The Python Cryptography Toolkit is a software library that provides secure hash functions and encryption algorithms. It is a comprehensive collection of cryptographic tools for Python developers.
I recently tried out the Python Cryptography Toolkit, which is a comprehensive library of secure hash functions like MD5 and SHA, along with various encryption algorithms. This software is structured in a way that makes adding new modules easy, so you can extend its capabilities as per your specific requirements.
In my opinion, the toolkit is almost perfect, and the software interface is unlikely to undergo any drastic changes in the future. As far as installation is concerned, the toolkit is written and tested using Python 2.2, though it should also work with Python 2.1. However, Python 1.5.2 is not supported. Additionally, if you try to run the setup.py script with version 1.5.2, it will automatically abort.
The modules are packaged using the Distutils, which makes the installation process fairly simple. All you have to do is run "python setup.py build" to build the package and then "python setup.py install" to install it. However, some users might encounter a DistutilsPlatformError stating that the file /usr/lib/python2.2/config/Makefile is missing. This usually happens when the required files for compiling Python modules are not installed on the user's system. In case you face this issue, you can simply install the requisite RPM, as is commonly required by Red Hat users.
To verify that everything is working correctly, you can run "python test.py", which tests all the cryptographic modules and reports any errors that it encounters. If you happen to find a bug, you can report it using the provided bug tracker. Ideally, you should also try to find the root cause of the issue and submit a patch that would help solve the problem.
In the latest release, several minor issues have been fixed, such as the SHA256 and RIPEMD issues on the AMD64 platform. Additionally, the PublicKey has been added to Crypto.__all__ and the Demo/ directory has been removed. Overall, I would highly recommend this software to anyone looking for a reliable and versatile cryptography toolkit that is easy to install and extend.
In my opinion, the toolkit is almost perfect, and the software interface is unlikely to undergo any drastic changes in the future. As far as installation is concerned, the toolkit is written and tested using Python 2.2, though it should also work with Python 2.1. However, Python 1.5.2 is not supported. Additionally, if you try to run the setup.py script with version 1.5.2, it will automatically abort.
The modules are packaged using the Distutils, which makes the installation process fairly simple. All you have to do is run "python setup.py build" to build the package and then "python setup.py install" to install it. However, some users might encounter a DistutilsPlatformError stating that the file /usr/lib/python2.2/config/Makefile is missing. This usually happens when the required files for compiling Python modules are not installed on the user's system. In case you face this issue, you can simply install the requisite RPM, as is commonly required by Red Hat users.
To verify that everything is working correctly, you can run "python test.py", which tests all the cryptographic modules and reports any errors that it encounters. If you happen to find a bug, you can report it using the provided bug tracker. Ideally, you should also try to find the root cause of the issue and submit a patch that would help solve the problem.
In the latest release, several minor issues have been fixed, such as the SHA256 and RIPEMD issues on the AMD64 platform. Additionally, the PublicKey has been added to Crypto.__all__ and the Demo/ directory has been removed. Overall, I would highly recommend this software to anyone looking for a reliable and versatile cryptography toolkit that is easy to install and extend.
What's New
Version 2.0.1 / 2.1.0 Alpha 1: N/A