Pass/fail test on gpg implimentation on PINE

[Lars Hecking]

William (Andy) Smith writes:
> I'm not yet on the mail list, so please CC: me on a response.  When we
> implimented PGPi at our site several years ago, we used PINE, and found it
> painful to have to key in the passphrase on each and every single email we
> sent.  It is desireable that the software has a configurable timer that,
> so long as we have our PINE session open on a given host and we've invoked
> the gpg within that timeframe, say 5 to 10 minutes, may I *please* not
> have to type 'the longest sentence I can think of for a passphrase that is
> easy to remember, difficult to guess, I hope my passphrase is long
> enough'.  That isn't my passphrase, really, but having to type in a 'good
> passphrase' each and every email sent... yech!  So we dumped PGP, years
> ago.  Is it about time we looked into gpg?  Can we somehow use good
> passphrases without the agony (and security risk of being seen) typing the
> silly thing in over and over and over and over within a ten minute
> session?

 You have just described mutt. I recommend the development version
 (now 1.1.12 - 1.2 final is due out soon), as it has much improved
 support for gpg over 1.0.x.

 http://www.mutt.org/

  6.3.111.  pgp_timeout

  Type: number
  Default: 300

  The number of seconds after which a cached passphrase will expire if
  not used.

 Control-F forgets the passphrase. Handy if the phrase was misspelled :)

 Personally, I'd use /bin/mailx over pine any day ...