Re: [Macgpg-users] trouble figuring out how to import a public key from windows to mac gnugpg

[Jack R. <ja...@ne...>]

On Apr 13, 2007, at 6:25 AM, tombb wrote:

> Question here: able to encrypt/sign when I am sending messages back  
> and
> forth to self using mac version of gpg, but trouble across platform to
> another user with windows version of gnu gpg. Their app correctly  
> received
> my key, but the mac Mail.app on my computer appears to be having  
> difficulty
> with their key. I can't seem to import the key when using GPG Keychain
> Access app on my mac. the file I receive from the windows pubkey  
> export is
> listed as "0x0C0D89A8.asc.pgp" -- even though when I export it on the
> windows machine it appears to be a text file with a .txt extension  
> on the
> windows end before mailing it.

What you're trying to do should work just fine.  I don't see anything  
wrong with your procedure.  The file renaming dance is a common side  
effect of mail handling, but all the names you give should work the  
same.  So, I'm puzzled.  Let me ask more questions.

You say "I can't seem to import the key."  What does that mean?  Do  
you get error messages?

Open a Terminal window and type "head 0x0C0D89A8.asc.pgp".  The  
format of this file is pretty rigid; does it look like this?

The first line should be "-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----".   
Well, that doesn't have to be the very first line, but it's the first  
line that gpg cares about.  There must be exactly five dashes at the  
beginning and end of the line.  The beginning dashes must begin at  
the very beginning of the line, no spaces first or "> " things or  
anything else.  The ending dashes must end at the end of the line,  
nothing after them.

The second line is probably something like "Version: GnuPG v1.4.6  
(Darwin)".  The actual version info may differ.  actually, since you  
got this from your windows-using friend, it almost *certainly* won't  
say "Darwin", because that means "Macintosh" ;-)  But something like  
this, anyway.

There may be a third line, something like this: "Comment: PGP- 
encrypted email preferred"  The comment line is optional, so it may  
not be there.  If it is there, it might say pretty much anything at  
all - it's just a ... well ... comment ... provided your friend.

The next line (third or fourth, depending on whether there was a  
comment) should be blank, empty, nothing there.

After that come a bunch of lines containing unreadable goop, like  
"mQCNAyyg8RgAAAEEALN78k0ovUHn119cm8enD4oaDXWgImkSXPYNJFfo9VFeH14B"


Does it look like that?  I'm guessing it does not, or it would have  
worked for you.  So, in what way is it different from that?  Tell me  
how it's different, and maybe I can tell you how to fix it up,  
possibly how it got messed up in the first place, and hopefully how  
to avoid the problem the next time.

-==-
Jack Repenning
Chief Technology Officer
CollabNet, Inc.
8000 Marina Boulevard, Suite 600
Brisbane, California 94005
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