Mailing List Archive

Extra dashes when crearsigning a file?
Hello,

This quastion was posted in the Dutch newsgroup nl.comp.crypt and I didn't
know the answer so I'll ask it here:

When you clearsign a file which contains lines that start with a dash, an
extra dash is introduced, why is that?

vulcan:~> cat 1.txt
- <00000fba640b$00006af8$00005f2f@210.160.73.146>
- <00001e370ac4$000003ab$000063b5@vio.co.jp>

vulcan:~> gpg --clearsign 1.txt
[asking for passwd, etc.]

vulcan:~> cat 1.txt.asc
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

- - <00000fba640b$00006af8$00005f2f@210.160.73.146>
- - <00001e370ac4$000003ab$000063b5@vio.co.jp>

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.0 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org

iD8DBQE46QYRIWmgtYYVa4URAnKgAJ9tBkyeNmGZaE9jBipQUJS1jbUh7gCeM5yU
fiesAhdnae18WIlpL4IKLAg=
=u1AI
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

--
ir. J.C.A. Wevers // Physics and science fiction site:
johanw@vulcan.xs4all.nl // http://www.xs4all.nl/~johanw/index.html
PGP/GPG public keys at http://www.xs4all.nl/~johanw/pgpkeys.html
Re: Extra dashes when crearsigning a file? [ In reply to ]
On Mon, 3 Apr 2000, Johan Wevers wrote:

> When you clearsign a file which contains lines that start with a dash, an
> extra dash is introduced, why is that?

This is called dash-escaped text. It is used to quote the -----PGP....
lines and to make the job of the parser easier. It has always been
used by PGP.


Werner

--
Werner Koch OpenPGP key 621CC013
OpenIT GmbH tel +49 211 465357
Birkenstr. 12 email info@openit.de
D-40233 Düsseldorf http://www.openit.de