1 This is gnupg.info, produced by makeinfo version 6.3 from gnupg.texi.
3 This is the 'The GNU Privacy Guard Manual' (version 2.1.18, January
6 (C) 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
7 (C) 2013, 2014, 2015 Werner Koch.
8 (C) 2015 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 2.1.18, January
33 (C) 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
34 (C) 2013, 2014, 2015 Werner Koch.
35 (C) 2015 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.
57 * Helper Tools:: Description of small helper tools
59 * Howtos:: How to do certain things.
60 * System Notes:: Notes pertaining to certain OSes.
61 * Debugging:: How to solve problems
63 * Copying:: GNU General Public License says
64 how you can copy and share GnuPG
65 * Contributors:: People who have contributed to GnuPG.
67 * Glossary:: Short description of terms used.
68 * Option Index:: Index to command line options.
69 * Environment Index:: Index to environment variables and files.
70 * Index:: Index of concepts and symbol names.
73 File: gnupg.info, Node: Installation, Next: Invoking GPG-AGENT, Prev: Top, Up: Top
75 1 A short installation guide
76 ****************************
78 Unfortunately the installation guide has not been finished in time.
79 Instead of delaying the release of GnuPG 2.0 even further, I decided to
80 release without that guide. The chapter on gpg-agent and gpgsm do
81 include brief information on how to set up the whole thing. Please
82 watch the GnuPG website for updates of the documentation. In the
83 meantime you may search the GnuPG mailing list archives or ask on the
84 gnupg-users mailing list for advise on how to solve problems or how to
85 get that whole thing up and running.
87 ** Building the software
89 Building the software is described in the file 'INSTALL'. Given that
90 you are already reading this documentation we can only give some extra
93 To comply with the rules on GNU systems you should have build time
94 configured 'gnupg' using:
96 ./configure --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var
98 This is to make sure that system wide configuration files are
99 searched in the directory '/etc' and variable data below '/var'; the
100 default would be to also install them below '/usr/local' where the
101 binaries get installed. If you selected to use the '--prefix=/' you
102 obviously don't need those option as they are the default then.
104 ** Notes on setting a root CA key to trusted
106 X.509 is based on a hierarchical key infrastructure. At the root of
107 the tree a trusted anchor (root certificate) is required. There are
108 usually no other means of verifying whether this root certificate is
109 trustworthy than looking it up in a list. GnuPG uses a file
110 ('trustlist.txt') to keep track of all root certificates it knows about.
111 There are 3 ways to get certificates into this list:
113 * Use the list which comes with GnuPG. However this list only
114 contains a few root certificates. Most installations will need
117 * Let 'gpgsm' ask you whether you want to insert a new root
118 certificate. This feature is enabled by default; you may disable
119 it using the option 'no-allow-mark-trusted' into 'gpg-agent.conf'.
121 * Manually maintain the list of trusted root certificates. For a
122 multi user installation this can be done once for all users on a
123 machine. Specific changes on a per-user base are also possible.
126 File: gnupg.info, Node: Invoking GPG-AGENT, Next: Invoking DIRMNGR, Prev: Installation, Up: Top
131 'gpg-agent' is a daemon to manage secret (private) keys independently
132 from any protocol. It is used as a backend for 'gpg' and 'gpgsm' as
133 well as for a couple of other utilities.
135 The agent is automatically started on demand by 'gpg', 'gpgsm',
136 'gpgconf', or 'gpg-connect-agent'. Thus there is no reason to start it
137 manually. In case you want to use the included Secure Shell Agent you
138 may start the agent using:
140 gpg-connect-agent /bye
142 If you want to manually terminate the currently-running agent, you can
145 gpgconf --kill gpg-agent
147 You should always add the following lines to your '.bashrc' or whatever
148 initialization file is used for all shell invocations:
153 It is important that this environment variable always reflects the
154 output of the 'tty' command. For W32 systems this option is not
157 Please make sure that a proper pinentry program has been installed
158 under the default filename (which is system dependent) or use the option
159 'pinentry-program' to specify the full name of that program. It is
160 often useful to install a symbolic link from the actual used pinentry
161 (e.g. '/usr/local/bin/pinentry-gtk') to the expected one (e.g.
162 '/usr/local/bin/pinentry').
164 *Note Option Index::, for an index to 'GPG-AGENT''s commands and
169 * Agent Commands:: List of all commands.
170 * Agent Options:: List of all options.
171 * Agent Configuration:: Configuration files.
172 * Agent Signals:: Use of some signals.
173 * Agent Examples:: Some usage examples.
174 * Agent Protocol:: The protocol the agent uses.
177 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent Commands, Next: Agent Options, Up: Invoking GPG-AGENT
182 Commands are not distinguished from options except for the fact that
183 only one command is allowed.
186 Print the program version and licensing information. Note that you
187 cannot abbreviate this command.
191 Print a usage message summarizing the most useful command-line
192 options. Note that you cannot abbreviate this command.
195 Print a list of all available options and commands. Note that you
196 cannot abbreviate this command.
199 Run in server mode and wait for commands on the 'stdin'. The
200 default mode is to create a socket and listen for commands there.
202 '--daemon [COMMAND LINE]'
203 Start the gpg-agent as a daemon; that is, detach it from the
204 console and run it in the background.
206 As an alternative you may create a new process as a child of
207 gpg-agent: 'gpg-agent --daemon /bin/sh'. This way you get a new
208 shell with the environment setup properly; after you exit from this
209 shell, gpg-agent terminates within a few seconds.
212 Run in the foreground, sending logs by default to stderr, and
213 listening on provided file descriptors, which must already be bound
214 to listening sockets. This command is useful when running under
215 systemd or other similar process supervision schemes. This option
216 is not supported on Windows.
218 In -supervised mode, different file descriptors can be provided for
219 use as different socket types (e.g. ssh, extra) as long as they
220 are identified in the environment variable 'LISTEN_FDNAMES' (see
221 sd_listen_fds(3) on some Linux distributions for more information
225 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent Options, Next: Agent Configuration, Prev: Agent Commands, Up: Invoking GPG-AGENT
231 Reads configuration from FILE instead of from the default per-user
232 configuration file. The default configuration file is named
233 'gpg-agent.conf' and expected in the '.gnupg' directory directly
234 below the home directory of the user.
237 Set the name of the home directory to DIR. If this option is not
238 used, the home directory defaults to '~/.gnupg'. It is only
239 recognized when given on the command line. It also overrides any
240 home directory stated through the environment variable 'GNUPGHOME'
241 or (on Windows systems) by means of the Registry entry
242 HKCU\SOFTWARE\GNU\GNUPG:HOMEDIR.
244 On Windows systems it is possible to install GnuPG as a portable
245 application. In this case only this command line option is
246 considered, all other ways to set a home directory are ignored.
248 To install GnuPG as a portable application under Windows, create an
249 empty file named 'gpgconf.ctl' in the same directory as the tool
250 'gpgconf.exe'. The root of the installation is then that
251 directory; or, if 'gpgconf.exe' has been installed directly below a
252 directory named 'bin', its parent directory. You also need to make
253 sure that the following directories exist and are writable:
254 'ROOT/home' for the GnuPG home and 'ROOT/usr/local/var/cache/gnupg'
255 for internal cache files.
259 Outputs additional information while running. You can increase the
260 verbosity by giving several verbose commands to 'gpgsm', such as
265 Try to be as quiet as possible.
268 Don't invoke a pinentry or do any other thing requiring human
271 '--faked-system-time EPOCH'
272 This option is only useful for testing; it sets the system time
273 back or forth to EPOCH which is the number of seconds elapsed since
276 '--debug-level LEVEL'
277 Select the debug level for investigating problems. LEVEL may be a
278 numeric value or a keyword:
281 No debugging at all. A value of less than 1 may be used
282 instead of the keyword.
284 Some basic debug messages. A value between 1 and 2 may be
285 used instead of the keyword.
287 More verbose debug messages. A value between 3 and 5 may be
288 used instead of the keyword.
290 Even more detailed messages. A value between 6 and 8 may be
291 used instead of the keyword.
293 All of the debug messages you can get. A value greater than 8
294 may be used instead of the keyword. The creation of hash
295 tracing files is only enabled if the keyword is used.
297 How these messages are mapped to the actual debugging flags is not
298 specified and may change with newer releases of this program. They
299 are however carefully selected to best aid in debugging.
302 This option is only useful for debugging and the behavior may
303 change at any time without notice. FLAGS are bit encoded and may
304 be given in usual C-Syntax. The currently defined bits are:
307 X.509 or OpenPGP protocol related data
309 values of big number integers
311 low level crypto operations
317 show memory statistics
319 write hashed data to files named 'dbgmd-000*'
321 trace Assuan protocol
323 bypass all certificate validation
326 Same as '--debug=0xffffffff'
329 When running in server mode, wait N seconds before entering the
330 actual processing loop and print the pid. This gives time to
333 '--debug-quick-random'
334 This option inhibits the use of the very secure random quality
335 level (Libgcrypt’s 'GCRY_VERY_STRONG_RANDOM') and degrades all
336 request down to standard random quality. It is only used for
337 testing and should not be used for any production quality keys.
338 This option is only effective when given on the command line.
340 On GNU/Linux, another way to quickly generate insecure keys is to
341 use 'rngd' to fill the kernel's entropy pool with lower quality
342 random data. 'rngd' is typically provided by the 'rng-tools'
343 package. It can be run as follows: 'sudo rngd -f -r /dev/urandom'.
346 This option enables extra debug information pertaining to the
347 Pinentry. As of now it is only useful when used along with
351 Don't detach the process from the console. This is mainly useful
358 Format the info output in daemon mode for use with the standard
359 Bourne shell or the C-shell respectively. The default is to guess
360 it based on the environment variable 'SHELL' which is correct in
364 Tell the pinentry not to grab the keyboard and mouse. This option
365 should in general not be used to avoid X-sniffing attacks.
368 Append all logging output to FILE. This is very helpful in seeing
369 what the agent actually does. Use 'socket://' to log to socket.
370 If neither a log file nor a log file descriptor has been set on a
371 Windows platform, the Registry entry
372 'HKCU\Software\GNU\GnuPG:DefaultLogFile', if set, is used to
373 specify the logging output.
375 '--no-allow-mark-trusted'
376 Do not allow clients to mark keys as trusted, i.e. put them into
377 the 'trustlist.txt' file. This makes it harder for users to
378 inadvertently accept Root-CA keys.
380 '--allow-preset-passphrase'
381 This option allows the use of 'gpg-preset-passphrase' to seed the
382 internal cache of 'gpg-agent' with passphrases.
384 '--no-allow-loopback-pinentry'
385 '--allow-loopback-pinentry'
386 Disallow or allow clients to use the loopback pinentry features;
387 see the option 'pinentry-mode' for details. Allow is the default.
389 The '--force' option of the Assuan command 'DELETE_KEY' is also
390 controlled by this option: The option is ignored if a loopback
391 pinentry is disallowed.
393 '--no-allow-external-cache'
394 Tell Pinentry not to enable features which use an external cache
397 Some desktop environments prefer to unlock all credentials with one
398 master password and may have installed a Pinentry which employs an
399 additional external cache to implement such a policy. By using
400 this option the Pinentry is advised not to make use of such a cache
401 and instead always ask the user for the requested passphrase.
403 '--allow-emacs-pinentry'
404 Tell Pinentry to allow features to divert the passphrase entry to a
405 running Emacs instance. How this is exactly handled depends on the
406 version of the used Pinentry.
408 '--ignore-cache-for-signing'
409 This option will let 'gpg-agent' bypass the passphrase cache for
410 all signing operation. Note that there is also a per-session
411 option to control this behavior but this command line option takes
414 '--default-cache-ttl N'
415 Set the time a cache entry is valid to N seconds. The default is
416 600 seconds. Each time a cache entry is accessed, the entry's
417 timer is reset. To set an entry's maximum lifetime, use
420 '--default-cache-ttl-ssh N'
421 Set the time a cache entry used for SSH keys is valid to N seconds.
422 The default is 1800 seconds. Each time a cache entry is accessed,
423 the entry's timer is reset. To set an entry's maximum lifetime,
424 use 'max-cache-ttl-ssh'.
427 Set the maximum time a cache entry is valid to N seconds. After
428 this time a cache entry will be expired even if it has been
429 accessed recently or has been set using 'gpg-preset-passphrase'.
430 The default is 2 hours (7200 seconds).
432 '--max-cache-ttl-ssh N'
433 Set the maximum time a cache entry used for SSH keys is valid to N
434 seconds. After this time a cache entry will be expired even if it
435 has been accessed recently or has been set using
436 'gpg-preset-passphrase'. The default is 2 hours (7200 seconds).
438 '--enforce-passphrase-constraints'
439 Enforce the passphrase constraints by not allowing the user to
440 bypass them using the "Take it anyway" button.
442 '--min-passphrase-len N'
443 Set the minimal length of a passphrase. When entering a new
444 passphrase shorter than this value a warning will be displayed.
447 '--min-passphrase-nonalpha N'
448 Set the minimal number of digits or special characters required in
449 a passphrase. When entering a new passphrase with less than this
450 number of digits or special characters a warning will be displayed.
453 '--check-passphrase-pattern FILE'
454 Check the passphrase against the pattern given in FILE. When
455 entering a new passphrase matching one of these pattern a warning
456 will be displayed. FILE should be an absolute filename. The
457 default is not to use any pattern file.
459 Security note: It is known that checking a passphrase against a
460 list of pattern or even against a complete dictionary is not very
461 effective to enforce good passphrases. Users will soon figure up
462 ways to bypass such a policy. A better policy is to educate users
463 on good security behavior and optionally to run a passphrase
464 cracker regularly on all users passphrases to catch the very simple
467 '--max-passphrase-days N'
468 Ask the user to change the passphrase if N days have passed since
469 the last change. With '--enforce-passphrase-constraints' set the
470 user may not bypass this check.
472 '--enable-passphrase-history'
473 This option does nothing yet.
475 '--pinentry-invisible-char CHAR'
476 This option asks the Pinentry to use CHAR for displaying hidden
477 characters. CHAR must be one character UTF-8 string. A Pinentry
478 may or may not honor this request.
