



                           PGP-Front Manual ͻ
                                                                
                                  PGP-Front Version 1.00        
                                    Copyright (c) 1993          
                                                                
                           An user-friendly shell for PGP v2.3A 
                              Written by Walter H. van Holst    
                                                                
                            Fido: 2:281/611.3                   
                            Internet: 121233@pc-lab.fbk.eur.nl  
                                                                
                          ͼ




Table of contents:

         
         Legal stuff
                 1.1 Disclaimer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  2
                 1.2 Distribution
                 restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  2

         About the program and its
         author
                 2.1 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
                 2.2 The program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
                 2.3 Me, myself and I . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
                 2.4 Credits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3

         Installation and a quick
         start
                 3.1 System requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
                 3.2 How to install the
                 package. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
                 3.3 Quick start. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6

         How to.
                 4.1 Encrypt and/or sign
                 a file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7

         The Options menu
                 5.1 Directories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
                 5.2 Swapping options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
                 5.3 External programs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
                 5.4 Video configuration. . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

         Future enhancements
                 6.1 Near future. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
                 6.2 Far future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
                 6.3 Things that I am NOT
                 going to do. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

         Problem solving
                 7.1 Possible problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
                 7.2 Known bugs and
                 problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

         Last minute notes




         I       Legal stuff

         1.1 Disclaimer

         The only thing which is sure about the program and related
         files is that it consumes disk space (where did you read that
         before?). The author is not responsible for any physical,
         mental or social damage caused directly or indirectly to you,
         your posessions or whatsoever. 


         1.2 Distribution restrictions

         This program is beggarware, which implies that you may use
         and distribute it freely and means also that if you feel
         urged to throw away some money I'd be pleased if you send me
         some of it (less than 80ns SIMM's, young & beautiful women,
         fast & big SCSI HD's, programmable DSP modems and SG
         workstations are also accepted). The program being beggarware
         does not imply that it is not copyrighted. The program, its
         documentation and future language modules may not be
         distributed in any altered form without the explicit
         permission of the author. This software package may not be
         distributed through diskmagazines, CD-ROM releases or
         commercial BBS'es without an explicit written permission of
         the author. Distribution in any other form is encouraged and
         the only restrictions are that the complete package
         (executables, documentation and language modules) are kept
         together and that no fee higher than the local equivalent of
         U.S. $ 3 is asked. If you encounter any way of distributing
         PGP- Front that you feel as violating these restrictions,
         please contact the author. By using and/or distributing this
         software you agree to the restrictions imposed on its
         distribution and use by this document.




         II      About the program and its author

         2.1 Background

         PGP-Front is an interactive shell program which is intended
         to be used with Philip Zimmermann's Pretty Good Privacy. I
         wrote it because I perceived the PGP executables as
         user-unfriendly and had the feeling that Johannes Kepler's
         PGPSHELL could be improved. Although the latter program is a
         useful tool for those wo don't use the esoteric options of
         PGP very often, it lacks a good user interface in my opinion.
         But I have heard rumours that an version of PGPSHELL for
         SM-Widows is under development, it would be a great thing for
         those GUI-adepts.

         2.2 The program

         PGP-Front is written in Turbo Pascal 6.0, using Turbo Vision
         1.0, some of my my own units and Ralph Brown's SPAWNO (keep
         up the good things Ralph!). 

         2.3 Me, myself and I

         The author is a third year student in Business Administration
         and seems to have nothing better to do than playing with
         Turbo Vision. He can be contacted via E-mail on the following
         addresses:

                 Fidonet :        2:281/611.3 (preferred)
                                  2:2802/109.3

                 Internet:        121233@pc-lab.fbk.eur.nl (preferred)
                                  holst@sjaan.fbk.eur.nl

         Snailmail adress (send lots of money to it!):

                                  Warmoeskade 35
                                  2771 NE Boskoop
                                  The Netherlands


         2.4 Credits

         I feel urged to mention the following people because of their
         feedback on alpha-releases, suggestions and so on. Here they
         are:  

