1 This is gnupg.info, produced by makeinfo version 6.5 from gnupg.texi.
3 This is the 'The GNU Privacy Guard Manual' (version 2.3.4-beta25,
6 (C) 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
7 (C) 2013, 2014, 2015 Werner Koch.
8 (C) 2015, 2016, 2017 g10 Code GmbH.
10 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
11 document under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
12 published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the
13 License, or (at your option) any later version. The text of the
14 license can be found in the section entitled "Copying".
15 INFO-DIR-SECTION GNU Utilities
17 * gpg2: (gnupg). OpenPGP encryption and signing tool.
18 * gpgsm: (gnupg). S/MIME encryption and signing tool.
19 * gpg-agent: (gnupg). The secret key daemon.
20 * dirmngr: (gnupg). X.509 CRL and OCSP server.
21 * dirmngr-client: (gnupg). X.509 CRL and OCSP client.
25 File: gnupg.info, Node: Top, Next: Installation, Up: (dir)
27 Using the GNU Privacy Guard
28 ***************************
30 This is the 'The GNU Privacy Guard Manual' (version 2.3.4-beta25,
33 (C) 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
34 (C) 2013, 2014, 2015 Werner Koch.
35 (C) 2015, 2016, 2017 g10 Code GmbH.
37 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
38 document under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
39 published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the
40 License, or (at your option) any later version. The text of the
41 license can be found in the section entitled "Copying".
43 This manual documents how to use the GNU Privacy Guard system as well
44 as the administration and the architecture.
48 * Installation:: A short installation guide.
50 * Invoking GPG-AGENT:: How to launch the secret key daemon.
51 * Invoking DIRMNGR:: How to launch the CRL and OCSP daemon.
52 * Invoking GPG:: Using the OpenPGP protocol.
53 * Invoking GPGSM:: Using the S/MIME protocol.
54 * Invoking SCDAEMON:: How to handle Smartcards.
55 * Specify a User ID:: How to Specify a User Id.
56 * Trust Values:: How GnuPG displays trust values.
58 * Smart Card Tool:: Tool to administrate smart cards.
59 * Helper Tools:: Description of small helper tools.
60 * Web Key Service:: Tools for the Web Key Service.
62 * Howtos:: How to do certain things.
63 * System Notes:: Notes pertaining to certain OSes.
64 * Debugging:: How to solve problems.
66 * Copying:: GNU General Public License says
67 how you can copy and share GnuPG.
68 * Contributors:: People who have contributed to GnuPG.
70 * Glossary:: Short description of terms used.
71 * Option Index:: Index to command line options.
72 * Environment Index:: Index to environment variables and files.
73 * Index:: Index of concepts and symbol names.
76 File: gnupg.info, Node: Installation, Next: Invoking GPG-AGENT, Prev: Top, Up: Top
78 1 A short installation guide
79 ****************************
81 Unfortunately the installation guide has not been finished in time.
82 Instead of delaying the release of GnuPG 2.0 even further, I decided to
83 release without that guide. The chapter on gpg-agent and gpgsm do
84 include brief information on how to set up the whole thing. Please
85 watch the GnuPG website for updates of the documentation. In the
86 meantime you may search the GnuPG mailing list archives or ask on the
87 gnupg-users mailing list for advise on how to solve problems or how to
88 get that whole thing up and running.
90 ** Building the software
92 Building the software is described in the file 'INSTALL'. Given that
93 you are already reading this documentation we can only give some extra
96 To comply with the rules on GNU systems you should have build time
97 configured 'gnupg' using:
99 ./configure --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var
101 This is to make sure that system wide configuration files are
102 searched in the directory '/etc' and variable data below '/var'; the
103 default would be to also install them below '/usr/local' where the
104 binaries get installed. If you selected to use the '--prefix=/' you
105 obviously don't need those option as they are the default then.
107 ** Notes on setting a root CA key to trusted
109 X.509 is based on a hierarchical key infrastructure. At the root of
110 the tree a trusted anchor (root certificate) is required. There are
111 usually no other means of verifying whether this root certificate is
112 trustworthy than looking it up in a list. GnuPG uses a file
113 ('trustlist.txt') to keep track of all root certificates it knows about.
114 There are 3 ways to get certificates into this list:
116 * Use the list which comes with GnuPG. However this list only
117 contains a few root certificates. Most installations will need
120 * Let 'gpgsm' ask you whether you want to insert a new root
121 certificate. This feature is enabled by default; you may disable
122 it using the option 'no-allow-mark-trusted' into 'gpg-agent.conf'.
124 * Manually maintain the list of trusted root certificates. For a
125 multi user installation this can be done once for all users on a
126 machine. Specific changes on a per-user base are also possible.
129 File: gnupg.info, Node: Invoking GPG-AGENT, Next: Invoking DIRMNGR, Prev: Installation, Up: Top
134 'gpg-agent' is a daemon to manage secret (private) keys independently
135 from any protocol. It is used as a backend for 'gpg' and 'gpgsm' as
136 well as for a couple of other utilities.
138 The agent is automatically started on demand by 'gpg', 'gpgsm',
139 'gpgconf', or 'gpg-connect-agent'. Thus there is no reason to start it
140 manually. In case you want to use the included Secure Shell Agent you
141 may start the agent using:
143 gpg-connect-agent /bye
145 If you want to manually terminate the currently-running agent, you can
148 gpgconf --kill gpg-agent
150 You should always add the following lines to your '.bashrc' or whatever
151 initialization file is used for all shell invocations:
156 It is important that this environment variable always reflects the
157 output of the 'tty' command. For W32 systems this option is not
160 Please make sure that a proper pinentry program has been installed
161 under the default filename (which is system dependent) or use the option
162 'pinentry-program' to specify the full name of that program. It is
163 often useful to install a symbolic link from the actual used pinentry
164 (e.g. '/usr/local/bin/pinentry-gtk') to the expected one (e.g.
165 '/usr/local/bin/pinentry').
167 *Note Option Index::, for an index to 'GPG-AGENT''s commands and
172 * Agent Commands:: List of all commands.
173 * Agent Options:: List of all options.
174 * Agent Configuration:: Configuration files.
175 * Agent Signals:: Use of some signals.
176 * Agent Examples:: Some usage examples.
177 * Agent Protocol:: The protocol the agent uses.
180 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent Commands, Next: Agent Options, Up: Invoking GPG-AGENT
185 Commands are not distinguished from options except for the fact that
186 only one command is allowed.
189 Print the program version and licensing information. Note that you
190 cannot abbreviate this command.
194 Print a usage message summarizing the most useful command-line
195 options. Note that you cannot abbreviate this command.
198 Print a list of all available options and commands. Note that you
199 cannot abbreviate this command.
202 Run in server mode and wait for commands on the 'stdin'. The
203 default mode is to create a socket and listen for commands there.
205 '--daemon [COMMAND LINE]'
206 Start the gpg-agent as a daemon; that is, detach it from the
207 console and run it in the background.
209 As an alternative you may create a new process as a child of
210 gpg-agent: 'gpg-agent --daemon /bin/sh'. This way you get a new
211 shell with the environment setup properly; after you exit from this
212 shell, gpg-agent terminates within a few seconds.
215 Run in the foreground, sending logs by default to stderr, and
216 listening on provided file descriptors, which must already be bound
217 to listening sockets. This command is useful when running under
218 systemd or other similar process supervision schemes. This option
219 is not supported on Windows.
221 In -supervised mode, different file descriptors can be provided for
222 use as different socket types (e.g. ssh, extra) as long as they
223 are identified in the environment variable 'LISTEN_FDNAMES' (see
224 sd_listen_fds(3) on some Linux distributions for more information
228 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent Options, Next: Agent Configuration, Prev: Agent Commands, Up: Invoking GPG-AGENT
233 Options may either be used on the command line or, after stripping off
234 the two leading dashes, in the configuration file.
237 Reads configuration from FILE instead of from the default per-user
238 configuration file. The default configuration file is named
239 'gpg-agent.conf' and expected in the '.gnupg' directory directly
240 below the home directory of the user. This option is ignored if
241 used in an options file.
244 Set the name of the home directory to DIR. If this option is not
245 used, the home directory defaults to '~/.gnupg'. It is only
246 recognized when given on the command line. It also overrides any
247 home directory stated through the environment variable 'GNUPGHOME'
248 or (on Windows systems) by means of the Registry entry
249 HKCU\SOFTWARE\GNU\GNUPG:HOMEDIR.
251 On Windows systems it is possible to install GnuPG as a portable
252 application. In this case only this command line option is
253 considered, all other ways to set a home directory are ignored.
255 To install GnuPG as a portable application under Windows, create an
256 empty file named 'gpgconf.ctl' in the same directory as the tool
257 'gpgconf.exe'. The root of the installation is then that
258 directory; or, if 'gpgconf.exe' has been installed directly below a
259 directory named 'bin', its parent directory. You also need to make
260 sure that the following directories exist and are writable:
261 'ROOT/home' for the GnuPG home and 'ROOT/usr/local/var/cache/gnupg'
262 for internal cache files.
266 Outputs additional information while running. You can increase the
267 verbosity by giving several verbose commands to 'gpg-agent', such
272 Try to be as quiet as possible.
275 Don't invoke a pinentry or do any other thing requiring human
278 '--faked-system-time EPOCH'
279 This option is only useful for testing; it sets the system time
280 back or forth to EPOCH which is the number of seconds elapsed since
283 '--debug-level LEVEL'
284 Select the debug level for investigating problems. LEVEL may be a
285 numeric value or a keyword:
288 No debugging at all. A value of less than 1 may be used
289 instead of the keyword.
291 Some basic debug messages. A value between 1 and 2 may be
292 used instead of the keyword.
294 More verbose debug messages. A value between 3 and 5 may be
295 used instead of the keyword.
297 Even more detailed messages. A value between 6 and 8 may be
298 used instead of the keyword.
300 All of the debug messages you can get. A value greater than 8
301 may be used instead of the keyword. The creation of hash
302 tracing files is only enabled if the keyword is used.
304 How these messages are mapped to the actual debugging flags is not
305 specified and may change with newer releases of this program. They
306 are however carefully selected to best aid in debugging.
309 Set debug flags. All flags are or-ed and FLAGS may be given in C
310 syntax (e.g. 0x0042) or as a comma separated list of flag names.
311 To get a list of all supported flags the single word "help" can be
312 used. This option is only useful for debugging and the behavior
313 may change at any time without notice.
316 Same as '--debug=0xffffffff'
319 When running in server mode, wait N seconds before entering the
320 actual processing loop and print the pid. This gives time to
323 '--debug-quick-random'
324 This option inhibits the use of the very secure random quality
325 level (Libgcrypt’s 'GCRY_VERY_STRONG_RANDOM') and degrades all
326 request down to standard random quality. It is only used for
327 testing and should not be used for any production quality keys.
328 This option is only effective when given on the command line.
330 On GNU/Linux, another way to quickly generate insecure keys is to
331 use 'rngd' to fill the kernel's entropy pool with lower quality
332 random data. 'rngd' is typically provided by the 'rng-tools'
333 package. It can be run as follows: 'sudo rngd -f -r /dev/urandom'.
336 This option enables extra debug information pertaining to the
337 Pinentry. As of now it is only useful when used along with
341 Don't detach the process from the console. This is mainly useful
345 In '--daemon' mode, gpg-agent detects an already running gpg-agent
346 and does not allow to start a new instance. This option can be
347 used to override this check: the new gpg-agent process will try to
348 take over the communication sockets from the already running
349 process and start anyway. This option should in general not be
356 Format the info output in daemon mode for use with the standard
357 Bourne shell or the C-shell respectively. The default is to guess
358 it based on the environment variable 'SHELL' which is correct in
363 Tell the pinentry to grab the keyboard and mouse. This option
364 should be used on X-Servers to avoid X-sniffing attacks. Any use
365 of the option '--grab' overrides an used option '--no-grab'. The
366 default is '--no-grab'.
369 Append all logging output to FILE. This is very helpful in seeing
370 what the agent actually does. Use 'socket://' to log to socket.
371 If neither a log file nor a log file descriptor has been set on a
372 Windows platform, the Registry entry
373 'HKCU\Software\GNU\GnuPG:DefaultLogFile', if set, is used to
374 specify the logging output.
376 '--no-allow-mark-trusted'
377 Do not allow clients to mark keys as trusted, i.e. put them into
378 the 'trustlist.txt' file. This makes it harder for users to
379 inadvertently accept Root-CA keys.
381 '--allow-preset-passphrase'
382 This option allows the use of 'gpg-preset-passphrase' to seed the
383 internal cache of 'gpg-agent' with passphrases.
385 '--no-allow-loopback-pinentry'
386 '--allow-loopback-pinentry'
387 Disallow or allow clients to use the loopback pinentry features;
388 see the option 'pinentry-mode' for details. Allow is the default.
390 The '--force' option of the Assuan command 'DELETE_KEY' is also
391 controlled by this option: The option is ignored if a loopback
392 pinentry is disallowed.
394 '--no-allow-external-cache'
395 Tell Pinentry not to enable features which use an external cache
398 Some desktop environments prefer to unlock all credentials with one
399 master password and may have installed a Pinentry which employs an
400 additional external cache to implement such a policy. By using
401 this option the Pinentry is advised not to make use of such a cache
402 and instead always ask the user for the requested passphrase.
404 '--allow-emacs-pinentry'
405 Tell Pinentry to allow features to divert the passphrase entry to a
406 running Emacs instance. How this is exactly handled depends on the
407 version of the used Pinentry.
409 '--ignore-cache-for-signing'
410 This option will let 'gpg-agent' bypass the passphrase cache for
411 all signing operation. Note that there is also a per-session
412 option to control this behavior but this command line option takes
415 '--default-cache-ttl N'
416 Set the time a cache entry is valid to N seconds. The default is
417 600 seconds. Each time a cache entry is accessed, the entry's
418 timer is reset. To set an entry's maximum lifetime, use
419 'max-cache-ttl'. Note that a cached passphrase may not be evicted
420 immediately from memory if no client requests a cache operation.
421 This is due to an internal housekeeping function which is only run
424 '--default-cache-ttl-ssh N'
425 Set the time a cache entry used for SSH keys is valid to N seconds.
426 The default is 1800 seconds. Each time a cache entry is accessed,
427 the entry's timer is reset. To set an entry's maximum lifetime,
428 use 'max-cache-ttl-ssh'.
431 Set the maximum time a cache entry is valid to N seconds. After
432 this time a cache entry will be expired even if it has been
433 accessed recently or has been set using 'gpg-preset-passphrase'.
434 The default is 2 hours (7200 seconds).
436 '--max-cache-ttl-ssh N'
437 Set the maximum time a cache entry used for SSH keys is valid to N
438 seconds. After this time a cache entry will be expired even if it
439 has been accessed recently or has been set using
440 'gpg-preset-passphrase'. The default is 2 hours (7200 seconds).
442 '--enforce-passphrase-constraints'
443 Enforce the passphrase constraints by not allowing the user to
444 bypass them using the "Take it anyway" button.
446 '--min-passphrase-len N'
447 Set the minimal length of a passphrase. When entering a new
448 passphrase shorter than this value a warning will be displayed.
451 '--min-passphrase-nonalpha N'
452 Set the minimal number of digits or special characters required in
453 a passphrase. When entering a new passphrase with less than this
454 number of digits or special characters a warning will be displayed.
457 '--check-passphrase-pattern FILE'
458 '--check-sym-passphrase-pattern FILE'
459 Check the passphrase against the pattern given in FILE. When
460 entering a new passphrase matching one of these pattern a warning
461 will be displayed. If FILE does not contain any slashes and does
462 not start with "~/" it is searched in the system configuration
463 directory ('/etc/gnupg'). The default is not to use any pattern
464 file. The second version of this option is only used when creating
465 a new symmetric key to allow the use of different patterns for such
468 Security note: It is known that checking a passphrase against a
469 list of pattern or even against a complete dictionary is not very
470 effective to enforce good passphrases. Users will soon figure up
471 ways to bypass such a policy. A better policy is to educate users
472 on good security behavior and optionally to run a passphrase
473 cracker regularly on all users passphrases to catch the very simple
476 '--max-passphrase-days N'
477 Ask the user to change the passphrase if N days have passed since
478 the last change. With '--enforce-passphrase-constraints' set the
479 user may not bypass this check.
481 '--enable-passphrase-history'
482 This option does nothing yet.
484 '--pinentry-invisible-char CHAR'
485 This option asks the Pinentry to use CHAR for displaying hidden
486 characters. CHAR must be one character UTF-8 string. A Pinentry
487 may or may not honor this request.
489 '--pinentry-timeout N'
490 This option asks the Pinentry to timeout after N seconds with no
491 user input. The default value of 0 does not ask the pinentry to
492 timeout, however a Pinentry may use its own default timeout value
493 in this case. A Pinentry may or may not honor this request.
495 '--pinentry-formatted-passphrase'
496 This option asks the Pinentry to enable passphrase formatting when
497 asking the user for a new passphrase and masking of the passphrase
500 If passphrase formatting is enabled, then all non-breaking space
501 characters are stripped from the entered passphrase. Passphrase
502 formatting is mostly useful in combination with passphrases
503 generated with the GENPIN feature of some Pinentries. Note that
504 such a generated passphrase, if not modified by the user, skips all
505 passphrase constraints checking because such constraints would
506 actually weaken the generated passphrase.
508 '--pinentry-program FILENAME'
509 Use program FILENAME as the PIN entry. The default is installation
510 dependent. With the default configuration the name of the default
511 pinentry is 'pinentry'; if that file does not exist but a
512 'pinentry-basic' exist the latter is used.
514 On a Windows platform the default is to use the first existing
515 program from this list: 'bin\pinentry.exe',
516 '..\Gpg4win\bin\pinentry.exe', '..\Gpg4win\pinentry.exe',
517 '..\GNU\GnuPG\pinentry.exe', '..\GNU\bin\pinentry.exe',
518 'bin\pinentry-basic.exe' where the file names are relative to the
519 GnuPG installation directory.
521 '--pinentry-touch-file FILENAME'
522 By default the filename of the socket gpg-agent is listening for
523 requests is passed to Pinentry, so that it can touch that file
524 before exiting (it does this only in curses mode). This option
525 changes the file passed to Pinentry to FILENAME. The special name
526 '/dev/null' may be used to completely disable this feature. Note
527 that Pinentry will not create that file, it will only change the
528 modification and access time.
530 '--scdaemon-program FILENAME'
531 Use program FILENAME as the Smartcard daemon. The default is
532 installation dependent and can be shown with the 'gpgconf' command.
535 Do not make use of the scdaemon tool. This option has the effect
536 of disabling the ability to do smartcard operations. Note, that
537 enabling this option at runtime does not kill an already forked
540 '--disable-check-own-socket'
541 'gpg-agent' employs a periodic self-test to detect a stolen socket.
542 This usually means a second instance of 'gpg-agent' has taken over
543 the socket and 'gpg-agent' will then terminate itself. This option
544 may be used to disable this self-test for debugging purposes.
546 '--use-standard-socket'
547 '--no-use-standard-socket'
548 '--use-standard-socket-p'
549 Since GnuPG 2.1 the standard socket is always used. These options
550 have no more effect. The command 'gpg-agent
551 --use-standard-socket-p' will thus always return success.
557 '--lc-messages STRING'
558 '--xauthority STRING'
559 These options are used with the server mode to pass localization
564 Ignore requests to change the current 'tty' or X window system's
565 'DISPLAY' variable respectively. This is useful to lock the
566 pinentry to pop up at the 'tty' or display you started the agent.
569 Set the size of the queue for pending connections. The default is
572 '--extra-socket NAME'
573 The extra socket is created by default, you may use this option to
574 change the name of the socket. To disable the creation of the
575 socket use "none" or "/dev/null" for NAME.
577 Also listen on native gpg-agent connections on the given socket.
578 The intended use for this extra socket is to setup a Unix domain
579 socket forwarding from a remote machine to this socket on the local
580 machine. A 'gpg' running on the remote machine may then connect to
581 the local gpg-agent and use its private keys. This enables
582 decrypting or signing data on a remote machine without exposing the
583 private keys to the remote machine.
585 '--enable-extended-key-format'
586 '--disable-extended-key-format'
587 Since version 2.3 keys are created in the extended private key
588 format. Changing the passphrase of a key will also convert the key
589 to that new format. This new key format is supported since GnuPG
590 version 2.1.12 and thus there should be no need to disable it. The
591 disable option allows to revert to the old behavior for new keys;
592 be aware that keys are never migrated back to the old format.
593 However if the enable option has been used the disable option won't
594 have an effect. The advantage of the extended private key format
595 is that it is text based and can carry additional meta data.
597 '--enable-ssh-support'
598 '--enable-putty-support'
600 The OpenSSH Agent protocol is always enabled, but 'gpg-agent' will
601 only set the 'SSH_AUTH_SOCK' variable if this flag is given.
603 In this mode of operation, the agent does not only implement the
604 gpg-agent protocol, but also the agent protocol used by OpenSSH
605 (through a separate socket). Consequently, it should be possible
606 to use the gpg-agent as a drop-in replacement for the well known
609 SSH Keys, which are to be used through the agent, need to be added
610 to the gpg-agent initially through the ssh-add utility. When a key
611 is added, ssh-add will ask for the password of the provided key
612 file and send the unprotected key material to the agent; this
613 causes the gpg-agent to ask for a passphrase, which is to be used
614 for encrypting the newly received key and storing it in a gpg-agent
617 Once a key has been added to the gpg-agent this way, the gpg-agent
618 will be ready to use the key.
620 Note: in case the gpg-agent receives a signature request, the user
621 might need to be prompted for a passphrase, which is necessary for
622 decrypting the stored key. Since the ssh-agent protocol does not
623 contain a mechanism for telling the agent on which display/terminal
624 it is running, gpg-agent's ssh-support will use the TTY or X
625 display where gpg-agent has been started. To switch this display
626 to the current one, the following command may be used:
628 gpg-connect-agent updatestartuptty /bye
630 Although all GnuPG components try to start the gpg-agent as needed,
631 this is not possible for the ssh support because ssh does not know
632 about it. Thus if no GnuPG tool which accesses the agent has been
633 run, there is no guarantee that ssh is able to use gpg-agent for
634 authentication. To fix this you may start gpg-agent if needed
635 using this simple command:
637 gpg-connect-agent /bye
639 Adding the '--verbose' shows the progress of starting the agent.
641 The '--enable-putty-support' is only available under Windows and
642 allows the use of gpg-agent with the ssh implementation 'putty'.
643 This is similar to the regular ssh-agent support but makes use of
644 Windows message queue as required by 'putty'.
646 '--ssh-fingerprint-digest'
648 Select the digest algorithm used to compute ssh fingerprints that
649 are communicated to the user, e.g. in pinentry dialogs. OpenSSH
650 has transitioned from using MD5 to the more secure SHA256.
652 '--auto-expand-secmem N'
653 Allow Libgcrypt to expand its secure memory area as required. The
654 optional value N is a non-negative integer with a suggested size in
655 bytes of each additionally allocated secure memory area. The value
656 is rounded up to the next 32 KiB; usual C style prefixes are
657 allowed. For an heavy loaded gpg-agent with many concurrent
658 connection this option avoids sign or decrypt errors due to out of
659 secure memory error returns.
661 '--s2k-calibration MILLISECONDS'
662 Change the default calibration time to MILLISECONDS. The given
663 value is capped at 60 seconds; a value of 0 resets to the
664 compiled-in default. This option is re-read on a SIGHUP (or
665 'gpgconf --reload gpg-agent') and the S2K count is then
669 Specify the iteration count used to protect the passphrase. This
670 option can be used to override the auto-calibration done by
671 default. The auto-calibration computes a count which requires by
672 default 100ms to mangle a given passphrase. See also
675 To view the actually used iteration count and the milliseconds
676 required for an S2K operation use:
678 gpg-connect-agent 'GETINFO s2k_count' /bye
679 gpg-connect-agent 'GETINFO s2k_time' /bye
681 To view the auto-calibrated count use:
683 gpg-connect-agent 'GETINFO s2k_count_cal' /bye
686 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent Configuration, Next: Agent Signals, Prev: Agent Options, Up: Invoking GPG-AGENT
691 There are a few configuration files needed for the operation of the
692 agent. By default they may all be found in the current home directory
693 (*note option --homedir::).
696 This is the standard configuration file read by 'gpg-agent' on
697 startup. It may contain any valid long option; the leading two
698 dashes may not be entered and the option may not be abbreviated.
699 This file is also read after a 'SIGHUP' however only a few options
700 will actually have an effect. This default name may be changed on
701 the command line (*note option --options::). You should backup
705 This is the list of trusted keys. You should backup this file.
707 Comment lines, indicated by a leading hash mark, as well as empty
708 lines are ignored. To mark a key as trusted you need to enter its
709 fingerprint followed by a space and a capital letter 'S'. Colons
710 may optionally be used to separate the bytes of a fingerprint; this
711 enables cutting and pasting the fingerprint from a key listing
712 output. If the line is prefixed with a '!' the key is explicitly
713 marked as not trusted.
715 Here is an example where two keys are marked as ultimately trusted
716 and one as not trusted:
718 # CN=Wurzel ZS 3,O=Intevation GmbH,C=DE
719 A6935DD34EF3087973C706FC311AA2CCF733765B S
721 # CN=PCA-1-Verwaltung-02/O=PKI-1-Verwaltung/C=DE
722 DC:BD:69:25:48:BD:BB:7E:31:6E:BB:80:D3:00:80:35:D4:F8:A6:CD S
724 # CN=Root-CA/O=Schlapphuete/L=Pullach/C=DE
725 !14:56:98:D3:FE:9C:CA:5A:31:6E:BC:81:D3:11:4E:00:90:A3:44:C2 S
727 Before entering a key into this file, you need to ensure its
728 authenticity. How to do this depends on your organisation; your
729 administrator might have already entered those keys which are
730 deemed trustworthy enough into this file. Places where to look for
731 the fingerprint of a root certificate are letters received from the
732 CA or the website of the CA (after making 100% sure that this is
733 indeed the website of that CA). You may want to consider
734 disallowing interactive updates of this file by using the *note
735 option --no-allow-mark-trusted::. It might even be advisable to
736 change the permissions to read-only so that this file can't be
737 changed inadvertently.
739 As a special feature a line 'include-default' will include a global
740 list of trusted certificates (e.g. '/etc/gnupg/trustlist.txt').
741 This global list is also used if the local list is not available.
743 It is possible to add further flags after the 'S' for use by the
747 Relax checking of some root certificate requirements. As of
748 now this flag allows the use of root certificates with a
749 missing basicConstraints attribute (despite that it is a MUST
750 for CA certificates) and disables CRL checking for the root
754 If validation of a certificate finally issued by a CA with
755 this flag set fails, try again using the chain validation
759 This file is used when support for the secure shell agent protocol
760 has been enabled (*note option --enable-ssh-support::). Only keys
761 present in this file are used in the SSH protocol. You should
764 The 'ssh-add' tool may be used to add new entries to this file; you
765 may also add them manually. Comment lines, indicated by a leading
766 hash mark, as well as empty lines are ignored. An entry starts
767 with optional whitespace, followed by the keygrip of the key given
768 as 40 hex digits, optionally followed by the caching TTL in seconds
769 and another optional field for arbitrary flags. A non-zero TTL
770 overrides the global default as set by '--default-cache-ttl-ssh'.
772 The only flag support is 'confirm'. If this flag is found for a
773 key, each use of the key will pop up a pinentry to confirm the use
774 of that key. The flag is automatically set if a new key was loaded
775 into 'gpg-agent' using the option '-c' of the 'ssh-add' command.
777 The keygrip may be prefixed with a '!' to disable an entry.
779 The following example lists exactly one key. Note that keys
780 available through a OpenPGP smartcard in the active smartcard
781 reader are implicitly added to this list; i.e. there is no need to
784 # Key added on: 2011-07-20 20:38:46
785 # Fingerprint: 5e:8d:c4:ad:e7:af:6e:27:8a:d6:13:e4:79:ad:0b:81
786 34B62F25E277CF13D3C6BCEBFD3F85D08F0A864B 0 confirm
790 This is the directory where gpg-agent stores the private keys.
791 Each key is stored in a file with the name made up of the keygrip
792 and the suffix 'key'. You should backup all files in this
793 directory and take great care to keep this backup closed away.
795 Note that on larger installations, it is useful to put predefined
796 files into the directory '/etc/skel/.gnupg' so that newly created users
797 start up with a working configuration. For existing users the a small
798 helper script is provided to create these files (*note addgnupghome::).
801 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent Signals, Next: Agent Examples, Prev: Agent Configuration, Up: Invoking GPG-AGENT
803 2.4 Use of some signals
804 =======================
806 A running 'gpg-agent' may be controlled by signals, i.e. using the
807 'kill' command to send a signal to the process.
809 Here is a list of supported signals:
812 This signal flushes all cached passphrases and if the program has
813 been started with a configuration file, the configuration file is
814 read again. Only certain options are honored: 'quiet', 'verbose',
815 'debug', 'debug-all', 'debug-level', 'debug-pinentry', 'no-grab',
816 'pinentry-program', 'pinentry-invisible-char', 'default-cache-ttl',
817 'max-cache-ttl', 'ignore-cache-for-signing', 's2k-count',
818 'no-allow-external-cache', 'allow-emacs-pinentry',
819 'no-allow-mark-trusted', 'disable-scdaemon', and
820 'disable-check-own-socket'. 'scdaemon-program' is also supported
821 but due to the current implementation, which calls the scdaemon
822 only once, it is not of much use unless you manually kill the
826 Shuts down the process but waits until all current requests are
827 fulfilled. If the process has received 3 of these signals and
828 requests are still pending, a shutdown is forced.
831 Shuts down the process immediately.
834 Dump internal information to the log file.
837 This signal is used for internal purposes.
840 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent Examples, Next: Agent Protocol, Prev: Agent Signals, Up: Invoking GPG-AGENT
845 It is important to set the environment variable 'GPG_TTY' in your login
846 shell, for example in the '~/.bashrc' init script:
848 export GPG_TTY=$(tty)
850 If you enabled the Ssh Agent Support, you also need to tell ssh about
851 it by adding this to your init script:
854 if [ "${gnupg_SSH_AUTH_SOCK_by:-0}" -ne $$ ]; then
855 export SSH_AUTH_SOCK="$(gpgconf --list-dirs agent-ssh-socket)"
859 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent Protocol, Prev: Agent Examples, Up: Invoking GPG-AGENT
861 2.6 Agent's Assuan Protocol
862 ===========================
864 Note: this section does only document the protocol, which is used by
865 GnuPG components; it does not deal with the ssh-agent protocol. To see
866 the full specification of each command, use
868 gpg-connect-agent 'help COMMAND' /bye
870 or just 'help' to list all available commands.
872 The 'gpg-agent' daemon is started on demand by the GnuPG components.
874 To identify a key we use a thing called keygrip which is the SHA-1
875 hash of an canonical encoded S-Expression of the public key as used in
876 Libgcrypt. For the purpose of this interface the keygrip is given as a
877 hex string. The advantage of using this and not the hash of a
878 certificate is that it will be possible to use the same keypair for
879 different protocols, thereby saving space on the token used to keep the
882 The 'gpg-agent' may send status messages during a command or when
883 returning from a command to inform a client about the progress or result
884 of an operation. For example, the INQUIRE_MAXLEN status message may be
885 sent during a server inquire to inform the client of the maximum usable
886 length of the inquired data (which should not be exceeded).
