Mailing List Archive

Matthew Cordes dijo:
> Some people I write to complain that they recieve messages from me that
> appear to have two attachments (or perhaps parts) one is the actual message
> while the other is a *.dat file (GnuPG signing information). Both people
> use a combination of Pegasus Mail and/or Outlook Express. Is it typical of
> Windows email clients to do strange things like this? I've tried it myself
> with outlook express and it does infact claim a GnuPG message has two parts,
> both of which it cannot identify, but I am given the option to open. The
> *.txt file is the message while the *.dat is the hash.

I've heared of that before, and can't remember what i was due to. It
would be logical to think that their mailers (yours included since
you're using windoze o.e.) are not handling MIME types properly (or they
didn't configure it properly).

> Does this always happen with GnuPG? PGP?

Most definately not. I use GnuPG for signing quite often, and
encrypting rarely, and don't have those problems. But then again, my
mailer is mutt!

> Is it the fault of Outlook Express (and perhaps Pegasus Mail)?

I'd say so... or the user's fault.

> Can I do anything to ensure that people who recieve messages from
> me receive the message as a I intended?

Since you're using o.e. yourself, and you're not having those problems,
check your configuration and compare it with your friends'.

Or better still, get a better O.S. -> mailer -> etc.
(sorry, just had to say this)


Regards,

--
Horacio
homega@ciberia.es
Valencia - ESPAÑA

----- Original Message -----
From: Matthew Cordes <mcorde61@maine.edu>
To: Horacio <homega@ciberia.es>
Sent: Saturday, September 11, 1999 9:46 PM
Subject: Re: Windows and GnuPG


> >> Can I do anything to ensure that people who recieve messages from
> >> me receive the message as a I intended?
>
> >Since you're using o.e. yourself, and you're not having those problems,
> >check your configuration and compare it with your friends'.
>
> >Or better still, get a better O.S. -> mailer -> etc.
> >(sorry, just had to say this)
>
>
> Thanks for the help. I typically use Potato and Mutt, but find myself
> restricted to Windows while at a relatives house. The error I was
refering
> to (Weird Message problem) occurs when I send messages from Mutt on linux
> and Pine on a DEC box.
>
> -matt
>
>

On Sat Sep 11 18:10:12 1999, you wrote:
> Some people I write to complain that they recieve messages from me that
> appear to have two attachments (or perhaps parts) one is the actual message
> while the other is a *.dat file (GnuPG signing information). Both people
> use a combination of Pegasus Mail and/or Outlook Express. Is it typical of
> Windows email clients to do strange things like this? I've tried it myself
> with outlook express and it does infact claim a GnuPG message has two parts,
> both of which it cannot identify, but I am given the option to open. The
> *.txt file is the message while the *.dat is the hash.

Assuming the mail from you is signed and composed like the Mutt mailer does
it (which is the format described in RFC2015), it looks like this to a
MIME-aware reader:

The mail is multipart, of the "multipart/signed" subtype.

It consists of two parts ("attachments"). The first is plain text (content
type "text/plain") which any reader should know about, the other is
"application/pgp-signature", which only RFC 2015-aware mailers know anything
about.

Any MIME-aware reader should be OK with this. How it should _display_ the
mail is another question. If it doesn't know about RFC 2015, it cannot grok
the "signed" in "multipart/signed", and might decide that nothing should be
displayed "inline". You then get exactly what you describe above.

However, if I was a mail reader and saw a multipart mail where exactly one
of the attachments was plain text and all the others were non-displayable, I
would display that text part. But I don't think MIME says I _must_ do it.

Sorry about all the "quotes" above ;-)

--
// Jorgen Grahn
\X/ <jorgen.grahn@opensoftware.se>