HTTP Fetch

5.3: HTTP Fetch

The function mc-pgp-fetch-from-http will attempt to fetch a key by connecting to a key server (see Key Servers) which has a World Wide Web interface.

The variables mc-pgp-keyserver-address, mc-pgp-keyserver-port, and mc-pgp-keyserver-url-template control the fetching process. The default is to use Brian LaMacchia's key server at MIT. If this default should stop working, or if you want to help with network congestion and machine load, you can choose a different server. As of this writing, any of the following sequences of Emacs Lisp in your `.emacs' file will work; choose one:

;; Key server at MIT (Massachusetts, USA)
;; This is the default; these lines are only for reference
;(setq mc-pgp-keyserver-address "pgp.ai.mit.edu")
;(setq mc-pgp-keyserver-port 80)
;(setq mc-pgp-keyserver-url-template
;      "/htbin/pks-extract-key.pl?op=get&search=%s")

;; Key server at UPC (Barcelona, Spain)
(setq mc-pgp-keyserver-address "goliat.upc.es")
(setq mc-pgp-keyserver-port 80)
(setq mc-pgp-keyserver-url-template
      "/cgi-bin/pks-extract-key.pl?op=get&search=%s")

;; Key server at Cambridge University (Cambridge, England)
(setq mc-pgp-keyserver-address "www.cl.cam.ac.uk")
(setq mc-pgp-keyserver-port 80)
(setq mc-pgp-keyserver-url-template
      "/cgi-bin/pks-extract-key.pl?op=get&search=%s")

;; Key server at UIT (Tromso, Norway)
(setq mc-pgp-keyserver-address "www.service.uit.no")
(setq mc-pgp-keyserver-port 80)
(setq mc-pgp-keyserver-url-template
      "/cgi-bin/pks-extract-key.pl?op=get&search=%s")

;; Key server at CMU (Pennsylvania, USA)
(setq mc-pgp-keyserver-address "gs211.sp.cs.cmu.edu")
(setq mc-pgp-keyserver-port 80)
(setq mc-pgp-keyserver-url-template "/cgi-bin/pgp-key?pgpid=%s")

If your organization has a firewall, you might not be able to access the World Wide Web directly. Your organization may have a proxy HTTP server set up, however. In that case, you should place code like the following in your `.emacs' file. You can use any of the above key servers instead of the one at MIT, of course.

;; Mailcrypt configuration for accessing key server through HTTP proxy
(setq mc-pgp-keyserver-address "your.proxy.com")
(setq mc-pgp-keyserver-port 13013)  ; Your proxy's port
(setq mc-pgp-keyserver-url-template
      "http://pgp.ai.mit.edu/htbin/pks-extract-key.pl?op=get&search=%s")

Note that fetching from a key server can be somewhat slow, so be patient. (At least it beats the tar out of the Email interface.)

Finger Fetch

Key Fetching