epic-crypt-gpg

Removed helper

epic-crypt-gpg was a Bash shell helper for the client's former external message-encryption interface. Both correspondents needed compatible external-cipher configuration using the same shared passphrase. It was an external executable, not a script to load with /load.

EPIC6 removes external encryption and the former end-to-end encryption command interface. The helper is no longer shipped, and the current command table registers neither encrypt nor crypt. Installing a copy of the old helper or GnuPG does not restore that client integration. There is no supported EPIC6 invocation or replacement external-cipher setting for this facility.

Historical protocol

The helper accepted encrypt or decrypt as its first shell argument. It read the first standard-input line as a passphrase word followed by discarded words, then treated the remaining input as binary message data. The first whitespace-separated word was the key, so a passphrase containing spaces was not preserved by that interface.

For encryption it invoked gpg -c -z 9 --batch --passphrase-fd 0; for decryption it invoked gpg --batch --passphrase-fd 0. It supplied the passphrase through standard input before the message data. An unrecognized operation printed a usage line to standard error. The script depended on Bash and an external gpg executable in the process search path.

Encryption output was binary rather than ASCII-armored. It was intended for the old client's external-cipher protocol, not for pasting raw output into an IRC message. This helper did not by itself supply IRC-safe text framing, public-key recipient management, or an independently authenticated correspondent identity. These historical details describe the removed implementation, not a current GnuPG setup recipe.

Remove obsolete references to this helper from client encryption configuration. TLS server connections are a separate facility: they encrypt the connection to the server and do not recreate this message-encryption protocol between correspondents.

History

This helper first appeared in EPIC4-1.1.3. Its former external-program interface was retired during EPIC6 development, followed by retirement of the remaining end-to-end encryption command support.

Source references

• KNOWNBUGS: records retirement of external encryption, $crypt(), $encryptparm(), and end-to-end encryption through /crypt.
• source/commands.c: current command registrations omit the former encryption commands.
• source/functions.c: current function registrations omit the former encryption-control functions.
• Repository history: script/epic-crypt-gpg in the parent of commit 32f485a5 contains the removed Bash helper and its input protocol; the file is absent from the current tree.