wiki.gnupg.org, and the mailing
list archives for known problems and workarounds.


Getting the Software
====================

Please follow the instructions found at https://gnupg.org/download/ or
read on:

GnuPG 2.1.6 may be downloaded from one of the GnuPG mirror sites or
direct from its primary FTP server. The list of mirrors can be found
at <https://gnupg.org/mirrors.html>. Note that GnuPG is not available
at ftp.gnu.org.

On ftp.gnupg.org you find these files:

ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/gnupg/gnupg-2.1.6.tar.bz2 (4802k)
ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/gnupg/gnupg-2.1.6.tar.bz2.sig

This is the GnuPG source code compressed using BZIP2 and its OpenPGP
signature.

ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/binary/gnupg-w32-2.1.6_20150701.exe (2577k)
ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/binary/gnupg-w32-2.1.6_20150701.exe.sig

This is an installer for Windows without graphical frontends except for
a basic Pinentry tool. Please de-install an installed Gpg4win version
before trying this installer. Note that on Window TLS access to
keyservers is not yet available. The sources used to build the
installer can be found in the same directory with an ".tar.xz" suffix.


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 version of GnuPG installed, you can simply
verify the supplied signature. For example to verify the signature
of the file gnupg-2.1.6.tar.bz2 you would use this command:

gpg --verify gnupg-2.1.6.tar.bz2.sig gnupg-2.1.6.tar.bz2

This checks whether the signature file matches the source file.
You should see a message indicating that the signature is good and
made by one or more of the release signing keys. Make sure that
this is a valid key, either by matching the shown fingerprint
against a trustworthy list of valid release signing keys or by
checking that the key has been signed by trustworthy other keys.
See below for information on the signing keys.

* If you are not able to use an existing version of GnuPG, you have
to verify the SHA-1 checksum. On Unix systems the command to do
this is either "sha1sum" or "shasum". Assuming you downloaded the
file gnupg-2.1.6.tar.bz2, you would run the command like this:

sha1sum gnupg-2.1.6.tar.bz2

and check that the output matches the next line:

9e8157b3386da04760657ce3117fc4dc570c57c5 gnupg-2.1.6.tar.bz2
a8cd2e7ab48abb94c126051df902e3380faf117e gnupg-w32-2.1.6_20150701.exe
1d3e70504f993d1297f04564dfda222f8b68a96f gnupg-w32-2.1.6_20150701.tar.xz



Release Signing Keys
====================

To guarantee that a downloaded GnuPG version has not been tampered by
malicious entities we provide signature files for all tarballs and
binary versions. The keys are also signed by the long term keys of
their respective owners. Current releases are signed by one or more
of these four keys:

2048R/4F25E3B6 2011-01-12 [expires: 2019-12-31]
Key fingerprint = D869 2123 C406 5DEA 5E0F 3AB5 249B 39D2 4F25 E3B6
Werner Koch (dist sig)

rsa2048/E0856959 2014-10-29 [expires: 2019-12-31]
Key fingerprint = 46CC 7308 65BB 5C78 EBAB ADCF 0437 6F3E E085 6959
David Shaw (GnuPG Release Signing Key) <dshaw 'at' jabberwocky.com>

rsa2048/33BD3F06 2014-10-29 [expires: 2016-10-28]
Key fingerprint = 031E C253 6E58 0D8E A286 A9F2 2071 B08A 33BD 3F06
NIIBE Yutaka (GnuPG Release Key) <gniibe 'at' fsij.org>

rsa2048/7EFD60D9 2014-10-19 [expires: 2020-12-31]
Key fingerprint = D238 EA65 D64C 67ED 4C30 73F2 8A86 1B1C 7EFD 60D9
Werner Koch (Release Signing Key)

You may retrieve these files from a keyserver using this command

gpg --keyserver hkp://keys.gnupg.net --recv-keys \
249B39D24F25E3B6 04376F3EE0856959 \
2071B08A33BD3F06 8A861B1C7EFD60D9

The keys are also available at https://gnupg.org/signature_key.html and
in any recently released GnuPG tarball in the file g10/distsigkey.gpg .
Note that this mail has been signed using by a different key.


Internationalization
====================

This version of GnuPG has support for 26 languages with Chinese,
Czech, French, German, Japanese, Russian, and Ukrainian being almost
completely translated (2075 different strings).


Documentation
=============

If you used GnuPG in the past you should read the description of
changes and new features at doc/whats-new-in-2.1.txt or online at

https://gnupg.org/faq/whats-new-in-2.1.html

The file gnupg.info has the complete user manual of the system.
Separate man pages are included as well but they have not all the
details available as are the manual. It is also possible to read the
complete manual online in HTML format at

https://gnupg.org/documentation/manuals/gnupg/

or in Portable Document Format at

https://gnupg.org/documentation/manuals/gnupg.pdf .

The chapters on gpg-agent, gpg and gpgsm include information on how
to set up the whole thing. You may also want 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.

You may also want to follow postings at https://gnupg.org/blob/.


Support
========

Please consult the archive of the gnupg-users mailing list before
reporting a bug <https://gnupg.org/documentation/mailing-lists.html>.
We suggest to send bug reports for a new release to this list in favor
of filing a bug at <https://bugs.gnupg.org>. For commercial support
requests we keep a list of known service companies at:

https://gnupg.org/service.html

If you are a developer and you may need a certain feature for your
project, please do not hesitate to bring it to the gnupg-devel mailing
list for discussion.


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, and answering questions on the mailing
lists. Maintenance and development of GnuPG is possible due to many
individual and corporate donations; for a list of non-anonymous donors
see <https://gnupg.org/donate/kudos.html>.


For the GnuPG hackers,

Werner


p.s.
This is a announcement only mailing list. Please send replies only to
the gnupg-users at gnupg.org mailing list.

--
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