gnutar + pgp filter mode

17 Dec 2003

      -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

The gnu tar archiver allows to use an arbitrary
compression program (option --use-compress-program=PROG).

This works well with pgp if a small wrapper is used:

#!/bin/csh -fb

if ("$1" == "-d") then
  exec pgp -d -f
else
  exec pgp -e -f
endif

The only problem is that this doesn't work well for
larger amounts of data, because pgp reads in all
data before starting with its work.

Perhaps a future release of pgp will have a real filter
mode.

Hadmut

BTW: Does this "crypto-hook" cause export restrictions to 
apply on gtar ?

William Hayward