Re: [PATCH] signature-format.txt: Note SSH and X.509 signature delimiters

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Feb 10, 2023, 16:58 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqwn4pjw3c.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <Y+XhPeh76D6/Uz6C@tilde.club>

Gwyneth Morgan <gwymor@tilde.club> writes:

> I believe the existing language is referring to the
> "-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----" format GPG outputs in RFC 1991 mode,
> rather than the "-----BEGIN SIGNED MESSAGE-----" that X.509 uses.

The paragraph came from 76f9d8ba (Documentation/technical: describe signature formats, 2016-06-17) that started the documentation, and predates x509 support by two years (and ssh came even later), so you're right. It couldn't possibly have meant anything newer.

Thanks.

Show 14 quoted lines

> OpenSSH's signature format documentation says:
>
>
> 	The Armored SSH signatures consist of a header, a base64
> 	encoded blob, and a footer.
>
> 	The header is the string "-----BEGIN SSH SIGNATURE-----"
> 	followed by a newline. The footer is the string
> 	"-----END SSH SIGNATURE-----" immediately after a newline.
>
> This is sufficiently similar to the nomenclature in RFC 4880 to call
> these "Armor Header Line and Tail Line" without any misunderstanding (or
> "footer line" if that's preferred). I did not find documentation on what
> X.509 calls these.

Sounds good. Thanks for due dilligence; it would make sure our nomenclature would not go out of line without a good reason.