480 '--pinentry-timeout N'
481 This option asks the Pinentry to timeout after N seconds with no
482 user input. The default value of 0 does not ask the pinentry to
483 timeout, however a Pinentry may use its own default timeout value
484 in this case. A Pinentry may or may not honor this request.
486 '--pinentry-program FILENAME'
487 Use program FILENAME as the PIN entry. The default is installation
488 dependent. With the default configuration the name of the default
489 pinentry is 'pinentry'; if that file does not exist but a
490 'pinentry-basic' exist the latter is used.
492 On a Windows platform the default is to use the first existing
493 program from this list: 'bin\pinentry.exe',
494 '..\Gpg4win\bin\pinentry.exe', '..\Gpg4win\pinentry.exe',
495 '..\GNU\GnuPG\pinentry.exe', '..\GNU\bin\pinentry.exe',
496 'bin\pinentry-basic.exe' where the file names are relative to the
497 GnuPG installation directory.
499 '--pinentry-touch-file FILENAME'
500 By default the filename of the socket gpg-agent is listening for
501 requests is passed to Pinentry, so that it can touch that file
502 before exiting (it does this only in curses mode). This option
503 changes the file passed to Pinentry to FILENAME. The special name
504 '/dev/null' may be used to completely disable this feature. Note
505 that Pinentry will not create that file, it will only change the
506 modification and access time.
508 '--scdaemon-program FILENAME'
509 Use program FILENAME as the Smartcard daemon. The default is
510 installation dependent and can be shown with the 'gpgconf' command.
513 Do not make use of the scdaemon tool. This option has the effect
514 of disabling the ability to do smartcard operations. Note, that
515 enabling this option at runtime does not kill an already forked
518 '--disable-check-own-socket'
519 'gpg-agent' employs a periodic self-test to detect a stolen socket.
520 This usually means a second instance of 'gpg-agent' has taken over
521 the socket and 'gpg-agent' will then terminate itself. This option
522 may be used to disable this self-test for debugging purposes.
524 '--use-standard-socket'
525 '--no-use-standard-socket'
526 '--use-standard-socket-p'
527 Since GnuPG 2.1 the standard socket is always used. These options
528 have no more effect. The command 'gpg-agent
529 --use-standard-socket-p' will thus always return success.
535 '--lc-messages STRING'
536 '--xauthority STRING'
537 These options are used with the server mode to pass localization
542 Ignore requests to change the current 'tty' or X window system's
543 'DISPLAY' variable respectively. This is useful to lock the
544 pinentry to pop up at the 'tty' or display you started the agent.
546 '--extra-socket NAME'
547 The extra socket is created by default, you may use this option to
548 change the name of the socket. To disable the creation of the
549 socket use "none" or "/dev/null" for NAME.
551 Also listen on native gpg-agent connections on the given socket.
552 The intended use for this extra socket is to setup a Unix domain
553 socket forwarding from a remote machine to this socket on the local
554 machine. A 'gpg' running on the remote machine may then connect to
555 the local gpg-agent and use its private keys. This enables
556 decrypting or signing data on a remote machine without exposing the
557 private keys to the remote machine.
559 '--enable-ssh-support'
560 '--enable-putty-support'
562 The OpenSSH Agent protocol is always enabled, but 'gpg-agent' will
563 only set the 'SSH_AUTH_SOCK' variable if this flag is given.
565 In this mode of operation, the agent does not only implement the
566 gpg-agent protocol, but also the agent protocol used by OpenSSH
567 (through a separate socket). Consequently, it should be possible
568 to use the gpg-agent as a drop-in replacement for the well known
571 SSH Keys, which are to be used through the agent, need to be added
572 to the gpg-agent initially through the ssh-add utility. When a key
573 is added, ssh-add will ask for the password of the provided key
574 file and send the unprotected key material to the agent; this
575 causes the gpg-agent to ask for a passphrase, which is to be used
576 for encrypting the newly received key and storing it in a gpg-agent
579 Once a key has been added to the gpg-agent this way, the gpg-agent
580 will be ready to use the key.
582 Note: in case the gpg-agent receives a signature request, the user
583 might need to be prompted for a passphrase, which is necessary for
584 decrypting the stored key. Since the ssh-agent protocol does not
585 contain a mechanism for telling the agent on which display/terminal
586 it is running, gpg-agent's ssh-support will use the TTY or X
587 display where gpg-agent has been started. To switch this display
588 to the current one, the following command may be used:
590 gpg-connect-agent updatestartuptty /bye
592 Although all GnuPG components try to start the gpg-agent as needed,
593 this is not possible for the ssh support because ssh does not know
594 about it. Thus if no GnuPG tool which accesses the agent has been
595 run, there is no guarantee that ssh is able to use gpg-agent for
596 authentication. To fix this you may start gpg-agent if needed
597 using this simple command:
599 gpg-connect-agent /bye
601 Adding the '--verbose' shows the progress of starting the agent.
603 The '--enable-putty-support' is only available under Windows and
604 allows the use of gpg-agent with the ssh implementation 'putty'.
605 This is similar to the regular ssh-agent support but makes use of
606 Windows message queue as required by 'putty'.
608 All the long options may also be given in the configuration file
609 after stripping off the two leading dashes.
612 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent Configuration, Next: Agent Signals, Prev: Agent Options, Up: Invoking GPG-AGENT
617 There are a few configuration files needed for the operation of the
618 agent. By default they may all be found in the current home directory
619 (*note option --homedir::).
622 This is the standard configuration file read by 'gpg-agent' on
623 startup. It may contain any valid long option; the leading two
624 dashes may not be entered and the option may not be abbreviated.
625 This file is also read after a 'SIGHUP' however only a few options
626 will actually have an effect. This default name may be changed on
627 the command line (*note option --options::). You should backup
631 This is the list of trusted keys. You should backup this file.
633 Comment lines, indicated by a leading hash mark, as well as empty
634 lines are ignored. To mark a key as trusted you need to enter its
635 fingerprint followed by a space and a capital letter 'S'. Colons
636 may optionally be used to separate the bytes of a fingerprint; this
637 enables cutting and pasting the fingerprint from a key listing
638 output. If the line is prefixed with a '!' the key is explicitly
639 marked as not trusted.
641 Here is an example where two keys are marked as ultimately trusted
642 and one as not trusted:
644 # CN=Wurzel ZS 3,O=Intevation GmbH,C=DE
645 A6935DD34EF3087973C706FC311AA2CCF733765B S
647 # CN=PCA-1-Verwaltung-02/O=PKI-1-Verwaltung/C=DE
648 DC:BD:69:25:48:BD:BB:7E:31:6E:BB:80:D3:00:80:35:D4:F8:A6:CD S
650 # CN=Root-CA/O=Schlapphuete/L=Pullach/C=DE
651 !14:56:98:D3:FE:9C:CA:5A:31:6E:BC:81:D3:11:4E:00:90:A3:44:C2 S
654 Before entering a key into this file, you need to ensure its
655 authenticity. How to do this depends on your organisation; your
656 administrator might have already entered those keys which are
657 deemed trustworthy enough into this file. Places where to look for
658 the fingerprint of a root certificate are letters received from the
659 CA or the website of the CA (after making 100% sure that this is
660 indeed the website of that CA). You may want to consider
661 disallowing interactive updates of this file by using the *note
662 option --no-allow-mark-trusted::. It might even be advisable to
663 change the permissions to read-only so that this file can't be
664 changed inadvertently.
666 As a special feature a line 'include-default' will include a global
667 list of trusted certificates (e.g. '/etc/gnupg/trustlist.txt').
668 This global list is also used if the local list is not available.
670 It is possible to add further flags after the 'S' for use by the
674 Relax checking of some root certificate requirements. As of
675 now this flag allows the use of root certificates with a
676 missing basicConstraints attribute (despite that it is a MUST
677 for CA certificates) and disables CRL checking for the root
681 If validation of a certificate finally issued by a CA with
682 this flag set fails, try again using the chain validation
686 This file is used when support for the secure shell agent protocol
687 has been enabled (*note option --enable-ssh-support::). Only keys
688 present in this file are used in the SSH protocol. You should
691 The 'ssh-add' tool may be used to add new entries to this file; you
692 may also add them manually. Comment lines, indicated by a leading
693 hash mark, as well as empty lines are ignored. An entry starts
694 with optional whitespace, followed by the keygrip of the key given
695 as 40 hex digits, optionally followed by the caching TTL in seconds
696 and another optional field for arbitrary flags. A non-zero TTL
697 overrides the global default as set by '--default-cache-ttl-ssh'.
699 The only flag support is 'confirm'. If this flag is found for a
700 key, each use of the key will pop up a pinentry to confirm the use
701 of that key. The flag is automatically set if a new key was loaded
702 into 'gpg-agent' using the option '-c' of the 'ssh-add' command.
704 The keygrip may be prefixed with a '!' to disable an entry.
706 The following example lists exactly one key. Note that keys
707 available through a OpenPGP smartcard in the active smartcard
708 reader are implicitly added to this list; i.e. there is no need to
711 # Key added on: 2011-07-20 20:38:46
712 # Fingerprint: 5e:8d:c4:ad:e7:af:6e:27:8a:d6:13:e4:79:ad:0b:81
713 34B62F25E277CF13D3C6BCEBFD3F85D08F0A864B 0 confirm
717 This is the directory where gpg-agent stores the private keys.
718 Each key is stored in a file with the name made up of the keygrip
719 and the suffix 'key'. You should backup all files in this
720 directory and take great care to keep this backup closed away.
722 Note that on larger installations, it is useful to put predefined
723 files into the directory '/etc/skel/.gnupg' so that newly created users
724 start up with a working configuration. For existing users the a small
725 helper script is provided to create these files (*note addgnupghome::).
728 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent Signals, Next: Agent Examples, Prev: Agent Configuration, Up: Invoking GPG-AGENT
730 2.4 Use of some signals
731 =======================
733 A running 'gpg-agent' may be controlled by signals, i.e. using the
734 'kill' command to send a signal to the process.
736 Here is a list of supported signals:
739 This signal flushes all cached passphrases and if the program has
740 been started with a configuration file, the configuration file is
741 read again. Only certain options are honored: 'quiet', 'verbose',
742 'debug', 'debug-all', 'debug-level', 'debug-pinentry', 'no-grab',
743 'pinentry-program', 'pinentry-invisible-char', 'default-cache-ttl',
744 'max-cache-ttl', 'ignore-cache-for-signing',
745 'no-allow-external-cache', 'allow-emacs-pinentry',
746 'no-allow-mark-trusted', 'disable-scdaemon', and
747 'disable-check-own-socket'. 'scdaemon-program' is also supported
748 but due to the current implementation, which calls the scdaemon
749 only once, it is not of much use unless you manually kill the
753 Shuts down the process but waits until all current requests are
754 fulfilled. If the process has received 3 of these signals and
755 requests are still pending, a shutdown is forced.
758 Shuts down the process immediately.
761 Dump internal information to the log file.
764 This signal is used for internal purposes.
767 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent Examples, Next: Agent Protocol, Prev: Agent Signals, Up: Invoking GPG-AGENT
772 It is important to set the environment variable 'GPG_TTY' in your login
773 shell, for example in the '~/.bashrc' init script:
775 export GPG_TTY=$(tty)
777 If you enabled the Ssh Agent Support, you also need to tell ssh about
778 it by adding this to your init script:
781 if [ "${gnupg_SSH_AUTH_SOCK_by:-0}" -ne $$ ]; then
782 export SSH_AUTH_SOCK="$(gpgconf --list-dirs agent-ssh-socket)"
786 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent Protocol, Prev: Agent Examples, Up: Invoking GPG-AGENT
788 2.6 Agent's Assuan Protocol
789 ===========================
791 Note: this section does only document the protocol, which is used by
792 GnuPG components; it does not deal with the ssh-agent protocol. To see
793 the full specification of each command, use
795 gpg-connect-agent 'help COMMAND' /bye
797 or just 'help' to list all available commands.
799 The 'gpg-agent' daemon is started on demand by the GnuPG components.
801 To identify a key we use a thing called keygrip which is the SHA-1
802 hash of an canonical encoded S-Expression of the public key as used in
803 Libgcrypt. For the purpose of this interface the keygrip is given as a
804 hex string. The advantage of using this and not the hash of a
805 certificate is that it will be possible to use the same keypair for
806 different protocols, thereby saving space on the token used to keep the
809 The 'gpg-agent' may send status messages during a command or when
810 returning from a command to inform a client about the progress or result
811 of an operation. For example, the INQUIRE_MAXLEN status message may be
812 sent during a server inquire to inform the client of the maximum usable
813 length of the inquired data (which should not be exceeded).
817 * Agent PKDECRYPT:: Decrypting a session key
818 * Agent PKSIGN:: Signing a Hash
819 * Agent GENKEY:: Generating a Key
820 * Agent IMPORT:: Importing a Secret Key
821 * Agent EXPORT:: Exporting a Secret Key
822 * Agent ISTRUSTED:: Importing a Root Certificate
823 * Agent GET_PASSPHRASE:: Ask for a passphrase
824 * Agent CLEAR_PASSPHRASE:: Expire a cached passphrase
825 * Agent PRESET_PASSPHRASE:: Set a passphrase for a keygrip
826 * Agent GET_CONFIRMATION:: Ask for confirmation
827 * Agent HAVEKEY:: Check whether a key is available
828 * Agent LEARN:: Register a smartcard
829 * Agent PASSWD:: Change a Passphrase
830 * Agent UPDATESTARTUPTTY:: Change the Standard Display
831 * Agent GETEVENTCOUNTER:: Get the Event Counters
832 * Agent GETINFO:: Return information about the process
833 * Agent OPTION:: Set options for the session
836 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent PKDECRYPT, Next: Agent PKSIGN, Up: Agent Protocol
838 2.6.1 Decrypting a session key
839 ------------------------------
841 The client asks the server to decrypt a session key. The encrypted
842 session key should have all information needed to select the appropriate
843 secret key or to delegate it to a smartcard.
847 Tell the server about the key to be used for decryption. If this is
848 not used, 'gpg-agent' may try to figure out the key by trying to decrypt
849 the message with each key available.
