EPIC Enhanced Programmable IRC-II Client

epic-crypt-gpg-aa

Removed helper

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

Unlike epic-crypt-gpg, it converted GnuPG's ASCII-armored output into a single-line representation suitable for the old client's IRC encryption framing. EPIC6 removes external encryption and the former end-to-end encryption command interface, and no longer ships this helper. Neither encrypt nor crypt is registered in the current command table. Installing the old helper or GnuPG does not restore that integration, and there is no supported EPIC6 invocation or replacement external-cipher setting.

Historical protocol

The helper accepted encrypt or decrypt as its first shell argument. It read a first input line containing a passphrase word and discarded additional words. The remaining input supplied the message data. Consequently, the interface did not preserve spaces within a passphrase.

Encryption used gpg -ca -z 9 --batch --passphrase-fd 0. The helper removed the armor headers and final footer, then joined the intervening data lines with spaces. This avoided the embedded newlines produced by ordinary GnuPG armor; it did not preserve a complete standalone armored GPG block.

Decryption read that encoded line into a Bash array, generated a temporary armor envelope using GnuPG, inserted the received words as separate lines, and passed the reconstructed block to gpg -a --batch --passphrase-fd 0. The passphrase was supplied through standard input. Unknown operation names printed a usage line to standard error.

The implementation required Bash and an external gpg in the process search path, and depended on the armor layout emitted by that historical GnuPG interface. Its text representation avoided binary IRC payloads but did not remove IRC line-length limits or provide message splitting. It did not manage public-key recipients or independently authenticate a correspondent's identity. These details describe a removed implementation, not a current GnuPG setup recipe.

Remove obsolete references to this helper from client encryption configuration. TLS server connections protect the connection to the IRC server; they do not recreate this former message-encryption protocol between correspondents.

History

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

Source references