Question about history of hash and cipher collections

[Alan Olsen]

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> From: David Shaw

> Yes.  "gpg -v --version" will give you the algorithm numbers along
> with the algorithm names.  However, the algorithm numbers are not
> really relevant to anything unless you're writing OpenPGP software.
> For years now, all programs have referred to AES256 as "AES256"
> and not "cipher 9".

Version will not report it that way, but decryption errors will.  If you have an older version of GPG that does not know about the newer cypher or hash, it will report "cypher n" or "hash n".  I have encountered this on systems that have not been upgraded for a while.  (And, yes, there is an upgrade in process.)  The information is useful in that case when you are trying to explain to production people what happened when their file decryption failed.
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