         Laszlo Baranyi, for his willingness to translate the 
         documentation in Swedish and giving some good  suggestions.
         E-mail address: LASZLO@INSTRLAB.KTH.SE




         Ralph Brown, for providing his great SPAWNO swapping  unit.
         Berend de Boer and Edwin Groothuis, both for providing help
         with the Turbo Vision toolkit.
         Erwin van Helden, for alpha testing and suggestions.
         Timo Krul, for making as much critical remarks as  possible
         :-).
         Branko Lankester, for some good suggestions.
         Giacomo Mazzocato, for making an Italian version of  the
         documentation and alpha-testing. He can be reached via the
         internet as JACK@MAYA.DEI.UNIPD.IT
         Sami Pitko, for mentioning some bugs and translating the
         documentation in Finnish. His E-mail address is
         SAMI.PITKO@MPOLI.FI
         Ronald Prins, for intensive alpha testing and  suggestions.




         III     Installation and a quick start

         3.1 System requirements

         In order to run this program properly you need an IBM-
         PC/XT/AT or compatible and an installed copy of PGP with a
         version number higher than 2. The memory requirements aren't
         very high, add 500 bytes to the amount your copy of PGP
         requires and you have enough of it. Don't ask me for exact
         numbers, even I have something better to do than running PGP
         and PGP-Front on the tightest configuration possible. Another
         thing which I haven't tested up to now is the minimum
         DOS-version you need, I suppose you need 3.xx or later to be
         safe. The package has not been tested on one of the DR-DOS
         versions or in any networking environment. Any reports on
         neanderthaler systems which did or did not run PGP-Front
         properly are highly appreciated. There has been a report that
         MS-DOS 6.0 in combination with Doublespace crashed when
         running PGP-Front 0.99, I hope that choosing other ways of
         swapping will solve this problem.


         3.2 How to install the package

         VERY IMPORTANT NOTICE:

         Read the documentation of your PGP package (do it!) andmake
         sure youhave it installed properly, that is, with atleast the
         time-zone environ ment variable set. There areseveral ways to
         install PGP-Front, it depends on your ownway of
         administrating your system and how you installed PGP. It is
         strongly recommended not to fill the rootdirectory of your HD
         with programs likethis, so put it inanother directory. The
         three possible ways to install PGP-Front:

         -       You have installed PGP using the environment variable
                 PGPPATH:

         Simply put the file PGPFRONT.EXE in any subdirectory youwant,
         it is re commended that it is stated in your PATHstatement.
         Run the program andchoose the Options menu,enter the
         Externals submenu and enter your favouritefile-viewer,
         wordprocessor and message-editor (if you have any).Use the
         Tab-key to move through the dialog,press Alt-O or click the
         Ok button when you aresatisfied. Choose the Options menu
         again, choose theSaveoptions option and off you go.

         -       You don't like environment stuff but you want all the
                 features of PGP-front:

         Do the same things as you have to do when you are using the
         PGPPATH en vironment variable, but you have also toset the
         directories where PGP.EXE resides. If you want your key-files
         to be kept in another subdirectory than PGP.EXE you can also
         set the keyring directory. This option is strongly
         recommended in case PGP.EXE is on a network drive and you
         don't want your key-files accessible to the system
         administrator. If you don't set this option, PGP-Front
         assumes that your key-files are the same subdirectory as
         PGP.EXE. If you want PGP-Front to swap out when shelling to
         another program, you can set the location where PGP-Front
         should swap to and in case you want PGP-Front to be swapped
         to disk you can set the swapping directory. By default
         PGP-Front swaps out to any location possible and will use the
         current directory or the directory name you put in the TEMP
         environment variable.

         -       You don't like environment variables and you never en-
                 or decrypt things outside your PGP directory:

         Put PGPFRONT.EXE in the PGP directory and make sure it isyour
         current directory when you are going to use it.

         Note:

         If you want your settings to be permanent, make sure youuse
         the Save Options option in the Options menu. A PGPFRONT.CFG
         file will then becreated in the directory where PGPFRONT.EXE
         resides. If your configuration file is corrupted in such a
         way that PGP-Front hangs at startup, simply delete it and set
         your options again.


