[Alpine-info] Signing with S/MIME.

[Eduardo Chappa]

On Sat, 18 Nov 2023, Carlos E. R. wrote:


> There is something not clear. The help text says:

>

> «After you have exported these certificates and keys, you can use the 

> import command in Alpine, from the S/MIME configuration screen, to 

> import these certificates into Alpine. They will be available for use as 

> soon as you import them.»

>

>

> I suppose these are the import commands. But what is "container"?

>

> 	---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

> 	Be careful with the following commands, they REPLACE contents in the target

> 	---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>

> 	Transfer public certs FROM directory TO container

> 	Transfer private keys FROM directory TO container

> 	Transfer CA certs FROM directory TO container

>

> 	Transfer public certs FROM container TO directory

> 	Transfer private keys FROM container TO directory

> 	Transfer CA certs FROM container TO directory


Hello Carlos,

   those commands allow you to move certificates between places. A 
container is a file that contains lots of certificates. Like a folder is 
to email. In a container you will find certificates one after the other. 
The most common method today is to have a one-file-per-certificate, so it 
can be easily managed (deleted or replaced, for example). Take a look at 
the commands under this section

-----------------------------
Manage your own certificates
-----------------------------

Manage Public Certificates
Manage Private Keys
Manage Certificate Authorities


> So I just copied:

>

> MAIL at ADDRESS.key  ->   ~/.alpine-smime/private/

> MAIL at ADDRESS.crt  ->   ~/.alpine-smime/public/

> certificate-ca.crt ->  ~/.alpine-smime/ca/    (is this name correc?)


copy MAIL at ADDRESS.crt to ~/.alpine-smime/ca/ also.

Do you mind sharing "ls -lR ~/.alpine-smime" with me if this does not 
work?

Another thing to check. Here is some of the content of my keys:

private/eduardo.chappa at gmx.com.key:
-----BEGIN ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY-----
MIIFHDBOBgkqhkiG................
............ lots of lines .....
....j8jdgft+RnzyFXw==
-----END ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY-----


public/eduardo.chappa at gmx.com.crt:
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIEBzCCAu+gAwIBAg...............
............... lots of lines....
....b+WcluD75bqpF1qI9ph2GZLqUiZKK
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

ca/eduardo.chappa at gmx.com.crt: same as public/eduardo.chappa at gmx.com.crt.

I hope this helps.

-- 
Eduardo