Cannot generate keys on msys

[John Clizbe]

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Simon Hawkin wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> As I wrote a week ago
> (http://lists.gnupg.org/pipermail/gnupg-users/2004-February/021755.html),
> I do not seem to be able to generate keys or get any useful response
> from gpg beyond --version and --help options. Could someone point me to
> the right direction so I could fix this?
>
> Thanks!
>

OK, you wrote then:

> Just installed gpg version 1.2.4 on msys (mingw) on Win 2003 server.
> When trying gpg --gen-key, nothing happens. Same effect both in the
> precompiled version and when compiling the sources. gpg --help etc work
> fine; so it seems there is a problem with tty_printf, but maybe not.
> Anyone here knows what to do about this?

The crowd that knows about MinGW is somewhat small. The MSys bunch is
*much* smaller -- mingw-msys generates 1/10 the traffic of mingw-users.
Since this is the GnuPG list, you are dealing with the intersection of the
two -- arguably a small domain of experience.

I've seen the behavior you describe. It occurs when running either
GnuPG.org's or Nullify's gnupg build within MSYS's Bourne shell.

The fix is simple. Run gpg from a Win32 shell, cmd.exe.

MSYS's documentation (MSYS_Welcome.rtf) states:
	MSYS - Minimal SYStem
	Version 1.0.10
	http://www.mingw.org/msys.shtml

	Welcome to the world of MSYS and MinGW.  Minimal SYStem is a
	minimal POSIX system used in the Win32 OS to accomplish
	configuration and making of packages.

There is enough support for ./configure && make. That's it. I'm not sure
if the MSYS-developer package would help you or not in this case.

If you ABSOLUTELY require a Posix environment, then take a look at Cygwin,
AT&T UWin, or (gackk) Microsoft's SFU. All $free. A quick test shows that
Cygwin's gpg works fine under MSYS's /bin/sh (utilizes $GNUPGHOME and
~/.gnupg instead of Windows Registry settings).

Since you seem to have pegged the problem, you may want to post to
mingw-users or mingw-msys and see if there is a work-around or fix available.

- --
John P. Clizbe                   Inet:   JPClizbe(a)comcast DOT nyet
Golden Bear Networks             PGP/GPG KeyID: 0x608D2A10
  "Most men take the straight and narrow. A few take the road less
traveled.  I chose to cut through the woods."
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