Detached signature on multiple files?

[Ryan Malayter]

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From: Greg Strong [mailto:gw_goldwing@gwstrong.com]=20
>This would be nice because I wouldn't have to remove=20
>passphrase & create separate key rings. The command
>never asked for my passphrase. When using a pipe doesn't=20
>the program have to ask for passphrase once. I am on=20
>Win98, so is this command compatible with Win98? If no=20
>and on Win2k wouldn't I still have to provide passphrase=20
>at least once?

I believe the FOR command works in the Win9x command interpreter as
well, but I don't remember for sure. I've been using almost
exclusively NT/2000/XP since 1996 - much more stable. The problem
with providing the passphrase via pipe is that it is plainly visible
on screen when you type it on the command line.=20
It would probably be best to set this up as a batch file that takes
the passphrase as a parameter, and then puts it into the FOR command.
Or, better yet, write a Windows Scripting Host file (wither VBscript
or Jscript) that reads the user password in a secure fashion; windows
scripting is not too difficult a thing to pick up.

>I am no programmer but do enjoy learning, so my question=20
>is what is stdin? Is this some temporary file on Win2k or=20
>NT machine where the passphrase is stored?

This is a feature that shows the UNIX & CP/M roots of the DOS
command
shell (although there is no DOS in Windows NT/2000/XP, the command
interface is very similar). Stdin is "standard input", the primary
means of user interaction, usually the keyboard. There is also
stdout, which is usually the console, and stderr, which is also
usually the console. However, any of these can be redirected to
something else, like files or even other programs. This is what the
pipe (|) operator does in the command line I gave you: it makes the
output of "echo" the standard in (i.e. keyboard) for gpg; which is
looking for the passphrase on its stdin.=20

As another example, the > operator on the command line makes stdout
a
file. Try:
   echo "Howdy partner" > howdy.txt
And look at the resulting file.

HTH,
:::Ryan Malayter
:::Sr. Network & Database Administrator
:::Bank Administration Institute
:::Chicago, Illinois, USA
:::PGP Key: http://www.malayter.com/pgp-public.txt


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