853 The agent checks whether this command is allowed and then does an
854 INQUIRY to get the ciphertext the client should then send the cipher
857 S: INQUIRE CIPHERTEXT
862 Please note that the server may send status info lines while reading
863 the data lines from the client. The data send is a SPKI like S-Exp with
868 (<param_name1> <mpi>)
870 (<param_namen> <mpi>)))
872 Where algo is a string with the name of the algorithm; see the
873 libgcrypt documentation for a list of valid algorithms. The number and
874 names of the parameters depend on the algorithm. The agent does return
875 an error if there is an inconsistency.
877 If the decryption was successful the decrypted data is returned by
880 Here is an example session:
882 S: INQUIRE CIPHERTEXT
883 C: D (enc-val elg (a 349324324)
884 C: D (b 3F444677CA)))
886 S: # session key follows
888 S: D (value 1234567890ABCDEF0)
889 S: OK decryption successful
891 The “PADDING” status line is only send if gpg-agent can tell what
892 kind of padding is used. As of now only the value 0 is used to indicate
893 that the padding has been removed.
896 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent PKSIGN, Next: Agent GENKEY, Prev: Agent PKDECRYPT, Up: Agent Protocol
901 The client asks the agent to sign a given hash value. A default key
902 will be chosen if no key has been set. To set a key a client first
907 This can be used multiple times to create multiple signature, the
908 list of keys is reset with the next PKSIGN command or a RESET. The
909 server tests whether the key is a valid key to sign something and
912 SETHASH --hash=<name>|<algo> <hexstring>
914 The client can use this command to tell the server about the data
915 <hexstring> (which usually is a hash) to be signed. <algo> is the
916 decimal encoded hash algorithm number as used by Libgcrypt. Either
917 <algo> or -hash=<name> must be given. Valid names for <name> are:
920 The SHA-1 hash algorithm
922 The SHA-256 hash algorithm
924 The RIPE-MD160 hash algorithm
926 The old and broken MD5 hash algorithm
928 A combined hash algorithm as used by the TLS protocol.
930 The actual signing is done using
934 Options are not yet defined, but may later be used to choose among
935 different algorithms. The agent does then some checks, asks for the
936 passphrase and as a result the server returns the signature as an SPKI
937 like S-expression in "D" lines:
941 (<param_name1> <mpi>)
943 (<param_namen> <mpi>)))
945 The operation is affected by the option
947 OPTION use-cache-for-signing=0|1
949 The default of '1' uses the cache. Setting this option to '0' will
950 lead 'gpg-agent' to ignore the passphrase cache. Note, that there is
951 also a global command line option for 'gpg-agent' to globally disable
954 Here is an example session:
960 S: # I did ask the user whether he really wants to sign
961 S: # I did ask the user for the passphrase
963 C: D ABCDEF012345678901234
965 S: # signature follows
966 S: D (sig-val rsa (s 45435453654612121212))
970 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent GENKEY, Next: Agent IMPORT, Prev: Agent PKSIGN, Up: Agent Protocol
972 2.6.3 Generating a Key
973 ----------------------
975 This is used to create a new keypair and store the secret key inside the
976 active PSE -- which is in most cases a Soft-PSE. A not-yet-defined
977 option allows choosing the storage location. To get the secret key out
978 of the PSE, a special export tool has to be used.
980 GENKEY [--no-protection] [--preset] [<cache_nonce>]
982 Invokes the key generation process and the server will then inquire
983 on the generation parameters, like:
986 C: D (genkey (rsa (nbits 1024)))
989 The format of the key parameters which depends on the algorithm is of
994 (parameter_name_1 ....)
996 (parameter_name_n ....)))
998 If everything succeeds, the server returns the *public key* in a SPKI
999 like S-Expression like this:
1006 Here is an example session:
1009 C: D (genkey (rsa (nbits 1024)))
1012 S: D (rsa (n 326487324683264) (e 10001)))
1015 The '--no-protection' option may be used to prevent prompting for a
1016 passphrase to protect the secret key while leaving the secret key
1017 unprotected. The '--preset' option may be used to add the passphrase to
1018 the cache using the default cache parameters.
1020 The '--inq-passwd' option may be used to create the key with a
1021 supplied passphrase. When used the agent does an inquiry with the
1022 keyword 'NEWPASSWD' to retrieve that passphrase. This option takes
1023 precedence over '--no-protection'; however if the client sends a empty
1024 (zero-length) passphrase, this is identical to '--no-protection'.
1027 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent IMPORT, Next: Agent EXPORT, Prev: Agent GENKEY, Up: Agent Protocol
1029 2.6.4 Importing a Secret Key
1030 ----------------------------
1032 This operation is not yet supported by GpgAgent. Specialized tools are
1033 to be used for this.
1035 There is no actual need because we can expect that secret keys
1036 created by a 3rd party are stored on a smartcard. If we have generated
1037 the key ourselves, we do not need to import it.
1040 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent EXPORT, Next: Agent ISTRUSTED, Prev: Agent IMPORT, Up: Agent Protocol
1042 2.6.5 Export a Secret Key
1043 -------------------------
1047 Should be done by an extra tool.
1050 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent ISTRUSTED, Next: Agent GET_PASSPHRASE, Prev: Agent EXPORT, Up: Agent Protocol
1052 2.6.6 Importing a Root Certificate
1053 ----------------------------------
1055 Actually we do not import a Root Cert but provide a way to validate any
1056 piece of data by storing its Hash along with a description and an
1057 identifier in the PSE. Here is the interface description:
1059 ISTRUSTED <fingerprint>
1061 Check whether the OpenPGP primary key or the X.509 certificate with
1062 the given fingerprint is an ultimately trusted key or a trusted Root CA
1063 certificate. The fingerprint should be given as a hexstring (without
1064 any blanks or colons or whatever in between) and may be left padded with
1065 00 in case of an MD5 fingerprint. GPGAgent will answer with:
1069 The key is in the table of trusted keys.
1071 ERR 304 (Not Trusted)
1073 The key is not in this table.
1075 Gpg needs the entire list of trusted keys to maintain the web of
1076 trust; the following command is therefore quite helpful:
1080 GpgAgent returns a list of trusted keys line by line:
1082 S: D 000000001234454556565656677878AF2F1ECCFF P
1083 S: D 340387563485634856435645634856438576457A P
1084 S: D FEDC6532453745367FD83474357495743757435D S
1087 The first item on a line is the hexified fingerprint where MD5
1088 fingerprints are '00' padded to the left and the second item is a flag
1089 to indicate the type of key (so that gpg is able to only take care of
1090 PGP keys). P = OpenPGP, S = S/MIME. A client should ignore the rest of
1091 the line, so that we can extend the format in the future.
1093 Finally a client should be able to mark a key as trusted:
1095 MARKTRUSTED FINGERPRINT "P"|"S"
1097 The server will then pop up a window to ask the user whether she
1098 really trusts this key. For this it will probably ask for a text to be
1099 displayed like this:
1101 S: INQUIRE TRUSTDESC
1102 C: D Do you trust the key with the fingerprint @FPR@
1103 C: D bla fasel blurb.
1107 Known sequences with the pattern @foo@ are replaced according to this
1111 Format the fingerprint according to gpg rules for a v3 keys.
1113 Format the fingerprint according to gpg rules for a v4 keys.
1115 Choose an appropriate format to format the fingerprint.
1117 Replaced by a single '@'.
1120 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent GET_PASSPHRASE, Next: Agent CLEAR_PASSPHRASE, Prev: Agent ISTRUSTED, Up: Agent Protocol
1122 2.6.7 Ask for a passphrase
1123 --------------------------
1125 This function is usually used to ask for a passphrase to be used for
1126 symmetric encryption, but may also be used by programs which need
1127 special handling of passphrases. This command uses a syntax which helps
1128 clients to use the agent with minimum effort.
1130 GET_PASSPHRASE [--data] [--check] [--no-ask] [--repeat[=N]] \
1131 [--qualitybar] CACHE_ID \
1132 [ERROR_MESSAGE PROMPT DESCRIPTION]
1134 CACHE_ID is expected to be a string used to identify a cached
1135 passphrase. Use a 'X' to bypass the cache. With no other arguments the
1136 agent returns a cached passphrase or an error. By convention either the
1137 hexified fingerprint of the key shall be used for CACHE_ID or an
1138 arbitrary string prefixed with the name of the calling application and a
1139 colon: Like 'gpg:somestring'.
1141 ERROR_MESSAGE is either a single 'X' for no error message or a string
1142 to be shown as an error message like (e.g. "invalid passphrase").
1143 Blanks must be percent escaped or replaced by '+''.
1145 PROMPT is either a single 'X' for a default prompt or the text to be
1146 shown as the prompt. Blanks must be percent escaped or replaced by '+'.
1148 DESCRIPTION is a text shown above the entry field. Blanks must be
1149 percent escaped or replaced by '+'.
1151 The agent either returns with an error or with a OK followed by the
1152 hex encoded passphrase. Note that the length of the strings is
1153 implicitly limited by the maximum length of a command. If the option
1154 '--data' is used, the passphrase is not returned on the OK line but by
1155 regular data lines; this is the preferred method.
1157 If the option '--check' is used, the standard passphrase constraints
1158 checks are applied. A check is not done if the passphrase has been
1161 If the option '--no-ask' is used and the passphrase is not in the
1162 cache the user will not be asked to enter a passphrase but the error
1163 code 'GPG_ERR_NO_DATA' is returned.
1165 If the option '--qualitybar' is used and a minimum passphrase length
1166 has been configured, a visual indication of the entered passphrase
1169 CLEAR_PASSPHRASE CACHE_ID
1171 may be used to invalidate the cache entry for a passphrase. The
1172 function returns with OK even when there is no cached passphrase.
1175 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent CLEAR_PASSPHRASE, Next: Agent PRESET_PASSPHRASE, Prev: Agent GET_PASSPHRASE, Up: Agent Protocol
1177 2.6.8 Remove a cached passphrase
1178 --------------------------------
1180 Use this command to remove a cached passphrase.
1182 CLEAR_PASSPHRASE [--mode=normal] <cache_id>
1184 The '--mode=normal' option can be used to clear a CACHE_ID that was
1188 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent PRESET_PASSPHRASE, Next: Agent GET_CONFIRMATION, Prev: Agent CLEAR_PASSPHRASE, Up: Agent Protocol
1190 2.6.9 Set a passphrase for a keygrip
1191 ------------------------------------
1193 This command adds a passphrase to the cache for the specified KEYGRIP.
1195 PRESET_PASSPHRASE [--inquire] <string_or_keygrip> <timeout> [<hexstring>]
1197 The passphrase is a hexidecimal string when specified. When not
1198 specified, the passphrase will be retrieved from the pinentry module
1199 unless the '--inquire' option was specified in which case the passphrase
1200 will be retrieved from the client.
1202 The TIMEOUT parameter keeps the passphrase cached for the specified
1203 number of seconds. A value of '-1' means infinite while '0' means the
1204 default (currently only a timeout of -1 is allowed, which means to never
1208 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent GET_CONFIRMATION, Next: Agent HAVEKEY, Prev: Agent PRESET_PASSPHRASE, Up: Agent Protocol
1210 2.6.10 Ask for confirmation
1211 ---------------------------
1213 This command may be used to ask for a simple confirmation by presenting
1214 a text and 2 buttons: Okay and Cancel.
1216 GET_CONFIRMATION DESCRIPTION
1218 DESCRIPTIONis displayed along with a Okay and Cancel button. Blanks
1219 must be percent escaped or replaced by '+'. A 'X' may be used to
1220 display confirmation dialog with a default text.
1222 The agent either returns with an error or with a OK. Note, that the
1223 length of DESCRIPTION is implicitly limited by the maximum length of a
1227 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent HAVEKEY, Next: Agent LEARN, Prev: Agent GET_CONFIRMATION, Up: Agent Protocol
1229 2.6.11 Check whether a key is available
1230 ---------------------------------------
1232 This can be used to see whether a secret key is available. It does not
1233 return any information on whether the key is somehow protected.
1237 The agent answers either with OK or 'No_Secret_Key' (208). The
1238 caller may want to check for other error codes as well. More than one
1239 keygrip may be given. In this case the command returns success if at
1240 least one of the keygrips corresponds to an available secret key.
1243 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent LEARN, Next: Agent PASSWD, Prev: Agent HAVEKEY, Up: Agent Protocol
1245 2.6.12 Register a smartcard
1246 ---------------------------
1250 This command is used to register a smartcard. With the '--send'
1251 option given the certificates are sent back.
1254 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent PASSWD, Next: Agent UPDATESTARTUPTTY, Prev: Agent LEARN, Up: Agent Protocol
1256 2.6.13 Change a Passphrase
1257 --------------------------
1259 PASSWD [--cache-nonce=<c>] [--passwd-nonce=<s>] [--preset] KEYGRIP
1261 This command is used to interactively change the passphrase of the
1262 key identified by the hex string KEYGRIP. The '--preset' option may be
1263 used to add the new passphrase to the cache using the default cache
1267 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent UPDATESTARTUPTTY, Next: Agent GETEVENTCOUNTER, Prev: Agent PASSWD, Up: Agent Protocol
1269 2.6.14 Change the standard display
1270 ----------------------------------
1274 Set the startup TTY and X-DISPLAY variables to the values of this
1275 session. This command is useful to direct future pinentry invocations
1276 to another screen. It is only required because there is no way in the
1277 ssh-agent protocol to convey this information.
1280 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent GETEVENTCOUNTER, Next: Agent GETINFO, Prev: Agent UPDATESTARTUPTTY, Up: Agent Protocol
1282 2.6.15 Get the Event Counters
1283 -----------------------------
1287 This function return one status line with the current values of the
1288 event counters. The event counters are useful to avoid polling by
1289 delaying a poll until something has changed. The values are decimal
1290 numbers in the range '0' to 'UINT_MAX' and wrapping around to 0. The
1291 actual values should not be relied upon; they shall only be used to
1294 The currently defined counters are are:
1296 Incremented with any change of any of the other counters.
1298 Incremented for added or removed private keys.
1300 Incremented for changes of the card readers stati.
1303 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent GETINFO, Next: Agent OPTION, Prev: Agent GETEVENTCOUNTER, Up: Agent Protocol
1305 2.6.16 Return information about the process
1306 -------------------------------------------
1308 This is a multipurpose function to return a variety of information.
1312 The value of WHAT specifies the kind of information returned:
1314 Return the version of the program.
1316 Return the process id of the process.
1318 Return the name of the socket used to connect the agent.
1320 Return the name of the socket used for SSH connections. If SSH
1321 support has not been enabled the error 'GPG_ERR_NO_DATA' will be
1325 File: gnupg.info, Node: Agent OPTION, Prev: Agent GETINFO, Up: Agent Protocol
1327 2.6.17 Set options for the session
1328 ----------------------------------
1330 Here is a list of session options which are not yet described with other
1331 commands. The general syntax for an Assuan option is:
1338 This may be used to tell gpg-agent of which gpg-agent version the
1339 client is aware of. gpg-agent uses this information to enable
1340 features which might break older clients.