890 * Agent PKDECRYPT:: Decrypting a session key
891 * Agent PKSIGN:: Signing a Hash
892 * Agent GENKEY:: Generating a Key
893 * Agent IMPORT:: Importing a Secret Key
894 * Agent EXPORT:: Exporting a Secret Key
895 * Agent ISTRUSTED:: Importing a Root Certificate
896 * Agent GET_PASSPHRASE:: Ask for a passphrase
897 * Agent CLEAR_PASSPHRASE:: Expire a cached passphrase
898 * Agent PRESET_PASSPHRASE:: Set a passphrase for a keygrip
899 * Agent GET_CONFIRMATION:: Ask for confirmation
900 * Agent HAVEKEY:: Check whether a key is available
901 * Agent LEARN:: Register a smartcard
902 * Agent PASSWD:: Change a Passphrase
903 * Agent UPDATESTARTUPTTY:: Change the Standard Display
904 * Agent GETEVENTCOUNTER:: Get the Event Counters
905 * Agent GETINFO:: Return information about the process
906 * Agent OPTION:: Set options for the session
909 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent PKDECRYPT, Next: Agent PKSIGN, Up: Agent Protocol
911 2.6.1 Decrypting a session key
912 ------------------------------
914 The client asks the server to decrypt a session key. The encrypted
915 session key should have all information needed to select the appropriate
916 secret key or to delegate it to a smartcard.
920 Tell the server about the key to be used for decryption. If this is
921 not used, 'gpg-agent' may try to figure out the key by trying to decrypt
922 the message with each key available.
926 The agent checks whether this command is allowed and then does an
927 INQUIRY to get the ciphertext the client should then send the cipher
930 S: INQUIRE CIPHERTEXT
935 Please note that the server may send status info lines while reading
936 the data lines from the client. The data send is a SPKI like S-Exp with
941 (<param_name1> <mpi>)
943 (<param_namen> <mpi>)))
945 Where algo is a string with the name of the algorithm; see the
946 libgcrypt documentation for a list of valid algorithms. The number and
947 names of the parameters depend on the algorithm. The agent does return
948 an error if there is an inconsistency.
950 If the decryption was successful the decrypted data is returned by
953 Here is an example session:
955 S: INQUIRE CIPHERTEXT
956 C: D (enc-val elg (a 349324324)
957 C: D (b 3F444677CA)))
959 S: # session key follows
961 S: D (value 1234567890ABCDEF0)
962 S: OK decryption successful
964 The “PADDING” status line is only send if gpg-agent can tell what
965 kind of padding is used. As of now only the value 0 is used to indicate
966 that the padding has been removed.
969 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent PKSIGN, Next: Agent GENKEY, Prev: Agent PKDECRYPT, Up: Agent Protocol
974 The client asks the agent to sign a given hash value. A default key
975 will be chosen if no key has been set. To set a key a client first
980 This can be used multiple times to create multiple signature, the
981 list of keys is reset with the next PKSIGN command or a RESET. The
982 server tests whether the key is a valid key to sign something and
985 SETHASH --hash=<name>|<algo> <hexstring>
987 The client can use this command to tell the server about the data
988 <hexstring> (which usually is a hash) to be signed. <algo> is the
989 decimal encoded hash algorithm number as used by Libgcrypt. Either
990 <algo> or -hash=<name> must be given. Valid names for <name> are:
993 The SHA-1 hash algorithm
995 The SHA-256 hash algorithm
997 The RIPE-MD160 hash algorithm
999 The old and broken MD5 hash algorithm
1001 A combined hash algorithm as used by the TLS protocol.
1003 The actual signing is done using
1007 Options are not yet defined, but may later be used to choose among
1008 different algorithms. The agent does then some checks, asks for the
1009 passphrase and as a result the server returns the signature as an SPKI
1010 like S-expression in "D" lines:
1014 (<param_name1> <mpi>)
1016 (<param_namen> <mpi>)))
1018 The operation is affected by the option
1020 OPTION use-cache-for-signing=0|1
1022 The default of '1' uses the cache. Setting this option to '0' will
1023 lead 'gpg-agent' to ignore the passphrase cache. Note, that there is
1024 also a global command line option for 'gpg-agent' to globally disable
1027 Here is an example session:
1033 S: # I did ask the user whether he really wants to sign
1034 S: # I did ask the user for the passphrase
1036 C: D ABCDEF012345678901234
1038 S: # signature follows
1039 S: D (sig-val rsa (s 45435453654612121212))
1043 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent GENKEY, Next: Agent IMPORT, Prev: Agent PKSIGN, Up: Agent Protocol
1045 2.6.3 Generating a Key
1046 ----------------------
1048 This is used to create a new keypair and store the secret key inside the
1049 active PSE -- which is in most cases a Soft-PSE. A not-yet-defined
1050 option allows choosing the storage location. To get the secret key out
1051 of the PSE, a special export tool has to be used.
1053 GENKEY [--no-protection] [--preset] [<cache_nonce>]
1055 Invokes the key generation process and the server will then inquire
1056 on the generation parameters, like:
1059 C: D (genkey (rsa (nbits 1024)))
1062 The format of the key parameters which depends on the algorithm is of
1067 (parameter_name_1 ....)
1069 (parameter_name_n ....)))
1071 If everything succeeds, the server returns the *public key* in a SPKI
1072 like S-Expression like this:
1079 Here is an example session:
1082 C: D (genkey (rsa (nbits 1024)))
1085 S: D (rsa (n 326487324683264) (e 10001)))
1088 The '--no-protection' option may be used to prevent prompting for a
1089 passphrase to protect the secret key while leaving the secret key
1090 unprotected. The '--preset' option may be used to add the passphrase to
1091 the cache using the default cache parameters.
1093 The '--inq-passwd' option may be used to create the key with a
1094 supplied passphrase. When used the agent does an inquiry with the
1095 keyword 'NEWPASSWD' to retrieve that passphrase. This option takes
1096 precedence over '--no-protection'; however if the client sends a empty
1097 (zero-length) passphrase, this is identical to '--no-protection'.
1100 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent IMPORT, Next: Agent EXPORT, Prev: Agent GENKEY, Up: Agent Protocol
1102 2.6.4 Importing a Secret Key
1103 ----------------------------
1105 This operation is not yet supported by GpgAgent. Specialized tools are
1106 to be used for this.
1108 There is no actual need because we can expect that secret keys
1109 created by a 3rd party are stored on a smartcard. If we have generated
1110 the key ourselves, we do not need to import it.
1113 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent EXPORT, Next: Agent ISTRUSTED, Prev: Agent IMPORT, Up: Agent Protocol
1115 2.6.5 Export a Secret Key
1116 -------------------------
1120 Should be done by an extra tool.
1123 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent ISTRUSTED, Next: Agent GET_PASSPHRASE, Prev: Agent EXPORT, Up: Agent Protocol
1125 2.6.6 Importing a Root Certificate
1126 ----------------------------------
1128 Actually we do not import a Root Cert but provide a way to validate any
1129 piece of data by storing its Hash along with a description and an
1130 identifier in the PSE. Here is the interface description:
1132 ISTRUSTED <fingerprint>
1134 Check whether the OpenPGP primary key or the X.509 certificate with
1135 the given fingerprint is an ultimately trusted key or a trusted Root CA
1136 certificate. The fingerprint should be given as a hexstring (without
1137 any blanks or colons or whatever in between) and may be left padded with
1138 00 in case of an MD5 fingerprint. GPGAgent will answer with:
1142 The key is in the table of trusted keys.
1144 ERR 304 (Not Trusted)
1146 The key is not in this table.
1148 Gpg needs the entire list of trusted keys to maintain the web of
1149 trust; the following command is therefore quite helpful:
1153 GpgAgent returns a list of trusted keys line by line:
1155 S: D 000000001234454556565656677878AF2F1ECCFF P
1156 S: D 340387563485634856435645634856438576457A P
1157 S: D FEDC6532453745367FD83474357495743757435D S
1160 The first item on a line is the hexified fingerprint where MD5
1161 fingerprints are '00' padded to the left and the second item is a flag
1162 to indicate the type of key (so that gpg is able to only take care of
1163 PGP keys). P = OpenPGP, S = S/MIME. A client should ignore the rest of
1164 the line, so that we can extend the format in the future.
1166 Finally a client should be able to mark a key as trusted:
1168 MARKTRUSTED FINGERPRINT "P"|"S"
1170 The server will then pop up a window to ask the user whether she
1171 really trusts this key. For this it will probably ask for a text to be
1172 displayed like this:
1174 S: INQUIRE TRUSTDESC
1175 C: D Do you trust the key with the fingerprint @FPR@
1176 C: D bla fasel blurb.
1180 Known sequences with the pattern @foo@ are replaced according to this
1184 Format the fingerprint according to gpg rules for a v3 keys.
1186 Format the fingerprint according to gpg rules for a v4 keys.
1188 Choose an appropriate format to format the fingerprint.
1190 Replaced by a single '@'.
1193 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent GET_PASSPHRASE, Next: Agent CLEAR_PASSPHRASE, Prev: Agent ISTRUSTED, Up: Agent Protocol
1195 2.6.7 Ask for a passphrase
1196 --------------------------
1198 This function is usually used to ask for a passphrase to be used for
1199 symmetric encryption, but may also be used by programs which need
1200 special handling of passphrases. This command uses a syntax which helps
1201 clients to use the agent with minimum effort.
1203 GET_PASSPHRASE [--data] [--check] [--no-ask] [--repeat[=N]] \
1204 [--qualitybar] CACHE_ID \
1205 [ERROR_MESSAGE PROMPT DESCRIPTION]
1207 CACHE_ID is expected to be a string used to identify a cached
1208 passphrase. Use a 'X' to bypass the cache. With no other arguments the
1209 agent returns a cached passphrase or an error. By convention either the
1210 hexified fingerprint of the key shall be used for CACHE_ID or an
1211 arbitrary string prefixed with the name of the calling application and a
1212 colon: Like 'gpg:somestring'.
1214 ERROR_MESSAGE is either a single 'X' for no error message or a string
1215 to be shown as an error message like (e.g. "invalid passphrase").
1216 Blanks must be percent escaped or replaced by '+''.
1218 PROMPT is either a single 'X' for a default prompt or the text to be
1219 shown as the prompt. Blanks must be percent escaped or replaced by '+'.
1221 DESCRIPTION is a text shown above the entry field. Blanks must be
1222 percent escaped or replaced by '+'.
1224 The agent either returns with an error or with a OK followed by the
1225 hex encoded passphrase. Note that the length of the strings is
1226 implicitly limited by the maximum length of a command. If the option
1227 '--data' is used, the passphrase is not returned on the OK line but by
1228 regular data lines; this is the preferred method.
1230 If the option '--check' is used, the standard passphrase constraints
1231 checks are applied. A check is not done if the passphrase has been
1234 If the option '--no-ask' is used and the passphrase is not in the
1235 cache the user will not be asked to enter a passphrase but the error
1236 code 'GPG_ERR_NO_DATA' is returned.
1238 If the option '--qualitybar' is used and a minimum passphrase length
1239 has been configured, a visual indication of the entered passphrase
1242 CLEAR_PASSPHRASE CACHE_ID
1244 may be used to invalidate the cache entry for a passphrase. The
1245 function returns with OK even when there is no cached passphrase.
1248 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent CLEAR_PASSPHRASE, Next: Agent PRESET_PASSPHRASE, Prev: Agent GET_PASSPHRASE, Up: Agent Protocol
1250 2.6.8 Remove a cached passphrase
1251 --------------------------------
1253 Use this command to remove a cached passphrase.
1255 CLEAR_PASSPHRASE [--mode=normal] <cache_id>
1257 The '--mode=normal' option can be used to clear a CACHE_ID that was
1261 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent PRESET_PASSPHRASE, Next: Agent GET_CONFIRMATION, Prev: Agent CLEAR_PASSPHRASE, Up: Agent Protocol
1263 2.6.9 Set a passphrase for a keygrip
1264 ------------------------------------
1266 This command adds a passphrase to the cache for the specified KEYGRIP.
1268 PRESET_PASSPHRASE [--inquire] <string_or_keygrip> <timeout> [<hexstring>]
1270 The passphrase is a hexadecimal string when specified. When not
1271 specified, the passphrase will be retrieved from the pinentry module
1272 unless the '--inquire' option was specified in which case the passphrase
1273 will be retrieved from the client.
1275 The TIMEOUT parameter keeps the passphrase cached for the specified
1276 number of seconds. A value of '-1' means infinite while '0' means the
1277 default (currently only a timeout of -1 is allowed, which means to never
1281 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent GET_CONFIRMATION, Next: Agent HAVEKEY, Prev: Agent PRESET_PASSPHRASE, Up: Agent Protocol
1283 2.6.10 Ask for confirmation
1284 ---------------------------
1286 This command may be used to ask for a simple confirmation by presenting
1287 a text and 2 buttons: Okay and Cancel.
1289 GET_CONFIRMATION DESCRIPTION
1291 DESCRIPTIONis displayed along with a Okay and Cancel button. Blanks
1292 must be percent escaped or replaced by '+'. A 'X' may be used to
1293 display confirmation dialog with a default text.
1295 The agent either returns with an error or with a OK. Note, that the
1296 length of DESCRIPTION is implicitly limited by the maximum length of a
1300 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent HAVEKEY, Next: Agent LEARN, Prev: Agent GET_CONFIRMATION, Up: Agent Protocol
1302 2.6.11 Check whether a key is available
1303 ---------------------------------------
1305 This can be used to see whether a secret key is available. It does not
1306 return any information on whether the key is somehow protected.
1310 The agent answers either with OK or 'No_Secret_Key' (208). The
1311 caller may want to check for other error codes as well. More than one
1312 keygrip may be given. In this case the command returns success if at
1313 least one of the keygrips corresponds to an available secret key.
1316 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent LEARN, Next: Agent PASSWD, Prev: Agent HAVEKEY, Up: Agent Protocol
1318 2.6.12 Register a smartcard
1319 ---------------------------
1323 This command is used to register a smartcard. With the '--send'
1324 option given the certificates are sent back.
1327 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent PASSWD, Next: Agent UPDATESTARTUPTTY, Prev: Agent LEARN, Up: Agent Protocol
1329 2.6.13 Change a Passphrase
1330 --------------------------
1332 PASSWD [--cache-nonce=<c>] [--passwd-nonce=<s>] [--preset] KEYGRIP
1334 This command is used to interactively change the passphrase of the
1335 key identified by the hex string KEYGRIP. The '--preset' option may be
1336 used to add the new passphrase to the cache using the default cache
1340 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent UPDATESTARTUPTTY, Next: Agent GETEVENTCOUNTER, Prev: Agent PASSWD, Up: Agent Protocol
1342 2.6.14 Change the standard display
1343 ----------------------------------
1347 Set the startup TTY and X-DISPLAY variables to the values of this
1348 session. This command is useful to direct future pinentry invocations
1349 to another screen. It is only required because there is no way in the
1350 ssh-agent protocol to convey this information.
1353 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent GETEVENTCOUNTER, Next: Agent GETINFO, Prev: Agent UPDATESTARTUPTTY, Up: Agent Protocol
1355 2.6.15 Get the Event Counters
1356 -----------------------------
1360 This function return one status line with the current values of the
1361 event counters. The event counters are useful to avoid polling by
1362 delaying a poll until something has changed. The values are decimal
1363 numbers in the range '0' to 'UINT_MAX' and wrapping around to 0. The
1364 actual values should not be relied upon; they shall only be used to
1367 The currently defined counters are:
1369 Incremented with any change of any of the other counters.
1371 Incremented for added or removed private keys.
1373 Incremented for each change of the card reader's status.
1376 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent GETINFO, Next: Agent OPTION, Prev: Agent GETEVENTCOUNTER, Up: Agent Protocol
1378 2.6.16 Return information about the process
1379 -------------------------------------------
1381 This is a multipurpose function to return a variety of information.
1385 The value of WHAT specifies the kind of information returned:
1387 Return the version of the program.
1389 Return the process id of the process.
1391 Return the name of the socket used to connect the agent.
1393 Return the name of the socket used for SSH connections. If SSH
1394 support has not been enabled the error 'GPG_ERR_NO_DATA' will be
1398 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent OPTION, Prev: Agent GETINFO, Up: Agent Protocol
1400 2.6.17 Set options for the session
1401 ----------------------------------
1403 Here is a list of session options which are not yet described with other
1404 commands. The general syntax for an Assuan option is:
1411 This may be used to tell gpg-agent of which gpg-agent version the
1412 client is aware of. gpg-agent uses this information to enable
1413 features which might break older clients.
1416 Change the session's environment to be used for the Pinentry.
1422 Set envvar NAME to the empty string
1424 Set envvar NAME to the string VALUE.
1426 'use-cache-for-signing'
1427 See Assuan command 'PKSIGN'.
1429 'allow-pinentry-notify'
1430 This does not need any value. It is used to enable the
1431 PINENTRY_LAUNCHED inquiry.
1434 This option is used to change the operation mode of the pinentry.
1435 The following values are defined:
1438 This is the default mode which pops up a pinentry as needed.
1441 Instead of popping up a pinentry, return the error code
1445 Instead of popping up a pinentry, return the error code
1446 'GPG_ERR_NO_PIN_ENTRY'.
1449 Use a loopback pinentry. This fakes a pinentry by using
1450 inquiries back to the caller to ask for a passphrase. This
1451 option may only be set if the agent has been configured for
1452 that. To disable this feature use *note option
1453 --no-allow-loopback-pinentry::.
1455 'cache-ttl-opt-preset'
1456 This option sets the cache TTL for new entries created by GENKEY
1457 and PASSWD commands when using the '--preset' option. It is not
1458 used a default value is used.
1461 Instead of using the standard S2K count (which is computed on the
1462 fly), the given S2K count is used for new keys or when changing the
1463 passphrase of a key. Values below 65536 are considered to be 0.
1464 This option is valid for the entire session or until reset to 0.
1465 This option is useful if the key is later used on boxes which are
1466 either much slower or faster than the actual box.
1468 'pretend-request-origin'
1469 This option switches the connection into a restricted mode which
1470 handles all further commands in the same way as they would be
1471 handled when originating from the extra or browser socket. Note
1472 that this option is not available in the restricted mode. Valid
1473 values for this option are:
1477 This is a NOP and leaves the connection in the standard way.
1480 Pretend to come from a remote origin in the same way as
1481 connections from the '--extra-socket'.
1484 Pretend to come from a local web browser in the same way as
1485 connections from the '--browser-socket'.
1488 File: gnupg.info, Node: Invoking DIRMNGR, Next: Invoking GPG, Prev: Invoking GPG-AGENT, Up: Top
1493 Since version 2.1 of GnuPG, 'dirmngr' takes care of accessing the
1494 OpenPGP keyservers. As with previous versions it is also used as a
1495 server for managing and downloading certificate revocation lists (CRLs)
1496 for X.509 certificates, downloading X.509 certificates, and providing
1497 access to OCSP providers. Dirmngr is invoked internally by 'gpg',
1498 'gpgsm', or via the 'gpg-connect-agent' tool.
1500 *Note Option Index::,for an index to 'DIRMNGR''s commands and options.
1504 * Dirmngr Commands:: List of all commands.
1505 * Dirmngr Options:: List of all options.
1506 * Dirmngr Configuration:: Configuration files.
1507 * Dirmngr Signals:: Use of signals.
1508 * Dirmngr Examples:: Some usage examples.
1509 * Dirmngr Protocol:: The protocol dirmngr uses.
1512 File: gnupg.info, Node: Dirmngr Commands, Next: Dirmngr Options, Up: Invoking DIRMNGR
1517 Commands are not distinguished from options except for the fact that
1518 only one command is allowed.
1521 Print the program version and licensing information. Note that you
1522 cannot abbreviate this command.
1525 Print a usage message summarizing the most useful command-line
1526 options. Note that you cannot abbreviate this command.
1529 Print a list of all available options and commands. Note that you
1530 cannot abbreviate this command.
1533 Run in server mode and wait for commands on the 'stdin'. The
1534 default mode is to create a socket and listen for commands there.
1535 This is only used for testing.
1538 Run in background daemon mode and listen for commands on a socket.
1539 This is the way 'dirmngr' is started on demand by the other GnuPG
1540 components. To force starting 'dirmngr' it is in general best to
1541 use 'gpgconf --launch dirmngr'.
1544 Run in the foreground, sending logs to stderr, and listening on
1545 file descriptor 3, which must already be bound to a listening
1546 socket. This is useful when running under systemd or other similar
1547 process supervision schemes. This option is not supported on
1551 List the contents of the CRL cache on 'stdout'. This is probably
1552 only useful for debugging purposes.
1555 This command requires a filename as additional argument, and it
1556 will make Dirmngr try to import the CRL in FILE into it's cache.
1557 Note, that this is only possible if Dirmngr is able to retrieve the
1558 CA's certificate directly by its own means. In general it is
1559 better to use 'gpgsm''s '--call-dirmngr loadcrl filename' command
1560 so that 'gpgsm' can help dirmngr.
1563 This command requires an URL as additional argument, and it will
1564 make dirmngr try to retrieve and import the CRL from that URL into
1565 it's cache. This is mainly useful for debugging purposes. The
1566 'dirmngr-client' provides the same feature for a running dirmngr.
1569 This commands shuts down an running instance of Dirmngr. This
1570 command has currently no effect.
1573 This command removes all CRLs from Dirmngr's cache. Client
1574 requests will thus trigger reading of fresh CRLs.
1577 File: gnupg.info, Node: Dirmngr Options, Next: Dirmngr Configuration, Prev: Dirmngr Commands, Up: Invoking DIRMNGR
1582 Note that all long options with the exception of '--options' and
1583 '--homedir' may also be given in the configuration file after stripping
1584 off the two leading dashes.
1587 Reads configuration from FILE instead of from the default per-user
1588 configuration file. The default configuration file is named
1589 'dirmngr.conf' and expected in the home directory.
1592 Set the name of the home directory to DIR. This option is only
1593 effective when used on the command line. The default is the
1594 directory named '.gnupg' directly below the home directory of the
1595 user unless the environment variable 'GNUPGHOME' has been set in
1596 which case its value will be used. Many kinds of data are stored
1597 within this directory.
1601 Outputs additional information while running. You can increase the
1602 verbosity by giving several verbose commands to DIRMNGR, such as
1606 Append all logging output to FILE. This is very helpful in seeing
1607 what the agent actually does. Use 'socket://' to log to socket.
1609 '--debug-level LEVEL'
1610 Select the debug level for investigating problems. LEVEL may be a
1611 numeric value or by a keyword:
1614 No debugging at all. A value of less than 1 may be used
1615 instead of the keyword.
1617 Some basic debug messages. A value between 1 and 2 may be
1618 used instead of the keyword.
1620 More verbose debug messages. A value between 3 and 5 may be
1621 used instead of the keyword.
1623 Even more detailed messages. A value between 6 and 8 may be
1624 used instead of the keyword.
1626 All of the debug messages you can get. A value greater than 8
1627 may be used instead of the keyword. The creation of hash
1628 tracing files is only enabled if the keyword is used.
1630 How these messages are mapped to the actual debugging flags is not
1631 specified and may change with newer releases of this program. They
1632 are however carefully selected to best aid in debugging.
1635 Set debug flags. All flags are or-ed and FLAGS may be given in C
1636 syntax (e.g. 0x0042) or as a comma separated list of flag names.
1637 To get a list of all supported flags the single word "help" can be
1638 used. This option is only useful for debugging and the behavior
1639 may change at any time without notice.
1642 Same as '--debug=0xffffffff'
1645 Enable debugging of the TLS layer at LEVEL. The details of the
1646 debug level depend on the used TLS library and are not set in
1650 When running in server mode, wait N seconds before entering the
1651 actual processing loop and print the pid. This gives time to
1654 '--disable-check-own-socket'
1655 On some platforms 'dirmngr' is able to detect the removal of its
1656 socket file and shutdown itself. This option disable this
1657 self-test for debugging purposes.
1663 Format the info output in daemon mode for use with the standard
1664 Bourne shell respective the C-shell. The default is to guess it
1665 based on the environment variable 'SHELL' which is in almost all
1669 Enabling this option forces loading of expired CRLs; this is only
1670 useful for debugging.
1674 The option '--use-tor' switches Dirmngr and thus GnuPG into "Tor
1675 mode" to route all network access via Tor (an anonymity network).
1676 Certain other features are disabled in this mode. The effect of
1677 '--use-tor' cannot be overridden by any other command or even by
1678 reloading dirmngr. The use of '--no-use-tor' disables the use of
1679 Tor. The default is to use Tor if it is available on startup or
1680 after reloading dirmngr. The test on the availability of Tor is
1681 done by trying to connect to a SOCKS proxy at either port 9050 or
1682 9150; if another type of proxy is listening on one of these ports,
1683 you should use '--no-use-tor'.
1685 '--standard-resolver'
1686 This option forces the use of the system's standard DNS resolver
1687 code. This is mainly used for debugging. Note that on Windows a
1688 standard resolver is not used and all DNS access will return the
1689 error "Not Implemented" if this option is used. Using this
1690 together with enabled Tor mode returns the error "Not Enabled".
1692 '--recursive-resolver'
1693 When possible use a recursive resolver instead of a stub resolver.
1695 '--resolver-timeout N'
1696 Set the timeout for the DNS resolver to N seconds. The default are
1699 '--connect-timeout N'
1700 '--connect-quick-timeout N'
1701 Set the timeout for HTTP and generic TCP connection attempts to N
1702 seconds. The value set with the quick variant is used when the
1703 -quick option has been given to certain Assuan commands. The quick
1704 value is capped at the value of the regular connect timeout. The
1705 default values are 15 and 2 seconds. Note that the timeout values
1706 are for each connection attempt; the connection code will attempt
1707 to connect all addresses listed for a server.
1709 '--listen-backlog N'
1710 Set the size of the queue for pending connections. The default is
1713 '--allow-version-check'
1714 Allow Dirmngr to connect to 'https://versions.gnupg.org' to get the
1715 list of current software versions. If this option is enabled the
1716 list is retrieved in case the local copy does not exist or is older
1717 than 5 to 7 days. See the option '--query-swdb' of the command
1718 'gpgconf' for more details. Note, that regardless of this option a
1719 version check can always be triggered using this command:
1721 gpg-connect-agent --dirmngr 'loadswdb --force' /bye
1724 Use NAME as your keyserver. This is the server that 'gpg'
1725 communicates with to receive keys, send keys, and search for keys.
1726 The format of the NAME is a URI: 'scheme:[//]keyservername[:port]'
1727 The scheme is the type of keyserver: "hkp" for the HTTP (or
1728 compatible) keyservers, "ldap" for the LDAP keyservers, or "mailto"
1729 for the Graff email keyserver. Note that your particular
1730 installation of GnuPG may have other keyserver types available as
1731 well. Keyserver schemes are case-insensitive. After the keyserver
1732 name, optional keyserver configuration options may be provided.
1733 These are the same as the '--keyserver-options' of 'gpg', but apply
1734 only to this particular keyserver.
1736 Most keyservers synchronize with each other, so there is generally
1737 no need to send keys to more than one server. Somes keyservers use
1738 round robin DNS to give a different keyserver each time you use it.
1740 If exactly two keyservers are configured and only one is a Tor
1741 hidden service (.onion), Dirmngr selects the keyserver to use
1742 depending on whether Tor is locally running or not. The check for
1743 a running Tor is done for each new connection.
1745 If no keyserver is explicitly configured, dirmngr will use the
1746 built-in default of 'https://keyserver.ubuntu.com'.
1748 Windows users with a keyserver running on their Active Directory
1749 may use the short form 'ldap:///' for NAME to access this
1752 For accessing anonymous LDAP keyservers NAME is in general just a
1753 'ldaps://ldap.example.com'. A BaseDN parameter should never be
1754 specified. If authentication is required things are more
1755 complicated and two methods are available:
1757 The modern method (since version 2.2.28) is to use the very same
1758 syntax as used with the option '--ldapserver'. Please see over
1759 there for details; here is an example:
1761 keyserver ldap:ldap.example.com::uid=USERNAME,ou=GnuPG Users,
1762 dc=example,dc=com:PASSWORD::starttls
1764 The other method is to use a full URL for NAME; for example:
1766 keyserver ldaps://ldap.example.com/????bindname=uid=USERNAME
1767 %2Cou=GnuPG%20Users%2Cdc=example%2Cdc=com,password=PASSWORD
1769 Put this all on one line without any spaces and keep the '%2C' as
1770 given. Replace USERNAME, PASSWORD, and the 'dc' parts according to
1771 the instructions received from your LDAP administrator. Note that
1772 only simple authentication (i.e. cleartext passwords) is supported
1773 and thus using ldaps is strongly suggested (since 2.2.28 "ldaps"
1774 defaults to port 389 and uses STARTTLS). On Windows authentication
1775 via AD can be requested by adding 'gpgNtds=1' after the fourth
1776 question mark instead of the bindname and password parameter.
1778 '--nameserver IPADDR'
1779 In "Tor mode" Dirmngr uses a public resolver via Tor to resolve DNS
1780 names. If the default public resolver, which is '8.8.8.8', shall
1781 not be used a different one can be given using this option. Note
1782 that a numerical IP address must be given (IPv6 or IPv4) and that
1783 no error checking is done for IPADDR.
1787 Disable the use of all IPv4 or IPv6 addresses.
1790 Entirely disables the use of LDAP.
1793 Entirely disables the use of HTTP.
1796 When looking for the location of a CRL, the to be tested
1797 certificate usually contains so called "CRL Distribution Point"
1798 (DP) entries which are URLs describing the way to access the CRL.
1799 The first found DP entry is used. With this option all entries
1800 using the HTTP scheme are ignored when looking for a suitable DP.
1803 This is similar to '--ignore-http-dp' but ignores entries using the
1804 LDAP scheme. Both options may be combined resulting in ignoring
1807 '--ignore-ocsp-service-url'
1808 Ignore all OCSP URLs contained in the certificate. The effect is
1809 to force the use of the default responder.
1811 '--honor-http-proxy'
1812 If the environment variable 'http_proxy' has been set, use its
1813 value to access HTTP servers.
1815 '--http-proxy HOST[:PORT]'
1816 Use HOST and PORT to access HTTP servers. The use of this option
1817 overrides the environment variable 'http_proxy' regardless whether
1818 '--honor-http-proxy' has been set.
1820 '--ldap-proxy HOST[:PORT]'
1821 Use HOST and PORT to connect to LDAP servers. If PORT is omitted,
1822 port 389 (standard LDAP port) is used. This overrides any
1823 specified host and port part in a LDAP URL and will also be used if
1824 host and port have been omitted from the URL.
1827 Never use anything else but the LDAP "proxy" as configured with
1828 '--ldap-proxy'. Usually 'dirmngr' tries to use other configured
1829 LDAP server if the connection using the "proxy" failed.
1831 '--ldapserverlist-file FILE'
1832 Read the list of LDAP servers to consult for CRLs and X.509
1833 certificates from file instead of the default per-user ldap server
1834 list file. The default value for FILE is
1835 'dirmngr_ldapservers.conf'.
1837 This server list file contains one LDAP server per line in the
1840 HOSTNAME:PORT:USERNAME:PASSWORD:BASE_DN:FLAGS
1842 Lines starting with a '#' are comments.
1844 Note that as usual all strings entered are expected to be UTF-8
1845 encoded. Obviously this will lead to problems if the password has
1846 originally been encoded as Latin-1. There is no other solution
1847 here than to put such a password in the binary encoding into the
1848 file (i.e. non-ascii characters won't show up readable).(1)
1851 This is an alternative way to specify LDAP servers for CRL and
1852 X.509 certificate retrieval. If this option is used the servers
1853 configured in 'dirmngr_ldapservers.conf' (or the file given by
1854 '--ldapserverlist-file') are cleared. Note that
1855 'dirmngr_ldapservers.conf' is not read again by a reload signal.
