Gpg Tools 1.2.1

What it is

Gpg Tools is a Mac OS X graphical interface to the GNU Privacy Guard (GPG) utility. It provides approximately the functionality of the old PGPtools.

What it isn't

Gpg Tools is not encryption software. It relies entirely on GPG being already installed on your computer. All it does is provide a nicer-than-command-line interface to the UNIX gpg tool.

It looks suspiciously like PGP Tools for Classic Mac OS. However it is nothing to do with Network Associates (www.nai.com) who marketed PGP Freeware. It is also in no way affiliated with GPG (www.gnupg.org) or the Mac GNU Privacy Guard team (macgpg.sourceforge.net) who produced the mac port of GPG that this software uses.

Important note: Gpg Tools uses a UNIX tool for encryption and decryption, so using it on mac files with a resource fork may cause the encrypted file to not contain all the information of the original. This is because UNIX tools generally don't understand about resource forks. Most new Mac OS X applications steer clear from resource forks, but not all. Classic applications and files use them much more frequently. Basically, if you can't copy the file successfully with the UNIX 'cp' command, you can't encrypt or sign it properly either. You can work around this by using a tool like DropStuff (from Aladdin Systems) to MacBinary encode the file before encrypting it.

Why?

I wrote this tool because I am a great fan of GPG and OS X, but I still dislike command lines. Since Mac GPG has produced graphical tools that have the functionality of the old PGPmenu and PGPkeys, I decided that an app in the style of PGPtools would be a good project for me to mess around with and polish my Cocoa skills.

Features

Requirements

OS versions older than 10.4 are no longer supported. Please use version 1.2 or earlier if you are on 10.2 or 10.3.

Versions outside the above list are not supported, but may still work. There is no need to download the source to Mac GPG, or compile it yourself. Gpg Tools will work with the 'off the shelf' precompiled version.

Installation

You must have already installed Mac GPG before running this software. All your keyrings must also be present for Gpg Tools to do anything useful. Follow the directions included with in the Mac GPG Read Me file to import your existing Classic keyrings or create a new key. Note that Mac GPG (at the time of writing) does require the use of the command line to import your keyrings. Mac GPG and your config folder (the '.gnupg' one) do not need to be installed anywhere special - if Gpg Tools can't find them, it will ask you.

To install Gpg Tools, copy it into the Applications folder (or a subfolder). This is required for Services to work. If you can live without Gpg Tools' Services, you can install it anywhere. (See the Frequently Asked Questions file for more information about Services.)

Disclaimer

I wrote this in my spare time. It might not work as hoped or at all. I take no responsibility for anything that goes wrong as a result of using this software.

Known bugs in this version / Things to do

Localizations! Anyone out there who would like to translate Gpg Tools into another language, contact me and I will send you the relevant files.

There is no warning if you try and encrypt a file with a resource fork; the information in the resource fork is not included in the encrypted result which may make the file unusable when it is decrypted.

No communication with internet keyservers to retrieve unknown public keys (this was a feature of the original PGPtools but won't be included unless there is a demand for it).

Using Services in the Finder doesn't work properly for files on the Desktop, if there are any other Finder windows open. This is a bug in the Finder, it is fixed in 10.3.3.

Dragging files on to the dock icon can cause the Dock to become 'stuck' which is particularly noticeable if you have the Dock set to auto-hide. The problem goes away if you move the mouse onto the Dock and leave it still for a second or two. This is a bug with the Frameworks, I'm looking for a workaround.

License

This program is freeware. This means you can use this version as much as you like, but the source code is mine. You may distribute it as much as you like providing it is in its original disk image form. If you like this app, drop me an email. I wrote this program in my spare time - if you want more development on it, let me know!

This program is not being released under the GNU license for several reasons. Firstly it doesn't have to be, although this isn't a very good reason I agree! Secondly since this is written in my spare time I don't want to have to think too hard about its distribution or managing the source and/or updates. Since any proper license would involve an increase in time spent administering the project I'm sticking with the simple conditions stated above. Anybody who really wants to see the source is welcome to email me.

All the usual © and "All Rights Reserved" stuff should probably go in here as well...

Bug reports

Gpg Tools may not always work as planned. If it appears to not behave as expected, send an email to the address below including what you were doing at the time. It will speed up the debugging process a great deal if you include the log file produced by Gpg Tools when the error occurred. This log file is located at

/Users/YOUR_USER_NAME/Library/Logs/Gpg Tools log.txt

Bug reports please mail me here.

Note: This log file includes the names of all the keys on your keyrings, as that is part of Gpg Tools' internal logging. It does not contain any sensitive information, such as the contents of any keys, or any passphrases you might type in during Gpg Tool's operation. Sending this log file does not in any way compromise the security of Gpg. Feel free to examine the contents of the log before sending it: it is in plain text format. If for example you don't wish to send confidential email addresses, you may blank them out before emailing the log file.

Contact

Gpg Tools was written by Tom Sutcliffe.
Comments/Suggestions/Bug reports http://www.tomsci.com/gpgtools/Contact.html The latest version can be found at http://www.tomsci.com/gpgtools/

The Mac GPG team may be reached at http://macgpg.sourceforge.net/. Mac GPG is a required download for this software to do anything. GPGkeys is a recommended download for graphical management of your keyrings.

Thanks...

... have to go to the Mac GPG team for providing the gpg port that is the basis of this software. Nice one guys!