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Chunking armored messages and pubkeys?
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Description

Dear colleagues,

I'm stuck with the problem. I want to send GPG keys and messages via GET request, but:

  • Data block size in the request is limited (4096 symbols), and it is not enough for a typical GPG message, or for a seasoned pubkey;
  • Chunks may be sent in the wrong order, or interleaved.

RFC 2440 standard allows chunking armored messages:

BEGIN PGP MESSAGE, PART X/Y

Used for multi-part messages, where the armor is split amongst Y parts, and this is the Xth part out of Y.

BEGIN PGP MESSAGE, PART X

Used for multi-part messages, where this is the Xth part of an unspecified number of parts. Requires the MESSAGE-ID Armor Header to be used.

Unfortunately, I've found no evidence that this feature is implemented in GPG.
But I'd be glad if it was. I could help with that if necessary.

Best wishes,
Emil

Event Timeline

Indeed, this is not implemented. AFAIK, this feature was introduced by PGP 2 to support BBS systems. I would suggest that you use binary messages and implement the chunking at the application level.

Indeed, this is not implemented. AFAIK, this feature was introduced by PGP 2 to support BBS systems. I would suggest that you use binary messages and implement the chunking at the application level.

Thank you @werner, I actually use binary messages and home-made armoring in my project! Anyway, if you ever feel the need to implement armored message/key chunking in GPGME, I'll be glad to help you.

werner added a project: OpenPGP.