Subject: Re: bug#9112: 24.0.50; EasyPG - creating new gpg-encrypted files fails

From: Daiki Ueno <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 02 Aug 2011 06:32:26 +0900

tags 9112 notabug
thanks

"Roland Winkler" <[email-masked]> writes:

>> The default value of epa-file-select-keys has changed from nil to
>> 'silent in Emacs 24, which means symmetric encryption is now default.
>> You could set the variable to nil for the compatible behavior.  
>
> I see. Just curious: what was the reason for this change? I browsed
> emacs-devel and bug-gnu-emacs (and etc/NEWS), but I could not find
> anything.

I found the bug which caused this change:
http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=7487#49

> ...Well, it would be nice if either gpg or emacs could tell the user
> that the file the user wants to save is just about to go through
> symmetric encryption (and not any other encryption mechanism the
> user might hope for). Otherwise, any misunderstanding concerning the
> encryption mechanism could imply that a file is essentially lost
> after saving.

Right, but some people (Ted and Lars at least) feel the behavior too
verbose.  Maybe pinentry could be improved to display what gpg will do.
Actually I sometimes use gnome-keyring-daemon's gpg-agent support, which
displays two passphrase entries for confirmation and that implies
symmetric encryption.

Regards,
-- 
Daiki Ueno