--textmode, tiny bug ?

[Werner Koch]

Markus Gruber <Markus.Gruber at ilo.baynet.de> writes:

> 
> It would be nice to be able to sign nonclear (some call it binary, don´t know 
> why) *and* having textmode conversion to network style. I don´t know how to 
> say it gpg:
> "gpg --clearsign --armor --textmode" does signing clear after textmode 
> conversion
> "gpg --sign --armor --textmode" does it, too.
> "gpg --sign --armor" does nonclear signing ?without? having converted to 
> textmode
> It would be nice to have that feature.

I'm not sure whether I understand what you want.

A short explanation:

  - textmode means that - only for the purpose of calculating the
    the hash which is used - CR,LF is used instead of LF.
  - It does not mean that a program has to output CR,LF
    (yes, I know there is a bug in GnuPG).
  - binary mode means that the signature is calculated over the
    data without without any conversion.
  - clearsign implies textmode.

I don't like this textmode for normal messages because it is not the
duty of an encryption program to do data conversion between different
formats (Why not adding an EBCDIC option too?) - this is something
a MUA has to handle.  Textmode for clearsigned messages is another 
game:  Because MTAs are allowed to do some conversions on the
transferred data we must make sure that there is a standard which 
is used to sign/verify such a message.