Why are 64-bit libraries not included in GnuPG but Gpg4win?

Sven Richter sven.r.richter at protonmail.ch
Wed Dec 1 01:19:45 CET 2021


As the title states, why are there no 64-bit libraries in GnuPG for Windows? (The installer from the binary releases)
It's not like they don't exist at all but they are part of Gpg4win only. Shouldn't they be included directly in the core part? Why are they "moved out" to Gpg4win? It seems weird to me that I would have to install gpg4win just to get hold of some 64-bit libraries for GnuPG.

For some context:
I've been using gpg for years, for simple things like to verify files, not mailing. And I'm only using pure GnuPG, not Gpg4win, as I've never felt any need for things like Kleopatra. I'm fine with basic gpg on the terminal, don't need all that additional stuff from Gpg4win.
However, recently I decided to change this and set my mail accounts up. The issue apparently? The fact that I'm already using Thunderbird 64-bit.
As many will know, Enigmail isn't much of a thing anymore. But I don't really trust that new OpenPGP.js implementation they have now, I rather use my existing setup. No problem, there is a setting just for this in Thunderbird after all, simply set mail.openpgp.allow_external_gnupg = true. Except that this got me vague error messages.I'll spare everybody any long explanations but as hinted the issue seemingly was my 64-bit client. After hours of work I ended up having to install Gpg4win, copy the 64-bit libraries over and deinstall it again.
Luckily the libraries work despite Gpg4win 3.1.16 containing only GnuPG 2.2.28, while I'm already using GnuPG 2.3.3, still seems questionable though.This brought me to the question above: Why are the 64-bit libraries only in Gpg4win? Why does GnuPG not come with 64-bit libraries in the first place?
I can't imagine that I'm the only or first one using GnuPG and wanting it to work with 64-bit software. 64-bit is getting more and more common after all.

Greetings
Sven
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