Changing preferences

[David Shaw]

On Sep 23, 2008, at 6:38 PM, Kevin Hilton wrote:

> Now that the algorithm has been changed for picking preferred
> algorithms, can someone please explain how the new algorithm works if
> the personal preferences are omitted?  Someone had previously posted a
> very informative example with three users with their key preferences,
> and showed how the choices progressed from the last key on the list up
> through the first key.  I thought that example was very informative.

It's very simple and easy to explain now:

With personal-*-preferences, GPG works exactly as it does now.  That  
is, whatever the personal-*-preferences say, goes, so long as they  
don't violate any key preferences (i.e. we won't pick AES unless every  
key can handle AES).

Without personal-*-preferences, GPG will pick the most popular  
algorithm from the various recipient keys.  That's basically it.

For example:

Key A has: AES CAST5 3DES
Key B has: CAST5 3DES AES
Key C has: CAST5 AES 3DES

Then CAST5 will win.  It's the most popular.

David