Mailing List Archive

Why are 64-bit libraries not included in GnuPG but Gpg4win?
As the title states, why are there no 64-bit libraries in GnuPG for Windows? (The installer from the binary releases)
It's not like they don't exist at all but they are part of Gpg4win only. Shouldn't they be included directly in the core part? Why are they "moved out" to Gpg4win? It seems weird to me that I would have to install gpg4win just to get hold of some 64-bit libraries for GnuPG.

For some context:
I've been using gpg for years, for simple things like to verify files, not mailing. And I'm only using pure GnuPG, not Gpg4win, as I've never felt any need for things like Kleopatra. I'm fine with basic gpg on the terminal, don't need all that additional stuff from Gpg4win.
However, recently I decided to change this and set my mail accounts up. The issue apparently? The fact that I'm already using Thunderbird 64-bit.
As many will know, Enigmail isn't much of a thing anymore. But I don't really trust that new OpenPGP.js implementation they have now, I rather use my existing setup. No problem, there is a setting just for this in Thunderbird after all, simply set mail.openpgp.allow_external_gnupg = true. Except that this got me vague error messages.I'll spare everybody any long explanations but as hinted the issue seemingly was my 64-bit client. After hours of work I ended up having to install Gpg4win, copy the 64-bit libraries over and deinstall it again.
Luckily the libraries work despite Gpg4win 3.1.16 containing only GnuPG 2.2.28, while I'm already using GnuPG 2.3.3, still seems questionable though.This brought me to the question above: Why are the 64-bit libraries only in Gpg4win? Why does GnuPG not come with 64-bit libraries in the first place?
I can't imagine that I'm the only or first one using GnuPG and wanting it to work with 64-bit software. 64-bit is getting more and more common after all.

Greetings
Sven
Re: Why are 64-bit libraries not included in GnuPG but Gpg4win? [ In reply to ]
Am Mittwoch 01 Dezember 2021 01:19:45 schrieb Sven Richter via Gnupg-users:
> As the title states, why are there no 64-bit libraries in GnuPG for
> Windows? (The installer from the binary releases)

I don't know (but I respond with hints and repeat the question as HTML emails
are filtered out by some participants.)

> It's not like they don't
> exist at all but they are part of Gpg4win only. Shouldn't they be included
> directly in the core part? Why are they "moved out" to Gpg4win? It seems
> weird to me that I would have to install gpg4win just to get hold of some
> 64-bit libraries for GnuPG.

Gpg4win is an official GnuPG distribution for Windows
and it is possible to customise the installation to mainly install GnuPG.
Overal I believe this maybe an oversight, maybe you should file an issue with
dev.gnupg.org.

> The fact that I'm already using Thunderbird 64-bit. As many will know,
> Enigmail isn't much of a thing anymore. But I don't really trust that new
> OpenPGP.js implementation they have now,

As far as I know Thunderbird 78+ uses RNP/Botan, and not OpenPGP.js.

> I rather use my existing setup. No
> problem, there is a setting just for this in Thunderbird after all, simply
> set mail.openpgp.allow_external_gnupg = true. Except that this got me vague
> error messages.I'll spare everybody any long explanations but as hinted the
> issue seemingly was my 64-bit client. After hours of work I ended up having
> to install Gpg4win, copy the 64-bit libraries over and deinstall it again.

Thanks for reporting that this worked fine for you after the right setup!

> Luckily the libraries work despite Gpg4win 3.1.16 containing only GnuPG
> 2.2.28, while I'm already using GnuPG 2.3.3, still seems questionable
> though.This brought me to the question above: Why are the 64-bit libraries
> only in Gpg4win? Why does GnuPG not come with 64-bit libraries in the first
> place? I can't imagine that I'm the only or first one using GnuPG and
> wanting it to work with 64-bit software.

Most people use Gpg4win, only recently we had to recommed to install
the crypto engine installers over it. So thanks for reporting the issue!

