PGP fingerprints in CREDITS file?

Michael K. Johnson (johnsonm@nigel.vnet.net)
Thu, 02 May 1996 14:14:01 -0400


As more and more Linux developers are using PGP, why don't we include
PGP key ID's and fingerprints in the CREDITS file? Perhaps a "P:" field?
It could look like this (mine):

P: 1024/4536A8DD 2A EC 88 08 40 64 CE D8 DD F8 12 2B 61 43 83 15

That would give enough information to easily look up a key in the
keyservers and would also publish the fingerprint widely. Of course,
you still verify that fingerprint with a recipient if you really care,
but widespread publication like the Linux kernel source isn't a bad way
to spread your fingerprint around.

It may become more useful in the future for developers to be able to
start using PGP to sign their work, and starting to collect this
info now will be helpful then.

Some people have more than one key; for example, Ted Ts'o has two.
He uses a 1024-bit key for signing keys, and a 768-bit key for
encryption. Just like any other field, there can be more than one
P: field. Ted's might read:

P: 768/F1A37611 10 E4 3C 64 3F 75 E8 D8 1C 76 8C 27 E8 EA D6 53 [ENCRYPTION]
P: 1024/466B4289 9C 05 66 49 DF 83 7E EF D8 AC 75 42 A2 33 4B 91 [SIGNATURE]

My assumption here is that the first field is the bits/id, the next 16
fields hold the fingerprint, and anything after that is a comment for
human consumption only. We could smush the fingerprint together into
one or two fields, but it's harder to read. The examples I give here
can be cut and pasted from pgp output.

Linus, do you think this makes sense? You've already added a "W:" web
address field that no one is using... I'll include a patch to make life
easier for you. :-) I can become the first person to use the W: field
at the same time!

michaelkjohnson

diff -u CREDITS.orig CREDITS
--- CREDITS.orig Thu May 2 13:38:11 1996
+++ CREDITS Thu May 2 13:53:46 1996
@@ -2,7 +2,8 @@
contributed to the linux project. It is sorted by name, and
formatted in a format that allows for easy grepping and
beautification by scripts. The fields are: name (N), email (E),
- web-address (W), description (D) and snail-mail address (S).
+ web-address (W), PGP key ID and fingerprint (P), description (D),
+ and snail-mail address (S).
Thanks,

Linus
@@ -563,6 +564,8 @@

N: Michael K. Johnson
E: johnsonm@redhat.com
+W: http://www.redhat.com/~johnsonm
+P: 1024/4536A8DD 2A EC 88 08 40 64 CE D8 DD F8 12 2B 61 43 83 15
D: The Linux Documentation Project
D: Kernel Hackers' Guide
D: Procps