1856 However, '--ldapserver' options are read again.
1858 SPEC is either a proper LDAP URL or a colon delimited list of the
1861 HOSTNAME:PORT:USERNAME:PASSWORD:BASE_DN:FLAGS:
1863 with an optional prefix of 'ldap:' (but without the two slashes
1864 which would turn this into a proper LDAP URL). FLAGS is a list of
1865 one or more comma delimited keywords:
1867 The default: Do not use a TLS secured connection at all; the
1868 default port is 389.
1870 Use STARTTLS to secure the connection; the default port is
1873 Tunnel LDAP through a TLS connection; the default port is 636.
1875 On Windows authenticate the LDAP connection using the Active
1876 Directory with the current user.
1878 Note that in an URL style specification the scheme 'ldaps://'
1879 refers to STARTTLS and _not_ to LDAP-over-TLS.
1881 '--ldaptimeout SECS'
1882 Specify the number of seconds to wait for an LDAP query before
1883 timing out. The default are 15 seconds. 0 will never timeout.
1886 This option makes dirmngr add any servers it discovers when
1887 validating certificates against CRLs to the internal list of
1888 servers to consult for certificates and CRLs. This option should
1889 in general not be used.
1891 This option might be useful when trying to validate a certificate
1892 that has a CRL distribution point that points to a server that is
1893 not already listed in the ldapserverlist. Dirmngr will always go
1894 to this server and try to download the CRL, but chances are high
1895 that the certificate used to sign the CRL is located on the same
1896 server. So if dirmngr doesn't add that new server to list, it will
1897 often not be able to verify the signature of the CRL unless the
1898 '--add-servers' option is used.
1900 Caveat emptor: Using this option may enable denial-of-service
1901 attacks and leak search requests to unknown third parties. This is
1902 because arbitrary servers are added to the internal list of LDAP
1903 servers which in turn is used for all unspecific LDAP queries as
1904 well as a fallback for queries which did not return a result.
1907 This option enables OCSP support if requested by the client.
1909 OCSP requests are rejected by default because they may violate the
1910 privacy of the user; for example it is possible to track the time
1911 when a user is reading a mail.
1913 '--ocsp-responder URL'
1914 Use URL as the default OCSP Responder if the certificate does not
1915 contain information about an assigned responder. Note, that
1916 '--ocsp-signer' must also be set to a valid certificate.
1918 '--ocsp-signer FPR|FILE'
1919 Use the certificate with the fingerprint FPR to check the responses
1920 of the default OCSP Responder. Alternatively a filename can be
1921 given in which case the response is expected to be signed by one of
1922 the certificates described in that file. Any argument which
1923 contains a slash, dot or tilde is considered a filename. Usual
1924 filename expansion takes place: A tilde at the start followed by a
1925 slash is replaced by the content of 'HOME', no slash at start
1926 describes a relative filename which will be searched at the home
1927 directory. To make sure that the FILE is searched in the home
1928 directory, either prepend the name with "./" or use a name which
1931 If a response has been signed by a certificate described by these
1932 fingerprints no further check upon the validity of this certificate
1935 The format of the FILE is a list of SHA-1 fingerprint, one per line
1936 with optional colons between the bytes. Empty lines and lines
1937 prefix with a hash mark are ignored.
1939 '--ocsp-max-clock-skew N'
1940 The number of seconds a skew between the OCSP responder and them
1941 local clock is accepted. Default is 600 (10 minutes).
1943 '--ocsp-max-period N'
1944 Seconds a response is at maximum considered valid after the time
1945 given in the thisUpdate field. Default is 7776000 (90 days).
1947 '--ocsp-current-period N'
1948 The number of seconds an OCSP response is considered valid after
1949 the time given in the NEXT_UPDATE datum. Default is 10800 (3
1953 Do not return more that N items in one query. The default is 10.
1955 '--ignore-cert-extension OID'
1956 Add OID to the list of ignored certificate extensions. The OID is
1957 expected to be in dotted decimal form, like '2.5.29.3'. This
1958 option may be used more than once. Critical flagged certificate
1959 extensions matching one of the OIDs in the list are treated as if
1960 they are actually handled and thus the certificate won't be
1961 rejected due to an unknown critical extension. Use this option
1962 with care because extensions are usually flagged as critical for a
1965 '--ignore-cert FPR|FILE'
1966 Entirely ignore certificates with the fingerprint FPR. As an
1967 alternative to the fingerprint a filename can be given in which
1968 case all certificates described in that file are ignored. Any
1969 argument which contains a slash, dot or tilde is considered a
1970 filename. Usual filename expansion takes place: A tilde at the
1971 start followed by a slash is replaced by the content of 'HOME', no
1972 slash at start describes a relative filename which will be searched
1973 at the home directory. To make sure that the FILE is searched in
1974 the home directory, either prepend the name with "./" or use a name
1975 which contains a dot. The format of such a file is a list of SHA-1
1976 fingerprint, one per line with optional colons between the bytes.
1977 Empty lines and lines prefixed with a hash mark are ignored.
1979 This option is useful as a quick workaround to exclude certain
1980 certificates from the system store.
1983 Use the root certificates in FILE for verification of the TLS
1984 certificates used with 'hkps' (keyserver access over TLS). If the
1985 file is in PEM format a suffix of '.pem' is expected for FILE.
1986 This option may be given multiple times to add more root
1987 certificates. Tilde expansion is supported.
1989 If no 'hkp-cacert' directive is present, dirmngr will use the
1992 ---------- Footnotes ----------
1994 (1) The 'gpgconf' tool might be helpful for frontends as it enables
1995 editing this configuration file using percent-escaped strings.
1998 File: gnupg.info, Node: Dirmngr Configuration, Next: Dirmngr Signals, Prev: Dirmngr Options, Up: Invoking DIRMNGR
2003 Dirmngr makes use of several directories when running in daemon mode:
2004 There are a few configuration files to control the operation of dirmngr.
2005 By default they may all be found in the current home directory (*note
2006 option --homedir::).
2009 This is the standard configuration file read by 'dirmngr' on
2010 startup. It may contain any valid long option; the leading two
2011 dashes may not be entered and the option may not be abbreviated.
2012 This file is also read after a 'SIGHUP' however not all options
2013 will actually have an effect. This default name may be changed on
2014 the command line (*note option --options::). You should backup
2017 '/etc/gnupg/trusted-certs'
2018 This directory should be filled with certificates of Root CAs you
2019 are trusting in checking the CRLs and signing OCSP Responses.
2021 Usually these are the same certificates you use with the
2022 applications making use of dirmngr. It is expected that each of
2023 these certificate files contain exactly one DER encoded certificate
2024 in a file with the suffix '.crt' or '.der'. 'dirmngr' reads those
2025 certificates on startup and when given a SIGHUP. Certificates which
2026 are not readable or do not make up a proper X.509 certificate are
2027 ignored; see the log file for details.
2029 Applications using dirmngr (e.g. gpgsm) can request these
2030 certificates to complete a trust chain in the same way as with the
2031 extra-certs directory (see below).
2033 Note that for OCSP responses the certificate specified using the
2034 option '--ocsp-signer' is always considered valid to sign OCSP
2037 '/etc/gnupg/extra-certs'
2038 This directory may contain extra certificates which are preloaded
2039 into the internal cache on startup. Applications using dirmngr
2040 (e.g. gpgsm) can request cached certificates to complete a trust
2041 chain. This is convenient in cases you have a couple intermediate
2042 CA certificates or certificates usually used to sign OCSP
2043 responses. These certificates are first tried before going out to
2044 the net to look for them. These certificates must also be DER
2045 encoded and suffixed with '.crt' or '.der'.
2048 This directory is used to store cached CRLs. The 'crls.d' part
2049 will be created by dirmngr if it does not exists but you need to
2050 make sure that the upper directory exists.
2052 Several options control the use of trusted certificates for TLS and
2053 CRLs. Here is an Overview on the use and origin of those Root CA
2058 These System root certificates are used by: FIXME
2060 The origin of the system provided certificates depends on the
2061 platform. On Windows all certificates from the Windows System
2062 Stores 'ROOT' and 'CA' are used.
2064 On other platforms the certificates are read from the first file
2065 found form this list: '/etc/ssl/ca-bundle.pem',
2066 '/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt', '/etc/pki/tls/cert.pem',
2067 '/usr/local/share/certs/ca-root-nss.crt', '/etc/ssl/cert.pem'.
2071 The GnuPG specific certificates stored in the directory
2072 '/etc/gnupg/trusted-certs' are only used to validate CRLs.
2076 For accessing the OpenPGP keyservers the only certificates used are
2077 those set with the configuration option 'hkp-cacert'.
2079 OpenPGP keyserver pool
2081 This is usually only one certificate read from the file
2082 '/usr/local/share/gnupg/gnupg/sks-keyservers.netCA.pem'. If this
2083 certificate exists it is used to access the special keyservers
2084 'hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net' (or 'hkps://keys.gnupg.net').
2086 Please note that 'gpgsm' accepts Root CA certificates for its own
2087 purposes only if they are listed in its file 'trustlist.txt'. 'dirmngr'
2088 does not make use of this list - except FIXME.
2090 To be able to see diagnostics it is often useful to put at least the
2091 following lines into the configuration file '~/gnupg/dirmngr.conf':
2093 log-file ~/dirmngr.log
2096 You may want to check the log file to see whether all desired root CA
2097 certificates are correctly loaded.
2099 To be able to perform OCSP requests you probably want to add the
2104 To make sure that new options are read or that after the installation
2105 of a new GnuPG versions the right dirmngr version is running, you should
2106 kill an existing dirmngr so that a new instance is started as needed by
2107 the otehr components:
2109 gpgconf --kill dirmngr
2111 Direct interfaction with the dirmngr is possible by using the command
2113 gpg-connect-agent --dirmngr
2115 Enter 'HELP' at the prompt to see a list of commands and enter 'HELP'
2116 followed by a command name to get help on that command.
2119 File: gnupg.info, Node: Dirmngr Signals, Next: Dirmngr Examples, Prev: Dirmngr Configuration, Up: Invoking DIRMNGR
2124 A running 'dirmngr' may be controlled by signals, i.e. using the 'kill'
2125 command to send a signal to the process.
2127 Here is a list of supported signals:
2130 This signal flushes all internally cached CRLs as well as any
2131 cached certificates. Then the certificate cache is reinitialized
2132 as on startup. Options are re-read from the configuration file.
2133 Instead of sending this signal it is better to use
2134 gpgconf --reload dirmngr
2137 Shuts down the process but waits until all current requests are
2138 fulfilled. If the process has received 3 of these signals and
2139 requests are still pending, a shutdown is forced. You may also use
2140 gpgconf --kill dirmngr
2141 instead of this signal
2144 Shuts down the process immediately.
2147 This prints some caching statistics to the log file.
2150 File: gnupg.info, Node: Dirmngr Examples, Next: Dirmngr Protocol, Prev: Dirmngr Signals, Up: Invoking DIRMNGR
2155 Here is an example on how to show dirmngr's internal table of OpenPGP
2156 keyserver addresses. The output is intended for debugging purposes and
2157 not part of a defined API.
2159 gpg-connect-agent --dirmngr 'keyserver --hosttable' /bye
2161 To inhibit the use of a particular host you have noticed in one of
2162 the keyserver pools, you may use
2164 gpg-connect-agent --dirmngr 'keyserver --dead pgpkeys.bnd.de' /bye
2166 The description of the 'keyserver' command can be printed using
2168 gpg-connect-agent --dirmngr 'help keyserver' /bye
2171 File: gnupg.info, Node: Dirmngr Protocol, Prev: Dirmngr Examples, Up: Invoking DIRMNGR
2173 3.6 Dirmngr's Assuan Protocol
2174 =============================
2176 Assuan is the IPC protocol used to access dirmngr. This is a
2177 description of the commands implemented by dirmngr.
2181 * Dirmngr LOOKUP:: Look up a certificate via LDAP
2182 * Dirmngr ISVALID:: Validate a certificate using a CRL or OCSP.
2183 * Dirmngr CHECKCRL:: Validate a certificate using a CRL.
2184 * Dirmngr CHECKOCSP:: Validate a certificate using OCSP.
2185 * Dirmngr CACHECERT:: Put a certificate into the internal cache.
2186 * Dirmngr VALIDATE:: Validate a certificate for debugging.
2189 File: gnupg.info, Node: Dirmngr LOOKUP, Next: Dirmngr ISVALID, Up: Dirmngr Protocol
2191 3.6.1 Return the certificate(s) found
2192 -------------------------------------
2194 Lookup certificate. To allow multiple patterns (which are ORed) quoting
2195 is required: Spaces are to be translated into "+" or into "%20";
2196 obviously this requires that the usual escape quoting rules are applied.
2197 The server responds with:
2199 S: D <DER encoded certificate>
2201 S: D <second DER encoded certificate>
2205 In this example 2 certificates are returned. The server may return
2206 any number of certificates; OK will also be returned when no
2207 certificates were found. The dirmngr might return a status line
2211 To indicate that the output was truncated to N items due to a
2212 limitation of the server or by an arbitrary set limit.
2214 The option '--url' may be used if instead of a search pattern a
2215 complete URL to the certificate is known:
2217 C: LOOKUP --url CN%3DWerner%20Koch,o%3DIntevation%20GmbH,c%3DDE?userCertificate
2219 If the option '--cache-only' is given, no external lookup is done so
2220 that only certificates from the cache are returned.
2222 With the option '--single', the first and only the first match will
2223 be returned. Unless option '--cache-only' is also used, no local lookup
2224 will be done in this case.
2227 File: gnupg.info, Node: Dirmngr ISVALID, Next: Dirmngr CHECKCRL, Prev: Dirmngr LOOKUP, Up: Dirmngr Protocol
2229 3.6.2 Validate a certificate using a CRL or OCSP
2230 ------------------------------------------------
2232 ISVALID [--only-ocsp] [--force-default-responder] CERTID|CERTFPR
2234 Check whether the certificate described by the CERTID has been
2235 revoked. Due to caching, the Dirmngr is able to answer immediately in
2238 The CERTID is a hex encoded string consisting of two parts, delimited
2239 by a single dot. The first part is the SHA-1 hash of the issuer name
2240 and the second part the serial number.
2242 Alternatively the certificate's SHA-1 fingerprint CERTFPR may be
2243 given in which case an OCSP request is done before consulting the CRL.
2244 If the option '--only-ocsp' is given, no fallback to a CRL check will be
2245 used. If the option '--force-default-responder' is given, only the
2246 default OCSP responder will be used and any other methods of obtaining
2247 an OCSP responder URL won't be used.
2249 Common return values are:
2251 'GPG_ERR_NO_ERROR (0)'
2252 This is the positive answer: The certificate is not revoked and we
2253 have an up-to-date revocation list for that certificate. If OCSP
2254 was used the responder confirmed that the certificate has not been
2257 'GPG_ERR_CERT_REVOKED'
2258 This is the negative answer: The certificate has been revoked.
2259 Either it is in a CRL and that list is up to date or an OCSP
2260 responder informed us that it has been revoked.
2262 'GPG_ERR_NO_CRL_KNOWN'
2263 No CRL is known for this certificate or the CRL is not valid or out
2267 The OCSP responder returned an "unknown" status. This means that
2268 it is not aware of the certificate's status.
2270 'GPG_ERR_NOT_SUPPORTED'
2271 This is commonly seen if OCSP support has not been enabled in the
2274 If DirMngr has not enough information about the given certificate
2275 (which is the case for not yet cached certificates), it will inquire the
2278 S: INQUIRE SENDCERT <CertID>
2279 C: D <DER encoded certificate>
2282 A client should be aware that DirMngr may ask for more than one
2285 If Dirmngr has a certificate but the signature of the certificate
2286 could not been validated because the root certificate is not known to
2287 dirmngr as trusted, it may ask back to see whether the client trusts
2288 this the root certificate:
2290 S: INQUIRE ISTRUSTED <CertHexfpr>
2294 Only this answer will let Dirmngr consider the certificate as valid.
2297 File: gnupg.info, Node: Dirmngr CHECKCRL, Next: Dirmngr CHECKOCSP, Prev: Dirmngr ISVALID, Up: Dirmngr Protocol
2299 3.6.3 Validate a certificate using a CRL
2300 ----------------------------------------
2302 Check whether the certificate with FINGERPRINT (SHA-1 hash of the entire
2303 X.509 certificate blob) is valid or not by consulting the CRL
2304 responsible for this certificate. If the fingerprint has not been given
2305 or the certificate is not known, the function inquires the certificate
2308 S: INQUIRE TARGETCERT
2309 C: D <DER encoded certificate>
2312 Thus the caller is expected to return the certificate for the request
2313 (which should match FINGERPRINT) as a binary blob. Processing then
2314 takes place without further interaction; in particular dirmngr tries to
2315 locate other required certificate by its own mechanism which includes a
2316 local certificate store as well as a list of trusted root certificates.
2318 The return code is 0 for success; i.e. the certificate has not been
2319 revoked or one of the usual error codes from libgpg-error.
2322 File: gnupg.info, Node: Dirmngr CHECKOCSP, Next: Dirmngr CACHECERT, Prev: Dirmngr CHECKCRL, Up: Dirmngr Protocol
2324 3.6.4 Validate a certificate using OCSP
2325 ---------------------------------------
2327 CHECKOCSP [--force-default-responder] [FINGERPRINT]
2329 Check whether the certificate with FINGERPRINT (the SHA-1 hash of the
2330 entire X.509 certificate blob) is valid by consulting the appropriate
2331 OCSP responder. If the fingerprint has not been given or the
2332 certificate is not known by Dirmngr, the function inquires the
2335 S: INQUIRE TARGETCERT
2336 C: D <DER encoded certificate>
2339 Thus the caller is expected to return the certificate for the request
2340 (which should match FINGERPRINT) as a binary blob. Processing then
2341 takes place without further interaction; in particular dirmngr tries to
2342 locate other required certificates by its own mechanism which includes a
2343 local certificate store as well as a list of trusted root certificates.
2345 If the option '--force-default-responder' is given, only the default
2346 OCSP responder is used. This option is the per-command variant of the
2347 global option '--ignore-ocsp-service-url'.
2349 The return code is 0 for success; i.e. the certificate has not been
2350 revoked or one of the usual error codes from libgpg-error.
2353 File: gnupg.info, Node: Dirmngr CACHECERT, Next: Dirmngr VALIDATE, Prev: Dirmngr CHECKOCSP, Up: Dirmngr Protocol
2355 3.6.5 Put a certificate into the internal cache
2356 -----------------------------------------------
2358 Put a certificate into the internal cache. This command might be useful
2359 if a client knows in advance certificates required for a test and wants
2360 to make sure they get added to the internal cache. It is also helpful
2361 for debugging. To get the actual certificate, this command immediately
2364 S: INQUIRE TARGETCERT
2365 C: D <DER encoded certificate>
2368 Thus the caller is expected to return the certificate for the request
2371 The return code is 0 for success; i.e. the certificate has not been
2372 successfully cached or one of the usual error codes from libgpg-error.
2375 File: gnupg.info, Node: Dirmngr VALIDATE, Prev: Dirmngr CACHECERT, Up: Dirmngr Protocol
2377 3.6.6 Validate a certificate for debugging
2378 ------------------------------------------
2380 Validate a certificate using the certificate validation function used
2381 internally by dirmngr. This command is only useful for debugging. To
2382 get the actual certificate, this command immediately inquires it using
2384 S: INQUIRE TARGETCERT
2385 C: D <DER encoded certificate>
2388 Thus the caller is expected to return the certificate for the request
2392 File: gnupg.info, Node: Invoking GPG, Next: Invoking GPGSM, Prev: Invoking DIRMNGR, Up: Top
2397 'gpg' is the OpenPGP part of the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG). It is a tool
2398 to provide digital encryption and signing services using the OpenPGP
2399 standard. 'gpg' features complete key management and all the bells and
2400 whistles you would expect from a full OpenPGP implementation.
2402 There are two main versions of GnuPG: GnuPG 1.x and GnuPG 2.x. GnuPG
2403 2.x supports modern encryption algorithms and thus should be preferred
2404 over GnuPG 1.x. You only need to use GnuPG 1.x if your platform doesn't
2405 support GnuPG 2.x, or you need support for some features that GnuPG 2.x
2406 has deprecated, e.g., decrypting data created with PGP-2 keys.
2408 If you are looking for version 1 of GnuPG, you may find that version
2409 installed under the name 'gpg1'.
2411 *Note Option Index::, for an index to 'gpg''s commands and options.
2415 * GPG Commands:: List of all commands.
2416 * GPG Options:: List of all options.
2417 * GPG Configuration:: Configuration files.
2418 * GPG Examples:: Some usage examples.
2420 Developer information:
2421 * Unattended Usage of GPG:: Using 'gpg' from other programs.
2424 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPG Commands, Next: GPG Options, Up: Invoking GPG
2429 Commands are not distinguished from options except for the fact that
2430 only one command is allowed. Generally speaking, irrelevant options are
2431 silently ignored, and may not be checked for correctness.
2433 'gpg' may be run with no commands. In this case it will print a
2434 warning perform a reasonable action depending on the type of file it is
2435 given as input (an encrypted message is decrypted, a signature is
2436 verified, a file containing keys is listed, etc.).
2438 If you run into any problems, please add the option '--verbose' to
2439 the invocation to see more diagnostics.
2443 * General GPG Commands:: Commands not specific to the functionality.
2444 * Operational GPG Commands:: Commands to select the type of operation.
2445 * OpenPGP Key Management:: How to manage your keys.
2448 File: gnupg.info, Node: General GPG Commands, Next: Operational GPG Commands, Up: GPG Commands
2450 4.1.1 Commands not specific to the function
2451 -------------------------------------------
2454 Print the program version and licensing information. Note that you
2455 cannot abbreviate this command.
2459 Print a usage message summarizing the most useful command-line
2460 options. Note that you cannot arbitrarily abbreviate this command
2461 (though you can use its short form '-h').
2464 Print warranty information.
2467 Print a list of all available options and commands. Note that you
2468 cannot abbreviate this command.
2471 File: gnupg.info, Node: Operational GPG Commands, Next: OpenPGP Key Management, Prev: General GPG Commands, Up: GPG Commands
2473 4.1.2 Commands to select the type of operation
2474 ----------------------------------------------
2478 Sign a message. This command may be combined with '--encrypt' (to
2479 sign and encrypt a message), '--symmetric' (to sign and
2480 symmetrically encrypt a message), or both '--encrypt' and
2481 '--symmetric' (to sign and encrypt a message that can be decrypted
2482 using a secret key or a passphrase). The signing key is chosen by
2483 default or can be set explicitly using the '--local-user' and
2484 '--default-key' options.
2488 Make a cleartext signature. The content in a cleartext signature
2489 is readable without any special software. OpenPGP software is only
2490 needed to verify the signature. cleartext signatures may modify
2491 end-of-line whitespace for platform independence and are not
2492 intended to be reversible. The signing key is chosen by default or
2493 can be set explicitly using the '--local-user' and '--default-key'
2498 Make a detached signature.
2502 Encrypt data to one or more public keys. This command may be
2503 combined with '--sign' (to sign and encrypt a message),
2504 '--symmetric' (to encrypt a message that can be decrypted using a
2505 secret key or a passphrase), or '--sign' and '--symmetric' together
2506 (for a signed message that can be decrypted using a secret key or a
2507 passphrase). '--recipient' and related options specify which
2508 public keys to use for encryption.
2512 Encrypt with a symmetric cipher using a passphrase. The default
2513 symmetric cipher used is AES-128, but may be chosen with the
2514 '--cipher-algo' option. This command may be combined with '--sign'
2515 (for a signed and symmetrically encrypted message), '--encrypt'
2516 (for a message that may be decrypted via a secret key or a
2517 passphrase), or '--sign' and '--encrypt' together (for a signed
2518 message that may be decrypted via a secret key or a passphrase).
2519 'gpg' caches the passphrase used for symmetric encryption so that a
2520 decrypt operation may not require that the user needs to enter the
2521 passphrase. The option '--no-symkey-cache' can be used to disable
2525 Store only (make a simple literal data packet).
2529 Decrypt the file given on the command line (or STDIN if no file is
2530 specified) and write it to STDOUT (or the file specified with
2531 '--output'). If the decrypted file is signed, the signature is
2532 also verified. This command differs from the default operation, as
2533 it never writes to the filename which is included in the file and
2534 it rejects files that don't begin with an encrypted message.
2537 Assume that the first argument is a signed file and verify it
2538 without generating any output. With no arguments, the signature
2539 packet is read from STDIN. If only one argument is given, the
2540 specified file is expected to include a complete signature.
2542 With more than one argument, the first argument should specify a
2543 file with a detached signature and the remaining files should
2544 contain the signed data. To read the signed data from STDIN, use
2545 '-' as the second filename. For security reasons, a detached
2546 signature will not read the signed material from STDIN if not
2547 explicitly specified.
2549 Note: If the option '--batch' is not used, 'gpg' may assume that a
2550 single argument is a file with a detached signature, and it will
2551 try to find a matching data file by stripping certain suffixes.
2552 Using this historical feature to verify a detached signature is
2553 strongly discouraged; you should always specify the data file
2556 Note: When verifying a cleartext signature, 'gpg' verifies only
2557 what makes up the cleartext signed data and not any extra data
2558 outside of the cleartext signature or the header lines directly
2559 following the dash marker line. The option '--output' may be used
2560 to write out the actual signed data, but there are other pitfalls
2561 with this format as well. It is suggested to avoid cleartext
2562 signatures in favor of detached signatures.
2564 Note: Sometimes the use of the 'gpgv' tool is easier than using the
2565 full-fledged 'gpg' with this option. 'gpgv' is designed to compare
2566 signed data against a list of trusted keys and returns with success
2567 only for a good signature. It has its own manual page.
2570 This modifies certain other commands to accept multiple files for
2571 processing on the command line or read from STDIN with each
2572 filename on a separate line. This allows for many files to be
2573 processed at once. '--multifile' may currently be used along with
2574 '--verify', '--encrypt', and '--decrypt'. Note that '--multifile
2575 --verify' may not be used with detached signatures.
2578 Identical to '--multifile --verify'.
2581 Identical to '--multifile --encrypt'.
2584 Identical to '--multifile --decrypt'.
2588 '--list-public-keys'
2589 List the specified keys. If no keys are specified, then all keys
2590 from the configured public keyrings are listed.
2592 Never use the output of this command in scripts or other programs.
2593 The output is intended only for humans and its format is likely to
2594 change. The '--with-colons' option emits the output in a stable,
2595 machine-parseable format, which is intended for use by scripts and
2598 '--list-secret-keys'
2600 List the specified secret keys. If no keys are specified, then all
2601 known secret keys are listed. A '#' after the initial tags 'sec'
2602 or 'ssb' means that the secret key or subkey is currently not
2603 usable. We also say that this key has been taken offline (for
2604 example, a primary key can be taken offline by exporting the key
2605 using the command '--export-secret-subkeys'). A '>' after these
2606 tags indicate that the key is stored on a smartcard. See also
2609 '--check-signatures'
2611 Same as '--list-keys', but the key signatures are verified and
2612 listed too. Note that for performance reasons the revocation
2613 status of a signing key is not shown. This command has the same
2614 effect as using '--list-keys' with '--with-sig-check'.
2616 The status of the verification is indicated by a flag directly
2617 following the "sig" tag (and thus before the flags described below.
2618 A "!" indicates that the signature has been successfully verified,
2619 a "-" denotes a bad signature and a "%" is used if an error
2620 occurred while checking the signature (e.g. a non supported
2621 algorithm). Signatures where the public key is not available are
2622 not listed; to see their keyids the command '--list-sigs' can be
2625 For each signature listed, there are several flags in between the
2626 signature status flag and keyid. These flags give additional
2627 information about each key signature. From left to right, they are
2628 the numbers 1-3 for certificate check level (see
2629 '--ask-cert-level'), "L" for a local or non-exportable signature
2630 (see '--lsign-key'), "R" for a nonRevocable signature (see the
2631 '--edit-key' command "nrsign"), "P" for a signature that contains a
2632 policy URL (see '--cert-policy-url'), "N" for a signature that
2633 contains a notation (see '--cert-notation'), "X" for an eXpired
2634 signature (see '--ask-cert-expire'), and the numbers 1-9 or "T" for
2635 10 and above to indicate trust signature levels (see the
2636 '--edit-key' command "tsign").
2639 '--locate-external-keys'
2640 Locate the keys given as arguments. This command basically uses
2641 the same algorithm as used when locating keys for encryption and
2642 may thus be used to see what keys 'gpg' might use. In particular
2643 external methods as defined by '--auto-key-locate' are used to
2644 locate a key if the arguments comain valid mail addresses. Only
2645 public keys are listed.
2647 The variant '--locate-external-keys' does not consider a locally
2648 existing key and can thus be used to force the refresh of a key via
2649 the defined external methods. If a fingerprint is given and and
2650 the methods defined by -auto-key-locate define LDAP servers, the
2651 key is fetched from these resources; defined non-LDAP keyservers
2655 This commands takes OpenPGP keys as input and prints information
2656 about them in the same way the command '--list-keys' does for
2657 locally stored key. In addition the list options
2658 'show-unusable-uids', 'show-unusable-subkeys', 'show-notations' and
2659 'show-policy-urls' are also enabled. As usual for automated
2660 processing, this command should be combined with the option
2664 List all keys (or the specified ones) along with their
2665 fingerprints. This is the same output as '--list-keys' but with
2666 the additional output of a line with the fingerprint. May also be
2667 combined with '--check-signatures'. If this command is given
2668 twice, the fingerprints of all secondary keys are listed too. This
2669 command also forces pretty printing of fingerprints if the keyid
2670 format has been set to "none".
2673 List only the sequence of packets. This command is only useful for
2674 debugging. When used with option '--verbose' the actual MPI values
2675 are dumped and not only their lengths. Note that the output of
2676 this command may change with new releases.
2680 Present a menu to work with a smartcard. The subcommand "help"
2681 provides an overview on available commands. For a detailed
2682 description, please see the Card HOWTO at
2683 https://gnupg.org/documentation/howtos.html#GnuPG-cardHOWTO .
2686 Show the content of the smart card.
2689 Present a menu to allow changing the PIN of a smartcard. This
2690 functionality is also available as the subcommand "passwd" with the
2691 '--edit-card' command.
2693 '--delete-keys NAME'
2694 Remove key from the public keyring. In batch mode either '--yes'
2695 is required or the key must be specified by fingerprint. This is a
2696 safeguard against accidental deletion of multiple keys. If the
2697 exclamation mark syntax is used with the fingerprint of a subkey
2698 only that subkey is deleted; if the exclamation mark is used with
2699 the fingerprint of the primary key the entire public key is
2702 '--delete-secret-keys NAME'
2703 Remove key from the secret keyring. In batch mode the key must be
2704 specified by fingerprint. The option '--yes' can be used to advise
2705 gpg-agent not to request a confirmation. This extra pre-caution is
2706 done because 'gpg' can't be sure that the secret key (as controlled
2707 by gpg-agent) is only used for the given OpenPGP public key. If
2708 the exclamation mark syntax is used with the fingerprint of a
2709 subkey only the secret part of that subkey is deleted; if the
2710 exclamation mark is used with the fingerprint of the primary key
2711 only the secret part of the primary key is deleted.
2713 '--delete-secret-and-public-key NAME'
2714 Same as '--delete-key', but if a secret key exists, it will be
2715 removed first. In batch mode the key must be specified by
2716 fingerprint. The option '--yes' can be used to advise gpg-agent
2717 not to request a confirmation.
2720 Either export all keys from all keyrings (default keyring and those
2721 registered via option '--keyring'), or if at least one name is
2722 given, those of the given name. The exported keys are written to
2723 STDOUT or to the file given with option '--output'. Use together
2724 with '--armor' to mail those keys.