1343 Change the session's environment to be used for the Pinentry.
1349 Set envvar NAME to the empty string
1351 Set envvar NAME to the string VALUE.
1353 'use-cache-for-signing'
1354 See Assuan command 'PKSIGN'.
1356 'allow-pinentry-notify'
1357 This does not need any value. It is used to enable the
1358 PINENTRY_LAUNCHED inquiry.
1361 This option is used to change the operation mode of the pinentry.
1362 The following values are defined:
1365 This is the default mode which pops up a pinentry as needed.
1368 Instead of popping up a pinentry, return the error code
1372 Instead of popping up a pinentry, return the error code
1373 'GPG_ERR_NO_PIN_ENTRY'.
1376 Use a loopback pinentry. This fakes a pinentry by using
1377 inquiries back to the caller to ask for a passphrase. This
1378 option may only be set if the agent has been configured for
1379 that. To disable this feature use *note option
1380 --no-allow-loopback-pinentry::.
1382 'cache-ttl-opt-preset'
1383 This option sets the cache TTL for new entries created by GENKEY
1384 and PASSWD commands when using the '--preset' option. It it is not
1385 used a default value is used.
1388 Instead of using the standard S2K count (which is computed on the
1389 fly), the given S2K count is used for new keys or when changing the
1390 passphrase of a key. Values below 65536 are considered to be 0.
1391 This option is valid for the entire session or until reset to 0.
1392 This option is useful if the key is later used on boxes which are
1393 either much slower or faster than the actual box.
1396 File: gnupg.info, Node: Invoking DIRMNGR, Next: Invoking GPG, Prev: Invoking GPG-AGENT, Up: Top
1401 Since version 2.1 of GnuPG, 'dirmngr' takes care of accessing the
1402 OpenPGP keyservers. As with previous versions it is also used as a
1403 server for managing and downloading certificate revocation lists (CRLs)
1404 for X.509 certificates, downloading X.509 certificates, and providing
1405 access to OCSP providers. Dirmngr is invoked internally by 'gpg',
1406 'gpgsm', or via the 'gpg-connect-agent' tool.
1408 *Note Option Index::,for an index to 'DIRMNGR''s commands and options.
1412 * Dirmngr Commands:: List of all commands.
1413 * Dirmngr Options:: List of all options.
1414 * Dirmngr Configuration:: Configuration files.
1415 * Dirmngr Signals:: Use of signals.
1416 * Dirmngr Examples:: Some usage examples.
1417 * Dirmngr Protocol:: The protocol dirmngr uses.
1420 File: gnupg.info, Node: Dirmngr Commands, Next: Dirmngr Options, Up: Invoking DIRMNGR
1425 Commands are not distinguished from options except for the fact that
1426 only one command is allowed.
1429 Print the program version and licensing information. Note that you
1430 cannot abbreviate this command.
1433 Print a usage message summarizing the most useful command-line
1434 options. Note that you cannot abbreviate this command.
1437 Print a list of all available options and commands. Note that you
1438 cannot abbreviate this command.
1441 Run in server mode and wait for commands on the 'stdin'. The
1442 default mode is to create a socket and listen for commands there.
1443 This is only used for testing.
1446 Run in background daemon mode and listen for commands on a socket.
1447 This is the way 'dirmngr' is started on demand by the other GnuPG
1448 components. To force starting 'dirmngr' it is in general best to
1449 use 'gpgconf --launch dirmngr'.
1452 Run in the foreground, sending logs to stderr, and listening on
1453 file descriptor 3, which must already be bound to a listening
1454 socket. This is useful when running under systemd or other similar
1455 process supervision schemes. This option is not supported on
1459 List the contents of the CRL cache on 'stdout'. This is probably
1460 only useful for debugging purposes.
1463 This command requires a filename as additional argument, and it
1464 will make Dirmngr try to import the CRL in FILE into it's cache.
1465 Note, that this is only possible if Dirmngr is able to retrieve the
1466 CA's certificate directly by its own means. In general it is
1467 better to use 'gpgsm''s '--call-dirmngr loadcrl filename' command
1468 so that 'gpgsm' can help dirmngr.
1471 This command requires an URL as additional argument, and it will
1472 make dirmngr try to retrieve and import the CRL from that URL into
1473 it's cache. This is mainly useful for debugging purposes. The
1474 'dirmngr-client' provides the same feature for a running dirmngr.
1477 This commands shuts down an running instance of Dirmngr. This
1478 command has currently no effect.
1481 This command removes all CRLs from Dirmngr's cache. Client
1482 requests will thus trigger reading of fresh CRLs.
1485 File: gnupg.info, Node: Dirmngr Options, Next: Dirmngr Configuration, Prev: Dirmngr Commands, Up: Invoking DIRMNGR
1490 Note that all long options with the exception of '--options' and
1491 '--homedir' may also be given in the configuration file after stripping
1492 off the two leading dashes.
1495 Reads configuration from FILE instead of from the default per-user
1496 configuration file. The default configuration file is named
1497 'dirmngr.conf' and expected in the home directory.
1500 Set the name of the home directory to DIR. This option is only
1501 effective when used on the command line. The default is the
1502 directory named '.gnupg' directly below the home directory of the
1503 user unless the environment variable 'GNUPGHOME' has been set in
1504 which case its value will be used. Many kinds of data are stored
1505 within this directory.
1509 Outputs additional information while running. You can increase the
1510 verbosity by giving several verbose commands to DIRMNGR, such as
1514 Append all logging output to FILE. This is very helpful in seeing
1515 what the agent actually does. Use 'socket://' to log to socket.
1517 '--debug-level LEVEL'
1518 Select the debug level for investigating problems. LEVEL may be a
1519 numeric value or by a keyword:
1522 No debugging at all. A value of less than 1 may be used
1523 instead of the keyword.
1525 Some basic debug messages. A value between 1 and 2 may be
1526 used instead of the keyword.
1528 More verbose debug messages. A value between 3 and 5 may be
1529 used instead of the keyword.
1531 Even more detailed messages. A value between 6 and 8 may be
1532 used instead of the keyword.
1534 All of the debug messages you can get. A value greater than 8
1535 may be used instead of the keyword. The creation of hash
1536 tracing files is only enabled if the keyword is used.
1538 How these messages are mapped to the actual debugging flags is not
1539 specified and may change with newer releases of this program. They
1540 are however carefully selected to best aid in debugging.
1543 Set debugging flags. This option is only useful for debugging and
1544 its behavior may change with a new release. All flags are or-ed
1545 and may be given in C syntax (e.g. 0x0042) or as a comma separated
1546 list of flag names. To get a list of all supported flags the
1547 single word "help" can be used.
1550 Same as '--debug=0xffffffff'
1552 '--gnutls-debug LEVEL'
1553 Enable debugging of GNUTLS at LEVEL.
1556 When running in server mode, wait N seconds before entering the
1557 actual processing loop and print the pid. This gives time to
1560 '--disable-check-own-socket'
1561 On some platforms 'dirmngr' is able to detect the removal of its
1562 socket file and shutdown itself. This option disable this
1563 self-test for debugging purposes.
1569 Format the info output in daemon mode for use with the standard
1570 Bourne shell respective the C-shell. The default is to guess it
1571 based on the environment variable 'SHELL' which is in almost all
1575 Enabling this option forces loading of expired CRLs; this is only
1576 useful for debugging.
1579 This option switches Dirmngr and thus GnuPG into "Tor mode" to
1580 route all network access via Tor (an anonymity network). Certain
1581 other features are disabled if this mode is active.
1583 '--standard-resolver'
1584 This option forces the use of the system's standard DNS resolver
1585 code. This is mainly used for debugging. Note that on Windows a
1586 standard resolver is not used and all DNS access will return the
1587 error "Not Implemented" if this function is used.
1589 '--recursive-resolver'
1590 When possible use a recursive resolver instead of a stub resolver.
1592 '--resolver-timeout N'
1593 Set the timeout for the DNS resolver to N seconds. The default are
1596 '--allow-version-check'
1597 Allow Dirmngr to connect to 'https://versions.gnupg.org' to get the
1598 list of current software versions. If this option is enabled, or
1599 if 'use-tor' is active, the list is retrieved when the local copy
1600 does not exist or is older than 5 to 7 days. See the option
1601 '--query-swdb' of the command 'gpgconf' for more details. Note,
1602 that regardless of this option a version check can always be
1603 triggered using this command:
1605 gpg-connect-agent --dirmngr 'loadswdb --force' /bye
1608 Use NAME as your keyserver. This is the server that 'gpg'
1609 communicates with to receive keys, send keys, and search for keys.
1610 The format of the NAME is a URI: 'scheme:[//]keyservername[:port]'
1611 The scheme is the type of keyserver: "hkp" for the HTTP (or
1612 compatible) keyservers, "ldap" for the LDAP keyservers, or "mailto"
1613 for the Graff email keyserver. Note that your particular
1614 installation of GnuPG may have other keyserver types available as
1615 well. Keyserver schemes are case-insensitive. After the keyserver
1616 name, optional keyserver configuration options may be provided.
1617 These are the same as the '--keyserver-options' of 'gpg', but apply
1618 only to this particular keyserver.
1620 Most keyservers synchronize with each other, so there is generally
1621 no need to send keys to more than one server. The keyserver
1622 'hkp://keys.gnupg.net' uses round robin DNS to give a different
1623 keyserver each time you use it.
1625 If exactly two keyservers are configured and only one is a Tor
1626 hidden service (.onion), Dirmngr selects the keyserver to use
1627 depending on whether Tor is locally running or not. The check for
1628 a running Tor is done for each new connection.
1630 If no keyserver is explicitly configured, dirmngr will use the
1631 built-in default of hkps://hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net.
1633 '--nameserver IPADDR'
1634 In "Tor mode" Dirmngr uses a public resolver via Tor to resolve DNS
1635 names. If the default public resolver, which is '8.8.8.8', shall
1636 not be used a different one can be given using this option. Note
1637 that a numerical IP address must be given (IPv6 or IPv4) and that
1638 no error checking is done for IPADDR.
1641 Entirely disables the use of LDAP.
1644 Entirely disables the use of HTTP.
1647 When looking for the location of a CRL, the to be tested
1648 certificate usually contains so called "CRL Distribution Point"
1649 (DP) entries which are URLs describing the way to access the CRL.
1650 The first found DP entry is used. With this option all entries
1651 using the HTTP scheme are ignored when looking for a suitable DP.
1654 This is similar to '--ignore-http-dp' but ignores entries using the
1655 LDAP scheme. Both options may be combined resulting in ignoring
1658 '--ignore-ocsp-service-url'
1659 Ignore all OCSP URLs contained in the certificate. The effect is
1660 to force the use of the default responder.
1662 '--honor-http-proxy'
1663 If the environment variable 'http_proxy' has been set, use its
1664 value to access HTTP servers.
1666 '--http-proxy HOST[:PORT]'
1667 Use HOST and PORT to access HTTP servers. The use of this option
1668 overrides the environment variable 'http_proxy' regardless whether
1669 '--honor-http-proxy' has been set.
1671 '--ldap-proxy HOST[:PORT]'
1672 Use HOST and PORT to connect to LDAP servers. If PORT is omitted,
1673 port 389 (standard LDAP port) is used. This overrides any
1674 specified host and port part in a LDAP URL and will also be used if
1675 host and port have been omitted from the URL.
1678 Never use anything else but the LDAP "proxy" as configured with
1679 '--ldap-proxy'. Usually 'dirmngr' tries to use other configured
1680 LDAP server if the connection using the "proxy" failed.
1682 '--ldapserverlist-file FILE'
1683 Read the list of LDAP servers to consult for CRLs and certificates
1684 from file instead of the default per-user ldap server list file.
1685 The default value for FILE is 'dirmngr_ldapservers.conf'.
1687 This server list file contains one LDAP server per line in the
1690 HOSTNAME:PORT:USERNAME:PASSWORD:BASE_DN
1692 Lines starting with a '#' are comments.
1694 Note that as usual all strings entered are expected to be UTF-8
1695 encoded. Obviously this will lead to problems if the password has
1696 originally been encoded as Latin-1. There is no other solution
1697 here than to put such a password in the binary encoding into the
1698 file (i.e. non-ascii characters won't show up readable).(1)
1700 '--ldaptimeout SECS'
1701 Specify the number of seconds to wait for an LDAP query before
1702 timing out. The default is currently 100 seconds. 0 will never
1706 This option makes dirmngr add any servers it discovers when
1707 validating certificates against CRLs to the internal list of
1708 servers to consult for certificates and CRLs.
1710 This option is useful when trying to validate a certificate that
1711 has a CRL distribution point that points to a server that is not
1712 already listed in the ldapserverlist. Dirmngr will always go to
1713 this server and try to download the CRL, but chances are high that
1714 the certificate used to sign the CRL is located on the same server.
1715 So if dirmngr doesn't add that new server to list, it will often
1716 not be able to verify the signature of the CRL unless the
1717 '--add-servers' option is used.
1719 Note: The current version of dirmngr has this option disabled by
1723 This option enables OCSP support if requested by the client.
1725 OCSP requests are rejected by default because they may violate the
1726 privacy of the user; for example it is possible to track the time
1727 when a user is reading a mail.
1729 '--ocsp-responder URL'
1730 Use URL as the default OCSP Responder if the certificate does not
1731 contain information about an assigned responder. Note, that
1732 '--ocsp-signer' must also be set to a valid certificate.
