help needed desperately: gpg --decrypt hanging

[Steve Butler]

Can't help with Perl or Crypt.  However, I can help with:

  gpg --decrypt

This wants to have both the passphrase and the encrypted file come in
through STDIN.  The problem is that it wants to start readying the encrypted
data (from STDIN) first.  So, it will just sit there.  If you do feed it
some encrypted, it will start to read the encrypted data (to find out which
key is needed to decrypt) but then need the passphrase (which you did see
and entered).  After that, it will need the rest of the encrypted data until
it hits end-of-file (EOF).  You can simulate an EOF by entering a CNTRL-D at
the keyboard.  But that is cumbersome.  You can try that just to see if it
works (using a really small encrypted file).

But, you should try the below first and see if it works for you.

  cat try1.pgp | gpg --decrypt

You need a passphrase to unlock the secret key for
user: "First Choice Health Network (FCHN) <helpdesk at fchn.com>"
2048-bit ELG-E key, ID 5A2CEA48, created 2001-10-16 (main key ID 1B32D54B)

Enter passphrase: <<passphrase entered here by hand at prompt>>
gpg: encrypted with 2048-bit ELG-E key, ID 5A2CEA48, created 2001-10-16
      "First Choice Health Network (FCHN) <helpdesk at fchn.com>"
<<decrypted data shows here>>


If this all works so far, then try sending the encrypted data through a
named pipe:

mknod mydata p
cat try1.pgp > mydata &
[1] 28405
gpg --no-batch --decrypt mydata

You need a passphrase to unlock the secret key for
user: "First Choice Health Network (FCHN) <helpdesk at fchn.com>"
2048-bit ELG-E key, ID 5A2CEA48, created 2001-10-16 (main key ID 1B32D54B)

Enter passphrase: <<passphrase entered here by hand at prompt>>
gpg: encrypted with 2048-bit ELG-E key, ID 5A2CEA48, created 2001-10-16
      "First Choice Health Network (FCHN) <helpdesk at fchn.com>"t
<<decrypted data here>>

This should all work based on the command line.  If it doesn't, then there
is a problem with your gpg setup/install.  

If this all works, then we can tackle whatever problem is left (like sending
the passphrase to FD 0 and the encrypted data via the named pipe with output
going to either STLIST or a file.

--Steve


-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Della Costa [mailto:dave at acadaca.com]
Sent: Friday, October 31, 2003 12:06 PM
To: Steve Butler
Cc: gnupg-users at gnupg.org; jason at acadaca.com
Subject: RE: help needed desperately: gpg --decrypt hanging


Hi Steve,

Yes, the Halloween bug is hitting us all here in NYC too. :)

Well, the first problem is that I'm not able to use gpg from the command
line, in at least one fashion (see my message to David Shaw on the
list).  The next issue is that Crypt::GPG (perl module) now appears to
be broken, because, I'm assuming, it is using the same method to decrypt
text through gpg.  
<<snip>>


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