2726 '--send-keys KEYIDS'
2727 Similar to '--export' but sends the keys to a keyserver.
2728 Fingerprints may be used instead of key IDs. Don't send your
2729 complete keyring to a keyserver -- select only those keys which are
2730 new or changed by you. If no KEYIDS are given, 'gpg' does nothing.
2732 Take care: Keyservers are by design write only systems and thus it
2733 is not possible to ever delete keys once they have been send to a
2736 '--export-secret-keys'
2737 '--export-secret-subkeys'
2738 Same as '--export', but exports the secret keys instead. The
2739 exported keys are written to STDOUT or to the file given with
2740 option '--output'. This command is often used along with the
2741 option '--armor' to allow for easy printing of the key for paper
2742 backup; however the external tool 'paperkey' does a better job of
2743 creating backups on paper. Note that exporting a secret key can be
2744 a security risk if the exported keys are sent over an insecure
2747 The second form of the command has the special property to render
2748 the secret part of the primary key useless; this is a GNU extension
2749 to OpenPGP and other implementations can not be expected to
2750 successfully import such a key. Its intended use is in generating
2751 a full key with an additional signing subkey on a dedicated
2752 machine. This command then exports the key without the primary key
2753 to the main machine.
2755 GnuPG may ask you to enter the passphrase for the key. This is
2756 required, because the internal protection method of the secret key
2757 is different from the one specified by the OpenPGP protocol.
2760 This command is used to export a key in the OpenSSH public key
2761 format. It requires the specification of one key by the usual
2762 means and exports the latest valid subkey which has an
2763 authentication capability to STDOUT or to the file given with
2764 option '--output'. That output can directly be added to ssh's
2765 'authorized_key' file.
2767 By specifying the key to export using a key ID or a fingerprint
2768 suffixed with an exclamation mark (!), a specific subkey or the
2769 primary key can be exported. This does not even require that the
2770 key has the authentication capability flag set.
2774 Import/merge keys. This adds the given keys to the keyring. The
2775 fast version is currently just a synonym.
2777 There are a few other options which control how this command works.
2778 Most notable here is the '--import-options merge-only' option which
2779 does not insert new keys but does only the merging of new
2780 signatures, user-IDs and subkeys.
2782 '--receive-keys KEYIDS'
2783 '--recv-keys KEYIDS'
2784 Import the keys with the given KEYIDS from a keyserver.
2787 Request updates from a keyserver for keys that already exist on the
2788 local keyring. This is useful for updating a key with the latest
2789 signatures, user IDs, etc. Calling this with no arguments will
2790 refresh the entire keyring.
2792 '--search-keys NAMES'
2793 Search the keyserver for the given NAMES. Multiple names given
2794 here will be joined together to create the search string for the
2795 keyserver. Note that keyservers search for NAMES in a different
2796 and simpler way than gpg does. The best choice is to use a mail
2797 address. Due to data privacy reasons keyservers may even not even
2798 allow searching by user id or mail address and thus may only return
2799 results when being used with the '--recv-key' command to search by
2800 key fingerprint or keyid.
2803 Retrieve keys located at the specified URIS. Note that different
2804 installations of GnuPG may support different protocols (HTTP, FTP,
2805 LDAP, etc.). When using HTTPS the system provided root
2806 certificates are used by this command.
2809 Do trust database maintenance. This command iterates over all keys
2810 and builds the Web of Trust. This is an interactive command
2811 because it may have to ask for the "ownertrust" values for keys.
2812 The user has to give an estimation of how far she trusts the owner
2813 of the displayed key to correctly certify (sign) other keys. GnuPG
2814 only asks for the ownertrust value if it has not yet been assigned
2815 to a key. Using the '--edit-key' menu, the assigned value can be
2816 changed at any time.
2819 Do trust database maintenance without user interaction. From time
2820 to time the trust database must be updated so that expired keys or
2821 signatures and the resulting changes in the Web of Trust can be
2822 tracked. Normally, GnuPG will calculate when this is required and
2823 do it automatically unless '--no-auto-check-trustdb' is set. This
2824 command can be used to force a trust database check at any time.
2825 The processing is identical to that of '--update-trustdb' but it
2826 skips keys with a not yet defined "ownertrust".
2828 For use with cron jobs, this command can be used together with
2829 '--batch' in which case the trust database check is done only if a
2830 check is needed. To force a run even in batch mode add the option
2833 '--export-ownertrust'
2834 Send the ownertrust values to STDOUT. This is useful for backup
2835 purposes as these values are the only ones which can't be
2836 re-created from a corrupted trustdb. Example:
2837 gpg --export-ownertrust > otrust.txt
2839 '--import-ownertrust'
2840 Update the trustdb with the ownertrust values stored in 'files' (or
2841 STDIN if not given); existing values will be overwritten. In case
2842 of a severely damaged trustdb and if you have a recent backup of
2843 the ownertrust values (e.g. in the file 'otrust.txt'), you may
2844 re-create the trustdb using these commands:
2847 gpg --import-ownertrust < otrust.txt
2849 '--rebuild-keydb-caches'
2850 When updating from version 1.0.6 to 1.0.7 this command should be
2851 used to create signature caches in the keyring. It might be handy
2852 in other situations too.
2856 Print message digest of algorithm ALGO for all given files or
2857 STDIN. With the second form (or a deprecated "*" for ALGO) digests
2858 for all available algorithms are printed.
2860 '--gen-random 0|1|2 COUNT'
2861 Emit COUNT random bytes of the given quality level 0, 1 or 2. If
2862 COUNT is not given or zero, an endless sequence of random bytes
2863 will be emitted. If used with '--armor' the output will be base64
2864 encoded. PLEASE, don't use this command unless you know what you
2865 are doing; it may remove precious entropy from the system!
2867 '--gen-prime MODE BITS'
2868 Use the source, Luke :-). The output format is subject to change
2873 Pack or unpack an arbitrary input into/from an OpenPGP ASCII armor.
2874 This is a GnuPG extension to OpenPGP and in general not very
2878 This command is similar to '--decrypt' with the change that the
2879 output is not the usual plaintext but the original message with the
2880 decryption layer removed. Thus the output will be an OpenPGP data
2881 structure which often means a signed OpenPGP message. Note that
2882 this command may or may not remove a compression layer which is
2883 often found beneath the encryption layer.
2885 '--tofu-policy {auto|good|unknown|bad|ask} KEYS'
2886 Set the TOFU policy for all the bindings associated with the
2887 specified KEYS. For more information about the meaning of the
2888 policies, *note trust-model-tofu::. The KEYS may be specified
2889 either by their fingerprint (preferred) or their keyid.
2892 File: gnupg.info, Node: OpenPGP Key Management, Prev: Operational GPG Commands, Up: GPG Commands
2894 4.1.3 How to manage your keys
2895 -----------------------------
2897 This section explains the main commands for key management.
2899 '--quick-generate-key USER-ID [ALGO [USAGE [EXPIRE]]]'
2901 This is a simple command to generate a standard key with one user
2902 id. In contrast to '--generate-key' the key is generated directly
2903 without the need to answer a bunch of prompts. Unless the option
2904 '--yes' is given, the key creation will be canceled if the given
2905 user id already exists in the keyring.
2907 If invoked directly on the console without any special options an
2908 answer to a "Continue?" style confirmation prompt is required. In
2909 case the user id already exists in the keyring a second prompt to
2910 force the creation of the key will show up.
2912 If ALGO or USAGE are given, only the primary key is created and no
2913 prompts are shown. To specify an expiration date but still create
2914 a primary and subkey use "default" or "future-default" for ALGO and
2915 "default" for USAGE. For a description of these optional arguments
2916 see the command '--quick-add-key'. The USAGE accepts also the
2917 value "cert" which can be used to create a certification only
2918 primary key; the default is to a create certification and signing
2921 The EXPIRE argument can be used to specify an expiration date for
2922 the key. Several formats are supported; commonly the ISO formats
2923 "YYYY-MM-DD" or "YYYYMMDDThhmmss" are used. To make the key expire
2924 in N seconds, N days, N weeks, N months, or N years use
2925 "seconds=N", "Nd", "Nw", "Nm", or "Ny" respectively. Not
2926 specifying a value, or using "-" results in a key expiring in a
2927 reasonable default interval. The values "never", "none" can be
2928 used for no expiration date.
2930 If this command is used with '--batch', '--pinentry-mode' has been
2931 set to 'loopback', and one of the passphrase options
2932 ('--passphrase', '--passphrase-fd', or '--passphrase-file') is
2933 used, the supplied passphrase is used for the new key and the agent
2934 does not ask for it. To create a key without any protection
2935 '--passphrase ''' may be used.
2937 To create an OpenPGP key from the keys available on the currently
2938 inserted smartcard, the special string "card" can be used for ALGO.
2939 If the card features an encryption and a signing key, gpg will
2940 figure them out and creates an OpenPGP key consisting of the usual
2941 primary key and one subkey. This works only with certain
2942 smartcards. Note that the interactive '--full-gen-key' command
2943 allows to do the same but with greater flexibility in the selection
2944 of the smartcard keys.
2946 Note that it is possible to create a primary key and a subkey using
2947 non-default algorithms by using "default" and changing the default
2948 parameters using the option '--default-new-key-algo'.
2950 '--quick-set-expire FPR EXPIRE [*|SUBFPRS]'
2951 With two arguments given, directly set the expiration time of the
2952 primary key identified by FPR to EXPIRE. To remove the expiration
2953 time '0' can be used. With three arguments and the third given as
2954 an asterisk, the expiration time of all non-revoked and not yet
2955 expired subkeys are set to EXPIRE. With more than two arguments
2956 and a list of fingerprints given for SUBFPRS, all non-revoked
2957 subkeys matching these fingerprints are set to EXPIRE.
2959 '--quick-add-key FPR [ALGO [USAGE [EXPIRE]]]'
2960 Directly add a subkey to the key identified by the fingerprint FPR.
2961 Without the optional arguments an encryption subkey is added. If
2962 any of the arguments are given a more specific subkey is added.
2964 ALGO may be any of the supported algorithms or curve names given in
2965 the format as used by key listings. To use the default algorithm
2966 the string "default" or "-" can be used. Supported algorithms are
2967 "rsa", "dsa", "elg", "ed25519", "cv25519", and other ECC curves.
2968 For example the string "rsa" adds an RSA key with the default key
2969 length; a string "rsa4096" requests that the key length is 4096
2970 bits. The string "future-default" is an alias for the algorithm
2971 which will likely be used as default algorithm in future versions
2972 of gpg. To list the supported ECC curves the command 'gpg
2973 --with-colons --list-config curve' can be used.
2975 Depending on the given ALGO the subkey may either be an encryption
2976 subkey or a signing subkey. If an algorithm is capable of signing
2977 and encryption and such a subkey is desired, a USAGE string must be
2978 given. This string is either "default" or "-" to keep the default
2979 or a comma delimited list (or space delimited list) of keywords:
2980 "sign" for a signing subkey, "auth" for an authentication subkey,
2981 and "encr" for an encryption subkey ("encrypt" can be used as alias
2982 for "encr"). The valid combinations depend on the algorithm.
2984 The EXPIRE argument can be used to specify an expiration date for
2985 the key. Several formats are supported; commonly the ISO formats
2986 "YYYY-MM-DD" or "YYYYMMDDThhmmss" are used. To make the key expire
2987 in N seconds, N days, N weeks, N months, or N years use
2988 "seconds=N", "Nd", "Nw", "Nm", or "Ny" respectively. Not
2989 specifying a value, or using "-" results in a key expiring in a
2990 reasonable default interval. The values "never", "none" can be
2991 used for no expiration date.
2995 Generate a new key pair using the current default parameters. This
2996 is the standard command to create a new key. In addition to the
2997 key a revocation certificate is created and stored in the
2998 'openpgp-revocs.d' directory below the GnuPG home directory.
3000 '--full-generate-key'
3002 Generate a new key pair with dialogs for all options. This is an
3003 extended version of '--generate-key'.
3005 There is also a feature which allows you to create keys in batch
3006 mode. See the manual section "Unattended key generation" on how to
3009 '--generate-revocation NAME'
3011 Generate a revocation certificate for the complete key. To only
3012 revoke a subkey or a key signature, use the '--edit' command.
3014 This command merely creates the revocation certificate so that it
3015 can be used to revoke the key if that is ever needed. To actually
3016 revoke a key the created revocation certificate needs to be merged
3017 with the key to revoke. This is done by importing the revocation
3018 certificate using the '--import' command. Then the revoked key
3019 needs to be published, which is best done by sending the key to a
3020 keyserver (command '--send-key') and by exporting ('--export') it
3021 to a file which is then send to frequent communication partners.
3023 '--generate-designated-revocation NAME'
3024 '--desig-revoke NAME'
3025 Generate a designated revocation certificate for a key. This
3026 allows a user (with the permission of the keyholder) to revoke
3030 Present a menu which enables you to do most of the key management
3031 related tasks. It expects the specification of a key on the
3035 Toggle selection of user ID or photographic user ID with index
3036 N. Use '*' to select all and '0' to deselect all.
3039 Toggle selection of subkey with index N or key ID N. Use '*'
3040 to select all and '0' to deselect all.
3043 Make a signature on key of user 'name'. If the key is not yet
3044 signed by the default user (or the users given with '-u'), the
3045 program displays the information of the key again, together
3046 with its fingerprint and asks whether it should be signed.
3047 This question is repeated for all users specified with '-u'.
3050 Same as "sign" but the signature is marked as non-exportable
3051 and will therefore never be used by others. This may be used
3052 to make keys valid only in the local environment.
3055 Same as "sign" but the signature is marked as non-revocable
3056 and can therefore never be revoked.
3059 Make a trust signature. This is a signature that combines the
3060 notions of certification (like a regular signature), and trust
3061 (like the "trust" command). It is generally only useful in
3062 distinct communities or groups. For more information please
3063 read the sections "Trust Signature" and "Regular Expression"
3066 Note that "l" (for local / non-exportable), "nr" (for
3067 non-revocable, and "t" (for trust) may be freely mixed and prefixed
3068 to "sign" to create a signature of any type desired.
3070 If the option '--only-sign-text-ids' is specified, then any
3071 non-text based user ids (e.g., photo IDs) will not be selected for
3075 Delete a signature. Note that it is not possible to retract a
3076 signature, once it has been send to the public (i.e. to a
3077 keyserver). In that case you better use 'revsig'.
3080 Revoke a signature. For every signature which has been
3081 generated by one of the secret keys, GnuPG asks whether a
3082 revocation certificate should be generated.
3085 Check the signatures on all selected user IDs. With the extra
3086 option 'selfsig' only self-signatures are shown.
3089 Create an additional user ID.
3092 Create a photographic user ID. This will prompt for a JPEG
3093 file that will be embedded into the user ID. Note that a very
3094 large JPEG will make for a very large key. Also note that
3095 some programs will display your JPEG unchanged (GnuPG), and
3096 some programs will scale it to fit in a dialog box (PGP).
3099 Display the selected photographic user ID.
3102 Delete a user ID or photographic user ID. Note that it is not
3103 possible to retract a user id, once it has been send to the
3104 public (i.e. to a keyserver). In that case you better use
3108 Revoke a user ID or photographic user ID.
3111 Flag the current user id as the primary one, removes the
3112 primary user id flag from all other user ids and sets the
3113 timestamp of all affected self-signatures one second ahead.
3114 Note that setting a photo user ID as primary makes it primary
3115 over other photo user IDs, and setting a regular user ID as
3116 primary makes it primary over other regular user IDs.
3119 Set a preferred keyserver for the specified user ID(s). This
3120 allows other users to know where you prefer they get your key
3121 from. See '--keyserver-options honor-keyserver-url' for more
3122 on how this works. Setting a value of "none" removes an
3123 existing preferred keyserver.
3126 Set a name=value notation for the specified user ID(s). See
3127 '--cert-notation' for more on how this works. Setting a value
3128 of "none" removes all notations, setting a notation prefixed
3129 with a minus sign (-) removes that notation, and setting a
3130 notation name (without the =value) prefixed with a minus sign
3131 removes all notations with that name.
3134 List preferences from the selected user ID. This shows the
3135 actual preferences, without including any implied preferences.
3138 More verbose preferences listing for the selected user ID.
3139 This shows the preferences in effect by including the implied
3140 preferences of 3DES (cipher), SHA-1 (digest), and Uncompressed
3141 (compression) if they are not already included in the
3142 preference list. In addition, the preferred keyserver and
3143 signature notations (if any) are shown.
3146 Set the list of user ID preferences to STRING for all (or just
3147 the selected) user IDs. Calling setpref with no arguments
3148 sets the preference list to the default (either built-in or
3149 set via '--default-preference-list'), and calling setpref with
3150 "none" as the argument sets an empty preference list. Use
3151 'gpg --version' to get a list of available algorithms. Note
3152 that while you can change the preferences on an attribute user
3153 ID (aka "photo ID"), GnuPG does not select keys via attribute
3154 user IDs so these preferences will not be used by GnuPG.
3156 When setting preferences, you should list the algorithms in
3157 the order which you'd like to see them used by someone else
3158 when encrypting a message to your key. If you don't include
3159 3DES, it will be automatically added at the end. Note that
3160 there are many factors that go into choosing an algorithm (for
3161 example, your key may not be the only recipient), and so the
3162 remote OpenPGP application being used to send to you may or
3163 may not follow your exact chosen order for a given message.
3164 It will, however, only choose an algorithm that is present on
3165 the preference list of every recipient key. See also the
3166 INTEROPERABILITY WITH OTHER OPENPGP PROGRAMS section below.
3169 Add a subkey to this key.
3172 Generate a subkey on a card and add it to this key.
3175 Transfer the selected secret subkey (or the primary key if no
3176 subkey has been selected) to a smartcard. The secret key in
3177 the keyring will be replaced by a stub if the key could be
3178 stored successfully on the card and you use the save command
3179 later. Only certain key types may be transferred to the card.
3180 A sub menu allows you to select on what card to store the key.
3181 Note that it is not possible to get that key back from the
3182 card - if the card gets broken your secret key will be lost
3183 unless you have a backup somewhere.
3186 Restore the given FILE to a card. This command may be used to
3187 restore a backup key (as generated during card initialization)
3188 to a new card. In almost all cases this will be the
3189 encryption key. You should use this command only with the
3190 corresponding public key and make sure that the file given as
3191 argument is indeed the backup to restore. You should then
3192 select 2 to restore as encryption key. You will first be
3193 asked to enter the passphrase of the backup key and then for
3194 the Admin PIN of the card.
3197 Transfer the selected secret subkey (or the primary key if no
3198 subkey has been selected) to TPM form. The secret key in the
3199 keyring will be replaced by the TPM representation of that
3200 key, which can only be read by the particular TPM that created
3201 it (so the keyfile now becomes locked to the laptop containing
3202 the TPM). Only certain key types may be transferred to the TPM
3203 (all TPM 2.0 systems are mandated to have the rsa2048 and
3204 nistp256 algorithms but newer TPMs may have more). Note that
3205 the key itself is not transferred into the TPM, merely
3206 encrypted by the TPM in-place, so if the keyfile is deleted,
3207 the key will be lost. Once transferred to TPM representation,
3208 the key file can never be converted back to non-TPM form and
3209 the key will die when the TPM does, so you should first have a
3210 backup on secure offline storage of the actual secret key file
3211 before conversion. It is essential to use the physical system
3212 TPM that you have rw permission on the TPM resource manager
3213 device (/dev/tpmrm0). Usually this means you must be a member
3217 Remove a subkey (secondary key). Note that it is not possible
3218 to retract a subkey, once it has been send to the public (i.e.
3219 to a keyserver). In that case you better use 'revkey'. Also
3220 note that this only deletes the public part of a key.
3226 Change the key or subkey expiration time. If a subkey is
3227 selected, the expiration time of this subkey will be changed.
3228 With no selection, the key expiration of the primary key is
3232 Change the owner trust value for the key. This updates the
3233 trust-db immediately and no save is required.
3237 Disable or enable an entire key. A disabled key can not
3238 normally be used for encryption.
3241 Add a designated revoker to the key. This takes one optional
3242 argument: "sensitive". If a designated revoker is marked as
3243 sensitive, it will not be exported by default (see
3247 Change the passphrase of the secret key.
3250 This is dummy command which exists only for backward
3254 Compact (by removing all signatures except the selfsig) any
3255 user ID that is no longer usable (e.g. revoked, or expired).
3256 Then, remove any signatures that are not usable by the trust
3257 calculations. Specifically, this removes any signature that
3258 does not validate, any signature that is superseded by a later
3259 signature, revoked signatures, and signatures issued by keys
3260 that are not present on the keyring.
3263 Make the key as small as possible. This removes all
3264 signatures from each user ID except for the most recent
3268 Change the usage flags (capabilities) of the primary key or of
3269 subkeys. These usage flags (e.g. Certify, Sign,
3270 Authenticate, Encrypt) are set during key creation. Sometimes
3271 it is useful to have the opportunity to change them (for
3272 example to add Authenticate) after they have been created.
3273 Please take care when doing this; the allowed usage flags
3274 depend on the key algorithm.
3277 Add cross-certification signatures to signing subkeys that may
3278 not currently have them. Cross-certification signatures
3279 protect against a subtle attack against signing subkeys. See
3280 '--require-cross-certification'. All new keys generated have
3281 this signature by default, so this command is only useful to
3282 bring older keys up to date.
3285 Save all changes to the keyring and quit.
3288 Quit the program without updating the keyring.
3290 The listing shows you the key with its secondary keys and all user
3291 IDs. The primary user ID is indicated by a dot, and selected keys
3292 or user IDs are indicated by an asterisk. The trust value is
3293 displayed with the primary key: "trust" is the assigned owner trust
3294 and "validity" is the calculated validity of the key. Validity
3295 values are also displayed for all user IDs. For possible values of
3296 trust, *note trust-values::.
3299 Signs a public key with your secret key. This is a shortcut
3300 version of the subcommand "sign" from '--edit-key'.
3303 Signs a public key with your secret key but marks it as
3304 non-exportable. This is a shortcut version of the subcommand
3305 "lsign" from '--edit-key'.
3307 '--quick-sign-key FPR [NAMES]'
3308 '--quick-lsign-key FPR [NAMES]'
3309 Directly sign a key from the passphrase without any further user
3310 interaction. The FPR must be the verified primary fingerprint of a
3311 key in the local keyring. If no NAMES are given, all useful user
3312 ids are signed; with given [NAMES] only useful user ids matching
3313 one of these names are signed. By default, or if a name is
3314 prefixed with a '*', a case insensitive substring match is used.
3315 If a name is prefixed with a '=' a case sensitive exact match is
3318 The command '--quick-lsign-key' marks the signatures as
3319 non-exportable. If such a non-exportable signature already exists
3320 the '--quick-sign-key' turns it into a exportable signature. If
3321 you need to update an existing signature, for example to add or
3322 change notation data, you need to use the option
3325 This command uses reasonable defaults and thus does not provide the
3326 full flexibility of the "sign" subcommand from '--edit-key'. Its
3327 intended use is to help unattended key signing by utilizing a list
3328 of verified fingerprints.
3330 '--quick-add-uid USER-ID NEW-USER-ID'
3331 This command adds a new user id to an existing key. In contrast to
3332 the interactive sub-command 'adduid' of '--edit-key' the
3333 NEW-USER-ID is added verbatim with only leading and trailing white
3334 space removed, it is expected to be UTF-8 encoded, and no checks on
3335 its form are applied.
3337 '--quick-revoke-uid USER-ID USER-ID-TO-REVOKE'
3338 This command revokes a user ID on an existing key. It cannot be
3339 used to revoke the last user ID on key (some non-revoked user ID
3340 must remain), with revocation reason "User ID is no longer valid".
3341 If you want to specify a different revocation reason, or to supply
3342 supplementary revocation text, you should use the interactive
3343 sub-command 'revuid' of '--edit-key'.
3345 '--quick-revoke-sig FPR SIGNING-FPR [NAMES]'
3346 This command revokes the key signatures made by SIGNING-FPR from
3347 the key specified by the fingerprint FPR. With NAMES given only
3348 the signatures on user ids of the key matching any of the given
3349 names are affected (see '--quick-sign-key'). If a revocation
3350 already exists a notice is printed instead of creating a new
3351 revocation; no error is returned in this case. Note that key
3352 signature revocations may be superseded by a newer key signature
3353 and in turn again revoked.
3355 '--quick-set-primary-uid USER-ID PRIMARY-USER-ID'
3356 This command sets or updates the primary user ID flag on an
3357 existing key. USER-ID specifies the key and PRIMARY-USER-ID the
3358 user ID which shall be flagged as the primary user ID. The primary
3359 user ID flag is removed from all other user ids and the timestamp
3360 of all affected self-signatures is set one second ahead.
3362 '--change-passphrase USER-ID'
3364 Change the passphrase of the secret key belonging to the
3365 certificate specified as USER-ID. This is a shortcut for the
3366 sub-command 'passwd' of the '--edit-key' menu. When using together
3367 with the option '--dry-run' this will not actually change the
3368 passphrase but check that the current passphrase is correct.
3371 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPG Options, Next: GPG Configuration, Prev: GPG Commands, Up: Invoking GPG
3376 'gpg' features a bunch of options to control the exact behaviour and to
3377 change the default configuration.
3381 * GPG Configuration Options:: How to change the configuration.
3382 * GPG Key related Options:: Key related options.
3383 * GPG Input and Output:: Input and Output.
3384 * OpenPGP Options:: OpenPGP protocol specific options.
3385 * Compliance Options:: Compliance options.
3386 * GPG Esoteric Options:: Doing things one usually doesn't want to do.
3387 * Deprecated Options:: Deprecated options.
3389 Long options can be put in an options file (default
3390 "~/.gnupg/gpg.conf"). Short option names will not work - for example,
3391 "armor" is a valid option for the options file, while "a" is not. Do
3392 not write the 2 dashes, but simply the name of the option and any
3393 required arguments. Lines with a hash ('#') as the first
3394 non-white-space character are ignored. Commands may be put in this file
3395 too, but that is not generally useful as the command will execute
3396 automatically with every execution of gpg.
3398 Please remember that option parsing stops as soon as a non-option is
3399 encountered, you can explicitly stop parsing by using the special option
3403 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPG Configuration Options, Next: GPG Key related Options, Up: GPG Options
3405 4.2.1 How to change the configuration
3406 -------------------------------------
3408 These options are used to change the configuration and most of them are
3409 usually found in the option file.
3411 '--default-key NAME'
3412 Use NAME as the default key to sign with. If this option is not
3413 used, the default key is the first key found in the secret keyring.
3414 Note that '-u' or '--local-user' overrides this option. This
3415 option may be given multiple times. In this case, the last key for
3416 which a secret key is available is used. If there is no secret key
3417 available for any of the specified values, GnuPG will not emit an
3418 error message but continue as if this option wasn't given.
3420 '--default-recipient NAME'
3421 Use NAME as default recipient if option '--recipient' is not used
3422 and don't ask if this is a valid one. NAME must be non-empty.
3424 '--default-recipient-self'
3425 Use the default key as default recipient if option '--recipient' is
3426 not used and don't ask if this is a valid one. The default key is
3427 the first one from the secret keyring or the one set with
3430 '--no-default-recipient'
3431 Reset '--default-recipient' and '--default-recipient-self'. Should
3432 not be used in an option file.
3435 Give more information during processing. If used twice, the input
3436 data is listed in detail.
3439 Reset verbose level to 0. Should not be used in an option file.
3442 Try to be as quiet as possible. Should not be used in an option
3447 Use batch mode. Never ask, do not allow interactive commands.
3448 '--no-batch' disables this option. Note that even with a filename
3449 given on the command line, gpg might still need to read from STDIN
3450 (in particular if gpg figures that the input is a detached
3451 signature and no data file has been specified). Thus if you do not
3452 want to feed data via STDIN, you should connect STDIN to
3455 It is highly recommended to use this option along with the options
3456 '--status-fd' and '--with-colons' for any unattended use of 'gpg'.
3457 Should not be used in an option file.
3460 Make sure that the TTY (terminal) is never used for any output.
3461 This option is needed in some cases because GnuPG sometimes prints
3462 warnings to the TTY even if '--batch' is used.
3465 Assume "yes" on most questions. Should not be used in an option
3469 Assume "no" on most questions. Should not be used in an option
3472 '--list-options PARAMETERS'
3473 This is a space or comma delimited string that gives options used
3474 when listing keys and signatures (that is, '--list-keys',
3475 '--check-signatures', '--list-public-keys', '--list-secret-keys',
3476 and the '--edit-key' functions). Options can be prepended with a
3477 'no-' (after the two dashes) to give the opposite meaning. The
3481 Causes '--list-keys', '--check-signatures',
3482 '--list-public-keys', and '--list-secret-keys' to display any
3483 photo IDs attached to the key. Defaults to no. See also
3484 '--photo-viewer'. Does not work with '--with-colons': see
3485 '--attribute-fd' for the appropriate way to get photo data for
3486 scripts and other frontends.
3489 Show usage information for keys and subkeys in the standard
3490 key listing. This is a list of letters indicating the allowed
3491 usage for a key ('E'=encryption, 'S'=signing,
3492 'C'=certification, 'A'=authentication). Defaults to yes.
3495 Show policy URLs in the '--check-signatures' listings.
3501 Show all, IETF standard, or user-defined signature notations
3502 in the '--check-signatures' listings. Defaults to no.
3505 Show any preferred keyserver URL in the '--check-signatures'
3506 listings. Defaults to no.
3509 Display the calculated validity of user IDs during key
3510 listings. Defaults to yes.
3513 Show revoked and expired user IDs in key listings. Defaults
3516 show-unusable-subkeys
3517 Show revoked and expired subkeys in key listings. Defaults to
3521 Display the keyring name at the head of key listings to show
3522 which keyring a given key resides on. Defaults to no.
3525 Show signature expiration dates (if any) during
3526 '--check-signatures' listings. Defaults to no.
3529 Include signature subpackets in the key listing. This option
3530 can take an optional argument list of the subpackets to list.
3531 If no argument is passed, list all subpackets. Defaults to
3532 no. This option is only meaningful when using '--with-colons'
3533 along with '--check-signatures'.
3536 For each user-id which has a valid mail address print only the
3537 fingerprint followed by the mail address.
3540 With -list-sigs and -check-sigs sort the signatures by keyID
3541 and creation time to make it easier to view the history of
3542 these signatures. The self-signature is also listed before
3543 other signatures. Defaults to yes.
3545 '--verify-options PARAMETERS'
3546 This is a space or comma delimited string that gives options used
3547 when verifying signatures. Options can be prepended with a 'no-'
3548 to give the opposite meaning. The options are:
3551 Display any photo IDs present on the key that issued the
3552 signature. Defaults to no. See also '--photo-viewer'.
3555 Show policy URLs in the signature being verified. Defaults to
3561 Show all, IETF standard, or user-defined signature notations
3562 in the signature being verified. Defaults to IETF standard.
3565 Show any preferred keyserver URL in the signature being
3566 verified. Defaults to yes.
3569 Display the calculated validity of the user IDs on the key
3570 that issued the signature. Defaults to yes.
3573 Show revoked and expired user IDs during signature
3574 verification. Defaults to no.
3576 show-primary-uid-only
3577 Show only the primary user ID during signature verification.
3578 That is all the AKA lines as well as photo Ids are not shown
3579 with the signature verification status.
3581 '--enable-large-rsa'
3582 '--disable-large-rsa'
3583 With -generate-key and -batch, enable the creation of RSA secret
3584 keys as large as 8192 bit. Note: 8192 bit is more than is
3585 generally recommended. These large keys don't significantly
3586 improve security, but they are more expensive to use, and their
3587 signatures and certifications are larger. This option is only
3588 available if the binary was build with large-secmem support.
3592 Enable hash truncation for all DSA keys even for old DSA Keys up to
3593 1024 bit. This is also the default with '--openpgp'. Note that
3594 older versions of GnuPG also required this flag to allow the
3595 generation of DSA larger than 1024 bit.