         3.3 Quick start

         After you have set you options and you haven't generated a
         key pair up to now, you can generate a pair by choosing the
         Key menu and then choosing the Generate key option or by
         pressing Alt-G. If you have a key pair, you can simply select
         the select. option in the File menu and then do the basic
         things you want. The hotkey in this case is Alt-S and
         remember that the Tab-key is intended to travel through
         dialog boxes.

         That's enough for a quick start, it is just that simple. If
         you are an absolute beginner and have never met a decent
         user-interface before, please read further, anyone else can
         skip the rest of the documentation. You'd better read the PGP
         documentation.

         IV      How to.

         4.1 Encrypt and/or sign a file

         Just enter the file menu by pressing Alt-F or enter
         themenu-bar by pressing F10 and choose the file menu:

                 [] File Selection ͻ
                                                                
                   Name                                         
                  EXAMPLE.TXT   Add key    
                                                       
                   Files                              Select   
                  EXAMPLE.TXT  TEMP\                  
                  AUTOEXEC.BAT UTILITY\             Encrypt   
                  CHKLIST.MS                          
                  CONFIG.DBL                        Decrypt   
                  CONFIG.SYS                          
                  DATA\                               View    
                  DOS\                                
                  PROGRAMS\                            Open   
                  <      
                                                                
                   C:\*.*                                       
                   EXAMPLE.TXT   1024   Sep 22, 1993   11:22pm  
                 ͼ

         After you have entered the file menu, choose the Select
         option or press Alt-S, which is the hotkey for selecting
         files. Now a dialog pops up and you can enter the filename
         you'd like to be encrypted. You can also travel through the
         filelist by entering it using the Tab-key. After you have
         choosen the file, just press Alt-E or choose the Encrypt
         button and the encryption dialog popsup:

         [] Encryption options for C:\EXAMPLE.TXT ͻ
                                                                             
           Recipient(s) Name(s):                                       Ok   
                                
                                                                   Cancel   
           Kind of key to use:                                       
          ( ) Only Sign it with your secret key                              
          (X) Public key                                                     
          ( ) Conventional one-way Encryption                                
                                                                             
           File options:                                                     
          [ ] Radix-64 format           Needed when using PGP for E-mail     
          [ ] ASCII source              Useful for inter-system portability  
          [ ] Wipe original file        Caution!                             
          [ ] For recipients Eyes only  Decrypted output cannot be stored    
          [ ] Encrypt signed file       Only useful when signing a file      
                                                                             
         ͼ



         As you can see you have first to fill in the
         recipient(s)name(s), if there are any. After you have entered
         the recipients name, a list of recipients or nothing if there
         isn't any recipient, you must press the Tab key or click the
         next option you want to fill in with your mouse. Next option
         is the kind of encryption you want to be executed on the
         selected file. The key options are self-explanatory, don't
         use conventional one-way encryption if it is your intention
         to send the file to someone. Because one-way encryption
         methods are relatively easy to crack, there won't be much
         left of your Pretty Good Privacy. If you want to sign and
         encrypt a file as well you must choose the "Only Sign it with
         your secret key" option and from the file options the
         "Encrypt signed file" option. Now we're talking about the
         file options, it is recommended to use the Radix-64 format in
         case you wantto send the encrypted file by E-mail. On many
         networks there are systems (older Unix-boxes etc.) which
         don't recognize ASCII-codes higher than 127, the extended
         ASCII-set. Since E-mail usually is treated as ASCII files and
         not as binaries, the bit which should tell your system that
         the character has an ASCII-code higher than 127 gets
         stripped. There are several ways to get around this problem,
         one of them is the Radix-64 format. This format is
         automatically recognized by the receivers PGP program, so why
         bother with other formats like UUencoded files? 

         Another useful option is the "ASCII source" option, this is
         useful because there is no universal standard how to treat
         carriage returns. If you use this option, PGP will handle
         this compatibility problem for you. Read the PGP manual for
         more information.