1734 '--ocsp-signer FPR|FILE'
1735 Use the certificate with the fingerprint FPR to check the responses
1736 of the default OCSP Responder. Alternatively a filename can be
1737 given in which case the response is expected to be signed by one of
1738 the certificates described in that file. Any argument which
1739 contains a slash, dot or tilde is considered a filename. Usual
1740 filename expansion takes place: A tilde at the start followed by a
1741 slash is replaced by the content of 'HOME', no slash at start
1742 describes a relative filename which will be searched at the home
1743 directory. To make sure that the FILE is searched in the home
1744 directory, either prepend the name with "./" or use a name which
1747 If a response has been signed by a certificate described by these
1748 fingerprints no further check upon the validity of this certificate
1751 The format of the FILE is a list of SHA-1 fingerprint, one per line
1752 with optional colons between the bytes. Empty lines and lines
1753 prefix with a hash mark are ignored.
1755 '--ocsp-max-clock-skew N'
1756 The number of seconds a skew between the OCSP responder and them
1757 local clock is accepted. Default is 600 (10 minutes).
1759 '--ocsp-max-period N'
1760 Seconds a response is at maximum considered valid after the time
1761 given in the thisUpdate field. Default is 7776000 (90 days).
1763 '--ocsp-current-period N'
1764 The number of seconds an OCSP response is considered valid after
1765 the time given in the NEXT_UPDATE datum. Default is 10800 (3
1769 Do not return more that N items in one query. The default is 10.
1771 '--ignore-cert-extension OID'
1772 Add OID to the list of ignored certificate extensions. The OID is
1773 expected to be in dotted decimal form, like '2.5.29.3'. This
1774 option may be used more than once. Critical flagged certificate
1775 extensions matching one of the OIDs in the list are treated as if
1776 they are actually handled and thus the certificate won't be
1777 rejected due to an unknown critical extension. Use this option
1778 with care because extensions are usually flagged as critical for a
1782 Use the root certificates in FILE for verification of the TLS
1783 certificates used with 'hkps' (keyserver access over TLS). If the
1784 file is in PEM format a suffix of '.pem' is expected for FILE.
1785 This option may be given multiple times to add more root
1786 certificates. Tilde expansion is supported.
1788 If no 'hkp-cacert' directive is present, dirmngr will make a
1789 reasonable choice: if the keyserver in question is the special pool
1790 'hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net', it will use the bundled root
1791 certificate for that pool. Otherwise, it will use the system CAs.
1793 ---------- Footnotes ----------
1795 (1) The 'gpgconf' tool might be helpful for frontends as it enables
1796 editing this configuration file using percent-escaped strings.
1799 File: gnupg.info, Node: Dirmngr Configuration, Next: Dirmngr Signals, Prev: Dirmngr Options, Up: Invoking DIRMNGR
1804 Dirmngr makes use of several directories when running in daemon mode:
1805 There are a few configuration files whih control the operation of
1806 dirmngr. By default they may all be found in the current home directory
1807 (*note option --homedir::).
1810 This is the standard configuration file read by 'dirmngr' on
1811 startup. It may contain any valid long option; the leading two
1812 dashes may not be entered and the option may not be abbreviated.
1813 This file is also read after a 'SIGHUP' however not all options
1814 will actually have an effect. This default name may be changed on
1815 the command line (*note option --options::). You should backup
1818 '/etc/gnupg/trusted-certs'
1819 This directory should be filled with certificates of Root CAs you
1820 are trusting in checking the CRLs and signing OCSP Responses.
1822 Usually these are the same certificates you use with the
1823 applications making use of dirmngr. It is expected that each of
1824 these certificate files contain exactly one DER encoded certificate
1825 in a file with the suffix '.crt' or '.der'. 'dirmngr' reads those
1826 certificates on startup and when given a SIGHUP. Certificates which
1827 are not readable or do not make up a proper X.509 certificate are
1828 ignored; see the log file for details.
1830 Applications using dirmngr (e.g. gpgsm) can request these
1831 certificates to complete a trust chain in the same way as with the
1832 extra-certs directory (see below).
1834 Note that for OCSP responses the certificate specified using the
1835 option '--ocsp-signer' is always considered valid to sign OCSP
1838 '/etc/gnupg/extra-certs'
1839 This directory may contain extra certificates which are preloaded
1840 into the internal cache on startup. Applications using dirmngr
1841 (e.g. gpgsm) can request cached certificates to complete a trust
1842 chain. This is convenient in cases you have a couple intermediate
1843 CA certificates or certificates usually used to sign OCSP
1844 responses. These certificates are first tried before going out to
1845 the net to look for them. These certificates must also be DER
1846 encoded and suffixed with '.crt' or '.der'.
1849 This directory is used to store cached CRLs. The 'crls.d' part
1850 will be created by dirmngr if it does not exists but you need to
1851 make sure that the upper directory exists.
1853 To be able to see what's going on you should create the configure
1854 file '~/gnupg/dirmngr.conf' with at least one line:
1856 log-file ~/dirmngr.log
1858 To be able to perform OCSP requests you probably want to add the
1863 To make sure that new options are read and that after the
1864 installation of a new GnuPG versions the installed dirmngr is running,
1865 you may want to kill an existing dirmngr first:
1867 gpgconf --kill dirmngr
1869 You may check the log file to see whether all desired root
1870 certificates have been loaded correctly.
1873 File: gnupg.info, Node: Dirmngr Signals, Next: Dirmngr Examples, Prev: Dirmngr Configuration, Up: Invoking DIRMNGR
1878 A running 'dirmngr' may be controlled by signals, i.e. using the 'kill'
1879 command to send a signal to the process.
1881 Here is a list of supported signals:
1884 This signal flushes all internally cached CRLs as well as any
1885 cached certificates. Then the certificate cache is reinitialized
1886 as on startup. Options are re-read from the configuration file.
1887 Instead of sending this signal it is better to use
1888 gpgconf --reload dirmngr
1891 Shuts down the process but waits until all current requests are
1892 fulfilled. If the process has received 3 of these signals and
1893 requests are still pending, a shutdown is forced. You may also use
1894 gpgconf --kill dirmngr
1895 instead of this signal
1898 Shuts down the process immediately.
1901 This prints some caching statistics to the log file.
1904 File: gnupg.info, Node: Dirmngr Examples, Next: Dirmngr Protocol, Prev: Dirmngr Signals, Up: Invoking DIRMNGR
1909 Here is an example on how to show dirmngr's internal table of OpenPGP
1910 keyserver addresses. The output is intended for debugging purposes and
1911 not part of a defined API.
1913 gpg-connect-agent --dirmngr 'keyserver --hosttable' /bye
1915 To inhibit the use of a particular host you have noticed in one of
1916 the keyserver pools, you may use
1918 gpg-connect-agent --dirmngr 'keyserver --dead pgpkeys.bnd.de' /bye
1920 The description of the 'keyserver' command can be printed using
1922 gpg-connect-agent --dirmngr 'help keyserver' /bye
1925 File: gnupg.info, Node: Dirmngr Protocol, Prev: Dirmngr Examples, Up: Invoking DIRMNGR
1927 3.6 Dirmngr's Assuan Protocol
1928 =============================
1930 Assuan is the IPC protocol used to access dirmngr. This is a
1931 description of the commands implemented by dirmngr.
1935 * Dirmngr LOOKUP:: Look up a certificate via LDAP
1936 * Dirmngr ISVALID:: Validate a certificate using a CRL or OCSP.
1937 * Dirmngr CHECKCRL:: Validate a certificate using a CRL.
1938 * Dirmngr CHECKOCSP:: Validate a certificate using OCSP.
1939 * Dirmngr CACHECERT:: Put a certificate into the internal cache.
1940 * Dirmngr VALIDATE:: Validate a certificate for debugging.
1943 File: gnupg.info, Node: Dirmngr LOOKUP, Next: Dirmngr ISVALID, Up: Dirmngr Protocol
1945 3.6.1 Return the certificate(s) found
1946 -------------------------------------
1948 Lookup certificate. To allow multiple patterns (which are ORed) quoting
1949 is required: Spaces are to be translated into "+" or into "%20";
1950 obviously this requires that the usual escape quoting rules are applied.
1951 The server responds with:
1953 S: D <DER encoded certificate>
1955 S: D <second DER encoded certificate>
1959 In this example 2 certificates are returned. The server may return
1960 any number of certificates; OK will also be returned when no
1961 certificates were found. The dirmngr might return a status line
1965 To indicate that the output was truncated to N items due to a
1966 limitation of the server or by an arbitrary set limit.
1968 The option '--url' may be used if instead of a search pattern a
1969 complete URL to the certificate is known:
1971 C: LOOKUP --url CN%3DWerner%20Koch,o%3DIntevation%20GmbH,c%3DDE?userCertificate
1973 If the option '--cache-only' is given, no external lookup is done so
1974 that only certificates from the cache are returned.
1976 With the option '--single', the first and only the first match will
1977 be returned. Unless option '--cache-only' is also used, no local lookup
1978 will be done in this case.
1981 File: gnupg.info, Node: Dirmngr ISVALID, Next: Dirmngr CHECKCRL, Prev: Dirmngr LOOKUP, Up: Dirmngr Protocol
1983 3.6.2 Validate a certificate using a CRL or OCSP
1984 ------------------------------------------------
1986 ISVALID [--only-ocsp] [--force-default-responder] CERTID|CERTFPR
1988 Check whether the certificate described by the CERTID has been
1989 revoked. Due to caching, the Dirmngr is able to answer immediately in
1992 The CERTID is a hex encoded string consisting of two parts, delimited
1993 by a single dot. The first part is the SHA-1 hash of the issuer name
1994 and the second part the serial number.
1996 Alternatively the certificate's SHA-1 fingerprint CERTFPR may be
1997 given in which case an OCSP request is done before consulting the CRL.
1998 If the option '--only-ocsp' is given, no fallback to a CRL check will be
1999 used. If the option '--force-default-responder' is given, only the
2000 default OCSP responder will be used and any other methods of obtaining
2001 an OCSP responder URL won't be used.
2003 Common return values are:
2005 'GPG_ERR_NO_ERROR (0)'
2006 This is the positive answer: The certificate is not revoked and we
2007 have an up-to-date revocation list for that certificate. If OCSP
2008 was used the responder confirmed that the certificate has not been
2011 'GPG_ERR_CERT_REVOKED'
2012 This is the negative answer: The certificate has been revoked.
2013 Either it is in a CRL and that list is up to date or an OCSP
2014 responder informed us that it has been revoked.
2016 'GPG_ERR_NO_CRL_KNOWN'
2017 No CRL is known for this certificate or the CRL is not valid or out
2021 The OCSP responder returned an "unknown" status. This means that
2022 it is not aware of the certificate's status.
2024 'GPG_ERR_NOT_SUPPORTED'
2025 This is commonly seen if OCSP support has not been enabled in the
2028 If DirMngr has not enough information about the given certificate
2029 (which is the case for not yet cached certificates), it will will
2030 inquire the missing data:
2032 S: INQUIRE SENDCERT <CertID>
2033 C: D <DER encoded certificate>
2036 A client should be aware that DirMngr may ask for more than one
2039 If Dirmngr has a certificate but the signature of the certificate
2040 could not been validated because the root certificate is not known to
2041 dirmngr as trusted, it may ask back to see whether the client trusts
2042 this the root certificate:
2044 S: INQUIRE ISTRUSTED <CertHexfpr>
2048 Only this answer will let Dirmngr consider the certificate as valid.
2051 File: gnupg.info, Node: Dirmngr CHECKCRL, Next: Dirmngr CHECKOCSP, Prev: Dirmngr ISVALID, Up: Dirmngr Protocol
2053 3.6.3 Validate a certificate using a CRL
2054 ----------------------------------------
2056 Check whether the certificate with FINGERPRINT (SHA-1 hash of the entire
2057 X.509 certificate blob) is valid or not by consulting the CRL
2058 responsible for this certificate. If the fingerprint has not been given
2059 or the certificate is not known, the function inquires the certificate
2062 S: INQUIRE TARGETCERT
2063 C: D <DER encoded certificate>
2066 Thus the caller is expected to return the certificate for the request
2067 (which should match FINGERPRINT) as a binary blob. Processing then
2068 takes place without further interaction; in particular dirmngr tries to
2069 locate other required certificate by its own mechanism which includes a
2070 local certificate store as well as a list of trusted root certificates.
2072 The return code is 0 for success; i.e. the certificate has not been
2073 revoked or one of the usual error codes from libgpg-error.
2076 File: gnupg.info, Node: Dirmngr CHECKOCSP, Next: Dirmngr CACHECERT, Prev: Dirmngr CHECKCRL, Up: Dirmngr Protocol
2078 3.6.4 Validate a certificate using OCSP
2079 ---------------------------------------
2081 CHECKOCSP [--force-default-responder] [FINGERPRINT]
2083 Check whether the certificate with FINGERPRINT (the SHA-1 hash of the
2084 entire X.509 certificate blob) is valid by consulting the appropriate
2085 OCSP responder. If the fingerprint has not been given or the
2086 certificate is not known by Dirmngr, the function inquires the
2089 S: INQUIRE TARGETCERT
2090 C: D <DER encoded certificate>
2093 Thus the caller is expected to return the certificate for the request
2094 (which should match FINGERPRINT) as a binary blob. Processing then
2095 takes place without further interaction; in particular dirmngr tries to
2096 locate other required certificates by its own mechanism which includes a
2097 local certificate store as well as a list of trusted root certificates.
2099 If the option '--force-default-responder' is given, only the default
2100 OCSP responder is used. This option is the per-command variant of the
2101 global option '--ignore-ocsp-service-url'.
2103 The return code is 0 for success; i.e. the certificate has not been
2104 revoked or one of the usual error codes from libgpg-error.
2107 File: gnupg.info, Node: Dirmngr CACHECERT, Next: Dirmngr VALIDATE, Prev: Dirmngr CHECKOCSP, Up: Dirmngr Protocol
2109 3.6.5 Put a certificate into the internal cache
2110 -----------------------------------------------
2112 Put a certificate into the internal cache. This command might be useful
2113 if a client knows in advance certificates required for a test and wants
2114 to make sure they get added to the internal cache. It is also helpful
2115 for debugging. To get the actual certificate, this command immediately
2118 S: INQUIRE TARGETCERT
2119 C: D <DER encoded certificate>
2122 Thus the caller is expected to return the certificate for the request
2125 The return code is 0 for success; i.e. the certificate has not been
2126 successfully cached or one of the usual error codes from libgpg-error.
