Features

GnuPG itself is a commandline tool without any graphical stuff. It is the real crypto engine which can be used directly from a command prompt, from shell scripts or by other programs. Therefore it can be considered as a backend for other applications.

However, even when used on the command line it provides all functionality needed - this includes an interactive menu system. The set of commands of this tool will always be a superset of those provided by any frontends.

• Full replacement of PGP.
• Does not use any patented algorithms.
• GPLed, written from scratch.
• Can be used as a filter program.
• Full OpenPGP implementation (see RFC2440 at RFC Editor ).
• Better functionality than PGP and some security enhancements over PGP 2.
• Decrypts and verifies PGP 5, 6 and 7 messages.
• Supports ElGamal, DSA, RSA, AES, 3DES, Blowfish, Twofish, CAST5, MD5, SHA-1, RIPE-MD-160 and TIGER.
• Easy implementation of new algorithms using extension modules.
• The User ID is forced to be in a standard format.
• Supports key and signature expiration dates.
• English, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Estonian, French, German, Japanese, Italian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Portuguese (Portuguese), Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish language support.
• Online help system.
• Optional anonymous message receivers.
• Integrated support for HKP keyservers (wwwkeys.pgp.net).
• Clears signed patch files which can still be processed by patch.
• and many more things....