CLAWS-MAIL-PGPINLINE(7)

πŸ’Œ claws-mail-pgpinline β€” bestie's guide to PGP/Inline in Claws Mail

okay so. this is the manual page for claws-mail-pgpinline, which is a plugin for the Claws Mail mailer (yes, the section 7 one, we love a manual page that knows its lane). it's short, it's sweet, it's giving ✨cryptography but make it mail✨ and we're gonna go through every single crumb of it together. no skimming, no skippity β€” bestie contract, fr fr. 🫢


🌸 NAME 🌸

claws-mail-pgpinline β€” handle PGP/Inline signed and/or encrypted mails πŸ’…

like. that's the whole gig. it signs them, it encrypts them, it deals with the ones that arrive already signed and/or encrypted. iconic behaviour, honestly.


πŸ¦‹ DESCRIPTION πŸ¦‹

so this manual page documents, briefly, the claws-mail-pgpinline package. just the highlight reel. the sparknotes. the little synopsis card you get at the museum. πŸ’–

and okay, fun fact β€” this manual page was written for the Debianβ„’ distribution, because the original program just… doesn't have a manual page. not even one. so Debian said "fine, i'll do it myself" and here we are, reading it together like it's a group chat. 😭

claws-mail-pgpinline is a plugin (a loadable module β€” think DLC for your mailer) for the Claws Mail mailer.

what it does: it lets you decrypt mails, verify signatures, and sign or encrypt your own mails using PGP/Inline. that's the whole vibe. πŸ”₯

it requires GnuPG and GPGME. so like, you don't get to skip the dependencies, bestie, they're literally the point. no GnuPG no party. πŸ™ˆ

⚠️ Warning ⚠️

NOTICE! this method for signing or encryption is deprecated. like, lowkey retired. and you probably should be using PGP/MIME instead. πŸ‘‘
but β€” and this is the important but β€” it's still provided for compatibility with user agents that are unable to handle the 10-year old PGP/MIME standard. and the most noticeable example of such an agent? Outlook from the Windows platform. yes. that one. πŸ’€

so basically this plugin exists so you can talk to the old-school kids who never learned the new handshake. we keep it around out of kindness. periodt.


✨ USAGE ✨

okay so before you can use a plugin, you gotta tell Claws Mail to load it on startup. it's not psychic, bestie, it can't load itself. 🧚

here's the little ritual, step by step:

  1. go to the β€œConfiguration” menu on the main window toolbar πŸŽ€
  2. open the β€œPlugins...” dialog
  3. click on the β€œLoad plugin...” button
  4. select the plugin file, named pgpinline.so β€” yes, that exact name, don't get creative
  5. press the β€œOpen” button

and then boom. that's it. slay. πŸ’… the plugin is loaded and you're officially in your encrypted-mail main character era.


πŸ“ FILES πŸ“

  • ~/.gnupg/gpg.conf β€” this is the configuration file for GnuPG. for the details, go read the gpg and gpgconf manual pages, because those are the ones who actually know things. this manual page is just pointing at them like a supportive friend at the side of the stage. 🫢

πŸ‘€ SEE ALSO πŸ‘€

go be nosy, bestie, these are all worth a peek:


πŸ’œ AUTHORS πŸ’œ

  • The Claws Mail Team <theteam@claws-mail.org> β€” wrote the claws-mail-pgpinline plugin. the actual legends. πŸ†
  • Ricardo Mones <mones@debian.org> β€” wrote this manpage for the Debianβ„’ system. thank you for your service, king. 🫑

Copyright Β© 2008-2020 Ricardo Mones

this manual page was written for the Debian system β€” but it may be used by others too, sharing is caring. πŸ’–

permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Version 3 or (at your option) any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.

on Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public License can be found in /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL. iykyk, that path is sacred. πŸ“–


and that's the whole page, bestie!! this cutie was sitting pretty at version 4.4.0-1build1, dated 2026-08-21 β€” and it's the CLAWS-MAIL-PGPINLINE(7) page, so if you ever forget, it's a section 7 situation (games and miscellany, we love that for us πŸŽ€). now go sign something with PGP/Inline, or better yet, don't, because it's deprecated. πŸ’€βœ¨ love u, bye!! πŸ¦‹πŸ’–

πŸ“¦ where this page comes from