3597 '--photo-viewer STRING'
3598 This is the command line that should be run to view a photo ID.
3599 "%i" will be expanded to a filename containing the photo. "%I"
3600 does the same, except the file will not be deleted once the viewer
3601 exits. Other flags are "%k" for the key ID, "%K" for the long key
3602 ID, "%f" for the key fingerprint, "%t" for the extension of the
3603 image type (e.g. "jpg"), "%T" for the MIME type of the image (e.g.
3604 "image/jpeg"), "%v" for the single-character calculated validity of
3605 the image being viewed (e.g. "f"), "%V" for the calculated
3606 validity as a string (e.g. "full"), "%U" for a base32 encoded hash
3607 of the user ID, and "%%" for an actual percent sign. If neither %i
3608 or %I are present, then the photo will be supplied to the viewer on
3611 On Unix the default viewer is 'xloadimage -fork -quiet -title
3612 'KeyID 0x%k' STDIN' with a fallback to 'display -title 'KeyID 0x%k'
3613 %i' and finally to 'xdg-open %i'. On Windows '!ShellExecute 400
3614 %i' is used; here the command is a meta command to use that API
3615 call followed by a wait time in milliseconds which is used to give
3616 the viewer time to read the temporary image file before gpg deletes
3617 it again. Note that if your image viewer program is not secure,
3618 then executing it from gpg does not make it secure.
3620 '--exec-path STRING'
3621 Sets a list of directories to search for photo viewers If not
3622 provided photo viewers use the 'PATH' environment variable.
3625 Add FILE to the current list of keyrings. If FILE begins with a
3626 tilde and a slash, these are replaced by the $HOME directory. If
3627 the filename does not contain a slash, it is assumed to be in the
3628 GnuPG home directory ("~/.gnupg" unless '--homedir' or $GNUPGHOME
3631 Note that this adds a keyring to the current list. If the intent
3632 is to use the specified keyring alone, use '--keyring' along with
3633 '--no-default-keyring'.
3635 If the option '--no-keyring' has been used no keyrings will be used
3638 Note that if the option 'use-keyboxd' is enabled in 'common.conf',
3639 no keyrings are used at all and keys are all maintained by the
3640 keyboxd process in its own database.
3642 '--primary-keyring FILE'
3643 This is a varian of '--keyring' and designates FILE as the primary
3644 public keyring. This means that newly imported keys (via
3645 '--import' or keyserver '--recv-from') will go to this keyring.
3647 '--secret-keyring FILE'
3648 This is an obsolete option and ignored. All secret keys are stored
3649 in the 'private-keys-v1.d' directory below the GnuPG home
3652 '--trustdb-name FILE'
3653 Use FILE instead of the default trustdb. If FILE begins with a
3654 tilde and a slash, these are replaced by the $HOME directory. If
3655 the filename does not contain a slash, it is assumed to be in the
3656 GnuPG home directory ('~/.gnupg' if '--homedir' or $GNUPGHOME is
3660 Set the name of the home directory to DIR. If this option is not
3661 used, the home directory defaults to '~/.gnupg'. It is only
3662 recognized when given on the command line. It also overrides any
3663 home directory stated through the environment variable 'GNUPGHOME'
3664 or (on Windows systems) by means of the Registry entry
3665 HKCU\SOFTWARE\GNU\GNUPG:HOMEDIR.
3667 On Windows systems it is possible to install GnuPG as a portable
3668 application. In this case only this command line option is
3669 considered, all other ways to set a home directory are ignored.
3671 To install GnuPG as a portable application under Windows, create an
3672 empty file named 'gpgconf.ctl' in the same directory as the tool
3673 'gpgconf.exe'. The root of the installation is then that
3674 directory; or, if 'gpgconf.exe' has been installed directly below a
3675 directory named 'bin', its parent directory. You also need to make
3676 sure that the following directories exist and are writable:
3677 'ROOT/home' for the GnuPG home and 'ROOT/usr/local/var/cache/gnupg'
3678 for internal cache files.
3680 '--display-charset NAME'
3681 Set the name of the native character set. This is used to convert
3682 some informational strings like user IDs to the proper UTF-8
3683 encoding. Note that this has nothing to do with the character set
3684 of data to be encrypted or signed; GnuPG does not recode
3685 user-supplied data. If this option is not used, the default
3686 character set is determined from the current locale. A verbosity
3687 level of 3 shows the chosen set. This option should not be used on
3688 Windows. Valid values for NAME are:
3691 This is the Latin 1 set.
3697 This is currently an alias for the Latin 1 set.
3700 The usual Russian set (RFC-1489).
3703 Bypass all translations and assume that the OS uses native
3708 Assume that command line arguments are given as UTF-8 strings. The
3709 default ('--no-utf8-strings') is to assume that arguments are
3710 encoded in the character set as specified by '--display-charset'.
3711 These options affect all following arguments. Both options may be
3712 used multiple times. This option should not be used in an option
3715 This option has no effect on Windows. There the internal used
3716 UTF-8 encoding is translated for console input and output. The
3717 command line arguments are expected as Unicode and translated to
3718 UTF-8. Thus when calling this program from another, make sure to
3719 use the Unicode version of CreateProcess.
3722 Read options from FILE and do not try to read them from the default
3723 options file in the homedir (see '--homedir'). This option is
3724 ignored if used in an options file.
3727 Shortcut for '--options /dev/null'. This option is detected before
3728 an attempt to open an option file. Using this option will also
3729 prevent the creation of a '~/.gnupg' homedir.
3732 '--compress-level N'
3733 '--bzip2-compress-level N'
3734 Set compression level to N for the ZIP and ZLIB compression
3735 algorithms. The default is to use the default compression level of
3736 zlib (normally 6). '--bzip2-compress-level' sets the compression
3737 level for the BZIP2 compression algorithm (defaulting to 6 as
3738 well). This is a different option from '--compress-level' since
3739 BZIP2 uses a significant amount of memory for each additional
3740 compression level. '-z' sets both. A value of 0 for N disables
3743 '--bzip2-decompress-lowmem'
3744 Use a different decompression method for BZIP2 compressed files.
3745 This alternate method uses a bit more than half the memory, but
3746 also runs at half the speed. This is useful under extreme low
3747 memory circumstances when the file was originally compressed at a
3748 high '--bzip2-compress-level'.
3750 '--mangle-dos-filenames'
3751 '--no-mangle-dos-filenames'
3752 Older version of Windows cannot handle filenames with more than one
3753 dot. '--mangle-dos-filenames' causes GnuPG to replace (rather than
3754 add to) the extension of an output filename to avoid this problem.
3755 This option is off by default and has no effect on non-Windows
3759 '--no-ask-cert-level'
3760 When making a key signature, prompt for a certification level. If
3761 this option is not specified, the certification level used is set
3762 via '--default-cert-level'. See '--default-cert-level' for
3763 information on the specific levels and how they are used.
3764 '--no-ask-cert-level' disables this option. This option defaults
3767 '--default-cert-level N'
3768 The default to use for the check level when signing a key.
3770 0 means you make no particular claim as to how carefully you
3773 1 means you believe the key is owned by the person who claims to
3774 own it but you could not, or did not verify the key at all. This
3775 is useful for a "persona" verification, where you sign the key of a
3778 2 means you did casual verification of the key. For example, this
3779 could mean that you verified the key fingerprint and checked the
3780 user ID on the key against a photo ID.
3782 3 means you did extensive verification of the key. For example,
3783 this could mean that you verified the key fingerprint with the
3784 owner of the key in person, and that you checked, by means of a
3785 hard to forge document with a photo ID (such as a passport) that
3786 the name of the key owner matches the name in the user ID on the
3787 key, and finally that you verified (by exchange of email) that the
3788 email address on the key belongs to the key owner.
3790 Note that the examples given above for levels 2 and 3 are just
3791 that: examples. In the end, it is up to you to decide just what
3792 "casual" and "extensive" mean to you.
3794 This option defaults to 0 (no particular claim).
3797 When building the trust database, treat any signatures with a
3798 certification level below this as invalid. Defaults to 2, which
3799 disregards level 1 signatures. Note that level 0 "no particular
3800 claim" signatures are always accepted.
3802 '--trusted-key LONG KEY ID OR FINGERPRINT'
3803 Assume that the specified key (which should be given as
3804 fingerprint) is as trustworthy as one of your own secret keys.
3805 This option is useful if you don't want to keep your secret keys
3806 (or one of them) online but still want to be able to check the
3807 validity of a given recipient's or signator's key. If the given
3808 key is not locally available but an LDAP keyserver is configured
3809 the missing key is imported from that server.
3811 '--trust-model {pgp|classic|tofu|tofu+pgp|direct|always|auto}'
3812 Set what trust model GnuPG should follow. The models are:
3815 This is the Web of Trust combined with trust signatures as
3816 used in PGP 5.x and later. This is the default trust model
3817 when creating a new trust database.
3820 This is the standard Web of Trust as introduced by PGP 2.
3823 TOFU stands for Trust On First Use. In this trust model, the
3824 first time a key is seen, it is memorized. If later another
3825 key with a user id with the same email address is seen, both
3826 keys are marked as suspect. In that case, the next time
3827 either is used, a warning is displayed describing the
3828 conflict, why it might have occurred (either the user
3829 generated a new key and failed to cross sign the old and new
3830 keys, the key is forgery, or a man-in-the-middle attack is
3831 being attempted), and the user is prompted to manually confirm
3832 the validity of the key in question.
3834 Because a potential attacker is able to control the email
3835 address and thereby circumvent the conflict detection
3836 algorithm by using an email address that is similar in
3837 appearance to a trusted email address, whenever a message is
3838 verified, statistics about the number of messages signed with
3839 the key are shown. In this way, a user can easily identify
3840 attacks using fake keys for regular correspondents.
3842 When compared with the Web of Trust, TOFU offers significantly
3843 weaker security guarantees. In particular, TOFU only helps
3844 ensure consistency (that is, that the binding between a key
3845 and email address doesn't change). A major advantage of TOFU
3846 is that it requires little maintenance to use correctly. To
3847 use the web of trust properly, you need to actively sign keys
3848 and mark users as trusted introducers. This is a
3849 time-consuming process and anecdotal evidence suggests that
3850 even security-conscious users rarely take the time to do this
3851 thoroughly and instead rely on an ad-hoc TOFU process.
3853 In the TOFU model, policies are associated with bindings
3854 between keys and email addresses (which are extracted from
3855 user ids and normalized). There are five policies, which can
3856 be set manually using the '--tofu-policy' option. The default
3857 policy can be set using the '--tofu-default-policy' option.
3859 The TOFU policies are: 'auto', 'good', 'unknown', 'bad' and
3860 'ask'. The 'auto' policy is used by default (unless
3861 overridden by '--tofu-default-policy') and marks a binding as
3862 marginally trusted. The 'good', 'unknown' and 'bad' policies
3863 mark a binding as fully trusted, as having unknown trust or as
3864 having trust never, respectively. The 'unknown' policy is
3865 useful for just using TOFU to detect conflicts, but to never
3866 assign positive trust to a binding. The final policy, 'ask'
3867 prompts the user to indicate the binding's trust. If batch
3868 mode is enabled (or input is inappropriate in the context),
3869 then the user is not prompted and the 'undefined' trust level
3873 This trust model combines TOFU with the Web of Trust. This is
3874 done by computing the trust level for each model and then
3875 taking the maximum trust level where the trust levels are
3876 ordered as follows: 'unknown < undefined < marginal < fully <
3877 ultimate < expired < never'.
3879 By setting '--tofu-default-policy=unknown', this model can be
3880 used to implement the web of trust with TOFU's conflict
3881 detection algorithm, but without its assignment of positive
3882 trust values, which some security-conscious users don't like.
3885 Key validity is set directly by the user and not calculated
3886 via the Web of Trust. This model is solely based on the key
3887 and does not distinguish user IDs. Note that when changing to
3888 another trust model the trust values assigned to a key are
3889 transformed into ownertrust values, which also indicate how
3890 you trust the owner of the key to sign other keys.
3893 Skip key validation and assume that used keys are always fully
3894 valid. You generally won't use this unless you are using some
3895 external validation scheme. This option also suppresses the
3896 "[uncertain]" tag printed with signature checks when there is
3897 no evidence that the user ID is bound to the key. Note that
3898 this trust model still does not allow the use of expired,
3899 revoked, or disabled keys.
3902 Select the trust model depending on whatever the internal
3903 trust database says. This is the default model if such a
3904 database already exists. Note that a tofu trust model is not
3905 considered here and must be enabled explicitly.
3907 '--auto-key-locate MECHANISMS'
3908 '--no-auto-key-locate'
3909 GnuPG can automatically locate and retrieve keys as needed using
3910 this option. This happens when encrypting to an email address (in
3911 the "user@example.com" form), and there are no "user@example.com"
3912 keys on the local keyring. This option takes any number of the
3913 mechanisms listed below, in the order they are to be tried.
3914 Instead of listing the mechanisms as comma delimited arguments, the
3915 option may also be given several times to add more mechanism. The
3916 option '--no-auto-key-locate' or the mechanism "clear" resets the
3917 list. The default is "local,wkd".
3920 Locate a key using DNS CERT, as specified in RFC-4398.
3923 Locate a key using DANE, as specified in
3924 draft-ietf-dane-openpgpkey-05.txt.
3927 Locate a key using the Web Key Directory protocol.
3930 Using DNS Service Discovery, check the domain in question for
3931 any LDAP keyservers to use. If this fails, attempt to locate
3932 the key using the PGP Universal method of checking
3933 'ldap://keys.(thedomain)'.
3936 Locate the key using the Active Directory (Windows only).
3937 This method also allows to search by fingerprint using the
3938 command '--locate-external-key'. Note that this mechanism is
3939 actually a shortcut for the mechanism 'keyserver' but using
3940 "ldap:///" as the keyserver.
3943 Locate a key using a keyserver. This method also allows to
3944 search by fingerprint using the command
3945 '--locate-external-key' if any of the configured keyservers is
3949 In addition, a keyserver URL as used in the 'dirmngr'
3950 configuration may be used here to query that particular
3951 keyserver. This method also allows to search by fingerprint
3952 using the command '--locate-external-key' if the URL specifies
3956 Locate the key using the local keyrings. This mechanism
3957 allows the user to select the order a local key lookup is
3958 done. Thus using '--auto-key-locate local' is identical to
3959 '--no-auto-key-locate'.
3962 This flag disables the standard local key lookup, done before
3963 any of the mechanisms defined by the '--auto-key-locate' are
3964 tried. The position of this mechanism in the list does not
3965 matter. It is not required if 'local' is also used.
3968 Clear all defined mechanisms. This is useful to override
3969 mechanisms given in a config file. Note that a 'nodefault' in
3970 MECHANISMS will also be cleared unless it is given after the
3974 '--no-auto-key-import'
3975 This is an offline mechanism to get a missing key for signature
3976 verification and for later encryption to this key. If this option
3977 is enabled and a signature includes an embedded key, that key is
3978 used to verify the signature and on verification success the key is
3979 imported. The default is '--no-auto-key-import'.
3981 On the sender (signing) site the option '--include-key-block' needs
3982 to be used to put the public part of the signing key as “Key Block
3983 subpacket” into the signature.
3985 '--auto-key-retrieve'
3986 '--no-auto-key-retrieve'
3987 These options enable or disable the automatic retrieving of keys
3988 from a keyserver when verifying signatures made by keys that are
3989 not on the local keyring. The default is '--no-auto-key-retrieve'.
3991 The order of methods tried to lookup the key is:
3993 1. If the option '--auto-key-import' is set and the signatures
3994 includes an embedded key, that key is used to verify the signature
3995 and on verification success that key is imported.
3997 2. If a preferred keyserver is specified in the signature and the
3998 option 'honor-keyserver-url' is active (which is not the default),
3999 that keyserver is tried. Note that the creator of the signature
4000 uses the option '--sig-keyserver-url' to specify the preferred
4001 keyserver for data signatures.
4003 3. If the signature has the Signer's UID set (e.g. using
4004 '--sender' while creating the signature) a Web Key Directory (WKD)
4005 lookup is done. This is the default configuration but can be
4006 disabled by removing WKD from the auto-key-locate list or by using
4007 the option '--disable-signer-uid'.
4009 4. If any keyserver is configured and the Issuer Fingerprint is
4010 part of the signature (since GnuPG 2.1.16), the configured
4011 keyservers are tried.
4013 Note that this option makes a "web bug" like behavior possible.
4014 Keyserver or Web Key Directory operators can see which keys you
4015 request, so by sending you a message signed by a brand new key
4016 (which you naturally will not have on your local keyring), the
4017 operator can tell both your IP address and the time when you
4018 verified the signature.
4020 '--keyid-format {none|short|0xshort|long|0xlong}'
4021 Select how to display key IDs. "none" does not show the key ID at
4022 all but shows the fingerprint in a separate line. "short" is the
4023 traditional 8-character key ID. "long" is the more accurate (but
4024 less convenient) 16-character key ID. Add an "0x" to either to
4025 include an "0x" at the beginning of the key ID, as in 0x99242560.
4026 Note that this option is ignored if the option '--with-colons' is
4030 This option is deprecated - please use the '--keyserver' in
4031 'dirmngr.conf' instead.
4033 Use NAME as your keyserver. This is the server that
4034 '--receive-keys', '--send-keys', and '--search-keys' will
4035 communicate with to receive keys from, send keys to, and search for
4036 keys on. The format of the NAME is a URI:
4037 'scheme:[//]keyservername[:port]' The scheme is the type of
4038 keyserver: "hkp"/"hkps" for the HTTP (or compatible) keyservers or
4039 "ldap"/"ldaps" for the LDAP keyservers. Note that your particular
4040 installation of GnuPG may have other keyserver types available as
4041 well. Keyserver schemes are case-insensitive.
4043 Most keyservers synchronize with each other, so there is generally
4044 no need to send keys to more than one server. The keyserver
4045 'hkp://keys.gnupg.net' uses round robin DNS to give a different
4046 keyserver each time you use it.
4048 '--keyserver-options {NAME=VALUE}'
4049 This is a space or comma delimited string that gives options for
4050 the keyserver. Options can be prefixed with a 'no-' to give the
4051 opposite meaning. Valid import-options or export-options may be
4052 used here as well to apply to importing ('--recv-key') or exporting
4053 ('--send-key') a key from a keyserver. While not all options are
4054 available for all keyserver types, some common options are:
4057 When searching for a key with '--search-keys', include keys
4058 that are marked on the keyserver as revoked. Note that not
4059 all keyservers differentiate between revoked and unrevoked
4060 keys, and for such keyservers this option is meaningless.
4061 Note also that most keyservers do not have cryptographic
4062 verification of key revocations, and so turning this option
4063 off may result in skipping keys that are incorrectly marked as
4067 When searching for a key with '--search-keys', include keys
4068 that are marked on the keyserver as disabled. Note that this
4069 option is not used with HKP keyservers.
4072 This is an obsolete alias for the option 'auto-key-retrieve'.
4073 Please do not use it; it will be removed in future versions..
4076 When using '--refresh-keys', if the key in question has a
4077 preferred keyserver URL, then use that preferred keyserver to
4078 refresh the key from. In addition, if auto-key-retrieve is
4079 set, and the signature being verified has a preferred
4080 keyserver URL, then use that preferred keyserver to fetch the
4081 key from. Note that this option introduces a "web bug": The
4082 creator of the key can see when the keys is refreshed. Thus
4083 this option is not enabled by default.
4086 When receiving a key, include subkeys as potential targets.
4087 Note that this option is not used with HKP keyservers, as they
4088 do not support retrieving keys by subkey id.
4096 These options have no more function since GnuPG 2.1. Use the
4097 'dirmngr' configuration options instead.
4099 The default list of options is: "self-sigs-only, import-clean,
4100 repair-keys, repair-pks-subkey-bug, export-attributes". However,
4101 if the actual used source is an LDAP server "no-self-sigs-only" is
4102 assumed unless "self-sigs-only" has been explictly configured.
4104 '--completes-needed N'
4105 Number of completely trusted users to introduce a new key signer
4108 '--marginals-needed N'
4109 Number of marginally trusted users to introduce a new key signer
4112 '--tofu-default-policy {auto|good|unknown|bad|ask}'
4113 The default TOFU policy (defaults to 'auto'). For more information
4114 about the meaning of this option, *note trust-model-tofu::.
4116 '--max-cert-depth N'
4117 Maximum depth of a certification chain (default is 5).
4120 Do not cache the verification status of key signatures. Caching
4121 gives a much better performance in key listings. However, if you
4122 suspect that your public keyring is not safe against write
4123 modifications, you can use this option to disable the caching. It
4124 probably does not make sense to disable it because all kind of
4125 damage can be done if someone else has write access to your public
4128 '--auto-check-trustdb'
4129 '--no-auto-check-trustdb'
4130 If GnuPG feels that its information about the Web of Trust has to
4131 be updated, it automatically runs the '--check-trustdb' command
4132 internally. This may be a time consuming process.
4133 '--no-auto-check-trustdb' disables this option.
4137 This is dummy option. 'gpg' always requires the agent.
4140 This is dummy option. It has no effect when used with 'gpg'.
4142 '--agent-program FILE'
4143 Specify an agent program to be used for secret key operations. The
4144 default value is determined by running 'gpgconf' with the option
4145 '--list-dirs'. Note that the pipe symbol ('|') is used for a
4146 regression test suite hack and may thus not be used in the file
4149 '--dirmngr-program FILE'
4150 Specify a dirmngr program to be used for keyserver access. The
4151 default value is '/usr/local/bin/dirmngr'.
4154 Entirely disable the use of the Dirmngr.
4157 Do not start the gpg-agent or the dirmngr if it has not yet been
4158 started and its service is required. This option is mostly useful
4159 on machines where the connection to gpg-agent has been redirected
4160 to another machines. If dirmngr is required on the remote machine,
4161 it may be started manually using 'gpgconf --launch dirmngr'.
4164 Lock the databases the first time a lock is requested and do not
4165 release the lock until the process terminates.
4168 Release the locks every time a lock is no longer needed. Use this
4169 to override a previous '--lock-once' from a config file.
4172 Disable locking entirely. This option should be used only in very
4173 special environments, where it can be assured that only one process
4174 is accessing those files. A bootable floppy with a stand-alone
4175 encryption system will probably use this. Improper usage of this
4176 option may lead to data and key corruption.
4178 '--exit-on-status-write-error'
4179 This option will cause write errors on the status FD to immediately
4180 terminate the process. That should in fact be the default but it
4181 never worked this way and thus we need an option to enable this, so
4182 that the change won't break applications which close their end of a
4183 status fd connected pipe too early. Using this option along with
4184 '--enable-progress-filter' may be used to cleanly cancel long
4185 running gpg operations.
4187 '--limit-card-insert-tries N'
4188 With N greater than 0 the number of prompts asking to insert a
4189 smartcard gets limited to N-1. Thus with a value of 1 gpg won't at
4190 all ask to insert a card if none has been inserted at startup.
4191 This option is useful in the configuration file in case an
4192 application does not know about the smartcard support and waits ad
4193 infinitum for an inserted card.
4195 '--no-random-seed-file'
4196 GnuPG uses a file to store its internal random pool over
4197 invocations. This makes random generation faster; however
4198 sometimes write operations are not desired. This option can be
4199 used to achieve that with the cost of slower random generation.
4202 Suppress the initial copyright message.
4204 '--no-secmem-warning'
4205 Suppress the warning about "using insecure memory".
4207 '--no-permission-warning'
4208 Suppress the warning about unsafe file and home directory
4209 ('--homedir') permissions. Note that the permission checks that
4210 GnuPG performs are not intended to be authoritative, but rather
4211 they simply warn about certain common permission problems. Do not
4212 assume that the lack of a warning means that your system is secure.
4214 Note that the warning for unsafe '--homedir' permissions cannot be
4215 suppressed in the gpg.conf file, as this would allow an attacker to
4216 place an unsafe gpg.conf file in place, and use this file to
4217 suppress warnings about itself. The '--homedir' permissions
4218 warning may only be suppressed on the command line.
4221 '--no-require-secmem'
4222 Refuse to run if GnuPG cannot get secure memory. Defaults to no
4223 (i.e. run, but give a warning).
4225 '--require-cross-certification'
4226 '--no-require-cross-certification'
4227 When verifying a signature made from a subkey, ensure that the
4228 cross certification "back signature" on the subkey is present and
4229 valid. This protects against a subtle attack against subkeys that
4230 can sign. Defaults to '--require-cross-certification' for 'gpg'.
4234 Allow the user to do certain nonsensical or "silly" things like
4235 signing an expired or revoked key, or certain potentially
4236 incompatible things like generating unusual key types. This also
4237 disables certain warning messages about potentially incompatible
4238 actions. As the name implies, this option is for experts only. If
4239 you don't fully understand the implications of what it allows you
4240 to do, leave this off. '--no-expert' disables this option.
4243 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPG Key related Options, Next: GPG Input and Output, Prev: GPG Configuration Options, Up: GPG Options
4245 4.2.2 Key related options
4246 -------------------------
4250 Encrypt for user id NAME. If this option or '--hidden-recipient'
4251 is not specified, GnuPG asks for the user-id unless
4252 '--default-recipient' is given.
4254 '--hidden-recipient NAME'
4256 Encrypt for user ID NAME, but hide the key ID of this user's key.
4257 This option helps to hide the receiver of the message and is a
4258 limited countermeasure against traffic analysis. If this option or
4259 '--recipient' is not specified, GnuPG asks for the user ID unless
4260 '--default-recipient' is given.
4262 '--recipient-file FILE'
4264 This option is similar to '--recipient' except that it encrypts to
4265 a key stored in the given file. FILE must be the name of a file
4266 containing exactly one key. 'gpg' assumes that the key in this
4267 file is fully valid.
4269 '--hidden-recipient-file FILE'
4271 This option is similar to '--hidden-recipient' except that it
4272 encrypts to a key stored in the given file. FILE must be the name
4273 of a file containing exactly one key. 'gpg' assumes that the key
4274 in this file is fully valid.
4277 Same as '--recipient' but this one is intended for use in the
4278 options file and may be used with your own user-id as an
4279 "encrypt-to-self". These keys are only used when there are other
4280 recipients given either by use of '--recipient' or by the asked
4281 user id. No trust checking is performed for these user ids and
4282 even disabled keys can be used.
4284 '--hidden-encrypt-to NAME'
4285 Same as '--hidden-recipient' but this one is intended for use in
4286 the options file and may be used with your own user-id as a hidden
4287 "encrypt-to-self". These keys are only used when there are other
4288 recipients given either by use of '--recipient' or by the asked
4289 user id. No trust checking is performed for these user ids and
4290 even disabled keys can be used.
4293 Disable the use of all '--encrypt-to' and '--hidden-encrypt-to'
4296 '--group {NAME=VALUE}'
4297 Sets up a named group, which is similar to aliases in email
4298 programs. Any time the group name is a recipient ('-r' or
4299 '--recipient'), it will be expanded to the values specified.
4300 Multiple groups with the same name are automatically merged into a
4303 The values are 'key IDs' or fingerprints, but any key description
4304 is accepted. Note that a value with spaces in it will be treated
4305 as two different values. Note also there is only one level of
4306 expansion -- you cannot make an group that points to another group.
4307 When used from the command line, it may be necessary to quote the
4308 argument to this option to prevent the shell from treating it as
4312 Remove a given entry from the '--group' list.
4315 Remove all entries from the '--group' list.
4319 Use NAME as the key to sign with. Note that this option overrides
4323 This option has two purposes. MBOX must either be a complete user
4324 ID containing a proper mail address or just a plain mail address.
4325 The option can be given multiple times.
4327 When creating a signature this option tells gpg the signing key's
4328 user id used to make the signature and embeds that user ID into the
4329 created signature (using OpenPGP's "Signer's User ID" subpacket).
4330 If the option is given multiple times a suitable user ID is picked.
4331 However, if the signing key was specified directly by using a mail
4332 address (i.e. not by using a fingerprint or key ID) this option is
4333 used and the mail address is embedded in the created signature.
4335 When verifying a signature MBOX is used to restrict the information
4336 printed by the TOFU code to matching user IDs. If the option is
4337 used and the signature contains a "Signer's User ID" subpacket that
4338 information is is also used to restrict the printed information.
4339 Note that GnuPG considers only the mail address part of a User ID.
4341 If this option or the said subpacket is available the TRUST lines
4342 as printed by option 'status-fd' correspond to the corresponding
4343 User ID; if no User ID is known the TRUST lines are computed
4344 directly on the key and do not give any information about the User
4345 ID. In the latter case it his highly recommended to scripts and
4346 other frontends to evaluate the VALIDSIG line, retrieve the key and
4347 print all User IDs along with their validity (trust) information.
4349 '--try-secret-key NAME'
4350 For hidden recipients GPG needs to know the keys to use for trial
4351 decryption. The key set with '--default-key' is always tried
4352 first, but this is often not sufficient. This option allows
4353 setting more keys to be used for trial decryption. Although any
4354 valid user-id specification may be used for NAME it makes sense to
4355 use at least the long keyid to avoid ambiguities. Note that
4356 gpg-agent might pop up a pinentry for a lot keys to do the trial
4357 decryption. If you want to stop all further trial decryption you
4358 may use close-window button instead of the cancel button.
4361 Don't look at the key ID as stored in the message but try all
4362 secret keys in turn to find the right decryption key. This option
4363 forces the behaviour as used by anonymous recipients (created by
4364 using '--throw-keyids' or '--hidden-recipient') and might come
4365 handy in case where an encrypted message contains a bogus key ID.
4367 '--skip-hidden-recipients'
4368 '--no-skip-hidden-recipients'
4369 During decryption skip all anonymous recipients. This option helps
4370 in the case that people use the hidden recipients feature to hide
4371 their own encrypt-to key from others. If one has many secret keys
4372 this may lead to a major annoyance because all keys are tried in
4373 turn to decrypt something which was not really intended for it.
4374 The drawback of this option is that it is currently not possible to
4375 decrypt a message which includes real anonymous recipients.
4378 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPG Input and Output, Next: OpenPGP Options, Prev: GPG Key related Options, Up: GPG Options
4380 4.2.3 Input and Output
4381 ----------------------
4385 Create ASCII armored output. The default is to create the binary
4389 Assume the input data is not in ASCII armored format.
4393 Write output to FILE. To write to stdout use '-' as the filename.
4396 This option sets a limit on the number of bytes that will be
4397 generated when processing a file. Since OpenPGP supports various
4398 levels of compression, it is possible that the plaintext of a given
4399 message may be significantly larger than the original OpenPGP
4400 message. While GnuPG works properly with such messages, there is
4401 often a desire to set a maximum file size that will be generated
4402 before processing is forced to stop by the OS limits. Defaults to
4403 0, which means "no limit".
4406 The AEAD encryption mode encrypts the data in chunks so that a
4407 receiving side can check for transmission errors or tampering at
4408 the end of each chunk and does not need to delay this until all
4409 data has been received. The used chunk size is 2^N byte. The
4410 lowest allowed value for N is 6 (64 byte) and the largest is the
4411 default of 22 which creates chunks not larger than 4 MiB.
4413 '--input-size-hint N'
4414 This option can be used to tell GPG the size of the input data in
4415 bytes. N must be a positive base-10 number. This option is only
4416 useful if the input is not taken from a file. GPG may use this
4417 hint to optimize its buffer allocation strategy. It is also used
4418 by the '--status-fd' line "PROGRESS" to provide a value for "total"
4419 if that is not available by other means.
4421 '--key-origin STRING[,URL]'
4422 gpg can track the origin of a key. Certain origins are implicitly
4423 known (e.g. keyserver, web key directory) and set. For a standard
4424 import the origin of the keys imported can be set with this option.