2129 File: gnupg.info, Node: Dirmngr VALIDATE, Prev: Dirmngr CACHECERT, Up: Dirmngr Protocol
2131 3.6.6 Validate a certificate for debugging
2132 ------------------------------------------
2134 Validate a certificate using the certificate validation function used
2135 internally by dirmngr. This command is only useful for debugging. To
2136 get the actual certificate, this command immediately inquires it using
2138 S: INQUIRE TARGETCERT
2139 C: D <DER encoded certificate>
2142 Thus the caller is expected to return the certificate for the request
2146 File: gnupg.info, Node: Invoking GPG, Next: Invoking GPGSM, Prev: Invoking DIRMNGR, Up: Top
2151 'gpg' is the OpenPGP part of the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG). It is a tool
2152 to provide digital encryption and signing services using the OpenPGP
2153 standard. 'gpg' features complete key management and all the bells and
2154 whistles you would expect from a full OpenPGP implementation.
2156 There are two main versions of GnuPG: GnuPG 1.x and GnuPG 2.x. GnuPG
2157 2.x supports modern encryption algorithms and thus should be preferred
2158 over GnuPG 1.x. You only need to use GnuPG 1.x if your platform doesn't
2159 support GnuPG 2.x, or you need support for some features that GnuPG 2.x
2160 has deprecated, e.g., decrypting data created with PGP-2 keys.
2162 If you are looking for version 1 of GnuPG, you may find that version
2163 installed under the name 'gpg1'.
2165 *Note Option Index::, for an index to 'gpg''s commands and options.
2169 * GPG Commands:: List of all commands.
2170 * GPG Options:: List of all options.
2171 * GPG Configuration:: Configuration files.
2172 * GPG Examples:: Some usage examples.
2174 Developer information:
2175 * Unattended Usage of GPG:: Using 'gpg' from other programs.
2178 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPG Commands, Next: GPG Options, Up: Invoking GPG
2183 Commands are not distinguished from options except for the fact that
2184 only one command is allowed. Generally speaking, irrelevant options are
2185 silently ignored, and may not be checked for correctness.
2187 'gpg' may be run with no commands. In this case it will perform a
2188 reasonable action depending on the type of file it is given as input (an
2189 encrypted message is decrypted, a signature is verified, a file
2190 containing keys is listed, etc.).
2194 * General GPG Commands:: Commands not specific to the functionality.
2195 * Operational GPG Commands:: Commands to select the type of operation.
2196 * OpenPGP Key Management:: How to manage your keys.
2199 File: gnupg.info, Node: General GPG Commands, Next: Operational GPG Commands, Up: GPG Commands
2201 4.1.1 Commands not specific to the function
2202 -------------------------------------------
2205 Print the program version and licensing information. Note that you
2206 cannot abbreviate this command.
2210 Print a usage message summarizing the most useful command-line
2211 options. Note that you cannot abbreviate this command.
2214 Print warranty information.
2217 Print a list of all available options and commands. Note that you
2218 cannot abbreviate this command.
2221 File: gnupg.info, Node: Operational GPG Commands, Next: OpenPGP Key Management, Prev: General GPG Commands, Up: GPG Commands
2223 4.1.2 Commands to select the type of operation
2224 ----------------------------------------------
2228 Sign a message. This command may be combined with '--encrypt' (to
2229 sign and encrypt a message), '--symmetric' (to sign and
2230 symmetrically encrypt a message), or both '--encrypt' and
2231 '--symmetric' (to sign and encrypt a message that can be decrypted
2232 using a secret key or a passphrase). The signing key is chosen by
2233 default or can be set explicitly using the '--local-user' and
2234 '--default-key' options.
2238 Make a cleartext signature. The content in a cleartext signature
2239 is readable without any special software. OpenPGP software is only
2240 needed to verify the signature. cleartext signatures may modify
2241 end-of-line whitespace for platform independence and are not
2242 intended to be reversible. The signing key is chosen by default or
2243 can be set explicitly using the '--local-user' and '--default-key'
2248 Make a detached signature.
2252 Encrypt data. This command may be combined with '--sign' (to sign
2253 and encrypt a message), '--symmetric' (to encrypt a message that
2254 can decrypted using a secret key or a passphrase), or '--sign' and
2255 '--symmetric' together (for a signed message that can be decrypted
2256 using a secret key or a passphrase).
2260 Encrypt with a symmetric cipher using a passphrase. The default
2261 symmetric cipher used is AES-128, but may be chosen with the
2262 '--cipher-algo' option. This command may be combined with '--sign'
2263 (for a signed and symmetrically encrypted message), '--encrypt'
2264 (for a message that may be decrypted via a secret key or a
2265 passphrase), or '--sign' and '--encrypt' together (for a signed
2266 message that may be decrypted via a secret key or a passphrase).
2269 Store only (make a simple literal data packet).
2273 Decrypt the file given on the command line (or STDIN if no file is
2274 specified) and write it to STDOUT (or the file specified with
2275 '--output'). If the decrypted file is signed, the signature is
2276 also verified. This command differs from the default operation, as
2277 it never writes to the filename which is included in the file and
2278 it rejects files that don't begin with an encrypted message.
2281 Assume that the first argument is a signed file and verify it
2282 without generating any output. With no arguments, the signature
2283 packet is read from STDIN. If only one argument is given, the
2284 specified file is expected to include a complete signature.
2286 With more than one argument, the first argument should specify a
2287 file with a detached signature and the remaining files should
2288 contain the signed data. To read the signed data from STDIN, use
2289 '-' as the second filename. For security reasons, a detached
2290 signature will not read the signed material from STDIN if not
2291 explicitly specified.
2293 Note: If the option '--batch' is not used, 'gpg' may assume that a
2294 single argument is a file with a detached signature, and it will
2295 try to find a matching data file by stripping certain suffixes.
2296 Using this historical feature to verify a detached signature is
2297 strongly discouraged; you should always specify the data file
2300 Note: When verifying a cleartext signature, 'gpg' verifies only
2301 what makes up the cleartext signed data and not any extra data
2302 outside of the cleartext signature or the header lines directly
2303 following the dash marker line. The option '--output' may be used
2304 to write out the actual signed data, but there are other pitfalls
2305 with this format as well. It is suggested to avoid cleartext
2306 signatures in favor of detached signatures.
2308 Note: Sometimes the use of the 'gpgv' tool is easier than using the
2309 full-fledged 'gpg' with this option. 'gpgv' is designed to compare
2310 signed data against a list of trusted keys and returns with success
2311 only for a good signature. It has its own manual page.
2314 This modifies certain other commands to accept multiple files for
2315 processing on the command line or read from STDIN with each
2316 filename on a separate line. This allows for many files to be
2317 processed at once. '--multifile' may currently be used along with
2318 '--verify', '--encrypt', and '--decrypt'. Note that '--multifile
2319 --verify' may not be used with detached signatures.
2322 Identical to '--multifile --verify'.
2325 Identical to '--multifile --encrypt'.
2328 Identical to '--multifile --decrypt'.
2332 '--list-public-keys'
2333 List the specified keys. If no keys are specified, then all keys
2334 from the configured public keyrings are listed.
2336 Never use the output of this command in scripts or other programs.
2337 The output is intended only for humans and its format is likely to
2338 change. The '--with-colons' option emits the output in a stable,
2339 machine-parseable format, which is intended for use by scripts and
2342 '--list-secret-keys'
2344 List the specified secret keys. If no keys are specified, then all
2345 known secret keys are listed. A '#' after the letters 'sec' means
2346 that the secret key is not usable (for example, if it was exported
2347 using '--export-secret-subkeys'). See also '--list-keys'.
2351 Same as '--list-keys', but the signatures are listed too. This
2352 command has the same effect as using '--list-keys' with
2355 For each signature listed, there are several flags in between the
2356 "sig" tag and keyid. These flags give additional information about
2357 each signature. From left to right, they are the numbers 1-3 for
2358 certificate check level (see '--ask-cert-level'), "L" for a local
2359 or non-exportable signature (see '--lsign-key'), "R" for a
2360 nonRevocable signature (see the '--edit-key' command "nrsign"), "P"
2361 for a signature that contains a policy URL (see
2362 '--cert-policy-url'), "N" for a signature that contains a notation
2363 (see '--cert-notation'), "X" for an eXpired signature (see
2364 '--ask-cert-expire'), and the numbers 1-9 or "T" for 10 and above
2365 to indicate trust signature levels (see the '--edit-key' command
2368 '--check-signatures'
2370 Same as '--list-signatures', but the signatures are verified. Note
2371 that for performance reasons the revocation status of a signing key
2372 is not shown. This command has the same effect as using
2373 '--list-keys' with '--with-sig-check'.
2375 The status of the verification is indicated by a flag directly
2376 following the "sig" tag (and thus before the flags described above
2377 for '--list-signatures'). A "!" indicates that the signature has
2378 been successfully verified, a "-" denotes a bad signature and a "%"
2379 is used if an error occurred while checking the signature (e.g. a
2380 non supported algorithm).
2383 Locate the keys given as arguments. This command basically uses
2384 the same algorithm as used when locating keys for encryption or
2385 signing and may thus be used to see what keys 'gpg' might use. In
2386 particular external methods as defined by '--auto-key-locate' may
2387 be used to locate a key. Only public keys are listed.
2390 List all keys (or the specified ones) along with their
2391 fingerprints. This is the same output as '--list-keys' but with
2392 the additional output of a line with the fingerprint. May also be
2393 combined with '--list-signatures' or '--check-signatures'. If this
2394 command is given twice, the fingerprints of all secondary keys are
2395 listed too. This command also forces pretty printing of
2396 fingerprints if the keyid format has been set to "none".
2399 List only the sequence of packets. This command is only useful for
2400 debugging. When used with option '--verbose' the actual MPI values
2401 are dumped and not only their lengths. Note that the output of
2402 this command may change with new releases.
2406 Present a menu to work with a smartcard. The subcommand "help"
2407 provides an overview on available commands. For a detailed
2408 description, please see the Card HOWTO at
2409 https://gnupg.org/documentation/howtos.html#GnuPG-cardHOWTO .
2412 Show the content of the smart card.
2415 Present a menu to allow changing the PIN of a smartcard. This
2416 functionality is also available as the subcommand "passwd" with the
2417 '--edit-card' command.
2419 '--delete-keys name'
2420 '--delete-keys name'
2421 Remove key from the public keyring. In batch mode either '--yes'
2422 is required or the key must be specified by fingerprint. This is a
2423 safeguard against accidental deletion of multiple keys.
2425 '--delete-secret-keys name'
2426 Remove key from the secret keyring. In batch mode the key must be
2427 specified by fingerprint. The option '--yes' can be used to advice
2428 gpg-agent not to request a confirmation. This extra pre-caution is
2429 done because 'gpg' can't be sure that the secret key (as controlled
2430 by gpg-agent) is only used for the given OpenPGP public key.
2432 '--delete-secret-and-public-key name'
2433 Same as '--delete-key', but if a secret key exists, it will be
2434 removed first. In batch mode the key must be specified by
2435 fingerprint. The option '--yes' can be used to advice gpg-agent
2436 not to request a confirmation.
2439 Either export all keys from all keyrings (default keyrings and
2440 those registered via option '--keyring'), or if at least one name
2441 is given, those of the given name. The exported keys are written
2442 to STDOUT or to the file given with option '--output'. Use
2443 together with '--armor' to mail those keys.
2445 '--send-keys key IDs'
2446 Similar to '--export' but sends the keys to a keyserver.
2447 Fingerprints may be used instead of key IDs. Option '--keyserver'
2448 must be used to give the name of this keyserver. Don't send your
2449 complete keyring to a keyserver -- select only those keys which are
2450 new or changed by you. If no key IDs are given, 'gpg' does
2453 '--export-secret-keys'
2454 '--export-secret-subkeys'
2455 Same as '--export', but exports the secret keys instead. The
2456 exported keys are written to STDOUT or to the file given with
2457 option '--output'. This command is often used along with the
2458 option '--armor' to allow for easy printing of the key for paper
2459 backup; however the external tool 'paperkey' does a better job of
2460 creating backups on paper. Note that exporting a secret key can be
2461 a security risk if the exported keys are sent over an insecure
2464 The second form of the command has the special property to render
2465 the secret part of the primary key useless; this is a GNU extension
2466 to OpenPGP and other implementations can not be expected to
2467 successfully import such a key. Its intended use is in generating
2468 a full key with an additional signing subkey on a dedicated
2469 machine. This command then exports the key without the primary key
2470 to the main machine.
2472 GnuPG may ask you to enter the passphrase for the key. This is
2473 required, because the internal protection method of the secret key
2474 is different from the one specified by the OpenPGP protocol.
2477 This command is used to export a key in the OpenSSH public key
2478 format. It requires the specification of one key by the usual
2479 means and exports the latest valid subkey which has an
2480 authentication capability to STDOUT or to the file given with
2481 option '--output'. That output can directly be added to ssh's
2482 'authorized_key' file.
2484 By specifying the key to export using a key ID or a fingerprint
2485 suffixed with an exclamation mark (!), a specific subkey or the
2486 primary key can be exported. This does not even require that the
2487 key has the authentication capability flag set.
2491 Import/merge keys. This adds the given keys to the keyring. The
2492 fast version is currently just a synonym.
2494 There are a few other options which control how this command works.
2495 Most notable here is the '--import-options merge-only' option which
2496 does not insert new keys but does only the merging of new
2497 signatures, user-IDs and subkeys.
2499 '--receive-keys key IDs'
2500 '--recv-keys key IDs'
2501 Import the keys with the given key IDs from a keyserver. Option
2502 '--keyserver' must be used to give the name of this keyserver.
2505 Request updates from a keyserver for keys that already exist on the
2506 local keyring. This is useful for updating a key with the latest
2507 signatures, user IDs, etc. Calling this with no arguments will
2508 refresh the entire keyring. Option '--keyserver' must be used to
2509 give the name of the keyserver for all keys that do not have
2510 preferred keyservers set (see '--keyserver-options
2511 honor-keyserver-url').
