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6. Miscellaneous Configuration

This chapter documents some additional Mailcrypt configuration options which could not be naturally described elsewhere.

6.1 Alternate Keyring		Specifying a different file to act like your public keyring.
6.2 Comment Field		Burma Shave
6.3 Mode Line		Changing that "MC-w" and "MC-r" stuff
6.4 Key Bindings		Which keys cause which actions.
6.5 Nonstandard Paths		Useful if your PGP installation is weird.

6.1 Alternate Keyring

By default, Mailcrypt will use the same public keyring that PGP would use if executed from the shell.

You can cause Mailcrypt to use a specific public keyring by setting the variable mc-pgp-alternate-keyring. If this variable is set, Mailcrypt will use that keyring for all functions which would otherwise have used the default. This includes adding keys, extracting keys, verifying signatures, and encrypting messages.

This feature might be useful if you maintain multiple keyrings; you can switch between them by setting this variable. Depending on your tastes, you might want to configure fetching from a keyring as well (see section 5.1 Keyring Fetch).

6.2 Comment Field

By default, Mailcrypt will supply a "comment" option to PGP, resulting in output which looks something like this:

----- BEGIN PGP FOOBAR ----- Version: 2.6.3 Comment: Processed by Mailcrypt 3.5.6, an Emacs/PGP interface ... ----- END PGP FOOBAR -----

To change the comment to one of your own, set the variable mc-pgp-comment. Set it to nil to use PGP's default, which is probably either no comment or something defined in `config.txt'. mc-pgp50-comment and mc-gpg-comment are the corresponding variables for the other versions.

6.3 Mode Line

mc-read-mode and mc-write-mode will each indicate they are active by placing the string `MC-r' or `MC-w' in the mode line, respectively.

You can change these strings by setting the variables mc-read-mode-string and mc-write-mode-string. So, for example, to get rid of the mode indicators entirely, you might put the following lines into your `.emacs' file:

(setq mc-read-mode-string "") (setq mc-write-mode-string "")

6.4 Key Bindings

The Mailcrypt key bindings are defined by the keymaps mc-read-mode-map and mc-write-mode-map. To change the key bindings, you just need to set these variables in your `.emacs' file.

For example, if you wanted C-c C-m to be the Mailcrypt prefix (instead of C-c /) in mc-read-mode, you would put the following code in your `.emacs' file:

(setq mc-read-mode-map (make-sparse-keymap)) (define-key mc-read-mode-map "\C-c\C-mf" 'mc-deactivate-passwd) (define-key mc-read-mode-map "\C-c\C-md" 'mc-decrypt) (define-key mc-read-mode-map "\C-c\C-mv" 'mc-verify) (define-key mc-read-mode-map "\C-c\C-ma" 'mc-snarf) (define-key mc-read-mode-map "\C-c\C-mk" 'mc-pgp-fetch-key)

For more information on Emacs key bindings, see section `Customizing Key Bindings' in The GNU Emacs Manual.

6.5 Nonstandard Paths

The information in this section should be unnecessary, but is provided "just in case".

Mailcrypt will look for the PGP executable in your standard search path under the name `pgp'. To use a different name (or to provide a complete path), set the variable mc-pgp-path.

PGP 5.0 includes four separate executables, usually installed as "pgpe", "pgps", "pgpv", and "pgpk". The variables mc-pgp50-pgpe-path, mc-pgp50-pgps-path, mc-pgp50-pgpv-path, and mc-pgp50-pgpk-path tell Mailcrypt where to find them if they are not on your search path.

GnuPG is normally installed as "gpg". mc-gpg-path tells Mailcrypt where to find the executable if it is not on your path.

In order to keep your identities straight, Mailcrypt needs to know where your secret keyring resides.

Mailcrypt figures this out heuristically by assuming that the file `secring.pgp' is in the same directory as your public key ring. It determines the location of the latter by doing a dry run of PGP with `+verbose=1' and parsing the output.

If this heuristic is failing for you, you can manually tell Mailcrypt where your secret key ring is by setting the variable mc-pgp-keydir, like this:

(setq mc-pgp-keydir "/users/patl/.pgp/")

Note that the trailing slash is required.

If the heuristic fails, please report it as a bug (see section 10. Credits).

Note that if you have changed the default location of your secret keyring, Mailcrypt will be unable to locate it. You can work around this by either setting mc-pgp-keydir, or by making a symbolic link to your secret keyring from `secring.pgp' in your default public keyring directory.