         The other options are self-explanatory, at least I suppose
         them to be so.

         After you have filled in your options, press the Enter key
         and PGP-Front will swap out and start PGP.EXE with the right
         parameters. Read the PGP documentation forfurther information
         (didn't you read it yet?).

         If you think 'Geez, this is not what I wanted, get me out of
         here!', simply press the Escape button or press Alt-C or
         click the Cancel button with your mouse. 

         4.2 Decrypt a file

         Just get into the File selection menu again and after you
         have choosen the file you want to be decrypted (they are
         often recognizable by the ASC extension) press Alt-D orclick
         the Decryption button. Then a new menu pops up:

    [] Decryption options for C:\EXAMPLE.ASC ͻ
                                                                
      Output options:                                   Ok     
     (X) Send output to Disk                            
     ( ) Send output to Screen                        Cancel   
                                                        
      File options:                                             
     [ ] Keep original filename                                 
     [ ] Leave signature intact                                 
                                                                
    ͼ

         It doesn't look very complex and it isn't very complex too.
         Don't be afraid to make a mistake, nothing can go wrong. In
         case you wanted the decrypted data to be send to disk instead
         of your silly CRT, PGP asks you whether you want to have it
         saved or not. The file options aren't very exciting too, if
         you want the filename to stay the same as it was before the
         file was encrypted, just tick the 'Keep original filename'
         checkbox. This option isn't very useful if you are using PGP
         and PGP-Front for your E-mail as E-mail tends to have
         filenames like '2JOHNSON.TXT' which aren't very informative
         to say the least. On the other hand, keeping the signature
         intact isn't very interesting when processing binaries but it
         can be usefull in the case of E-mail. Once decrypted,
         cipherfiles tend to be deleted which cause the destruction of
         possibly valuable signatures. If you keep the signature
         intact you can always check whether it was really your now
         ex-girlfriend who wrote you that you are the ultimate looser
         or something like that.

         4.3 Change directory

         Yes, moving around in your file-system! Wow, all thethings
         you ever wanted to know about: directory trees,
         faster-than-light-travel, emulating an Mac Quadra on a
         ZX-Spectrum, changing drives and getting slim within two
         weeks without having to change your pretty decadentlife!
         Okay, now back to life: press Alt-C or enter the file menu
         and choose the 'Change directory' option. A brand-new menu
         pops up:

                 [] Change Directory ͻ
                                                               
                   Directory name                              
                  F:\               
                                                               
                   Directory tree                              
                    Drives                            OK     
                     F:\                           
                       PROGRAMS                            
                        TEMP                       Chdir   
                                                      
                                                              
                                                    Revert   
                                                      
                                                              
                                                              
                                                               
                 ͼ

         Here you can do the following things:
                 - change the current drive
                 - change the current directory

         You can simply enter the path you want to be the current one,
         e.g. if you type 'C:\DOS' and press Enter both drive and
         directory would be changed in this case. You can also select
         another drive by selecting the Direcory tree item and
         choosing the 'Drives' option. A tree of all drives will be
         displayed, like this one:

                 [] Change Directory ͻ
                                                               
                   Directory name                              
                  Drives                                    
                                                               
                  Directory tree                               
                  Drives                              OK     
                    A                              
                     B                                      
                     C                            Chdir    
                     D                              
                     E                                      
                     F                            Revert   
                     G                              
                     H                                      
                                                              
                                                               
                 ͼ

         Changing directories is just the same. As soon as you are
         satisfied with the situation you created, press Alt-O or
         click the Ok button. Ah, I forgot the Revert button, that one
         is for obtaining the same effect as typing 'CD ' in DOS.

         4.3 Manage your keys

         If you press Alt-K you get the following menu:

                 Ŀ Comments:
                  Add a key          Ins  You must first select a file.
                  Remove a key       Del  Caution!
                  Switch key on/off  Tab  You can disable/enable a key.
                  Extract a key       F2  Extract a key to a .ASC file.
                  FingerPrint            
                  Edit Trust parameters   <Ŀ
                  Sign and certify a key     
                 Ĵ     These two are the same.
                  View keyring               
                  Edit userId/password    <
                  Generate key pair       Needed to use PGP.
                 

