[ILUG] KMail and encrypted mail

[Michael Armbrecht]

On 01/08/05, Niall O Broin <niall at linux.ie> wrote:
> I'm using KMail 1.8 on SuSE 9.3 and there seems to have been a change in
> behaviour over previous versions whereby I'm asked for my passphrase whenever
> I try to read an encrypted mail, even if I just entered it a minute ago to
> read another encrypted mail. IIRC it used to keep the passphrase in memory
> for a while, which was obviously more convenient, but I've dug around the
> preferences dialog and can't see where to set this, if indeed it is possible
> and I'm not just dreaming.

>From which version of KMail are you switching?
The newer versions of Kmail offer to use either OpenPGP or other
Crypto Modules. If you use OpenPGP, it will keep the passphrase in
memory for a while if you tell KMail to do so in Settings -> Security
-> OpenPGP. If you use another crypto module like SMIME or something
(as configurable in Settings -> Security -> Cryptographic modules)
they might handle things differently.

I am using KMail 1.6.2 and it used by default one of those modules.
Passphrase was only cached when I switched to OpenPGP.

But it might well have changed again. An older Kmail version used to
cache the passphrase for the entire KMail session. The version I am
using now demands the passphrase again after switching folders. So it
might well be that the version you have now doesn't allow caching of
the passphrase at all any more for whatever reason.

Michael

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