Overview

========

+-----------------+------------------------------------------+

| Version:        | 0.0.1                                    |

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| GPGME Version:  | 1.13.0                                   |

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| Author:         | Ben McGinnes <ben@gnupg.org>             |

+-----------------+------------------------------------------+

| Author GPG Key: | DB4724E6FA4286C92B4E55C4321E4E2373590E5D |

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| Language:       | Australian English, British English      |

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| xml:lang:       | en-AU, en-GB, en                         |

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The GPGME Python bindings passed through many hands and numerous phases

before, after a fifteen year journey, coming full circle to return to

the source. This is a short explanation of that journey.

.. _in-the-begining:

In the beginning

----------------

In 2002 John Goerzen released PyME; Python bindings for the GPGME module

which utilised the current release of Python of the time and SWIG. [1]_

Shortly after creating it and ensuring it worked he stopped supporting

it, though he left his work available on his Gopher site.

Keeping the flame alive

-----------------------

A couple of years later the project was picked up by Igor Belyi and

actively developed and maintained by him from 2004 to 2008. Igor\'s

whereabouts at the time of this document\'s creation are unknown, but

the current authors do hope he is well. We\'re assuming (or hoping) that

life did what life does and made continuing untenable.

Passing the torch

-----------------

In 2014 Martin Albrecht wanted to patch a bug in the PyME code and

discovered the absence of Igor. Following a discussion on the PyME

mailing list he became the new maintainer for PyME, releasing version

0.9.0 in May of that year. He remains the maintainer of the original

PyME release in Python 2.6 and 2.7 (available via PyPI).

.. _ouroboros:

Coming full circle

------------------

In 2015 Ben McGinnes approached Martin about a Python 3 version, while

investigating how complex a task this would be the task ended up being

completed. A subsequent discussion with Werner Koch led to the decision

to fold the Python 3 port back into the original GPGME release in the

languages subdirectory for non-C bindings under the module name of

``pyme3``.

In 2016 this PyME module was integrated back into the GPGME project by

Justus Winter. During the course of this work Justus adjusted the port

to restore limited support for Python 2, but not as many minor point

releases as the original PyME package supports. During the course of

this integration the package was renamed to more accurately reflect its

status as a component of GPGME. The ``pyme3`` module was renamed to

``gpg`` and adopted by the upstream GnuPG team.

In 2017 Justus departed G10code and the GnuPG team. Following this Ben

returned to maintain of gpgme Python bindings and continue building them

from that point.

.. _relics-past:

Relics of the past

==================

There are a few things, in addition to code specific factors, such as

SWIG itself, which are worth noting here.

The Annoyances of Git

---------------------

As anyone who has ever worked with git knows, submodules are horrible

way to deal with pretty much anything. In the interests of avoiding

migraines, that was skipped with addition of the PyME code to GPGME.

Instead the files were added to a subdirectory of the ``lang/``

directory, along with a copy of the entire git log up to that point as a

separate file within the ``lang/python/docs/`` directory. [2]_ As the

log for PyME is nearly 100KB and the log for GPGME is approximately 1MB,

this would cause considerable bloat, as well as some confusion, should

the two be merged.

Hence the unfortunate, but necessary, step to simply move the files. A

regular repository version has been maintained should it be possible to

implement this better in the future.

The Perils of PyPI

------------------

The early port of the Python 2 ``pyme`` module as ``pyme3`` was never

added to PyPI while the focus remained on development and testing during

2015 and early 2016. Later in 2016, however, when Justus completed his

major integration work and subsequently renamed the module from

``pyme3`` to ``gpg``, some prior releases were also provided through

PyPI.

Since these bindings require a matching release of the GPGME libraries

in order to function, it was determined that there was little benefit in

also providing a copy through PyPI since anyone obtaining the GPGME

source code would obtain the Python bindings source code at the same

time. Whereas there was the potential to sew confusion amongst Python

users installing the module from PyPI, only to discover that without the

relevant C files, header files or SWIG compiled binaries, the Python

module did them little good.

There are only two files on PyPI which might turn up in a search for

this module or a sample of its content:

#. gpg (1.8.0) - Python bindings for GPGME GnuPG cryptography library

#. pyme (0.9.0) - Python support for GPGME GnuPG cryptography library

.. _pypi-gpgme-180:

GPG 1路8路0 - Python bindings for GPGME GnuPG cryptography library

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is the most recent version to reach PyPI and is the version of the

official Pyhon bindings which shipped with GPGME 1.8.0. If you have

GPGME 1.8.0 installed and *only* 1.8.0 installed, then it is probably

safe to use this copy from PyPI.

As there have been a lot of changes since the release of GPGME 1.8.0,

the GnuPG Project recommends not using this version of the module and

instead installing the current version of GPGME along with the Python

bindings included with that package.

.. _pypi-gpgme-90:

PyME 0路9路0 - Python support for GPGME GnuPG cryptography library

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is the last release of the PyME bindings maintained by Martin

Albrecht and is only compatible with Python 2, it will not work with

Python 3. This is the version of the software from which the port from

Python 2 to Python 3 code was made in 2015.

Users of the more recent Python bindings will recognise numerous points

of similarity, but also significant differences. It is likely that the

more recent official bindings will feel \"more pythonic.\"

For those using Python 2, there is essentially no harm in using this

module, but it may lack a number of more recent features added to GPGME.

Footnotes

=========

.. [1]

   In all likelihood this would have been Python 2.2 or possibly Python

   2.3.

.. [2]

   The entire PyME git log and other preceding VCS logs are located in

   the ``gpgme/lang/python/docs/old-commits.log`` file.