DragonFly On-Line Manual Pages

PMAPP(1)               DragonFly General Commands Manual              PMAPP(1)

NAME
       pmapp - insert a verifiable signature into a news article.

SYNOPSIS
       pmapp [newsgroups|user] [file]

DESCRIPTION
       Pmapp accepts an article from the named file (or standard input if not
       specified), computes a digital signature from the important part of the
       contents, and inserts a special header into the article which enables
       subsequent checking of the signature. The amended article is produced
       on standard output, suitable for injection into the news system.

       The signature is created using the defaults for the user name (and
       optionally password) built into the script when a newsgroup is
       specified.  This is the most common case for a newsgroup moderator who
       will use a customised version of the script. These defaults can be
       overridden with environment variables PMUSER and PMPASSWORD.

       In any case, whenever the password is the empty string, a prompt is
       written to the controlling terminal and a password is read from it.

       When a user is specified (by way of an email address containing an "@")
       this is used to select the signing user, and a password will be
       requested.

       When the signature is being generated for a newsgroup, it is assumed
       that the newsgroup is moderated and the invoking user is (one of) the
       moderator(s).  The simple case is that there is only one newsgroup
       specified; an Approved: line is added as well as the X-Auth: line, and
       the article is ready for posting.

       Pmapp goes to some trouble to handle the case of multiple moderated
       newsgroups in the Newsgroups: line. The first, and probably most
       important, case, is when a moderator wants to cross-post a FAQ to their
       own group, as well as news.answers (for example). In this case their
       approval counts for both groups, so they can insert the Approved:
       header and post away. Presumably the other groups are not under the
       contol of the PGP Moose Daemon.  The moderator can just go ahead and
       put in the Approved: header, and save themself and pmapp a lot of time.
       It will be passed right through.

       The other case is harder to get right. This is when the article really
       is meant to be posted to two (or more) unrelated moderated newsgroups.
       The approval script checks whether there are any moderated newsgroups
       left that don't have X-Auth: headers for them. If there are none left,
       an Approved: header is inserted and the article gets posted.
       Otherwise, it issues a warning, and re-orders the newsgroups header
       with a newsgroup which is moderated but has no X-Auth:  line at the
       start.  When the article is posted, the news system will forward it to
       the moderator of the (new) first moderated group. If all moderators are
       sensible, and check for moderated newsgroups in this fashion, the mess
       should sort itself out and the last moderator will go ahead and post
       it. A warning message to the subsequent moderator NOT to change the
       article is also inserted.

SEE ALSO
       pmcheck(1), pmcanon(1) for a description of the fields which go into
       the signature calculation, the PGP User's Manual.

AUTHOR
       Greg Rose, RoSecure Software.

                                   PGP Moose                          PMAPP(1)