2513 '--search-keys names'
2514 Search the keyserver for the given names. Multiple names given
2515 here will be joined together to create the search string for the
2516 keyserver. Option '--keyserver' must be used to give the name of
2517 this keyserver. Keyservers that support different search methods
2518 allow using the syntax specified in "How to specify a user ID"
2519 below. Note that different keyserver types support different
2520 search methods. Currently only LDAP supports them all.
2523 Retrieve keys located at the specified URIs. Note that different
2524 installations of GnuPG may support different protocols (HTTP, FTP,
2525 LDAP, etc.). When using HTTPS the system provided root
2526 certificates are used by this command.
2529 Do trust database maintenance. This command iterates over all keys
2530 and builds the Web of Trust. This is an interactive command
2531 because it may have to ask for the "ownertrust" values for keys.
2532 The user has to give an estimation of how far she trusts the owner
2533 of the displayed key to correctly certify (sign) other keys. GnuPG
2534 only asks for the ownertrust value if it has not yet been assigned
2535 to a key. Using the '--edit-key' menu, the assigned value can be
2536 changed at any time.
2539 Do trust database maintenance without user interaction. From time
2540 to time the trust database must be updated so that expired keys or
2541 signatures and the resulting changes in the Web of Trust can be
2542 tracked. Normally, GnuPG will calculate when this is required and
2543 do it automatically unless '--no-auto-check-trustdb' is set. This
2544 command can be used to force a trust database check at any time.
2545 The processing is identical to that of '--update-trustdb' but it
2546 skips keys with a not yet defined "ownertrust".
2548 For use with cron jobs, this command can be used together with
2549 '--batch' in which case the trust database check is done only if a
2550 check is needed. To force a run even in batch mode add the option
2553 '--export-ownertrust'
2554 Send the ownertrust values to STDOUT. This is useful for backup
2555 purposes as these values are the only ones which can't be
2556 re-created from a corrupted trustdb. Example:
2557 gpg --export-ownertrust > otrust.txt
2559 '--import-ownertrust'
2560 Update the trustdb with the ownertrust values stored in 'files' (or
2561 STDIN if not given); existing values will be overwritten. In case
2562 of a severely damaged trustdb and if you have a recent backup of
2563 the ownertrust values (e.g. in the file 'otrust.txt'), you may
2564 re-create the trustdb using these commands:
2567 gpg --import-ownertrust < otrust.txt
2569 '--rebuild-keydb-caches'
2570 When updating from version 1.0.6 to 1.0.7 this command should be
2571 used to create signature caches in the keyring. It might be handy
2572 in other situations too.
2576 Print message digest of algorithm ALGO for all given files or
2577 STDIN. With the second form (or a deprecated "*" as algo) digests
2578 for all available algorithms are printed.
2580 '--gen-random 0|1|2 count'
2581 Emit COUNT random bytes of the given quality level 0, 1 or 2. If
2582 COUNT is not given or zero, an endless sequence of random bytes
2583 will be emitted. If used with '--armor' the output will be base64
2584 encoded. PLEASE, don't use this command unless you know what you
2585 are doing; it may remove precious entropy from the system!
2587 '--gen-prime mode bits'
2588 Use the source, Luke :-). The output format is still subject to
2593 Pack or unpack an arbitrary input into/from an OpenPGP ASCII armor.
2594 This is a GnuPG extension to OpenPGP and in general not very
2597 '--tofu-policy auto|good|unknown|bad|ask key...'
2598 Set the TOFU policy for all the bindings associated with the
2599 specified keys. For more information about the meaning of the
2600 policies, *note trust-model-tofu::. The keys may be specified
2601 either by their fingerprint (preferred) or their keyid.
2604 File: gnupg.info, Node: OpenPGP Key Management, Prev: Operational GPG Commands, Up: GPG Commands
2606 4.1.3 How to manage your keys
2607 -----------------------------
2609 This section explains the main commands for key management.
2611 '--quick-generate-key user-id [algo [usage [expire]]]'
2612 This is a simple command to generate a standard key with one user
2613 id. In contrast to '--generate-key' the key is generated directly
2614 without the need to answer a bunch of prompts. Unless the option
2615 '--yes' is given, the key creation will be canceled if the given
2616 user id already exists in the keyring.
2618 If invoked directly on the console without any special options an
2619 answer to a "Continue?" style confirmation prompt is required. In
2620 case the user id already exists in the keyring a second prompt to
2621 force the creation of the key will show up.
2623 If 'algo' or 'usage' are given, only the primary key is created and
2624 no prompts are shown. To specify an expiration date but still
2625 create a primary and subkey use "default" or "future-default" for
2626 'algo' and "default" for 'usage'. For a description of these
2627 optional arguments see the command '--quick-add-key'. The 'usage'
2628 accepts also the value "cert" which can be used to create a
2629 certification only primary key; the default is to a create
2630 certification and signing key.
2632 The 'expire' argument can be used to specify an expiration date for
2633 the key. Several formats are supported; commonly the ISO
2634 YYYY-MM-DD format is used. The values "never", "none" can be used
2635 for no expiration date. Not specifying a value, or using "-"
2636 results in a key expiring in a reasonable default interval.
2638 If this command is used with '--batch', '--pinentry-mode' has been
2639 set to 'loopback', and one of the passphrase options
2640 ('--passphrase', '--passphrase-fd', or 'passphrase-file') is used,
2641 the supplied passphrase is used for the new key and the agent does
2642 not ask for it. To create a key without any protection
2643 '--passphrase ''' may be used.
2645 '--quick-set-expire fpr expire'
2646 Directly set the expiration time of the primary key to 'expire'.
2647 To remove the expiration time '0' can be used.
2649 '--quick-add-key fpr [algo [usage [expire]]]'
2650 Directly add a subkey to the key identified by the fingerprint
2651 'fpr'. Without the optional arguments an encryption subkey is
2652 added. If any of the arguments are given a more specific subkey is
2655 'algo' may be any of the supported algorithms or curve names given
2656 in the format as used by key listings. To use the default
2657 algorithm the string "default" or "-" can be used. Supported
2658 algorithms are "rsa", "dsa", "elg", "ed25519", "cv25519", and other
2659 ECC curves. For example the string "rsa" adds an RSA key with the
2660 default key length; a string "rsa4096" requests that the key length
2661 is 4096 bits. The string "future-default" is an alias for the
2662 algorithm which will likely be used as default algorithm in future
2665 Depending on the given 'algo' the subkey may either be an
2666 encryption subkey or a signing subkey. If an algorithm is capable
2667 of signing and encryption and such a subkey is desired, a 'usage'
2668 string must be given. This string is either "default" or "-" to
2669 keep the default or a comma delimited list of keywords: "sign" for
2670 a signing subkey, "auth" for an authentication subkey, and "encr"
2671 for an encryption subkey ("encrypt" can be used as alias for
2672 "encr"). The valid combinations depend on the algorithm.
2674 The 'expire' argument can be used to specify an expiration date for
2675 the subkey. Several formats are supported; commonly the ISO
2676 YYYY-MM-DD format is used. The values "never", "none", or "-" can
2677 be used for no expiration date.
2681 Generate a new key pair using the current default parameters. This
2682 is the standard command to create a new key. In addition to the
2683 key a revocation certificate is created and stored in the
2684 'openpgp-revocs.d' directory below the GnuPG home directory.
2686 '--full-generate-key'
2688 Generate a new key pair with dialogs for all options. This is an
2689 extended version of '--generate-key'.
2691 There is also a feature which allows you to create keys in batch
2692 mode. See the manual section "Unattended key generation" on how to
2695 '--generate-revocation name'
2697 Generate a revocation certificate for the complete key. To only
2698 revoke a subkey or a key signature, use the '--edit' command.
2700 This command merely creates the revocation certificate so that it
2701 can be used to revoke the key if that is ever needed. To actually
2702 revoke a key the created revocation certificate needs to be merged
2703 with the key to revoke. This is done by importing the revocation
2704 certificate using the '--import' command. Then the revoked key
2705 needs to be published, which is best done by sending the key to a
2706 keyserver (command '--send-key') and by exporting ('--export') it
2707 to a file which is then send to frequent communication partners.
2709 '--generate-designated-revocation name'
2710 '--desig-revoke name'
2711 Generate a designated revocation certificate for a key. This
2712 allows a user (with the permission of the keyholder) to revoke
2716 Present a menu which enables you to do most of the key management
2717 related tasks. It expects the specification of a key on the
2721 Toggle selection of user ID or photographic user ID with index
2722 'n'. Use '*' to select all and '0' to deselect all.
2725 Toggle selection of subkey with index 'n' or key ID 'n'. Use
2726 '*' to select all and '0' to deselect all.
2729 Make a signature on key of user 'name'. If the key is not yet
2730 signed by the default user (or the users given with '-u'), the
2731 program displays the information of the key again, together
2732 with its fingerprint and asks whether it should be signed.
2733 This question is repeated for all users specified with '-u'.
2736 Same as "sign" but the signature is marked as non-exportable
2737 and will therefore never be used by others. This may be used
2738 to make keys valid only in the local environment.
2741 Same as "sign" but the signature is marked as non-revocable
2742 and can therefore never be revoked.
2745 Make a trust signature. This is a signature that combines the
2746 notions of certification (like a regular signature), and trust
2747 (like the "trust" command). It is generally only useful in
2748 distinct communities or groups. For more information please
2749 read the sections "Trust Signature" and "Regular Expression"
2752 Note that "l" (for local / non-exportable), "nr" (for
2753 non-revocable, and "t" (for trust) may be freely mixed and prefixed
2754 to "sign" to create a signature of any type desired.
2756 If the option '--only-sign-text-ids' is specified, then any
2757 non-text based user ids (e.g., photo IDs) will not be selected for
2761 Delete a signature. Note that it is not possible to retract a
2762 signature, once it has been send to the public (i.e. to a
2763 keyserver). In that case you better use 'revsig'.
2766 Revoke a signature. For every signature which has been
2767 generated by one of the secret keys, GnuPG asks whether a
2768 revocation certificate should be generated.
2771 Check the signatures on all selected user IDs. With the extra
2772 option 'selfsig' only self-signatures are shown.
2775 Create an additional user ID.
2778 Create a photographic user ID. This will prompt for a JPEG
2779 file that will be embedded into the user ID. Note that a very
2780 large JPEG will make for a very large key. Also note that
2781 some programs will display your JPEG unchanged (GnuPG), and
2782 some programs will scale it to fit in a dialog box (PGP).
2785 Display the selected photographic user ID.
2788 Delete a user ID or photographic user ID. Note that it is not
2789 possible to retract a user id, once it has been send to the
2790 public (i.e. to a keyserver). In that case you better use
2794 Revoke a user ID or photographic user ID.
2797 Flag the current user id as the primary one, removes the
2798 primary user id flag from all other user ids and sets the
2799 timestamp of all affected self-signatures one second ahead.
2800 Note that setting a photo user ID as primary makes it primary
2801 over other photo user IDs, and setting a regular user ID as
2802 primary makes it primary over other regular user IDs.
2805 Set a preferred keyserver for the specified user ID(s). This
2806 allows other users to know where you prefer they get your key
2807 from. See '--keyserver-options honor-keyserver-url' for more
2808 on how this works. Setting a value of "none" removes an
2809 existing preferred keyserver.
2812 Set a name=value notation for the specified user ID(s). See
2813 '--cert-notation' for more on how this works. Setting a value
2814 of "none" removes all notations, setting a notation prefixed
2815 with a minus sign (-) removes that notation, and setting a
2816 notation name (without the =value) prefixed with a minus sign
2817 removes all notations with that name.
2820 List preferences from the selected user ID. This shows the
2821 actual preferences, without including any implied preferences.
2824 More verbose preferences listing for the selected user ID.
2825 This shows the preferences in effect by including the implied
2826 preferences of 3DES (cipher), SHA-1 (digest), and Uncompressed
2827 (compression) if they are not already included in the
2828 preference list. In addition, the preferred keyserver and
2829 signature notations (if any) are shown.
2832 Set the list of user ID preferences to 'string' for all (or
2833 just the selected) user IDs. Calling setpref with no
2834 arguments sets the preference list to the default (either
2835 built-in or set via '--default-preference-list'), and calling
2836 setpref with "none" as the argument sets an empty preference
2837 list. Use 'gpg --version' to get a list of available
2838 algorithms. Note that while you can change the preferences on
2839 an attribute user ID (aka "photo ID"), GnuPG does not select
2840 keys via attribute user IDs so these preferences will not be
2843 When setting preferences, you should list the algorithms in
2844 the order which you'd like to see them used by someone else
2845 when encrypting a message to your key. If you don't include
2846 3DES, it will be automatically added at the end. Note that
2847 there are many factors that go into choosing an algorithm (for
2848 example, your key may not be the only recipient), and so the
2849 remote OpenPGP application being used to send to you may or
2850 may not follow your exact chosen order for a given message.
2851 It will, however, only choose an algorithm that is present on
2852 the preference list of every recipient key. See also the
2853 INTEROPERABILITY WITH OTHER OPENPGP PROGRAMS section below.
2856 Add a subkey to this key.
2859 Generate a subkey on a card and add it to this key.
2862 Transfer the selected secret subkey (or the primary key if no
2863 subkey has been selected) to a smartcard. The secret key in
2864 the keyring will be replaced by a stub if the key could be
2865 stored successfully on the card and you use the save command
2866 later. Only certain key types may be transferred to the card.
2867 A sub menu allows you to select on what card to store the key.
2868 Note that it is not possible to get that key back from the
2869 card - if the card gets broken your secret key will be lost
2870 unless you have a backup somewhere.
2873 Restore the given file to a card. This command may be used to
2874 restore a backup key (as generated during card initialization)
2875 to a new card. In almost all cases this will be the
2876 encryption key. You should use this command only with the
2877 corresponding public key and make sure that the file given as
2878 argument is indeed the backup to restore. You should then
2879 select 2 to restore as encryption key. You will first be
2880 asked to enter the passphrase of the backup key and then for
2881 the Admin PIN of the card.
2884 Remove a subkey (secondary key). Note that it is not possible
2885 to retract a subkey, once it has been send to the public (i.e.
2886 to a keyserver). In that case you better use 'revkey'. Also
2887 note that this only deletes the public part of a key.
2893 Change the key or subkey expiration time. If a subkey is
2894 selected, the expiration time of this subkey will be changed.
2895 With no selection, the key expiration of the primary key is
2899 Change the owner trust value for the key. This updates the
2900 trust-db immediately and no save is required.
