Using PGP with pine

Pine does not have direct support for PGP, but you can add external programs to offer PGP capabilities.

There is a package called PGP4Pine which allows you use PGP version 2.6 with pine. (If you are using PGP version 5, you may have some difficulties; you may prefer to switch to GPG, or switch to mutt, or both.)

After installing the PGP4Pine package according to its instructions, you need to edit your ~/.pinerc file and change two lines:

  display-filters=_BEGINNING("-----BEGIN PGP")_ /usr/lib/pinepgp/check _TMPFILE_ _RESULTFILE_

  sending-filters=/usr/lib/pinepgp/pgp _TMPFILE_ _RECIPIENTS_

The path /usr/lib/pinepgp is what Debian uses for this package, which it calls pinepgp. On your computer, you may have PGP4Pine installed elsewhere; change the path names appropriately. This will allow you to receive and send messages which have been signed and/or encrypted with PGP.

To sign or encrypt a message in pine, compose the message as you normally would, and then when you get to this menu:

  Send message (unfiltered)? _
                Y [Yes]     ^P Prev Filter
  ^C Cancel     N No        ^N Next Filter

Press Ctrl-N, and the menu will change:

  Send message (filtered thru "pgp")? _
                Y [Yes]     ^P Prev Filter
  ^C Cancel     N No        ^N Next Filter

Pressing y brings up a separate PGP menu:

  PINE/PGP send message
  ---------------------
  s - sign
  r - encrypt
  e - sign & encrypt
  n - do nothing
  f - finger address
  c - cancel

  [default = sign] Operation? _

From here, you can sign the message, or encrypt it, or do both.