dirong / free-gpgmail

A modification of the Apple Mail plugin "GPG Mail" so it does not require a support plan.

Free GPGMail

GPG Mail (part of GPGTools now GPG Suite) has been a free product for many years. Right up until version 3. In a surprise move the team at GPGTools changed the product to require a license key and online activation. While they are perfectly in their rights to do so, it did catch a lot of people off by surprise, especially as it came as just a regular update.

So while they are in their rights to charge and place DRM into their product, it is still a GPL licensed product which requires the source code to be available.

This repository and project uses the open source code with the DRM code replaced so the product can be used without a license key, support plan or online activation.

Rather than building the entire GPG Suite and installer, this project just concentrates on building the GPG Mail mailbundles. Depending on supported macOS versions, there are different versions of GPG Mail available:

• Free-GPGMail_3.mailbundle
• Free-GPGMail_4.mailbundle
• Free-GPGMail_5.mailbundle

Refer to the GPG Suite documentation for a list of supported macOS versions.

This repository contains the source tree for the modified versions of the mail bundles, based on the original source packages from GPG Suite. Along with instructions on how to build them.

We also publish a copy of the original source packages and compiled binaries of the updated mailbundles.

Note GPG Suite must be installed first and then the mailbundle binaries can be replaced.

Build Instructions

Note: If you want to use pre-compiled mailbundles, download the latest release.

This build uses Xcode. Command line build tools must be installed.

1. Go to the Source directory and run make for the desired Free-GPGMail version:

    cd Source/
    make GPGMail_$n
   

   where valid values for $n are 3, 4, or 5. This will create a Free-GPGMail_$n.mailbundle in bundles/. If you want to build bundles for all versions, just call make.

Installation

1. Install GPG Suite suite as normal. Make sure you use the correct version.

2. Find the freshly installed GPGMailLoader.mailbundle and delete it. (Look into /Library/Mail/Bundles/, /Library/Application Support/GPGTools/GPGMail or the user-specific directory ~/Library/Mail/Bundles/)

3. Build or download the modified mailbundle and copy it to your user-specific Mail Bundle directory

    mkdir -p ~/Library/Mail/Bundles/
    cp -r Free-GPGMail_5.mailbundle ~/Library/Mail/Bundles/
   

4. On macOS 11.0 Big Sur and later, add a Gatekeeper rule to allow the custom mailbundle

    sudo spctl --add ~/Library/Mail/Bundles/Free-GPGMail_5.mailbundle
   

5. Restart Mail.app, go to Preferences -> General -> Manage Plugins.

   • Enable the Free GPGMail Plugin.

6. Apply and Restart Mail.app.

Bug Reports and User Support

This project is run by volunteers in the free and open source spirit. Contributions are welcome. Problems with building or installing Free-GPGMail should be posted in the Github issue tracker. If you need help with the program itself, consider buying the commercial product at GPGTools and make them work for their money.