Best Regards,
Bernhard

--
www.intevation.de/~bernhard   +49 541 33 508 3-3
Intevation GmbH, Osnabrück, DE; Amtsgericht Osnabrück, HRB 18998
Geschäftsführer Frank Koormann, Bernhard Reiter, Dr. Jan-Oliver Wagner
Re: Why are 64-bit libraries not included in GnuPG but Gpg4win? [ In reply to ]
Hi Sven,

Am Donnerstag 02 Dezember 2021 10:06:11 schrieb Bernhard Reiter:
> > It's not like they don't
> > exist at all but they are part of Gpg4win only.

was in contact with Werner (for other reasons) yesterday,
he may still write something about this, but what I think now is
that you are talking about libraries like gpgme which Thunderbird uses.

> > Shouldn't they be included directly in the core part?

Gpgme is an access libary (the official API) and of course it is mainly needed
when other application access it. Some people do not need it and it seems
reasonable to me, to not consider it part of the core of the GnuPG crypto
engine.

> Gpg4win is an official GnuPG distribution for Windows
> and it is possible to customise the installation to mainly install GnuPG.

If it really is the libraries (like I assume now),
it seems fine to have them in the full distribution for Windows.

Another aspect is interesting: After the setup change you did to Thunderbird,
did all operations work fine using public and private keys from GnuPG?

Best Regards,
Bernhard

--
www.intevation.de/~bernhard   +49 541 33 508 3-3
Intevation GmbH, Osnabrück, DE; Amtsgericht Osnabrück, HRB 18998
Geschäftsführer Frank Koormann, Bernhard Reiter, Dr. Jan-Oliver Wagner
Re: Why are 64-bit libraries not included in GnuPG but Gpg4win? [ In reply to ]
Hello Bernhard,

> I don't know (but I respond with hints and repeat the question as HTML emails

> are filtered out by some participants.)
Thanks for pointing that out. This is actually my first time participating on a mailing list, I'm more used to forums and chats, so if there's anything else that's unusual about my mails, feel free to mention it. This one should now be plain text.

> As far as I know Thunderbird 78+ uses RNP/Botan, and not OpenPGP.js.
Maybe this has changed since I last looked into the topic, guess I'll have to check on that.
However I doubt that would change my setup. I far rather have GnuPG manage my keys as much as possible than the email client.

I kind of already guessed that maybe most people would use Gpg4win. But the installer for GnuPG is there and I'm sure some other people will use that as well.
Since I've set everything up, it works just fine with the 64-bit client, no issues at all. It's really just the 64-bit libraries missing when you use the basic GnuPG installation, once you get those it works without issues.

As far as it goes for the libraries, maybe I should specify that a bit more.
What I did was to create a folder at C:\Program Files (x86)\gnupg\bin_64 (used the same folder name as I found within the Gpg4win directory) and then I copied the following files over to that folder: gpgme-w32spawn.exe, libassuan6-0.dll, libgpg-error6-0.dll and libgpgme-11.dll.
From what I'm able to tell, all of these already exist in the regular bin folder of the GnuPG installation (or rather their 32-bit variants do I guess). Unless there are any leftovers from when I installed Gpg4win, but I'm quite sure I checked that the whole gnupg folder was deleted after I deinstalled Gpg4win, before I reinstalled the latest version of GnuPG again.
The only difference I see is the number six in the file name libassuan-0.dll -> libassuan6-0.dll and the file size.

I'm sure the bin_64 folder in the Gpg4win directory has some libraries which might be specific to Kleopatra, GPA or some other part of Gpg4win, however I don't need those. I believe I'm only using 64-bit variants of files are are already present in their 32-bit form in the regular bin folder of GnuPG anyway. Hence it would make sense in my opinion to directly include the 64-bit variants of them in the basic GnuPG installation.