         I know that this is a very brief explanation, but there a few
         reasons for not writing more about this menu:

         -       These are the more advanced features of PGP and it is
                 very useful to know what you are doing. This is intended
                 to force you to read the PGP manual.
         -       If you have read the PGP manual you don't need a manual
                 for this, so why should I bother writing one?


         V       The Options menu

         5.1 Directories

         To achieve maximum flexibility with PGP and PGP-Front without
         using environment variables it is recommended to provide
         PGP-Front the information where PGP.EXE and your keyfiles can
         be found. You can make these options permanent by saving
         them. The option to fill in the name of your PGP executable
         is intended for those who have compiled custom versions of
         PGP and have given them other names than PGP.EXE.

         Note:            If you decide to have your keyfiles in
                          anotherdirectory than the subdirectory where
                          PGP.EXE resides, make sure that the RANDSEED.BIN
                          fileis also in this directory. It is not fatal
                          ifyou don't do this, but PGP will create anotherone
                          which might give you the perception thatsomething
                          is wrong.

         5.2 Swapping options

         Using this menu you can set the swapping options of PGP-
         Front, you can the the followin locations where PGP-Front can
         be swapped to when shelling out to an external program:


                 - Disk
                 - XMS memory
                 - EMS memory
                 - Extended memory
                 - All possible locations

         You can also force PGP-Front to stay in memory when shelling
         to an external program by using the 'Don't swap at all'
         option. In case you want PGP-Front to swap to disk or to all
         possible locations it can be useful to set the swapping
         directory. However, if you don't set this option, PGP-Front
         will swap out to the directory in your TEMP environment
         variable or the current directory if you didn't set the TEMP
         environment variable.

         5.3 External programs

         With this option you can give PGP-Front information about
         some external programs you'd like within this package. First
         yo can enter the name of your favourite file-viewer, for
         example Vernon D. Buerg's great LIST.COM. If you don't have a
         favourite file-viewer,just enter 'more < '. Next one is your
         preferred wordprocessor, even WordPerfect is possible,
         although I don't recommend this one for this purpose. (I
         wouldn't recommend it for any purpose) Last, but not least is
         your favourite message-editor. If you have installed them
         properly, both the file-viewer and the wordprocessor can be
         started from the File Selection menu, using the View and Open
         options. You can start the message-editor from the File menu
         or by pressing Alt-M.

         If you want to have the same settings every time you start
         PGP-Front, use the Save Options option from the Options menu
         (huh?).

         5.4 Video configuration

         Using this option you can set your favourite displaymode.
         There are three possible modes:

                  - Color
                  - Monochrome
                  - LCD

         All of them are 80x25 modes. Be careful, if you choose the
         monochrome option and you don't have a Hercules video
         adaptor, your system will freeze next time you start
         PGP-Front. You can solve this problem by replacing the word
         'MONO' in your PGPFRONT.CFG file with 'COLOR' or'LCD'. In
         order to let changes in your video configuration take effect,
         you must choose the 'Save options' option in the Options
         menu, quit PGP-Front(Alt-X) and restart PGP-Front.


         VI      Future enhancements

         6.1 Near future

         In the near future, with that I mean version 1.00 or 1.5I
         hope to implement the following options:

         -       Multi-language support, at least the following languages
                 will be supported:

                          o Dutch
                          o English (really!)
                          o Finnish
                          o Italian
                          o Swedish

         If anyone wants to make language modules and documentation
         translations for other languages, please contact me. It would
         be great to have a version in Swahili, Frysk, Gaelic or even
         Esperanto :-) Other languages are of course also welcome.

         -       More configuration options, you will be able to control
                 which language to use, default encryption and decryption
                 options etc.

         -       Context-sensitive help in your preferred language, don't
                 expect that to be implemented before version 2.0.

         -       A more efficient programming style which will enable a
                 smaller and thus faster program.