4425 To list the possible values use "help" for STRING. Some origins
4426 can store an optional URL argument. That URL can appended to
4427 STRING after a comma.
4429 '--import-options PARAMETERS'
4430 This is a space or comma delimited string that gives options for
4431 importing keys. Options can be prepended with a 'no-' to give the
4432 opposite meaning. The options are:
4435 Allow importing key signatures marked as "local". This is not
4436 generally useful unless a shared keyring scheme is being used.
4440 Normally possible still existing ownertrust values of a key
4441 are cleared if a key is imported. This is in general
4442 desirable so that a formerly deleted key does not
4443 automatically gain an ownertrust values merely due to import.
4444 On the other hand it is sometimes necessary to re-import a
4445 trusted set of keys again but keeping already assigned
4446 ownertrust values. This can be achieved by using this option.
4448 repair-pks-subkey-bug
4449 During import, attempt to repair the damage caused by the PKS
4450 keyserver bug (pre version 0.9.6) that mangles keys with
4451 multiple subkeys. Note that this cannot completely repair the
4452 damaged key as some crucial data is removed by the keyserver,
4453 but it does at least give you back one subkey. Defaults to no
4454 for regular '--import' and to yes for keyserver
4459 Show a listing of the key as imported right before it is
4460 stored. This can be combined with the option '--dry-run' to
4461 only look at keys; the option 'show-only' is a shortcut for
4462 this combination. The command '--show-keys' is another
4463 shortcut for this. Note that suffixes like '#' for "sec" and
4464 "sbb" lines may or may not be printed.
4467 Run the entire import code but instead of storing the key to
4468 the local keyring write it to the output. The export option
4469 'export-dane' affect the output. This option can for example
4470 be used to remove all invalid parts from a key without the
4474 During import, allow key updates to existing keys, but do not
4475 allow any new keys to be imported. Defaults to no.
4478 After import, compact (remove all signatures except the
4479 self-signature) any user IDs from the new key that are not
4480 usable. Then, remove any signatures from the new key that are
4481 not usable. This includes signatures that were issued by keys
4482 that are not present on the keyring. This option is the same
4483 as running the '--edit-key' command "clean" after import.
4487 Accept only self-signatures while importing a key. All other
4488 key signatures are skipped at an early import stage. This
4489 option can be used with 'keyserver-options' to mitigate
4490 attempts to flood a key with bogus signatures from a
4491 keyserver. The drawback is that all other valid key
4492 signatures, as required by the Web of Trust are also not
4493 imported. Note that when using this option along with
4494 import-clean it suppresses the final clean step after merging
4495 the imported key into the existing key.
4498 After import, fix various problems with the keys. For
4499 example, this reorders signatures, and strips duplicate
4500 signatures. Defaults to yes.
4503 When used the keyboxd (option 'use-keyboxd' in 'common.conf')
4504 does the import within a single transaction.
4507 Import the smallest key possible. This removes all signatures
4508 except the most recent self-signature on each user ID. This
4509 option is the same as running the '--edit-key' command
4510 "minimize" after import. Defaults to no.
4514 Import in key restore mode. This imports all data which is
4515 usually skipped during import; including all GnuPG specific
4516 data. All other contradicting options are overridden.
4518 '--import-filter {NAME=EXPR}'
4519 '--export-filter {NAME=EXPR}'
4520 These options define an import/export filter which are applied to
4521 the imported/exported keyblock right before it will be
4522 stored/written. NAME defines the type of filter to use, EXPR the
4523 expression to evaluate. The option can be used several times which
4524 then appends more expression to the same NAME.
4526 The available filter types are:
4529 This filter will keep a user id packet and its dependent
4530 packets in the keyblock if the expression evaluates to true.
4533 This filter drops the selected subkeys. Currently only
4534 implemented for -export-filter.
4537 This filter drops the selected key signatures on user ids.
4538 Self-signatures are not considered. Currently only
4539 implemented for -import-filter.
4541 For the syntax of the expression see the chapter "FILTER
4542 EXPRESSIONS". The property names for the expressions depend on the
4543 actual filter type and are indicated in the following table.
4545 The available properties are:
4548 A string with the user id. (keep-uid)
4551 The addr-spec part of a user id with mailbox or the empty
4555 A number with the public key algorithm of a key or subkey
4556 packet. (drop-subkey)
4560 The first is the timestamp a public key or subkey packet was
4561 created. The second is the same but given as an ISO string,
4562 e.g. "2016-08-17". (drop-subkey)
4565 The hexified fingerprint of the current subkey or primary key.
4569 Boolean indicating whether the user id is the primary one.
4573 Boolean indicating whether a user id (keep-uid), a key
4574 (drop-subkey), or a signature (drop-sig) expired.
4577 Boolean indicating whether a user id (keep-uid) or a key
4578 (drop-subkey) has been revoked.
4581 Boolean indicating whether a primary key is disabled. (not
4585 Boolean indicating whether a key or subkey is a secret one.
4589 A string indicating the usage flags for the subkey, from the
4590 sequence "ecsa?". For example, a subkey capable of just
4591 signing and authentication would be an exact match for "sa".
4596 The first is the timestamp a signature packet was created.
4597 The second is the same but given as an ISO date string, e.g.
4598 "2016-08-17". (drop-sig)
4601 A number with the public key algorithm of a signature packet.
4605 A number with the digest algorithm of a signature packet.
4608 '--export-options PARAMETERS'
4609 This is a space or comma delimited string that gives options for
4610 exporting keys. Options can be prepended with a 'no-' to give the
4611 opposite meaning. The options are:
4614 Allow exporting key signatures marked as "local". This is not
4615 generally useful unless a shared keyring scheme is being used.
4619 Include attribute user IDs (photo IDs) while exporting. Not
4620 including attribute user IDs is useful to export keys that are
4621 going to be used by an OpenPGP program that does not accept
4622 attribute user IDs. Defaults to yes.
4624 export-sensitive-revkeys
4625 Include designated revoker information that was marked as
4626 "sensitive". Defaults to no.
4630 Export for use as a backup. The exported data includes all
4631 data which is needed to restore the key or keys later with
4632 GnuPG. The format is basically the OpenPGP format but enhanced
4633 with GnuPG specific data. All other contradicting options are
4637 Compact (remove all signatures from) user IDs on the key being
4638 exported if the user IDs are not usable. Also, do not export
4639 any signatures that are not usable. This includes signatures
4640 that were issued by keys that are not present on the keyring.
4641 This option is the same as running the '--edit-key' command
4642 "clean" before export except that the local copy of the key is
4643 not modified. Defaults to no.
4646 Export the smallest key possible. This removes all signatures
4647 except the most recent self-signature on each user ID. This
4648 option is the same as running the '--edit-key' command
4649 "minimize" before export except that the local copy of the key
4650 is not modified. Defaults to no.
4653 Instead of outputting the key material output OpenPGP DANE
4654 records suitable to put into DNS zone files. An ORIGIN line
4655 is printed before each record to allow diverting the records
4656 to the corresponding zone file.
4659 Print key listings delimited by colons. Note that the output will
4660 be encoded in UTF-8 regardless of any '--display-charset' setting.
4661 This format is useful when GnuPG is called from scripts and other
4662 programs as it is easily machine parsed. The details of this
4663 format are documented in the file 'doc/DETAILS', which is included
4664 in the GnuPG source distribution.
4667 Do not merge primary user ID and primary key in '--with-colon'
4668 listing mode and print all timestamps as seconds since 1970-01-01.
4669 Since GnuPG 2.0.10, this mode is always used and thus this option
4670 is obsolete; it does not harm to use it though.
4672 '--legacy-list-mode'
4673 Revert to the pre-2.1 public key list mode. This only affects the
4674 human readable output and not the machine interface (i.e.
4675 '--with-colons'). Note that the legacy format does not convey
4676 suitable information for elliptic curves.
4678 '--with-fingerprint'
4679 Same as the command '--fingerprint' but changes only the format of
4680 the output and may be used together with another command.
4682 '--with-subkey-fingerprint'
4683 If a fingerprint is printed for the primary key, this option forces
4684 printing of the fingerprint for all subkeys. This could also be
4685 achieved by using the '--with-fingerprint' twice but by using this
4686 option along with keyid-format "none" a compact fingerprint is
4689 '--with-icao-spelling'
4690 Print the ICAO spelling of the fingerprint in addition to the hex
4694 Include the keygrip in the key listings. In '--with-colons' mode
4695 this is implicitly enable for secret keys.
4698 Include the locally held information on the origin and last update
4699 of a key in a key listing. In '--with-colons' mode this is always
4700 printed. This data is currently experimental and shall not be
4701 considered part of the stable API.
4704 Print a Web Key Directory identifier along with each user ID in key
4705 listings. This is an experimental feature and semantics may
4709 Include info about the presence of a secret key in public key
4710 listings done with '--with-colons'.
4713 File: gnupg.info, Node: OpenPGP Options, Next: Compliance Options, Prev: GPG Input and Output, Up: GPG Options
4715 4.2.4 OpenPGP protocol specific options
4716 ---------------------------------------
4720 Treat input files as text and store them in the OpenPGP canonical
4721 text form with standard "CRLF" line endings. This also sets the
4722 necessary flags to inform the recipient that the encrypted or
4723 signed data is text and may need its line endings converted back to
4724 whatever the local system uses. This option is useful when
4725 communicating between two platforms that have different line ending
4726 conventions (UNIX-like to Mac, Mac to Windows, etc).
4727 '--no-textmode' disables this option, and is the default.
4730 '--no-force-v3-sigs'
4732 '--no-force-v4-certs'
4733 These options are obsolete and have no effect since GnuPG 2.1.
4736 Force the use of AEAD encryption over MDC encryption. AEAD is a
4737 modern and faster way to do authenticated encryption than the old
4738 MDC method. See also options '--aead-algo' and '--chunk-size'.
4742 These options are obsolete and have no effect since GnuPG 2.2.8.
4743 The MDC is always used unless the keys indicate that an AEAD
4744 algorithm can be used in which case AEAD is used. But note: If the
4745 creation of a legacy non-MDC message is exceptionally required, the
4746 option '--rfc2440' allows for this.
4748 '--disable-signer-uid'
4749 By default the user ID of the signing key is embedded in the data
4750 signature. As of now this is only done if the signing key has been
4751 specified with 'local-user' using a mail address, or with 'sender'.
4752 This information can be helpful for verifier to locate the key; see
4753 option '--auto-key-retrieve'.
4755 '--include-key-block'
4756 '--no-include-key-block'
4757 This option is used to embed the actual signing key into a data
4758 signature. The embedded key is stripped down to a single user id
4759 and includes only the signing subkey used to create the signature
4760 as well as as valid encryption subkeys. All other info is removed
4761 from the key to keep it and thus the signature small. This option
4762 is the OpenPGP counterpart to the 'gpgsm' option '--include-certs'
4763 and allows the recipient of a signed message to reply encrypted to
4764 the sender without using any online directories to lookup the key.
4765 The default is '--no-include-key-block'. See also the option
4766 '--auto-key-import'.
4768 '--personal-cipher-preferences STRING'
4769 Set the list of personal cipher preferences to STRING. Use 'gpg
4770 --version' to get a list of available algorithms, and use 'none' to
4771 set no preference at all. This allows the user to safely override
4772 the algorithm chosen by the recipient key preferences, as GPG will
4773 only select an algorithm that is usable by all recipients. The
4774 most highly ranked cipher in this list is also used for the
4775 '--symmetric' encryption command.
4777 '--personal-aead-preferences STRING'
4778 Set the list of personal AEAD preferences to STRING. Use 'gpg
4779 --version' to get a list of available algorithms, and use 'none' to
4780 set no preference at all. This allows the user to safely override
4781 the algorithm chosen by the recipient key preferences, as GPG will
4782 only select an algorithm that is usable by all recipients. The
4783 most highly ranked cipher in this list is also used for the
4784 '--symmetric' encryption command.
4786 '--personal-digest-preferences STRING'
4787 Set the list of personal digest preferences to STRING. Use 'gpg
4788 --version' to get a list of available algorithms, and use 'none' to
4789 set no preference at all. This allows the user to safely override
4790 the algorithm chosen by the recipient key preferences, as GPG will
4791 only select an algorithm that is usable by all recipients. The
4792 most highly ranked digest algorithm in this list is also used when
4793 signing without encryption (e.g. '--clear-sign' or '--sign').
4795 '--personal-compress-preferences STRING'
4796 Set the list of personal compression preferences to STRING. Use
4797 'gpg --version' to get a list of available algorithms, and use
4798 'none' to set no preference at all. This allows the user to safely
4799 override the algorithm chosen by the recipient key preferences, as
4800 GPG will only select an algorithm that is usable by all recipients.
4801 The most highly ranked compression algorithm in this list is also
4802 used when there are no recipient keys to consider (e.g.
4805 '--s2k-cipher-algo NAME'
4806 Use NAME as the cipher algorithm for symmetric encryption with a
4807 passphrase if '--personal-cipher-preferences' and '--cipher-algo'
4808 are not given. The default is AES-128.
4810 '--s2k-digest-algo NAME'
4811 Use NAME as the digest algorithm used to mangle the passphrases for
4812 symmetric encryption. The default is SHA-1.
4815 Selects how passphrases for symmetric encryption are mangled. If N
4816 is 0 a plain passphrase (which is in general not recommended) will
4817 be used, a 1 adds a salt (which should not be used) to the
4818 passphrase and a 3 (the default) iterates the whole process a
4819 number of times (see '--s2k-count').
4822 Specify how many times the passphrases mangling for symmetric
4823 encryption is repeated. This value may range between 1024 and
4824 65011712 inclusive. The default is inquired from gpg-agent. Note
4825 that not all values in the 1024-65011712 range are legal and if an
4826 illegal value is selected, GnuPG will round up to the nearest legal
4827 value. This option is only meaningful if '--s2k-mode' is set to
4831 File: gnupg.info, Node: Compliance Options, Next: GPG Esoteric Options, Prev: OpenPGP Options, Up: GPG Options
4833 4.2.5 Compliance options
4834 ------------------------
4836 These options control what GnuPG is compliant to. Only one of these
4837 options may be active at a time. Note that the default setting of this
4838 is nearly always the correct one. See the INTEROPERABILITY WITH OTHER
4839 OPENPGP PROGRAMS section below before using one of these options.
4842 Use standard GnuPG behavior. This is essentially OpenPGP behavior
4843 (see '--openpgp'), but with extension from the proposed update to
4844 OpenPGP and with some additional workarounds for common
4845 compatibility problems in different versions of PGP. This is the
4846 default option, so it is not generally needed, but it may be useful
4847 to override a different compliance option in the gpg.conf file.
4850 Reset all packet, cipher and digest options to strict OpenPGP
4851 behavior. This option implies '--allow-old-cipher-algos'. Use
4852 this option to reset all previous options like '--s2k-*',
4853 '--cipher-algo', '--digest-algo' and '--compress-algo' to OpenPGP
4854 compliant values. All PGP workarounds are disabled.
4857 Reset all packet, cipher and digest options to strict RFC-4880
4858 behavior. This option implies '--allow-old-cipher-algos'. Note
4859 that this is currently the same thing as '--openpgp'.
4862 Reset all packet, cipher and digest options to strict according to
4863 the proposed updates of RFC-4880.
4866 Reset all packet, cipher and digest options to strict RFC-2440
4867 behavior. Note that by using this option encryption packets are
4868 created in a legacy mode without MDC protection. This is dangerous
4869 and should thus only be used for experiments. This option implies
4870 '--allow-old-cipher-algos'. See also option '--ignore-mdc-error'.
4873 This option is obsolete; it is handled as an alias for '--pgp7'
4876 Set up all options to be as PGP 7 compliant as possible. This
4877 allowed the ciphers IDEA, 3DES, CAST5,AES128, AES192, AES256, and
4878 TWOFISH., the hashes MD5, SHA1 and RIPEMD160, and the compression
4879 algorithms none and ZIP. This option implies '--escape-from-lines'
4880 and disables '--throw-keyids',
4883 Set up all options to be as PGP 8 compliant as possible. PGP 8 is
4884 a lot closer to the OpenPGP standard than previous versions of PGP,
4885 so all this does is disable '--throw-keyids' and set
4886 '--escape-from-lines'. All algorithms are allowed except for the
4887 SHA224, SHA384, and SHA512 digests.
4889 '--compliance STRING'
4890 This option can be used instead of one of the options above. Valid
4891 values for STRING are the above option names (without the double
4892 dash) and possibly others as shown when using "help" for STRING.
4894 '--min-rsa-length N'
4895 This option adjusts the compliance mode "de-vs" for stricter key
4896 size requirements. For example, a value of 3000 turns rsa2048 and
4897 dsa2048 keys into non-VS-NfD compliant keys.
4900 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPG Esoteric Options, Next: Deprecated Options, Prev: Compliance Options, Up: GPG Options
4902 4.2.6 Doing things one usually doesn't want to do
4903 -------------------------------------------------
4907 Don't make any changes (this is not completely implemented).
4910 Changes the behaviour of some commands. This is like '--dry-run'
4911 but different in some cases. The semantic of this option may be
4912 extended in the future. Currently it only skips the actual
4913 decryption pass and therefore enables a fast listing of the
4918 Prompt before overwriting any files.
4920 '--debug-level LEVEL'
4921 Select the debug level for investigating problems. LEVEL may be a
4922 numeric value or by a keyword:
4925 No debugging at all. A value of less than 1 may be used
4926 instead of the keyword.
4928 Some basic debug messages. A value between 1 and 2 may be
4929 used instead of the keyword.
4931 More verbose debug messages. A value between 3 and 5 may be
4932 used instead of the keyword.
4934 Even more detailed messages. A value between 6 and 8 may be
4935 used instead of the keyword.
4937 All of the debug messages you can get. A value greater than 8
4938 may be used instead of the keyword. The creation of hash
4939 tracing files is only enabled if the keyword is used.
4941 How these messages are mapped to the actual debugging flags is not
4942 specified and may change with newer releases of this program. They
4943 are however carefully selected to best aid in debugging.
4946 Set debug flags. All flags are or-ed and FLAGS may be given in C
4947 syntax (e.g. 0x0042) or as a comma separated list of flag names.
4948 To get a list of all supported flags the single word "help" can be
4949 used. This option is only useful for debugging and the behavior
4950 may change at any time without notice.
4953 Set all useful debugging flags.
4956 Set stdout into line buffered mode. This option is only honored
4957 when given on the command line.
4959 '--debug-set-iobuf-size N'
4960 Change the buffer size of the IOBUFs to N kilobyte. Using 0 prints
4961 the current size. Note well: This is a maintainer only option and
4962 may thus be changed or removed at any time without notice.
4964 '--debug-allow-large-chunks'
4965 To facilitate software tests and experiments this option allows to
4966 specify a limit of up to 4 EiB ('--chunk-size 62').
4968 '--faked-system-time EPOCH'
4969 This option is only useful for testing; it sets the system time
4970 back or forth to EPOCH which is the number of seconds elapsed since
4971 the year 1970. Alternatively EPOCH may be given as a full ISO time
4972 string (e.g. "20070924T154812").
4974 If you suffix EPOCH with an exclamation mark (!), the system time
4975 will appear to be frozen at the specified time.
4977 '--full-timestrings'
4978 Change the format of printed creation and expiration times from
4979 just the date to the date and time. This is in general not useful
4980 and the same information is anyway available in '--with-colons'
4981 mode. These longer strings are also not well aligned with other
4984 '--enable-progress-filter'
4985 Enable certain PROGRESS status outputs. This option allows
4986 frontends to display a progress indicator while gpg is processing
4987 larger files. There is a slight performance overhead using it.
4990 Write special status strings to the file descriptor N. See the
4991 file DETAILS in the documentation for a listing of them.
4993 '--status-file FILE'
4994 Same as '--status-fd', except the status data is written to file
4998 Write log output to file descriptor N and not to STDERR.
5001 '--logger-file FILE'
5002 Same as '--logger-fd', except the logger data is written to file
5003 FILE. Use 'socket://' to log to s socket.
5006 Write attribute subpackets to the file descriptor N. This is most
5007 useful for use with '--status-fd', since the status messages are
5008 needed to separate out the various subpackets from the stream
5009 delivered to the file descriptor.
5011 '--attribute-file FILE'
5012 Same as '--attribute-fd', except the attribute data is written to
5017 Use STRING as a comment string in cleartext signatures and ASCII
5018 armored messages or keys (see '--armor'). The default behavior is
5019 not to use a comment string. '--comment' may be repeated multiple
5020 times to get multiple comment strings. '--no-comments' removes all
5021 comments. It is a good idea to keep the length of a single comment
5022 below 60 characters to avoid problems with mail programs wrapping
5023 such lines. Note that comment lines, like all other header lines,
5024 are not protected by the signature.
5028 Force inclusion of the version string in ASCII armored output. If
5029 given once only the name of the program and the major number is
5030 emitted, given twice the minor is also emitted, given thrice the
5031 micro is added, and given four times an operating system
5032 identification is also emitted. '--no-emit-version' (default)
5033 disables the version line.
5035 '--sig-notation {NAME=VALUE}'
5036 '--cert-notation {NAME=VALUE}'
5037 '-N, --set-notation {NAME=VALUE}'
5038 Put the name value pair into the signature as notation data. NAME
5039 must consist only of printable characters or spaces, and must
5040 contain a '@' character in the form keyname@domain.example.com
5041 (substituting the appropriate keyname and domain name, of course).
5042 This is to help prevent pollution of the IETF reserved notation
5043 namespace. The '--expert' flag overrides the '@' check. VALUE may
5044 be any printable string; it will be encoded in UTF-8, so you should
5045 check that your '--display-charset' is set correctly. If you
5046 prefix NAME with an exclamation mark (!), the notation data will be
5047 flagged as critical (rfc4880:5.2.3.16). '--sig-notation' sets a
5048 notation for data signatures. '--cert-notation' sets a notation
5049 for key signatures (certifications). '--set-notation' sets both.
5051 There are special codes that may be used in notation names. "%k"
5052 will be expanded into the key ID of the key being signed, "%K" into
5053 the long key ID of the key being signed, "%f" into the fingerprint
5054 of the key being signed, "%s" into the key ID of the key making the
5055 signature, "%S" into the long key ID of the key making the
5056 signature, "%g" into the fingerprint of the key making the
5057 signature (which might be a subkey), "%p" into the fingerprint of
5058 the primary key of the key making the signature, "%c" into the
5059 signature count from the OpenPGP smartcard, and "%%" results in a
5060 single "%". %k, %K, and %f are only meaningful when making a key
5061 signature (certification), and %c is only meaningful when using the
5064 '--known-notation NAME'
5065 Adds NAME to a list of known critical signature notations. The
5066 effect of this is that gpg will not mark a signature with a
5067 critical signature notation of that name as bad. Note that gpg
5068 already knows by default about a few critical signatures notation
5071 '--sig-policy-url STRING'
5072 '--cert-policy-url STRING'
5073 '--set-policy-url STRING'
5074 Use STRING as a Policy URL for signatures (rfc4880:5.2.3.20). If
5075 you prefix it with an exclamation mark (!), the policy URL packet
5076 will be flagged as critical. '--sig-policy-url' sets a policy url
5077 for data signatures. '--cert-policy-url' sets a policy url for key
5078 signatures (certifications). '--set-policy-url' sets both.
5080 The same %-expandos used for notation data are available here as
5083 '--sig-keyserver-url STRING'
5084 Use STRING as a preferred keyserver URL for data signatures. If
5085 you prefix it with an exclamation mark (!), the keyserver URL
5086 packet will be flagged as critical.
5088 The same %-expandos used for notation data are available here as
5091 '--set-filename STRING'
5092 Use STRING as the filename which is stored inside messages. This
5093 overrides the default, which is to use the actual filename of the
5094 file being encrypted. Using the empty string for STRING
5095 effectively removes the filename from the output.
5097 '--for-your-eyes-only'
5098 '--no-for-your-eyes-only'
5099 Set the 'for your eyes only' flag in the message. This causes
5100 GnuPG to refuse to save the file unless the '--output' option is
5101 given, and PGP to use a "secure viewer" with a claimed
5102 Tempest-resistant font to display the message. This option
5103 overrides '--set-filename'. '--no-for-your-eyes-only' disables
5106 '--use-embedded-filename'
5107 '--no-use-embedded-filename'
5108 Try to create a file with a name as embedded in the data. This can
5109 be a dangerous option as it enables overwriting files. Defaults to
5110 no. Note that the option '--output' overrides this option.
5112 '--cipher-algo NAME'
5113 Use NAME as cipher algorithm. Running the program with the command
5114 '--version' yields a list of supported algorithms. If this is not
5115 used the cipher algorithm is selected from the preferences stored
5116 with the key. In general, you do not want to use this option as it
5117 allows you to violate the OpenPGP standard. The option
5118 '--personal-cipher-preferences' is the safe way to accomplish the
5122 Specify that the AEAD algorithm NAME is to be used. This is useful
5123 for symmetric encryption where no key preference are available to
5124 select the AEAD algorithm. Running 'gpg' with option '--version'
5125 shows the available AEAD algorithms. In general, you do not want
5126 to use this option as it allows you to violate the OpenPGP
5127 standard. The option '--personal-aead-preferences' is the safe way
5128 to accomplish the same thing.
5130 '--digest-algo NAME'
5131 Use NAME as the message digest algorithm. Running the program with
5132 the command '--version' yields a list of supported algorithms. In
5133 general, you do not want to use this option as it allows you to
5134 violate the OpenPGP standard. The option
5135 '--personal-digest-preferences' is the safe way to accomplish the
5138 '--compress-algo NAME'
5139 Use compression algorithm NAME. "zlib" is RFC-1950 ZLIB
5140 compression. "zip" is RFC-1951 ZIP compression which is used by
5141 PGP. "bzip2" is a more modern compression scheme that can compress
5142 some things better than zip or zlib, but at the cost of more memory
5143 used during compression and decompression. "uncompressed" or
5144 "none" disables compression. If this option is not used, the
5145 default behavior is to examine the recipient key preferences to see
5146 which algorithms the recipient supports. If all else fails, ZIP is
5147 used for maximum compatibility.
5149 ZLIB may give better compression results than ZIP, as the
5150 compression window size is not limited to 8k. BZIP2 may give even
5151 better compression results than that, but will use a significantly
5152 larger amount of memory while compressing and decompressing. This
5153 may be significant in low memory situations. Note, however, that
5154 PGP (all versions) only supports ZIP compression. Using any
5155 algorithm other than ZIP or "none" will make the message unreadable
5156 with PGP. In general, you do not want to use this option as it
5157 allows you to violate the OpenPGP standard. The option
5158 '--personal-compress-preferences' is the safe way to accomplish the
5161 '--cert-digest-algo NAME'
5162 Use NAME as the message digest algorithm used when signing a key.
5163 Running the program with the command '--version' yields a list of
5164 supported algorithms. Be aware that if you choose an algorithm
5165 that GnuPG supports but other OpenPGP implementations do not, then
5166 some users will not be able to use the key signatures you make, or
5167 quite possibly your entire key. Note also that a public key
5168 algorithm must be compatible with the specified digest algorithm;
5169 thus selecting an arbitrary digest algorithm may result in error
5170 messages from lower crypto layers or lead to security flaws.
5172 '--disable-cipher-algo NAME'
5173 Never allow the use of NAME as cipher algorithm. The given name
5174 will not be checked so that a later loaded algorithm will still get
5177 '--disable-pubkey-algo NAME'
5178 Never allow the use of NAME as public key algorithm. The given
5179 name will not be checked so that a later loaded algorithm will
5184 Do not put the recipient key IDs into encrypted messages. This
5185 helps to hide the receivers of the message and is a limited
5186 countermeasure against traffic analysis.(1) On the receiving side,
5187 it may slow down the decryption process because all available
5188 secret keys must be tried. '--no-throw-keyids' disables this
5189 option. This option is essentially the same as using
5190 '--hidden-recipient' for all recipients.
5192 '--not-dash-escaped'
5193 This option changes the behavior of cleartext signatures so that
5194 they can be used for patch files. You should not send such an
5195 armored file via email because all spaces and line endings are
5196 hashed too. You can not use this option for data which has 5
5197 dashes at the beginning of a line, patch files don't have this. A
5198 special armor header line tells GnuPG about this cleartext
5201 '--escape-from-lines'
5202 '--no-escape-from-lines'
5203 Because some mailers change lines starting with "From " to ">From "
5204 it is good to handle such lines in a special way when creating
5205 cleartext signatures to prevent the mail system from breaking the
5206 signature. Note that all other PGP versions do it this way too.
5207 Enabled by default. '--no-escape-from-lines' disables this option.
5209 '--passphrase-repeat N'
5210 Specify how many times 'gpg' will request a new passphrase be
5211 repeated. This is useful for helping memorize a passphrase.
5212 Defaults to 1 repetition; can be set to 0 to disable any passphrase
5213 repetition. Note that a N greater than 1 will pop up the pinentry
5214 window N+1 times even if a modern pinentry with two entry fields is
5218 Read the passphrase from file descriptor N. Only the first line
5219 will be read from file descriptor N. If you use 0 for N, the
5220 passphrase will be read from STDIN. This can only be used if only
5221 one passphrase is supplied.
5223 Note that since Version 2.0 this passphrase is only used if the
5224 option '--batch' has also been given. Since Version 2.1 the
5225 '--pinentry-mode' also needs to be set to 'loopback'.
5227 '--passphrase-file FILE'
5228 Read the passphrase from file FILE. Only the first line will be
5229 read from file FILE. This can only be used if only one passphrase
5230 is supplied. Obviously, a passphrase stored in a file is of
5231 questionable security if other users can read this file. Don't use
5232 this option if you can avoid it.
5234 Note that since Version 2.0 this passphrase is only used if the
5235 option '--batch' has also been given. Since Version 2.1 the
5236 '--pinentry-mode' also needs to be set to 'loopback'.
5238 '--passphrase STRING'
5239 Use STRING as the passphrase. This can only be used if only one
5240 passphrase is supplied. Obviously, this is of very questionable
5241 security on a multi-user system. Don't use this option if you can
5244 Note that since Version 2.0 this passphrase is only used if the
5245 option '--batch' has also been given. Since Version 2.1 the
5246 '--pinentry-mode' also needs to be set to 'loopback'.
5248 '--pinentry-mode MODE'
5249 Set the pinentry mode to MODE. Allowed values for MODE are:
5251 Use the default of the agent, which is 'ask'.
5253 Force the use of the Pinentry.
5255 Emulate use of Pinentry's cancel button.
5257 Return a Pinentry error ("No Pinentry").
5259 Redirect Pinentry queries to the caller. Note that in
5260 contrast to Pinentry the user is not prompted again if he
5261 enters a bad password.
5264 Disable the passphrase cache used for symmetrical en- and
5265 decryption. This cache is based on the message specific salt value
5268 '--request-origin ORIGIN'
5269 Tell gpg to assume that the operation ultimately originated at
5270 ORIGIN. Depending on the origin certain restrictions are applied
5271 and the Pinentry may include an extra note on the origin.
5272 Supported values for ORIGIN are: 'local' which is the default,
5273 'remote' to indicate a remote origin or 'browser' for an operation
5274 requested by a web browser.
5277 This is a replacement for the deprecated shared-memory IPC mode.
5278 If this option is enabled, user input on questions is not expected
5279 from the TTY but from the given file descriptor. It should be used
5280 together with '--status-fd'. See the file doc/DETAILS in the
5281 source distribution for details on how to use it.
5283 '--command-file FILE'
5284 Same as '--command-fd', except the commands are read out of file
5287 '--allow-non-selfsigned-uid'
5288 '--no-allow-non-selfsigned-uid'
5289 Allow the import and use of keys with user IDs which are not
5290 self-signed. This is not recommended, as a non self-signed user ID
5291 is trivial to forge. '--no-allow-non-selfsigned-uid' disables.
