On Mon, 28 May 2001, Aaron P Ingebrigtsen wrote:
> On Sat, 26 May 2001 14:05:40 -0400 (EDT) Aaron Guy Davies
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> >
> > You obviously still don't understand PGP. Please go read the manual.
>
> I understand PGP pretty well, it is the GnuPG program I don't understand.
>
> The files I was talking about were generated by PGP, not made up by my
> imagination. Also, I figured out that .sig files are detached signatures
> and require the file to which they were signed in order for them to
> decrypt properly or whatever. So if you don't have krepat.txt which
> contains only the text "hello" then you would get some kind of error.
> The .asc file though is the text file AND signature, which is really what
> I wanted in the first place. :)
The point is that PGP *signatures* have nothing to do with encryption, and
are only useful in conjunction with the document they were generated from.
A signature is basically a secure hash of the document it signs, verifying
that the document has not been changed since it was signed. They don't
encrypt anything, and they don't mean anything without a document. A PGP
*key* is what you're probably looking for. Public keys are what you need
if you want to encrypt a document for someone else to read. The .asc
files, if I remember correctly, contain the public key in text format.
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