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

From: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2023 08:58:47 -0800

Gwyneth Morgan <[email-masked]> 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.

> 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.