5293 '--allow-freeform-uid'
5294 Disable all checks on the form of the user ID while generating a
5295 new one. This option should only be used in very special
5296 environments as it does not ensure the de-facto standard format of
5299 '--ignore-time-conflict'
5300 GnuPG normally checks that the timestamps associated with keys and
5301 signatures have plausible values. However, sometimes a signature
5302 seems to be older than the key due to clock problems. This option
5303 makes these checks just a warning. See also '--ignore-valid-from'
5304 for timestamp issues on subkeys.
5306 '--ignore-valid-from'
5307 GnuPG normally does not select and use subkeys created in the
5308 future. This option allows the use of such keys and thus exhibits
5309 the pre-1.0.7 behaviour. You should not use this option unless
5310 there is some clock problem. See also '--ignore-time-conflict' for
5311 timestamp issues with signatures.
5313 '--ignore-crc-error'
5314 The ASCII armor used by OpenPGP is protected by a CRC checksum
5315 against transmission errors. Occasionally the CRC gets mangled
5316 somewhere on the transmission channel but the actual content (which
5317 is protected by the OpenPGP protocol anyway) is still okay. This
5318 option allows GnuPG to ignore CRC errors.
5320 '--ignore-mdc-error'
5321 This option changes a MDC integrity protection failure into a
5322 warning. It is required to decrypt old messages which did not use
5323 an MDC. It may also be useful if a message is partially garbled,
5324 but it is necessary to get as much data as possible out of that
5325 garbled message. Be aware that a missing or failed MDC can be an
5326 indication of an attack. Use with great caution; see also option
5329 '--allow-old-cipher-algos'
5330 Old cipher algorithms like 3DES, IDEA, or CAST5 encrypt data using
5331 blocks of 64 bits; modern algorithms use blocks of 128 bit instead.
5332 To avoid certain attack on these old algorithms it is suggested not
5333 to encrypt more than 150 MiByte using the same key. For this
5334 reason gpg does not allow the use of 64 bit block size algorithms
5335 for encryption unless this option is specified.
5337 '--allow-weak-digest-algos'
5338 Signatures made with known-weak digest algorithms are normally
5339 rejected with an "invalid digest algorithm" message. This option
5340 allows the verification of signatures made with such weak
5341 algorithms. MD5 is the only digest algorithm considered weak by
5342 default. See also '--weak-digest' to reject other digest
5345 '--weak-digest NAME'
5346 Treat the specified digest algorithm as weak. Signatures made over
5347 weak digests algorithms are normally rejected. This option can be
5348 supplied multiple times if multiple algorithms should be considered
5349 weak. See also '--allow-weak-digest-algos' to disable rejection of
5350 weak digests. MD5 is always considered weak, and does not need to
5351 be listed explicitly.
5353 '--allow-weak-key-signatures'
5354 To avoid a minor risk of collision attacks on third-party key
5355 signatures made using SHA-1, those key signatures are considered
5356 invalid. This options allows to override this restriction.
5358 '--override-compliance-check'
5359 The signature verification only allows the use of keys suitable in
5360 the current compliance mode. If the compliance mode has been
5361 forced by a global option, there might be no way to check certain
5362 signature. This option allows to override this and prints an extra
5363 warning in such a case. This option is ignored in -batch mode so
5364 that no accidental unattended verification may happen.
5366 '--no-default-keyring'
5367 Do not add the default keyring to the list of keyrings. Note that
5368 GnuPG needs for almost all operations a keyring. Thus if you use
5369 this option and do not provide alternate keyrings via '--keyring',
5370 then GnuPG will still use the default keyring.
5372 Note that if the option 'use-keyboxd' is enabled in 'common.conf',
5373 no keyrings are used at all and keys are all maintained by the
5374 keyboxd process in its own database.
5377 Do not use any keyring at all. This overrides the default and all
5378 options which specify keyrings.
5381 Skip the signature verification step. This may be used to make the
5382 decryption faster if the signature verification is not needed.
5385 Print key listings delimited by colons (like '--with-colons') and
5386 print the public key data.
5390 Same as '--list-keys', but the signatures are listed too. This
5391 command has the same effect as using '--list-keys' with
5392 '--with-sig-list'. Note that in contrast to '--check-signatures'
5393 the key signatures are not verified. This command can be used to
5394 create a list of signing keys missing in the local keyring; for
5397 gpg --list-sigs --with-colons USERID | \
5398 awk -F: '$1=="sig" && $2=="?" {if($13){print $13}else{print $5}}'
5401 Changes the output of the list commands to work faster; this is
5402 achieved by leaving some parts empty. Some applications don't need
5403 the user ID and the trust information given in the listings. By
5404 using this options they can get a faster listing. The exact
5405 behaviour of this option may change in future versions. If you are
5406 missing some information, don't use this option.
5409 This is not for normal use. Use the source to see for what it
5413 This is not for normal use. Use the source to see for what it
5416 '--show-session-key'
5417 Display the session key used for one message. See
5418 '--override-session-key' for the counterpart of this option.
5420 We think that Key Escrow is a Bad Thing; however the user should
5421 have the freedom to decide whether to go to prison or to reveal the
5422 content of one specific message without compromising all messages
5423 ever encrypted for one secret key.
5425 You can also use this option if you receive an encrypted message
5426 which is abusive or offensive, to prove to the administrators of
5427 the messaging system that the ciphertext transmitted corresponds to
5428 an inappropriate plaintext so they can take action against the
5431 '--override-session-key STRING'
5432 '--override-session-key-fd FD'
5433 Don't use the public key but the session key STRING respective the
5434 session key taken from the first line read from file descriptor FD.
5435 The format of this string is the same as the one printed by
5436 '--show-session-key'. This option is normally not used but comes
5437 handy in case someone forces you to reveal the content of an
5438 encrypted message; using this option you can do this without
5439 handing out the secret key. Note that using
5440 '--override-session-key' may reveal the session key to all local
5441 users via the global process table. Often it is useful to combine
5442 this option with '--no-keyring'.
5445 '--no-ask-sig-expire'
5446 When making a data signature, prompt for an expiration time. If
5447 this option is not specified, the expiration time set via
5448 '--default-sig-expire' is used. '--no-ask-sig-expire' disables
5451 '--default-sig-expire'
5452 The default expiration time to use for signature expiration. Valid
5453 values are "0" for no expiration, a number followed by the letter d
5454 (for days), w (for weeks), m (for months), or y (for years) (for
5455 example "2m" for two months, or "5y" for five years), or an
5456 absolute date in the form YYYY-MM-DD. Defaults to "0".
5459 '--no-ask-cert-expire'
5460 When making a key signature, prompt for an expiration time. If
5461 this option is not specified, the expiration time set via
5462 '--default-cert-expire' is used. '--no-ask-cert-expire' disables
5465 '--default-cert-expire'
5466 The default expiration time to use for key signature expiration.
5467 Valid values are "0" for no expiration, a number followed by the
5468 letter d (for days), w (for weeks), m (for months), or y (for
5469 years) (for example "2m" for two months, or "5y" for five years),
5470 or an absolute date in the form YYYY-MM-DD. Defaults to "0".
5472 '--default-new-key-algo STRING'
5473 This option can be used to change the default algorithms for key
5474 generation. The STRING is similar to the arguments required for
5475 the command '--quick-add-key' but slightly different. For example
5476 the current default of '"rsa2048/cert,sign+rsa2048/encr"' (or
5477 '"rsa3072"') can be changed to the value of what we currently call
5478 future default, which is '"ed25519/cert,sign+cv25519/encr"'. You
5479 need to consult the source code to learn the details. Note that
5480 the advanced key generation commands can always be used to specify
5481 a key algorithm directly.
5483 '--no-auto-trust-new-key'
5484 When creating a new key the ownertrust of the new key is set to
5485 ultimate. This option disables this and the user needs to manually
5486 assign an ownertrust value.
5489 This option modifies the behaviour of the commands
5490 '--quick-sign-key', '--quick-lsign-key', and the "sign"
5491 sub-commands of '--edit-key' by forcing the creation of a key
5492 signature, even if one already exists.
5495 This option is intended for use in the global config file to
5496 disallow the use of generate key commands. Those commands will
5497 then fail with the error code for Not Enabled.
5499 '--allow-secret-key-import'
5500 This is an obsolete option and is not used anywhere.
5502 '--allow-multiple-messages'
5503 '--no-allow-multiple-messages'
5504 These are obsolete options; they have no more effect since GnuPG
5507 '--enable-special-filenames'
5508 This option enables a mode in which filenames of the form '-&n',
5509 where n is a non-negative decimal number, refer to the file
5510 descriptor n and not to a file with that name.
5512 '--no-expensive-trust-checks'
5513 Experimental use only.
5515 '--preserve-permissions'
5516 Don't change the permissions of a secret keyring back to user
5517 read/write only. Use this option only if you really know what you
5520 '--default-preference-list STRING'
5521 Set the list of default preferences to STRING. This preference
5522 list is used for new keys and becomes the default for "setpref" in
5523 the '--edit-key' menu.
5525 '--default-keyserver-url NAME'
5526 Set the default keyserver URL to NAME. This keyserver will be used
5527 as the keyserver URL when writing a new self-signature on a key,
5528 which includes key generation and changing preferences.
5531 Display various internal configuration parameters of GnuPG. This
5532 option is intended for external programs that call GnuPG to perform
5533 tasks, and is thus not generally useful. See the file
5534 'doc/DETAILS' in the source distribution for the details of which
5535 configuration items may be listed. '--list-config' is only usable
5536 with '--with-colons' set.
5538 '--list-gcrypt-config'
5539 Display various internal configuration parameters of Libgcrypt.
5542 This command is similar to '--list-config' but in general only
5543 internally used by the 'gpgconf' tool.
5546 This is more or less dummy action. However it parses the
5547 configuration file and returns with failure if the configuration
5548 file would prevent 'gpg' from startup. Thus it may be used to run
5549 a syntax check on the configuration file.
5552 Change the current user to UID which may either be a number or a
5553 name. This can be used from the root account to run gpg for
5554 another user. If UID is not the current UID a standard PATH is set
5555 and the envvar GNUPGHOME is unset. To override the latter the
5556 option '--homedir' can be used. This option has only an effect
5557 when used on the command line. This option has currently no effect
5560 ---------- Footnotes ----------
5562 (1) Using a little social engineering anyone who is able to decrypt
5563 the message can check whether one of the other recipients is the one he
5567 File: gnupg.info, Node: Deprecated Options, Prev: GPG Esoteric Options, Up: GPG Options
5569 4.2.7 Deprecated options
5570 ------------------------
5574 Causes '--list-keys', '--list-signatures', '--list-public-keys',
5575 '--list-secret-keys', and verifying a signature to also display the
5576 photo ID attached to the key, if any. See also '--photo-viewer'.
5577 These options are deprecated. Use '--list-options
5578 [no-]show-photos' and/or '--verify-options [no-]show-photos'
5582 Display the keyring name at the head of key listings to show which
5583 keyring a given key resides on. This option is deprecated: use
5584 '--list-options [no-]show-keyring' instead.
5587 Identical to '--trust-model always'. This option is deprecated.
5590 '--no-show-notation'
5591 Show signature notations in the '--list-signatures' or
5592 '--check-signatures' listings as well as when verifying a signature
5593 with a notation in it. These options are deprecated. Use
5594 '--list-options [no-]show-notation' and/or '--verify-options
5595 [no-]show-notation' instead.
5598 '--no-show-policy-url'
5599 Show policy URLs in the '--list-signatures' or '--check-signatures'
5600 listings as well as when verifying a signature with a policy URL in
5601 it. These options are deprecated. Use '--list-options
5602 [no-]show-policy-url' and/or '--verify-options
5603 [no-]show-policy-url' instead.
5606 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPG Configuration, Next: GPG Examples, Prev: GPG Options, Up: Invoking GPG
5608 4.3 Configuration files
5609 =======================
5611 There are a few configuration files to control certain aspects of
5612 'gpg''s operation. Unless noted, they are expected in the current home
5613 directory (*note option --homedir::).
5616 This is the standard configuration file read by 'gpg' on startup.
5617 It may contain any valid long option; the leading two dashes may
5618 not be entered and the option may not be abbreviated. This default
5619 name may be changed on the command line (*note gpg-option
5620 --options::). You should backup this file.
5623 This is an optional configuration file read by 'gpg' on startup.
5624 It may contain options pertaining to all components of GnuPG. Its
5625 current main use is for the "use-keyboxd" option.
5627 Note that on larger installations, it is useful to put predefined
5628 files into the directory '/etc/skel/.gnupg' so that newly created users
5629 start up with a working configuration. For existing users a small
5630 helper script is provided to create these files (*note addgnupghome::).
5632 For internal purposes 'gpg' creates and maintains a few other files;
5633 They all live in the current home directory (*note option --homedir::).
5634 Only the 'gpg' program may modify these files.
5637 This is the default home directory which is used if neither the
5638 environment variable 'GNUPGHOME' nor the option '--homedir' is
5641 '~/.gnupg/pubring.gpg'
5642 The public keyring using a legacy format. You should backup this
5645 If this file is not available, 'gpg' defaults to the new keybox
5646 format and creates a file 'pubring.kbx' unless that file already
5647 exists in which case that file will also be used for OpenPGP keys.
5649 Note that in the case that both files, 'pubring.gpg' and
5650 'pubring.kbx' exists but the latter has no OpenPGP keys, the legacy
5651 file 'pubring.gpg' will be used. Take care: GnuPG versions before
5652 2.1 will always use the file 'pubring.gpg' because they do not know
5653 about the new keybox format. In the case that you have to use
5654 GnuPG 1.4 to decrypt archived data you should keep this file.
5656 '~/.gnupg/pubring.gpg.lock'
5657 The lock file for the public keyring.
5659 '~/.gnupg/pubring.kbx'
5660 The public keyring using the new keybox format. This file is
5661 shared with 'gpgsm'. You should backup this file. See above for
5662 the relation between this file and it predecessor.
5664 To convert an existing 'pubring.gpg' file to the keybox format, you
5665 first backup the ownertrust values, then rename 'pubring.gpg' to
5666 'publickeys.backup', so it won’t be recognized by any GnuPG
5667 version, run import, and finally restore the ownertrust values:
5670 $ gpg --export-ownertrust >otrust.lst
5671 $ mv pubring.gpg publickeys.backup
5672 $ gpg --import-options restore --import publickeys.backups
5673 $ gpg --import-ownertrust otrust.lst
5675 '~/.gnupg/pubring.kbx.lock'
5676 The lock file for 'pubring.kbx'.
5678 '~/.gnupg/secring.gpg'
5679 The legacy secret keyring as used by GnuPG versions before 2.1. It
5680 is not used by GnuPG 2.1 and later. You may want to keep it in
5681 case you have to use GnuPG 1.4 to decrypt archived data.
5683 '~/.gnupg/secring.gpg.lock'
5684 The lock file for the legacy secret keyring.
5686 '~/.gnupg/.gpg-v21-migrated'
5687 File indicating that a migration to GnuPG 2.1 has been done.
5689 '~/.gnupg/trustdb.gpg'
5690 The trust database. There is no need to backup this file; it is
5691 better to backup the ownertrust values (*note option
5692 --export-ownertrust::).
5694 '~/.gnupg/trustdb.gpg.lock'
5695 The lock file for the trust database.
5697 '~/.gnupg/random_seed'
5698 A file used to preserve the state of the internal random pool.
5700 '~/.gnupg/openpgp-revocs.d/'
5701 This is the directory where gpg stores pre-generated revocation
5702 certificates. The file name corresponds to the OpenPGP fingerprint
5703 of the respective key. It is suggested to backup those
5704 certificates and if the primary private key is not stored on the
5705 disk to move them to an external storage device. Anyone who can
5706 access these files is able to revoke the corresponding key. You
5707 may want to print them out. You should backup all files in this
5708 directory and take care to keep this backup closed away.
5710 Operation is further controlled by a few environment variables:
5713 Used to locate the default home directory.
5716 If set directory used instead of "~/.gnupg".
5719 This variable is obsolete; it was used by GnuPG versions before
5723 This value is passed via gpg-agent to pinentry. It is useful to
5724 convey extra information to a custom pinentry.
5728 Used to size some displays to the full size of the screen.
5731 Apart from its use by GNU, it is used in the W32 version to
5732 override the language selection done through the Registry. If used
5733 and set to a valid and available language name (LANGID), the file
5734 with the translation is loaded from 'GPGDIR/gnupg.nls/LANGID.mo'.
5735 Here GPGDIR is the directory out of which the gpg binary has been
5736 loaded. If it can't be loaded the Registry is tried and as last
5737 resort the native Windows locale system is used.
5740 This variable is only used by the regression test suite as a helper
5741 under operating systems without proper support to figure out the
5742 name of a process' text file.
5744 When calling the gpg-agent component 'gpg' sends a set of environment
5745 variables to gpg-agent. The names of these variables can be listed
5748 gpg-connect-agent 'getinfo std_env_names' /bye | awk '$1=="D" {print $2}'
5751 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPG Examples, Next: Unattended Usage of GPG, Prev: GPG Configuration, Up: Invoking GPG
5756 gpg -se -r 'Bob' 'file'
5757 sign and encrypt for user Bob
5759 gpg -clear-sign 'file'
5760 make a cleartext signature
5763 make a detached signature
5765 gpg -u 0x12345678 -sb 'file'
5766 make a detached signature with the key 0x12345678
5768 gpg -list-keys 'user_ID'
5771 gpg -fingerprint 'user_ID'
5774 gpg -verify 'pgpfile'
5775 gpg -verify 'sigfile' ['datafile']
5776 Verify the signature of the file but do not output the data unless
5777 requested. The second form is used for detached signatures, where
5778 'sigfile' is the detached signature (either ASCII armored or
5779 binary) and 'datafile' are the signed data; if this is not given,
5780 the name of the file holding the signed data is constructed by
5781 cutting off the extension (".asc" or ".sig") of 'sigfile' or by
5782 asking the user for the filename. If the option '--output' is also
5783 used the signed data is written to the file specified by that
5784 option; use '-' to write the signed data to stdout.
5789 The options '--import-filter' and '--export-filter' use expressions with
5790 this syntax (square brackets indicate an optional part and curly braces
5791 a repetition, white space between the elements are allowed):
5793 [lc] {[{flag}] PROPNAME op VALUE [lc]}
5795 The name of a property (PROPNAME) may only consist of letters, digits
5796 and underscores. The description for the filter type describes which
5797 properties are defined. If an undefined property is used it evaluates
5798 to the empty string. Unless otherwise noted, the VALUE must always be
5799 given and may not be the empty string. No quoting is defined for the
5800 value, thus the value may not contain the strings '&&' or '||', which
5801 are used as logical connection operators. The flag '--' can be used to
5802 remove this restriction.
5804 Numerical values are computed as long int; standard C notation
5805 applies. LC is the logical connection operator; either '&&' for a
5806 conjunction or '||' for a disjunction. A conjunction is assumed at the
5807 begin of an expression. Conjunctions have higher precedence than
5808 disjunctions. If VALUE starts with one of the characters used in any OP
5809 a space after the OP is required.
5811 The supported operators (OP) are:
5814 Substring must match.
5817 Substring must not match.
5820 The full string must match.
5823 The full string must not match.
5826 The numerical value must match.
5829 The numerical value must not match.
5832 The numerical value of the field must be LE than the value.
5835 The numerical value of the field must be LT than the value.
5838 The numerical value of the field must be GT than the value.
5841 The numerical value of the field must be GE than the value.
5844 The string value of the field must be less or equal than the value.
5847 The string value of the field must be less than the value.
5850 The string value of the field must be greater than the value.
5853 The string value of the field must be greater or equal than the
5857 True if value is not empty (no value allowed).
5860 True if value is empty (no value allowed).
5863 Alias for "PROPNAME != 0" (no value allowed).
5866 Alias for "PROPNAME == 0" (no value allowed).
5868 Values for FLAG must be space separated. The supported flags are:
5871 VALUE spans to the end of the expression.
5873 The string match in this part is done case-sensitive.
5875 Leading and trailing spaces are not removed from VALUE. The
5876 optional single space after OP is here required.
5878 The filter options concatenate several specifications for a filter of
5879 the same type. For example the four options in this example:
5881 --import-filter keep-uid="uid =~ Alfa"
5882 --import-filter keep-uid="&& uid !~ Test"
5883 --import-filter keep-uid="|| uid =~ Alpha"
5884 --import-filter keep-uid="uid !~ Test"
5886 which is equivalent to
5889 keep-uid="uid =~ Alfa" && uid !~ Test" || uid =~ Alpha" && "uid !~ Test"
5891 imports only the user ids of a key containing the strings "Alfa" or
5892 "Alpha" but not the string "test".
5897 The program returns 0 if there are no severe errors, 1 if at least a
5898 signature was bad, and other error codes for fatal errors.
5900 Note that signature verification requires exact knowledge of what has
5901 been signed and by whom it has been signed. Using only the return code
5902 is thus not an appropriate way to verify a signature by a script.
5903 Either make proper use or the status codes or use the 'gpgv' tool which
5904 has been designed to make signature verification easy for scripts.
5909 Use a good password for your user account and make sure that all
5910 security issues are always fixed on your machine. Also employ diligent
5911 physical protection to your machine. Consider to use a good passphrase
5912 as a last resort protection to your secret key in the case your machine
5913 gets stolen. It is important that your secret key is never leaked.
5914 Using an easy to carry around token or smartcard with the secret key is
5917 If you are going to verify detached signatures, make sure that the
5918 program knows about it; either give both filenames on the command line
5919 or use '-' to specify STDIN.
5921 For scripted or other unattended use of 'gpg' make sure to use the
5922 machine-parseable interface and not the default interface which is
5923 intended for direct use by humans. The machine-parseable interface
5924 provides a stable and well documented API independent of the locale or
5925 future changes of 'gpg'. To enable this interface use the options
5926 '--with-colons' and '--status-fd'. For certain operations the option
5927 '--command-fd' may come handy too. See this man page and the file
5928 'DETAILS' for the specification of the interface. Note that the GnuPG
5929 "info" pages as well as the PDF version of the GnuPG manual features a
5930 chapter on unattended use of GnuPG. As an alternative the library
5931 'GPGME' can be used as a high-level abstraction on top of that
5934 INTEROPERABILITY WITH OTHER OPENPGP PROGRAMS
5935 ********************************************
5937 GnuPG tries to be a very flexible implementation of the OpenPGP
5938 standard. In particular, GnuPG implements many of the optional parts of
5939 the standard, such as the SHA-512 hash, and the ZLIB and BZIP2
5940 compression algorithms. It is important to be aware that not all
5941 OpenPGP programs implement these optional algorithms and that by forcing
5942 their use via the '--cipher-algo', '--digest-algo',
5943 '--cert-digest-algo', or '--compress-algo' options in GnuPG, it is
5944 possible to create a perfectly valid OpenPGP message, but one that
5945 cannot be read by the intended recipient.
5947 There are dozens of variations of OpenPGP programs available, and
5948 each supports a slightly different subset of these optional algorithms.
5949 For example, until recently, no (unhacked) version of PGP supported the
5950 BLOWFISH cipher algorithm. A message using BLOWFISH simply could not be
5951 read by a PGP user. By default, GnuPG uses the standard OpenPGP
5952 preferences system that will always do the right thing and create
5953 messages that are usable by all recipients, regardless of which OpenPGP
5954 program they use. Only override this safe default if you really know
5957 If you absolutely must override the safe default, or if the
5958 preferences on a given key are invalid for some reason, you are far
5959 better off using the '--pgp6', '--pgp7', or '--pgp8' options. These
5960 options are safe as they do not force any particular algorithms in
5961 violation of OpenPGP, but rather reduce the available algorithms to a
5967 On older systems this program should be installed as setuid(root). This
5968 is necessary to lock memory pages. Locking memory pages prevents the
5969 operating system from writing memory pages (which may contain
5970 passphrases or other sensitive material) to disk. If you get no warning
5971 message about insecure memory your operating system supports locking
5972 without being root. The program drops root privileges as soon as locked
5973 memory is allocated.
5975 Note also that some systems (especially laptops) have the ability to
5976 "suspend to disk" (also known as "safe sleep" or "hibernate"). This
5977 writes all memory to disk before going into a low power or even powered
5978 off mode. Unless measures are taken in the operating system to protect
5979 the saved memory, passphrases or other sensitive material may be
5980 recoverable from it later.
5982 Before you report a bug you should first search the mailing list
5983 archives for similar problems and second check whether such a bug has
5984 already been reported to our bug tracker at <https://bugs.gnupg.org>.
5987 File: gnupg.info, Node: Unattended Usage of GPG, Prev: GPG Examples, Up: Invoking GPG
5989 4.5 Unattended Usage
5990 ====================
5992 'gpg' is often used as a backend engine by other software. To help with
5993 this a machine interface has been defined to have an unambiguous way to
5994 do this. The options '--status-fd' and '--batch' are almost always
5999 * Programmatic use of GnuPG:: Programmatic use of GnuPG
6000 * Ephemeral home directories:: Ephemeral home directories
6001 * The quick key manipulation interface:: The quick key manipulation interface
6002 * Unattended GPG key generation:: Unattended key generation
6005 File: gnupg.info, Node: Programmatic use of GnuPG, Next: Ephemeral home directories, Up: Unattended Usage of GPG
6007 4.5.1 Programmatic use of GnuPG
6008 -------------------------------
6010 Please consider using GPGME instead of calling 'gpg' directly. GPGME
6011 offers a stable, backend-independent interface for many cryptographic
6012 operations. It supports OpenPGP and S/MIME, and also allows interaction
6013 with various GnuPG components.
6015 GPGME provides a C-API, and comes with bindings for C++, Qt, and
6016 Python. Bindings for other languages are available.
6019 File: gnupg.info, Node: Ephemeral home directories, Next: The quick key manipulation interface, Prev: Programmatic use of GnuPG, Up: Unattended Usage of GPG
6021 4.5.2 Ephemeral home directories
6022 --------------------------------
6024 Sometimes you want to contain effects of some operation, for example you
6025 want to import a key to inspect it, but you do not want this key to be
6026 added to your keyring. In earlier versions of GnuPG, it was possible to
6027 specify alternate keyring files for both public and secret keys. In
6028 modern GnuPG versions, however, we changed how secret keys are stored in
6029 order to better protect secret key material, and it was not possible to
6030 preserve this interface.
6032 The preferred way to do this is to use ephemeral home directories.
6033 This technique works across all versions of GnuPG.
6035 Create a temporary directory, create (or copy) a configuration that
6036 meets your needs, make 'gpg' use this directory either using the
6037 environment variable GNUPGHOME, or the option '--homedir'. GPGME
6038 supports this too on a per-context basis, by modifying the engine info
6039 of contexts. Now execute whatever operation you like, import and export
6040 key material as necessary. Once finished, you can delete the directory.
6041 All GnuPG backend services that were started will detect this and shut
6045 File: gnupg.info, Node: The quick key manipulation interface, Next: Unattended GPG key generation, Prev: Ephemeral home directories, Up: Unattended Usage of GPG
6047 4.5.3 The quick key manipulation interface
6048 ------------------------------------------
6050 Recent versions of GnuPG have an interface to manipulate keys without
6051 using the interactive command '--edit-key'. This interface was added
6052 mainly for the benefit of GPGME (please consider using GPGME, see the
6053 manual subsection "Programmatic use of GnuPG"). This interface is
6054 described in the subsection "How to manage your keys".
6057 File: gnupg.info, Node: Unattended GPG key generation, Prev: The quick key manipulation interface, Up: Unattended Usage of GPG
6059 4.5.4 Unattended key generation
6060 -------------------------------
6062 The command '--generate-key' may be used along with the option '--batch'
6063 for unattended key generation. This is the most flexible way of
6064 generating keys, but it is also the most complex one. Consider using
6065 the quick key manipulation interface described in the previous
6066 subsection "The quick key manipulation interface".
6068 The parameters for the key are either read from stdin or given as a
6069 file on the command line. The format of the parameter file is as
6072 * Text only, line length is limited to about 1000 characters.
6073 * UTF-8 encoding must be used to specify non-ASCII characters.
6074 * Empty lines are ignored.
6075 * Leading and trailing white space is ignored.
6076 * A hash sign as the first non white space character indicates a
6078 * Control statements are indicated by a leading percent sign, the
6079 arguments are separated by white space from the keyword.
6080 * Parameters are specified by a keyword, followed by a colon.
6081 Arguments are separated by white space.
6082 * The first parameter must be 'Key-Type'; control statements may be
6084 * The order of the parameters does not matter except for 'Key-Type'
6085 which must be the first parameter. The parameters are only used
6086 for the generated keyblock (primary and subkeys); parameters from
6087 previous sets are not used. Some syntactically checks may be
6089 * Key generation takes place when either the end of the parameter
6090 file is reached, the next 'Key-Type' parameter is encountered or at
6091 the control statement '%commit' is encountered.
6096 Print TEXT as diagnostic.
6099 Suppress actual key generation (useful for syntax checking).
6102 Perform the key generation. Note that an implicit commit is done
6103 at the next Key-Type parameter.
6106 Do not write the key to the default or commandline given keyring
6107 but to FILENAME. This must be given before the first commit to
6108 take place, duplicate specification of the same filename is
6109 ignored, the last filename before a commit is used. The filename
6110 is used until a new filename is used (at commit points) and all
6111 keys are written to that file. If a new filename is given, this
6112 file is created (and overwrites an existing one).
6114 See the previous subsection "Ephemeral home directories" for a more
6115 robust way to contain side-effects.
6118 This option is a no-op for GnuPG 2.1 and later.
6120 See the previous subsection "Ephemeral home directories".
6124 This option is a no-op for GnuPG 2.1 and later.
6127 Using this option allows the creation of keys without any
6128 passphrase protection. This option is mainly intended for
6132 If given the keys are created using a faster and a somewhat less
6133 secure random number generator. This option may be used for keys
6134 which are only used for a short time and do not require full
6135 cryptographic strength. It takes only effect if used together with
6136 the control statement '%no-protection'.
6141 Starts a new parameter block by giving the type of the primary key.
6142 The algorithm must be capable of signing. This is a required
6143 parameter. ALGO may either be an OpenPGP algorithm number or a
6144 string with the algorithm name. The special value 'default' may be
6145 used for ALGO to create the default key type; in this case a
6146 'Key-Usage' shall not be given and 'default' also be used for
6150 The requested length of the generated key in bits. The default is
6151 returned by running the command 'gpg --gpgconf-list'. For ECC keys
6152 this parameter is ignored.
6155 The requested elliptic curve of the generated key. This is a
6156 required parameter for ECC keys. It is ignored for non-ECC keys.
6159 This is optional and used to generate a CSR or certificate for an
6160 already existing key. Key-Length will be ignored when given.
6162 Key-Usage: USAGE-LIST
6163 Space or comma delimited list of key usages. Allowed values are
6164 'encrypt', 'sign', and 'auth'. This is used to generate the key
6165 flags. Please make sure that the algorithm is capable of this
6166 usage. Note that OpenPGP requires that all primary keys are
6167 capable of certification, so no matter what usage is given here,
6168 the 'cert' flag will be on. If no 'Key-Usage' is specified and the
6169 'Key-Type' is not 'default', all allowed usages for that particular
6170 algorithm are used; if it is not given but 'default' is used the
6171 usage will be 'sign'.
6174 This generates a secondary key (subkey). Currently only one subkey
6175 can be handled. See also 'Key-Type' above.
6177 Subkey-Length: NBITS
6178 Length of the secondary key (subkey) in bits. The default is
6179 returned by running the command 'gpg --gpgconf-list'.
