How do you check a signature on a PGP/Mime message

…I'll answer in Python. First, put your whole message in a file in unix "mbox" format (this will be the problem if you use some brain-dead GUI mailer!), then in Python extract the signature and the signed message, and finally invoke gpg:

import email
import os
import sys

with open(sys.argv[1]) as mfile: message = email.message_from_file(mfile)

if message.get_content_type() != "multipart/signed":
    raise SystemExit, "message not signed"

# Really, you'd want safe temporary filenames, and you'd want to clean them up
with open("msg", "wb") as msg: msg.write(message.get_payload(0).as_string())
with open("sig", "wb") as sig: sig.write(message.get_payload(1).get_payload())

# Delegate the real business to gpg
os.execvp("gpg", ["gpg", "--verify", "sig", "msg"])

GPG Key

I've been spending some time working on Debian stuff, particularly packaging and porting for Debian kFreeBSD. Some time in the future I might wish to become a Debian Maintainer, and a step along the way is to begin using a GPG key.

To that end, here's the fingerprint of my key, which is also uploaded to sks-keyservers.net:

Jeff Epler's blog

How do you check a signature on a PGP/Mime message

GPG Key