> Another aspect is interesting: After the setup change you did to Thunderbird,
> did all operations work fine using public and private keys from GnuPG?
Not quite, I had to import public keys into Thunderbird. Thunderbird expects to be able to manage all public keys regardless. Even with this setup of mine, it only pulls the private keys from GnuPG.
If people are interested in the exact process of how I've set it up, I could write a detailed explanation/guide for it. Either on the Thunderbird page of the wiki that you just recently created or on a dedicated page.

Kind regards,
Sven

??????? Original Message ???????
On Friday, December 3, 2021 11:10 AM, Bernhard Reiter <bernhard@intevation.de> wrote:

> Hi Sven,
>

> Am Donnerstag 02 Dezember 2021 10:06:11 schrieb Bernhard Reiter:
>

> > > It's not like they don't
> > > exist at all but they are part of Gpg4win only.
>

> was in contact with Werner (for other reasons) yesterday,
> he may still write something about this, but what I think now is
> that you are talking about libraries like gpgme which Thunderbird uses.
>

> > > Shouldn't they be included directly in the core part?
>

> Gpgme is an access libary (the official API) and of course it is mainly needed
> when other application access it. Some people do not need it and it seems
> reasonable to me, to not consider it part of the core of the GnuPG crypto
> engine.
>

> > Gpg4win is an official GnuPG distribution for Windows
> > and it is possible to customise the installation to mainly install GnuPG.
>

> If it really is the libraries (like I assume now),
> it seems fine to have them in the full distribution for Windows.
>

> Another aspect is interesting: After the setup change you did to Thunderbird,
> did all operations work fine using public and private keys from GnuPG?
>

> Best Regards,
> Bernhard
>

> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>

> www.intevation.de/~bernhard   +49 541 33 508 3-3
> Intevation GmbH, Osnabrück, DE; Amtsgericht Osnabrück, HRB 18998
> Geschäftsführer Frank Koormann, Bernhard Reiter, Dr. Jan-Oliver Wagner
>

> Gnupg-users mailing list
> Gnupg-users@gnupg.org
> http://lists.gnupg.org/mailman/listinfo/gnupg-users
Re: Why are 64-bit libraries not included in GnuPG but Gpg4win? [ In reply to ]
> On 4 Dec 2021, at 04:14, Sven Richter via Gnupg-users <gnupg-users@gnupg.org> wrote:
>
> Thunderbird expects to be able to manage all public keys regardless. Even with this setup of mine, it only pulls the private keys from GnuPG.

You may be interested in the Sequoia Octopus, which is a drop in replacement for Thunderbird’s RNP library and enables public keyring sync between TB and GnuPG:

https://gitlab.com/sequoia-pgp/sequoia-octopus-librnp#building-installing

A
Re: Why are 64-bit libraries not included in GnuPG but Gpg4win? [ In reply to ]
Hello Sven,

Am Samstag 04 Dezember 2021 05:13:28 schrieb Sven Richter via Gnupg-users:
> Thunderbird
> expects to be able to manage all public keys regardless. Even with this
> setup of mine, it only pulls the private keys from GnuPG.

> I far rather
> have GnuPG manage my keys as much as possible than the email client.

yes, it would be cool to give that as a wish to Thunderbird to develop
a full GnuPG based backend for that purposes for the people that
have that use case and install Gpg4win anyway. (I think adding another
experimental layer in between will not be the best solution, it can introduce
other sources of differences in behaviour.)

[back to the 64bit libraries question]

> I believe I'm only using 64-bit variants of
> files are are already present in their 32-bit form in the regular bin
> folder of GnuPG anyway. Hence it would make sense in my opinion to directly
> include the 64-bit variants of them in the basic GnuPG installation.

Maybe. The current aim is to get Gpg4win 4 out of the door,
so right now the question to change the roles of the small engine installer
and the full installer for Windows (Gpg4win) is taking the backseat to this.

Best,
Bernhard

--
www.intevation.de/~bernhard   +49 541 33 508 3-3
Intevation GmbH, Osnabrück, DE; Amtsgericht Osnabrück, HRB 18998
Geschäftsführer Frank Koormann, Bernhard Reiter, Dr. Jan-Oliver Wagner