6182 Key curve for a subkey; similar to 'Key-Curve'.
6184 Subkey-Usage: USAGE-LIST
6185 Key usage lists for a subkey; similar to 'Key-Usage'.
6188 If you want to specify a passphrase for the secret key, enter it
6189 here. Default is to use the Pinentry dialog to ask for a
6193 Name-Comment: COMMENT
6195 The three parts of a user name. Remember to use UTF-8 encoding
6196 here. If you don't give any of them, no user ID is created.
6198 Expire-Date: ISO-DATE|(NUMBER[d|w|m|y])
6199 Set the expiration date for the key (and the subkey). It may
6200 either be entered in ISO date format (e.g. "20000815T145012") or
6201 as number of days, weeks, month or years after the creation date.
6202 The special notation "seconds=N" is also allowed to specify a
6203 number of seconds since creation. Without a letter days are
6204 assumed. Note that there is no check done on the overflow of the
6205 type used by OpenPGP for timestamps. Thus you better make sure
6206 that the given value make sense. Although OpenPGP works with time
6207 intervals, GnuPG uses an absolute value internally and thus the
6208 last year we can represent is 2105.
6210 Creation-Date: ISO-DATE
6211 Set the creation date of the key as stored in the key information
6212 and which is also part of the fingerprint calculation. Either a
6213 date like "1986-04-26" or a full timestamp like "19860426T042640"
6214 may be used. The time is considered to be UTC. The special
6215 notation "seconds=N" may be used to directly specify a the number
6216 of seconds since Epoch (Unix time). If it is not given the current
6220 Set the cipher, hash, and compression preference values for this
6221 key. This expects the same type of string as the sub-command
6222 'setpref' in the '--edit-key' menu.
6224 Revoker: ALGO:FPR [sensitive]
6225 Add a designated revoker to the generated key. Algo is the public
6226 key algorithm of the designated revoker (i.e. RSA=1, DSA=17, etc.)
6227 FPR is the fingerprint of the designated revoker. The optional
6228 'sensitive' flag marks the designated revoker as sensitive
6229 information. Only v4 keys may be designated revokers.
6232 This is an optional parameter that specifies the preferred
6233 keyserver URL for the key.
6236 This is an optional parameter only used with the status lines
6237 KEY_CREATED and KEY_NOT_CREATED. STRING may be up to 100 characters
6238 and should not contain spaces. It is useful for batch key
6239 generation to associate a key parameter block with a status line.
6241 Here is an example on how to create a key in an ephemeral home
6243 $ export GNUPGHOME="$(mktemp -d)"
6245 %echo Generating a basic OpenPGP key
6250 Name-Real: Joe Tester
6251 Name-Comment: with stupid passphrase
6252 Name-Email: joe@foo.bar
6255 # Do a commit here, so that we can later print "done" :-)
6259 $ gpg --batch --generate-key foo
6261 $ gpg --list-secret-keys
6262 /tmp/tmp.0NQxB74PEf/pubring.kbx
6263 -------------------------------
6264 sec dsa1024 2016-12-16 [SCA]
6265 768E895903FC1C44045C8CB95EEBDB71E9E849D0
6266 uid [ultimate] Joe Tester (with stupid passphrase) <joe@foo.bar>
6267 ssb elg1024 2016-12-16 [E]
6269 If you want to create a key with the default algorithms you would use
6271 %echo Generating a default key
6273 Subkey-Type: default
6274 Name-Real: Joe Tester
6275 Name-Comment: with stupid passphrase
6276 Name-Email: joe@foo.bar
6279 # Do a commit here, so that we can later print "done" :-)
6284 File: gnupg.info, Node: Invoking GPGSM, Next: Invoking SCDAEMON, Prev: Invoking GPG, Up: Top
6289 'gpgsm' is a tool similar to 'gpg' to provide digital encryption and
6290 signing services on X.509 certificates and the CMS protocol. It is
6291 mainly used as a backend for S/MIME mail processing. 'gpgsm' includes a
6292 full featured certificate management and complies with all rules defined
6293 for the German Sphinx project.
6295 *Note Option Index::, for an index to 'GPGSM''s commands and options.
6299 * GPGSM Commands:: List of all commands.
6300 * GPGSM Options:: List of all options.
6301 * GPGSM Configuration:: Configuration files.
6302 * GPGSM Examples:: Some usage examples.
6304 Developer information:
6305 * Unattended Usage:: Using 'gpgsm' from other programs.
6306 * GPGSM Protocol:: The protocol the server mode uses.
6309 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPGSM Commands, Next: GPGSM Options, Up: Invoking GPGSM
6314 Commands are not distinguished from options except for the fact that
6315 only one command is allowed.
6319 * General GPGSM Commands:: Commands not specific to the functionality.
6320 * Operational GPGSM Commands:: Commands to select the type of operation.
6321 * Certificate Management:: How to manage certificates.
6324 File: gnupg.info, Node: General GPGSM Commands, Next: Operational GPGSM Commands, Up: GPGSM Commands
6326 5.1.1 Commands not specific to the function
6327 -------------------------------------------
6330 Print the program version and licensing information. Note that you
6331 cannot abbreviate this command.
6334 Print a usage message summarizing the most useful command-line
6335 options. Note that you cannot abbreviate this command.
6338 Print warranty information. Note that you cannot abbreviate this
6342 Print a list of all available options and commands. Note that you
6343 cannot abbreviate this command.
6346 File: gnupg.info, Node: Operational GPGSM Commands, Next: Certificate Management, Prev: General GPGSM Commands, Up: GPGSM Commands
6348 5.1.2 Commands to select the type of operation
6349 ----------------------------------------------
6352 Perform an encryption. The keys the data is encrypted to must be
6353 set using the option '--recipient'.
6356 Perform a decryption; the type of input is automatically
6357 determined. It may either be in binary form or PEM encoded;
6358 automatic determination of base-64 encoding is not done.
6361 Create a digital signature. The key used is either the fist one
6362 found in the keybox or those set with the '--local-user' option.
6365 Check a signature file for validity. Depending on the arguments a
6366 detached signature may also be checked.
6369 Run in server mode and wait for commands on the 'stdin'.
6371 '--call-dirmngr COMMAND [ARGS]'
6372 Behave as a Dirmngr client issuing the request COMMAND with the
6373 optional list of ARGS. The output of the Dirmngr is printed
6374 stdout. Please note that file names given as arguments should have
6375 an absolute file name (i.e. commencing with '/') because they are
6376 passed verbatim to the Dirmngr and the working directory of the
6377 Dirmngr might not be the same as the one of this client. Currently
6378 it is not possible to pass data via stdin to the Dirmngr. COMMAND
6379 should not contain spaces.
6381 This is command is required for certain maintaining tasks of the
6382 dirmngr where a dirmngr must be able to call back to 'gpgsm'. See
6383 the Dirmngr manual for details.
6385 '--call-protect-tool ARGUMENTS'
6386 Certain maintenance operations are done by an external program call
6387 'gpg-protect-tool'; this is usually not installed in a directory
6388 listed in the PATH variable. This command provides a simple
6389 wrapper to access this tool. ARGUMENTS are passed verbatim to this
6390 command; use '--help' to get a list of supported operations.
6393 File: gnupg.info, Node: Certificate Management, Prev: Operational GPGSM Commands, Up: GPGSM Commands
6395 5.1.3 How to manage the certificates and keys
6396 ---------------------------------------------
6400 This command allows the creation of a certificate signing request
6401 or a self-signed certificate. It is commonly used along with the
6402 '--output' option to save the created CSR or certificate into a
6403 file. If used with the '--batch' a parameter file is used to
6404 create the CSR or certificate and it is further possible to create
6405 non-self-signed certificates.
6409 List all available certificates stored in the local key database.
6410 Note that the displayed data might be reformatted for better human
6411 readability and illegal characters are replaced by safe
6414 '--list-secret-keys'
6416 List all available certificates for which a corresponding a secret
6419 '--list-external-keys PATTERN'
6420 List certificates matching PATTERN using an external server. This
6421 utilizes the 'dirmngr' service.
6424 Same as '--list-keys' but also prints all keys making up the chain.
6428 List all available certificates stored in the local key database
6429 using a format useful mainly for debugging.
6432 Same as '--dump-keys' but also prints all keys making up the chain.
6434 '--dump-secret-keys'
6435 List all available certificates for which a corresponding a secret
6436 key is available using a format useful mainly for debugging.
6438 '--dump-external-keys PATTERN'
6439 List certificates matching PATTERN using an external server. This
6440 utilizes the 'dirmngr' service. It uses a format useful mainly for
6443 '--show-certs [FILES]'
6444 This command takes certificate files as input and prints
6445 information about them in the same format as '--dump-cert' does.
6446 Each file may either contain a single binary certificate or several
6447 PEM encoded certificates. If no files are given, the input is
6450 Please note that the listing format may be changed in future
6451 releases and that the option '--with-colons' has currently no
6454 '--keydb-clear-some-cert-flags'
6455 This is a debugging aid to reset certain flags in the key database
6456 which are used to cache certain certificate statuses. It is
6457 especially useful if a bad CRL or a weird running OCSP responder
6458 did accidentally revoke certificate. There is no security issue
6459 with this command because 'gpgsm' always make sure that the
6460 validity of a certificate is checked right before it is used.
6462 '--delete-keys PATTERN'
6463 Delete the keys matching PATTERN. Note that there is no command to
6464 delete the secret part of the key directly. In case you need to do
6465 this, you should run the command 'gpgsm --dump-secret-keys KEYID'
6466 before you delete the key, copy the string of hex-digits in the
6467 "keygrip" line and delete the file consisting of these hex-digits
6468 and the suffix '.key' from the 'private-keys-v1.d' directory below
6469 our GnuPG home directory (usually '~/.gnupg').
6471 '--export [PATTERN]'
6472 Export all certificates stored in the Keybox or those specified by
6473 the optional PATTERN. Those pattern consist of a list of user ids
6474 (*note how-to-specify-a-user-id::). When used along with the
6475 '--armor' option a few informational lines are prepended before
6476 each block. There is one limitation: As there is no commonly
6477 agreed upon way to pack more than one certificate into an ASN.1
6478 structure, the binary export (i.e. without using 'armor') works
6479 only for the export of one certificate. Thus it is required to
6480 specify a PATTERN which yields exactly one certificate. Ephemeral
6481 certificate are only exported if all PATTERN are given as
6482 fingerprints or keygrips.
6484 '--export-secret-key-p12 KEY-ID'
6485 Export the private key and the certificate identified by KEY-ID
6486 using the PKCS#12 format. When used with the '--armor' option a
6487 few informational lines are prepended to the output. Note, that
6488 the PKCS#12 format is not very secure and proper transport security
6489 should be used to convey the exported key. (*Note option
6492 '--export-secret-key-p8 KEY-ID'
6493 '--export-secret-key-raw KEY-ID'
6494 Export the private key of the certificate identified by KEY-ID with
6495 any encryption stripped. The '...-raw' command exports in PKCS#1
6496 format; the '...-p8' command exports in PKCS#8 format. When used
6497 with the '--armor' option a few informational lines are prepended
6498 to the output. These commands are useful to prepare a key for use
6502 Import the certificates from the PEM or binary encoded files as
6503 well as from signed-only messages. This command may also be used
6504 to import a secret key from a PKCS#12 file.
6507 Read information about the private keys from the smartcard and
6508 import the certificates from there. This command utilizes the
6509 'gpg-agent' and in turn the 'scdaemon'.
6511 '--change-passphrase USER_ID'
6513 Change the passphrase of the private key belonging to the
6514 certificate specified as USER_ID. Note, that changing the
6515 passphrase/PIN of a smartcard is not yet supported.
6518 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPGSM Options, Next: GPGSM Configuration, Prev: GPGSM Commands, Up: Invoking GPGSM
6523 'GPGSM' features a bunch of options to control the exact behaviour and
6524 to change the default configuration.
6528 * Configuration Options:: How to change the configuration.
6529 * Certificate Options:: Certificate related options.
6530 * Input and Output:: Input and Output.
6531 * CMS Options:: How to change how the CMS is created.
6532 * Esoteric Options:: Doing things one usually do not want to do.
6535 File: gnupg.info, Node: Configuration Options, Next: Certificate Options, Up: GPGSM Options
6537 5.2.1 How to change the configuration
6538 -------------------------------------
6540 These options are used to change the configuration and are usually found
6544 Reads configuration from FILE instead of from the default per-user
6545 configuration file. The default configuration file is named
6546 'gpgsm.conf' and expected in the '.gnupg' directory directly below
6547 the home directory of the user.
6550 Set the name of the home directory to DIR. If this option is not
6551 used, the home directory defaults to '~/.gnupg'. It is only
6552 recognized when given on the command line. It also overrides any
6553 home directory stated through the environment variable 'GNUPGHOME'
6554 or (on Windows systems) by means of the Registry entry
6555 HKCU\SOFTWARE\GNU\GNUPG:HOMEDIR.
6557 On Windows systems it is possible to install GnuPG as a portable
6558 application. In this case only this command line option is
6559 considered, all other ways to set a home directory are ignored.
6561 To install GnuPG as a portable application under Windows, create an
6562 empty file named 'gpgconf.ctl' in the same directory as the tool
6563 'gpgconf.exe'. The root of the installation is then that
6564 directory; or, if 'gpgconf.exe' has been installed directly below a
6565 directory named 'bin', its parent directory. You also need to make
6566 sure that the following directories exist and are writable:
6567 'ROOT/home' for the GnuPG home and 'ROOT/usr/local/var/cache/gnupg'
6568 for internal cache files.
6572 Outputs additional information while running. You can increase the
6573 verbosity by giving several verbose commands to 'gpgsm', such as
6576 '--ldapserver STRING'
6577 '--keyserver STRING'
6578 Add an LDAP server to use for X.509 certificate and CRL lookup.
6579 This option can be given multiple times to configure more than one
6580 LDAP server. Note that in general 'dirmngr' should be configured
6581 with the list of LDAP servers; if this option is also configured
6582 here, it is used in addition to those configured in dirmngr. For
6583 the syntax see the description of dirmngr's ldapserver option.
6585 '--policy-file FILENAME'
6586 Change the default name of the policy file to FILENAME. The
6587 default name is 'policies.txt'.
6589 '--agent-program FILE'
6590 Specify an agent program to be used for secret key operations. The
6591 default value is determined by running the command 'gpgconf'. Note
6592 that the pipe symbol ('|') is used for a regression test suite hack
6593 and may thus not be used in the file name.
6595 '--dirmngr-program FILE'
6596 Specify a dirmngr program to be used for CRL checks. The default
6597 value is '/usr/local/bin/dirmngr'.
6599 '--prefer-system-dirmngr'
6600 This option is obsolete and ignored.
6603 Entirely disable the use of the Dirmngr.
6606 Do not start the gpg-agent or the dirmngr if it has not yet been
6607 started and its service is required. This option is mostly useful
6608 on machines where the connection to gpg-agent has been redirected
6609 to another machines. If dirmngr is required on the remote machine,
6610 it may be started manually using 'gpgconf --launch dirmngr'.
6612 '--no-secmem-warning'
6613 Do not print a warning when the so called "secure memory" cannot be
6617 When running in server mode, append all logging output to FILE.
6618 Use 'socket://' to log to socket.
6621 File: gnupg.info, Node: Certificate Options, Next: Input and Output, Prev: Configuration Options, Up: GPGSM Options
6623 5.2.2 Certificate related options
6624 ---------------------------------
6626 '--enable-policy-checks'
6627 '--disable-policy-checks'
6628 By default policy checks are enabled. These options may be used to
6631 '--enable-crl-checks'
6632 '--disable-crl-checks'
6633 By default the CRL checks are enabled and the DirMngr is used to
6634 check for revoked certificates. The disable option is most useful
6635 with an off-line network connection to suppress this check and also
6636 to avoid that new certificates introduce a web bug by including a
6637 certificate specific CRL DP. The disable option also disables an
6638 issuer certificate lookup via the authorityInfoAccess property of
6639 the certificate; the '--enable-issuer-key-retrieve' can be used to
6640 make use of that property anyway.
6642 '--enable-trusted-cert-crl-check'
6643 '--disable-trusted-cert-crl-check'
6644 By default the CRL for trusted root certificates are checked like
6645 for any other certificates. This allows a CA to revoke its own
6646 certificates voluntary without the need of putting all ever issued
6647 certificates into a CRL. The disable option may be used to switch
6648 this extra check off. Due to the caching done by the Dirmngr,
6649 there will not be any noticeable performance gain. Note, that this
6650 also disables possible OCSP checks for trusted root certificates.
6651 A more specific way of disabling this check is by adding the
6652 "relax" keyword to the root CA line of the 'trustlist.txt'
6654 '--force-crl-refresh'
6655 Tell the dirmngr to reload the CRL for each request. For better
6656 performance, the dirmngr will actually optimize this by suppressing
6657 the loading for short time intervals (e.g. 30 minutes). This
6658 option is useful to make sure that a fresh CRL is available for
6659 certificates hold in the keybox. The suggested way of doing this
6660 is by using it along with the option '--with-validation' for a key
6661 listing command. This option should not be used in a configuration
6664 '--enable-issuer-based-crl-check'
6665 Run a CRL check even for certificates which do not have any CRL
6666 distribution point. This requires that a suitable LDAP server has
6667 been configured in Dirmngr and that the CRL can be found using the
6668 issuer. This option reverts to what GnuPG did up to version
6669 2.2.20. This option is in general not useful.
6673 By default OCSP checks are disabled. The enable option may be used
6674 to enable OCSP checks via Dirmngr. If CRL checks are also enabled,
6675 CRLs will be used as a fallback if for some reason an OCSP request
6676 will not succeed. Note, that you have to allow OCSP requests in
6677 Dirmngr's configuration too (option '--allow-ocsp') and configure
6678 Dirmngr properly. If you do not do so you will get the error code
6681 '--auto-issuer-key-retrieve'
6682 If a required certificate is missing while validating the chain of
6683 certificates, try to load that certificate from an external
6684 location. This usually means that Dirmngr is employed to search
6685 for the certificate. Note that this option makes a "web bug" like
6686 behavior possible. LDAP server operators can see which keys you
6687 request, so by sending you a message signed by a brand new key
6688 (which you naturally will not have on your local keybox), the
6689 operator can tell both your IP address and the time when you
6690 verified the signature.
6692 '--validation-model NAME'
6693 This option changes the default validation model. The only
6694 possible values are "shell" (which is the default), "chain" which
6695 forces the use of the chain model and "steed" for a new simplified
6696 model. The chain model is also used if an option in the
6697 'trustlist.txt' or an attribute of the certificate requests it.
6698 However the standard model (shell) is in that case always tried
6701 '--ignore-cert-extension OID'
6702 Add OID to the list of ignored certificate extensions. The OID is
6703 expected to be in dotted decimal form, like '2.5.29.3'. This
6704 option may be used more than once. Critical flagged certificate
6705 extensions matching one of the OIDs in the list are treated as if
6706 they are actually handled and thus the certificate will not be
6707 rejected due to an unknown critical extension. Use this option
6708 with care because extensions are usually flagged as critical for a
6712 File: gnupg.info, Node: Input and Output, Next: CMS Options, Prev: Certificate Options, Up: GPGSM Options
6714 5.2.3 Input and Output
6715 ----------------------
6719 Create PEM encoded output. Default is binary output.
6722 Create Base-64 encoded output; i.e. PEM without the header lines.
6725 Assume the input data is PEM encoded. Default is to autodetect the
6726 encoding but this is may fail.
6729 Assume the input data is plain base-64 encoded.
6732 Assume the input data is binary encoded.
6734 '--p12-charset NAME'
6735 'gpgsm' uses the UTF-8 encoding when encoding passphrases for
6736 PKCS#12 files. This option may be used to force the passphrase to
6737 be encoded in the specified encoding NAME. This is useful if the
6738 application used to import the key uses a different encoding and
6739 thus will not be able to import a file generated by 'gpgsm'.
6740 Commonly used values for NAME are 'Latin1' and 'CP850'. Note that
6741 'gpgsm' itself automagically imports any file with a passphrase
6742 encoded to the most commonly used encodings.
6744 '--default-key USER_ID'
6745 Use USER_ID as the standard key for signing. This key is used if
6746 no other key has been defined as a signing key. Note, that the
6747 first '--local-users' option also sets this key if it has not yet
6748 been set; however '--default-key' always overrides this.
6750 '--local-user USER_ID'
6752 Set the user(s) to be used for signing. The default is the first
6753 secret key found in the database.
6757 Encrypt to the user id NAME. There are several ways a user id may
6758 be given (*note how-to-specify-a-user-id::).
6762 Write output to FILE. The default is to write it to stdout.
6765 Displays extra information with the '--list-keys' commands.
6766 Especially a line tagged 'grp' is printed which tells you the
6767 keygrip of a key. This string is for example used as the file name
6768 of the secret key. Implies '--with-colons'.
6771 When doing a key listing, do a full validation check for each key
6772 and print the result. This is usually a slow operation because it
6773 requires a CRL lookup and other operations.
6775 When used along with '--import', a validation of the certificate to
6776 import is done and only imported if it succeeds the test. Note
6777 that this does not affect an already available certificate in the
6778 DB. This option is therefore useful to simply verify a certificate.
6780 '--with-md5-fingerprint'
6781 For standard key listings, also print the MD5 fingerprint of the
6785 Include the keygrip in standard key listings. Note that the
6786 keygrip is always listed in '--with-colons' mode.
6789 Include info about the presence of a secret key in public key
6790 listings done with '--with-colons'.
6793 File: gnupg.info, Node: CMS Options, Next: Esoteric Options, Prev: Input and Output, Up: GPGSM Options
6795 5.2.4 How to change how the CMS is created
6796 ------------------------------------------
6799 Using N of -2 includes all certificate except for the root cert, -1
6800 includes all certs, 0 does not include any certs, 1 includes only
6801 the signers cert and all other positive values include up to N
6802 certificates starting with the signer cert. The default is -2.
6805 Use the cipher algorithm with the ASN.1 object identifier OID for
6806 encryption. For convenience the strings '3DES', 'AES' and 'AES256'
6807 may be used instead of their OIDs. The default is 'AES'
6808 (2.16.840.1.101.3.4.1.2).
6810 '--digest-algo name'
6811 Use 'name' as the message digest algorithm. Usually this algorithm
6812 is deduced from the respective signing certificate. This option
6813 forces the use of the given algorithm and may lead to severe
6814 interoperability problems.
6817 File: gnupg.info, Node: Esoteric Options, Prev: CMS Options, Up: GPGSM Options
6819 5.2.5 Doing things one usually do not want to do
6820 ------------------------------------------------
6823 Change the current user to UID which may either be a number or a
6824 name. This can be used from the root account to run gpgsm for
6825 another user. If UID is not the current UID a standard PATH is set
6826 and the envvar GNUPGHOME is unset. To override the latter the
6827 option '--homedir' can be used. This option has only an effect
6828 when used on the command line. This option has currently no effect
6831 '--extra-digest-algo NAME'
6832 Sometimes signatures are broken in that they announce a different
6833 digest algorithm than actually used. 'gpgsm' uses a one-pass data
6834 processing model and thus needs to rely on the announced digest
6835 algorithms to properly hash the data. As a workaround this option
6836 may be used to tell 'gpgsm' to also hash the data using the
6837 algorithm NAME; this slows processing down a little bit but allows
6838 verification of such broken signatures. If 'gpgsm' prints an error
6839 like "digest algo 8 has not been enabled" you may want to try this
6840 option, with 'SHA256' for NAME.
6842 '--compliance STRING'
6843 Set the compliance mode. Valid values are shown when using "help"
6846 '--min-rsa-length N'
6847 This option adjusts the compliance mode "de-vs" for stricter key
6848 size requirements. For example, a value of 3000 turns rsa2048 and
6849 dsa2048 keys into non-VS-NfD compliant keys.
6851 '--faked-system-time EPOCH'
6852 This option is only useful for testing; it sets the system time
6853 back or forth to EPOCH which is the number of seconds elapsed since
6854 the year 1970. Alternatively EPOCH may be given as a full ISO time
6855 string (e.g. "20070924T154812").
6857 '--with-ephemeral-keys'
6858 Include ephemeral flagged keys in the output of key listings. Note
6859 that they are included anyway if the key specification for a
6860 listing is given as fingerprint or keygrip.
6862 '--debug-level LEVEL'
6863 Select the debug level for investigating problems. LEVEL may be a
6864 numeric value or by a keyword:
6867 No debugging at all. A value of less than 1 may be used
6868 instead of the keyword.
6870 Some basic debug messages. A value between 1 and 2 may be
6871 used instead of the keyword.
6873 More verbose debug messages. A value between 3 and 5 may be
6874 used instead of the keyword.
6876 Even more detailed messages. A value between 6 and 8 may be
6877 used instead of the keyword.
6879 All of the debug messages you can get. A value greater than 8
6880 may be used instead of the keyword. The creation of hash
6881 tracing files is only enabled if the keyword is used.
6883 How these messages are mapped to the actual debugging flags is not
6884 specified and may change with newer releases of this program. They
6885 are however carefully selected to best aid in debugging.
6888 Set debug flags. All flags are or-ed and FLAGS may be given in C
6889 syntax (e.g. 0x0042) or as a comma separated list of flag names.
6890 To get a list of all supported flags the single word "help" can be
6891 used. This option is only useful for debugging and the behavior
6892 may change at any time without notice.
6894 Note, that all flags set using this option may get overridden by
6898 Same as '--debug=0xffffffff'
6900 '--debug-allow-core-dump'
6901 Usually 'gpgsm' tries to avoid dumping core by well written code
6902 and by disabling core dumps for security reasons. However, bugs
6903 are pretty durable beasts and to squash them it is sometimes useful
6904 to have a core dump. This option enables core dumps unless the Bad
6905 Thing happened before the option parsing.
6907 '--debug-no-chain-validation'
6908 This is actually not a debugging option but only useful as such.
6909 It lets 'gpgsm' bypass all certificate chain validation checks.
6911 '--debug-ignore-expiration'
6912 This is actually not a debugging option but only useful as such.
6913 It lets 'gpgsm' ignore all notAfter dates, this is used by the
6917 Read the passphrase from file descriptor 'n'. Only the first line
6918 will be read from file descriptor 'n'. If you use 0 for 'n', the
6919 passphrase will be read from STDIN. This can only be used if only
6920 one passphrase is supplied.
6922 Note that this passphrase is only used if the option '--batch' has
6925 '--pinentry-mode mode'
6926 Set the pinentry mode to 'mode'. Allowed values for 'mode' are:
6928 Use the default of the agent, which is 'ask'.
6930 Force the use of the Pinentry.
6932 Emulate use of Pinentry's cancel button.
6934 Return a Pinentry error ("No Pinentry").
6936 Redirect Pinentry queries to the caller. Note that in
6937 contrast to Pinentry the user is not prompted again if he
6938 enters a bad password.
6940 '--request-origin ORIGIN'
6941 Tell gpgsm to assume that the operation ultimately originated at
6942 ORIGIN. Depending on the origin certain restrictions are applied
6943 and the Pinentry may include an extra note on the origin.
6944 Supported values for ORIGIN are: 'local' which is the default,
6945 'remote' to indicate a remote origin or 'browser' for an operation
6946 requested by a web browser.
6948 '--no-common-certs-import'
6949 Suppress the import of common certificates on keybox creation.
6951 All the long options may also be given in the configuration file
6952 after stripping off the two leading dashes.
6955 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPGSM Configuration, Next: GPGSM Examples, Prev: GPGSM Options, Up: Invoking GPGSM
6957 5.3 Configuration files
6958 =======================
6960 There are a few configuration files to control certain aspects of
6961 'gpgsm''s operation. Unless noted, they are expected in the current
6962 home directory (*note option --homedir::).
6965 This is the standard configuration file read by 'gpgsm' on startup.
6966 It may contain any valid long option; the leading two dashes may
6967 not be entered and the option may not be abbreviated. This default
6968 name may be changed on the command line (*note gpgsm-option
6969 --options::). You should backup this file.
6972 This is an optional configuration file read by 'gpgsm' on startup.
6973 It may contain options pertaining to all components of GnuPG. Its
6974 current main use is for the "use-keyboxd" option.
6977 This is a list of allowed CA policies. This file should list the
6978 object identifiers of the policies line by line. Empty lines and
6979 lines starting with a hash mark are ignored. Policies missing in
6980 this file and not marked as critical in the certificate will print
6981 only a warning; certificates with policies marked as critical and
6982 not listed in this file will fail the signature verification. You
6983 should backup this file.
6985 For example, to allow only the policy 2.289.9.9, the file should
6992 This is the list of root certificates used for qualified
6993 certificates. They are defined as certificates capable of creating
6994 legally binding signatures in the same way as handwritten
6995 signatures are. Comments start with a hash mark and empty lines
6996 are ignored. Lines do have a length limit but this is not a
6997 serious limitation as the format of the entries is fixed and
6998 checked by 'gpgsm': A non-comment line starts with optional
6999 whitespace, followed by exactly 40 hex characters, white space and
7000 a lowercased 2 letter country code. Additional data delimited with
7001 by a white space is current ignored but might late be used for
7004 Note that even if a certificate is listed in this file, this does
7005 not mean that the certificate is trusted; in general the
7006 certificates listed in this file need to be listed also in
7007 'trustlist.txt'. This is a global file an installed in the sysconf
7008 directory (e.g. '/etc/gnupg/qualified.txt').
7010 Every time 'gpgsm' uses a certificate for signing or verification
7011 this file will be consulted to check whether the certificate under
7012 question has ultimately been issued by one of these CAs. If this
7013 is the case the user will be informed that the verified signature
7014 represents a legally binding ("qualified") signature. When
7015 creating a signature using such a certificate an extra prompt will
7016 be issued to let the user confirm that such a legally binding
7017 signature shall really be created.
7019 Because this software has not yet been approved for use with such
7020 certificates, appropriate notices will be shown to indicate this
7024 This is plain text file with a few help entries used with
7025 'pinentry' as well as a large list of help items for 'gpg' and
7026 'gpgsm'. The standard file has English help texts; to install
7027 localized versions use filenames like 'help.LL.txt' with LL
7028 denoting the locale. GnuPG comes with a set of predefined help
7029 files in the data directory (e.g.
7030 '/usr/local/share/gnupg/gnupg/help.de.txt') and allows overriding
7031 of any help item by help files stored in the system configuration
7032 directory (e.g. '/etc/gnupg/help.de.txt'). For a reference of the
7033 help file's syntax, please see the installed 'help.txt' file.
7036 This file is a collection of common certificates used to populated
7037 a newly created 'pubring.kbx'. An administrator may replace this
7038 file with a custom one. The format is a concatenation of PEM
7039 encoded X.509 certificates. This global file is installed in the
7040 data directory (e.g. '/usr/local/share/gnupg/com-certs.pem').
7042 Note that on larger installations, it is useful to put predefined
7043 files into the directory '/etc/skel/.gnupg/' so that newly created users
7044 start up with a working configuration. For existing users a small
7045 helper script is provided to create these files (*note addgnupghome::).
7047 For internal purposes 'gpgsm' creates and maintains a few other
7048 files; they all live in the current home directory (*note option
7049 --homedir::). Only 'gpgsm' may modify these files.
7052 This a database file storing the certificates as well as meta
7053 information. For debugging purposes the tool 'kbxutil' may be used
7054 to show the internal structure of this file. You should backup
7058 This content of this file is used to maintain the internal state of
7059 the random number generator across invocations. The same file is
7060 used by other programs of this software too.
7063 If this file exists 'gpgsm' will first try to connect to this
7064 socket for accessing 'gpg-agent' before starting a new 'gpg-agent'
7065 instance. Under Windows this socket (which in reality be a plain
7066 file describing a regular TCP listening port) is the standard way
7067 of connecting the 'gpg-agent'.
projects / platform / upstream / gpg2.git / blob