         6.2 Far future

         -       The ability to interactively choose a key and manipulate
                 it instead of only have an list of keys presented by PGP
                 and switching back to PGP-Front.

         -       In the very far future I hope to add the PGP algorithm
                 itself to the program, in that case its name will change
                 to PGP4DOS. But that depends on the willingness of the
                 people behind PGP to help me with such a project. I am
                 just a silly Pascal programmer and PGP-Front is my third
                 serious efford in writing programs using Turbo Pascal,
                 please don't see me as a whizz-kid.

         -       Options _YOU_ want to be included, please send feedback
                 on this.

         -       If you want to have it ported to another platform: send
                 enough money to make me able to buy such a system :-)




         6.3 Things that I am NOT going to do

         I am NOT going to implement:

         -       Support for playing audio-CD's in your CD-ROM drive, my
                 name is not Bimbo Bendtsen and I don't listen to music
                 when programming.
         -       Calculators, Tetris and Tic-Tac-Toe variants, Any stupid
                 key-check to make sure you will pay me for this thing.
                 It is up to you to decide whether it is worth some mony
                 or not. I really get sick of those guilt-games played by
                 too many shareware authors.

         I am NOT going to publicize the source of this
         program,because of my bad programming habits. Believe me, it
         really looks stupid.

         VII     Problem solving

         7.1 Possible problems

         Q.      When I try to encrypt or decrypt a file I get the
                 message 'bad command or file name'.

         A.      You did not install PGP-Front properly, configure the
                 directories in the Options menu or set the PGPPATH
                 environment variable.

         Q.      When I try to view or edit a file or try to start the
                 message editor I get the message 'bad command or
                 filename'.

         A.      Again a wrong installation of PGP-Front, change the
                 appropriate settingsin the Options menu, save your
                 options and restart PGP-Front.

         Q.      My system crashes when I start PGP-Front.

         A.      You possibly have a wrong video configuration. You can
                 delete your configfile (PGPFRONT.CFG) or edit it with an
                 ASCII-editor. There are three words possible:
                 'MONO','COLOR' and 'LCD'. If you delete your config
                 file, remember to reconfigure PGP-Front.

         Q.      I get messages like 'Dos error 2771' when an external
                 program exits and I get back to PGP-Front.
         A.      That depends on the application you executed. If it was
                 PGP.EXE, don't worry, most errorcodes don't seem to mean
                 that something is wrong. But I simply don't know the
                 meaning of them.

         Q.      I get strange run-time errors.

         A.      Report them at once! This is the final release, so
                 anything should work fine. Send me the errorcode, its
                 address and under which circumstancesthis error occurs.

         Q.      I get the message 'cannot execute PGP.EXE'.
         A.      You possibly don't have enough memory to run PGP.EXE
                 while PGP-Front stays in memory. Please use a kind of
                 swapping.

         Q.      My system crashes when shelling to DOS or when PGP.EXE
                 or other external programs are called.
         A.      In most cases like this, your system doesn't get along
                 with the swapping unit I used, pleas disable swapping in
                 the Options.Swapping menu, save your options and restart
                 PGP-Front. If you still encounter these problems, please
                 report them. In case you are now out of memory: buy more
                 or try to remove some TSR's or device drivers.


         7.2 Known bugs and problems

         -       The SPAWNO unit I am currently using doesn't get along
                 with Thunderbyte anti-virus. Please set the swapping
                 option to 'Don't swap at all'. I don't recommend to stop
                 using Thunderbyte anti-virus, it is one of the best
                 anti-virus products around.

         -       The screen is not always redrawn properly after calling
                 an external program, please report under which
                 circumstances this happens.

         -       If you use EMS memory for swapping and you run PGP-Front
                 in a DesqView window, PGP-Front might mess up other text
                 windows or the PGP-Front window gets messed up by other
                 programs after shelling to an external program.

         -       Documentation is a mess, I need volunteers for writing
                 the documentation, I really hate to do that job myself.
                 It's so booooooring.





         VIII    Last minute notes