2904 Disable or enable an entire key. A disabled key can not
2905 normally be used for encryption.
2908 Add a designated revoker to the key. This takes one optional
2909 argument: "sensitive". If a designated revoker is marked as
2910 sensitive, it will not be exported by default (see
2914 Change the passphrase of the secret key.
2917 This is dummy command which exists only for backward
2921 Compact (by removing all signatures except the selfsig) any
2922 user ID that is no longer usable (e.g. revoked, or expired).
2923 Then, remove any signatures that are not usable by the trust
2924 calculations. Specifically, this removes any signature that
2925 does not validate, any signature that is superseded by a later
2926 signature, revoked signatures, and signatures issued by keys
2927 that are not present on the keyring.
2930 Make the key as small as possible. This removes all
2931 signatures from each user ID except for the most recent
2935 Add cross-certification signatures to signing subkeys that may
2936 not currently have them. Cross-certification signatures
2937 protect against a subtle attack against signing subkeys. See
2938 '--require-cross-certification'. All new keys generated have
2939 this signature by default, so this command is only useful to
2940 bring older keys up to date.
2943 Save all changes to the keyrings and quit.
2946 Quit the program without updating the keyrings.
2948 The listing shows you the key with its secondary keys and all user
2949 ids. The primary user id is indicated by a dot, and selected keys
2950 or user ids are indicated by an asterisk. The trust value is
2951 displayed with the primary key: the first is the assigned owner
2952 trust and the second is the calculated trust value. Letters are
2953 used for the values:
2956 No ownertrust assigned / not yet calculated.
2959 Trust calculation has failed; probably due to an expired key.
2962 Not enough information for calculation.
2965 Never trust this key.
2977 Signs a public key with your secret key. This is a shortcut
2978 version of the subcommand "sign" from '--edit'.
2981 Signs a public key with your secret key but marks it as
2982 non-exportable. This is a shortcut version of the subcommand
2983 "lsign" from '--edit-key'.
2985 '--quick-sign-key fpr [names]'
2986 '--quick-lsign-key fpr [names]'
2987 Directly sign a key from the passphrase without any further user
2988 interaction. The 'fpr' must be the verified primary fingerprint of
2989 a key in the local keyring. If no 'names' are given, all useful
2990 user ids are signed; with given ['names'] only useful user ids
2991 matching one of theses names are signed. By default, or if a name
2992 is prefixed with a '*', a case insensitive substring match is used.
2993 If a name is prefixed with a '=' a case sensitive exact match is
2996 The command '--quick-lsign-key' marks the signatures as
2997 non-exportable. If such a non-exportable signature already exists
2998 the '--quick-sign-key' turns it into a exportable signature.
3000 This command uses reasonable defaults and thus does not provide the
3001 full flexibility of the "sign" subcommand from '--edit-key'. Its
3002 intended use is to help unattended key signing by utilizing a list
3003 of verified fingerprints.
3005 '--quick-add-uid USER-ID NEW-USER-ID'
3006 This command adds a new user id to an existing key. In contrast to
3007 the interactive sub-command 'adduid' of '--edit-key' the
3008 NEW-USER-ID is added verbatim with only leading and trailing white
3009 space removed, it is expected to be UTF-8 encoded, and no checks on
3010 its form are applied.
3012 '--quick-revoke-uid USER-ID USER-ID-TO-REVOKE'
3013 This command revokes a User ID on an existing key. It cannot be
3014 used to revoke the last User ID on key (some non-revoked User ID
3015 must remain), with revocation reason "User ID is no longer valid".
3016 If you want to specify a different revocation reason, or to supply
3017 supplementary revocation text, you should use the interactive
3018 sub-command 'revuid' of '--edit-key'.
3020 '--change-passphrase USER_ID'
3022 Change the passphrase of the secret key belonging to the
3023 certificate specified as USER_ID. This is a shortcut for the
3024 sub-command 'passwd' of the edit key menu.
3027 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPG Options, Next: GPG Configuration, Prev: GPG Commands, Up: Invoking GPG
3032 'gpg' features a bunch of options to control the exact behaviour and to
3033 change the default configuration.
3037 * GPG Configuration Options:: How to change the configuration.
3038 * GPG Key related Options:: Key related options.
3039 * GPG Input and Output:: Input and Output.
3040 * OpenPGP Options:: OpenPGP protocol specific options.
3041 * Compliance Options:: Compliance options.
3042 * GPG Esoteric Options:: Doing things one usually doesn't want to do.
3043 * Deprecated Options:: Deprecated options.
3045 Long options can be put in an options file (default
3046 "~/.gnupg/gpg.conf"). Short option names will not work - for example,
3047 "armor" is a valid option for the options file, while "a" is not. Do
3048 not write the 2 dashes, but simply the name of the option and any
3049 required arguments. Lines with a hash ('#') as the first
3050 non-white-space character are ignored. Commands may be put in this file
3051 too, but that is not generally useful as the command will execute
3052 automatically with every execution of gpg.
3054 Please remember that option parsing stops as soon as a non-option is
3055 encountered, you can explicitly stop parsing by using the special option
3059 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPG Configuration Options, Next: GPG Key related Options, Up: GPG Options
3061 4.2.1 How to change the configuration
3062 -------------------------------------
3064 These options are used to change the configuration and are usually found
3067 '--default-key NAME'
3068 Use NAME as the default key to sign with. If this option is not
3069 used, the default key is the first key found in the secret keyring.
3070 Note that '-u' or '--local-user' overrides this option. This
3071 option may be given multiple times. In this case, the last key for
3072 which a secret key is available is used. If there is no secret key
3073 available for any of the specified values, GnuPG will not emit an
3074 error message but continue as if this option wasn't given.
3076 '--default-recipient NAME'
3077 Use NAME as default recipient if option '--recipient' is not used
3078 and don't ask if this is a valid one. NAME must be non-empty.
3080 '--default-recipient-self'
3081 Use the default key as default recipient if option '--recipient' is
3082 not used and don't ask if this is a valid one. The default key is
3083 the first one from the secret keyring or the one set with
3086 '--no-default-recipient'
3087 Reset '--default-recipient' and '--default-recipient-self'.
3090 Give more information during processing. If used twice, the input
3091 data is listed in detail.
3094 Reset verbose level to 0.
3097 Try to be as quiet as possible.
3101 Use batch mode. Never ask, do not allow interactive commands.
3102 '--no-batch' disables this option. Note that even with a filename
3103 given on the command line, gpg might still need to read from STDIN
3104 (in particular if gpg figures that the input is a detached
3105 signature and no data file has been specified). Thus if you do not
3106 want to feed data via STDIN, you should connect STDIN to
3109 It is highly recommended to use this option along with the options
3110 '--status-fd' and '--with-colons' for any unattended of 'gpg'.
3113 Make sure that the TTY (terminal) is never used for any output.
3114 This option is needed in some cases because GnuPG sometimes prints
3115 warnings to the TTY even if '--batch' is used.
3118 Assume "yes" on most questions.
3121 Assume "no" on most questions.
3123 '--list-options parameters'
3124 This is a space or comma delimited string that gives options used
3125 when listing keys and signatures (that is, '--list-keys',
3126 '--list-signatures', '--list-public-keys', '--list-secret-keys',
3127 and the '--edit-key' functions). Options can be prepended with a
3128 'no-' (after the two dashes) to give the opposite meaning. The
3132 Causes '--list-keys', '--list-signatures',
3133 '--list-public-keys', and '--list-secret-keys' to display any
3134 photo IDs attached to the key. Defaults to no. See also
3135 '--photo-viewer'. Does not work with '--with-colons': see
3136 '--attribute-fd' for the appropriate way to get photo data for
3137 scripts and other frontends.
3140 Show usage information for keys and subkeys in the standard
3141 key listing. This is a list of letters indicating the allowed
3142 usage for a key ('E'=encryption, 'S'=signing,
3143 'C'=certification, 'A'=authentication). Defaults to yes.
3146 Show policy URLs in the '--list-signatures' or
3147 '--check-signatures' listings. Defaults to no.
3152 Show all, IETF standard, or user-defined signature notations
3153 in the '--list-signatures' or '--check-signatures' listings.
3157 Show any preferred keyserver URL in the '--list-signatures' or
3158 '--check-signatures' listings. Defaults to no.
3161 Display the calculated validity of user IDs during key
3162 listings. Defaults to yes.
3165 Show revoked and expired user IDs in key listings. Defaults
3168 show-unusable-subkeys
3169 Show revoked and expired subkeys in key listings. Defaults to
3173 Display the keyring name at the head of key listings to show
3174 which keyring a given key resides on. Defaults to no.
3177 Show signature expiration dates (if any) during
3178 '--list-signatures' or '--check-signatures' listings.
3182 Include signature subpackets in the key listing. This option
3183 can take an optional argument list of the subpackets to list.
3184 If no argument is passed, list all subpackets. Defaults to
3185 no. This option is only meaningful when using '--with-colons'
3186 along with '--list-signatures' or '--check-signatures'.
3188 '--verify-options parameters'
3189 This is a space or comma delimited string that gives options used
3190 when verifying signatures. Options can be prepended with a 'no-'
3191 to give the opposite meaning. The options are:
3194 Display any photo IDs present on the key that issued the
3195 signature. Defaults to no. See also '--photo-viewer'.
3198 Show policy URLs in the signature being verified. Defaults to
3204 Show all, IETF standard, or user-defined signature notations
3205 in the signature being verified. Defaults to IETF standard.
3208 Show any preferred keyserver URL in the signature being
3209 verified. Defaults to yes.
3212 Display the calculated validity of the user IDs on the key
3213 that issued the signature. Defaults to yes.
3216 Show revoked and expired user IDs during signature
3217 verification. Defaults to no.
3219 show-primary-uid-only
3220 Show only the primary user ID during signature verification.
3221 That is all the AKA lines as well as photo Ids are not shown
3222 with the signature verification status.
3225 Enable PKA lookups to verify sender addresses. Note that PKA
3226 is based on DNS, and so enabling this option may disclose
3227 information on when and what signatures are verified or to
3228 whom data is encrypted. This is similar to the "web bug"
3229 described for the '--auto-key-retrieve' option.
3232 Raise the trust in a signature to full if the signature passes
3233 PKA validation. This option is only meaningful if pka-lookups
3236 '--enable-large-rsa'
3237 '--disable-large-rsa'
3238 With -generate-key and -batch, enable the creation of RSA secret
3239 keys as large as 8192 bit. Note: 8192 bit is more than is
3240 generally recommended. These large keys don't significantly
3241 improve security, but they are more expensive to use, and their
3242 signatures and certifications are larger. This option is only
3243 available if the binary was build with large-secmem support.
3247 Enable hash truncation for all DSA keys even for old DSA Keys up to
3248 1024 bit. This is also the default with '--openpgp'. Note that
3249 older versions of GnuPG also required this flag to allow the
3250 generation of DSA larger than 1024 bit.
3252 '--photo-viewer string'
3253 This is the command line that should be run to view a photo ID.
3254 "%i" will be expanded to a filename containing the photo. "%I"
3255 does the same, except the file will not be deleted once the viewer
3256 exits. Other flags are "%k" for the key ID, "%K" for the long key
3257 ID, "%f" for the key fingerprint, "%t" for the extension of the
3258 image type (e.g. "jpg"), "%T" for the MIME type of the image (e.g.
3259 "image/jpeg"), "%v" for the single-character calculated validity of
3260 the image being viewed (e.g. "f"), "%V" for the calculated
3261 validity as a string (e.g. "full"), "%U" for a base32 encoded hash
3262 of the user ID, and "%%" for an actual percent sign. If neither %i
3263 or %I are present, then the photo will be supplied to the viewer on
3266 The default viewer is "xloadimage -fork -quiet -title 'KeyID 0x%k'
3267 STDIN". Note that if your image viewer program is not secure, then
3268 executing it from GnuPG does not make it secure.
3270 '--exec-path string'
3271 Sets a list of directories to search for photo viewers and
3272 keyserver helpers. If not provided, keyserver helpers use the
3273 compiled-in default directory, and photo viewers use the 'PATH'
3274 environment variable. Note, that on W32 system this value is
3275 ignored when searching for keyserver helpers.
3278 Add 'file' to the current list of keyrings. If 'file' begins with
3279 a tilde and a slash, these are replaced by the $HOME directory. If
3280 the filename does not contain a slash, it is assumed to be in the
3281 GnuPG home directory ("~/.gnupg" if '--homedir' or $GNUPGHOME is
3284 Note that this adds a keyring to the current list. If the intent
3285 is to use the specified keyring alone, use '--keyring' along with
3286 '--no-default-keyring'.
3288 If the the option '--no-keyring' has been used no keyrings will be
3291 '--secret-keyring file'
3292 This is an obsolete option and ignored. All secret keys are stored
3293 in the 'private-keys-v1.d' directory below the GnuPG home
3296 '--primary-keyring file'
3297 Designate 'file' as the primary public keyring. This means that
3298 newly imported keys (via '--import' or keyserver '--recv-from')
3299 will go to this keyring.
3301 '--trustdb-name file'
3302 Use 'file' instead of the default trustdb. If 'file' begins with a
3303 tilde and a slash, these are replaced by the $HOME directory. If
3304 the filename does not contain a slash, it is assumed to be in the
3305 GnuPG home directory ('~/.gnupg' if '--homedir' or $GNUPGHOME is
3309 Set the name of the home directory to DIR. If this option is not
3310 used, the home directory defaults to '~/.gnupg'. It is only
3311 recognized when given on the command line. It also overrides any
3312 home directory stated through the environment variable 'GNUPGHOME'
3313 or (on Windows systems) by means of the Registry entry
3314 HKCU\SOFTWARE\GNU\GNUPG:HOMEDIR.
3316 On Windows systems it is possible to install GnuPG as a portable
3317 application. In this case only this command line option is
3318 considered, all other ways to set a home directory are ignored.
3320 To install GnuPG as a portable application under Windows, create an
3321 empty file named 'gpgconf.ctl' in the same directory as the tool
3322 'gpgconf.exe'. The root of the installation is then that
3323 directory; or, if 'gpgconf.exe' has been installed directly below a
3324 directory named 'bin', its parent directory. You also need to make
3325 sure that the following directories exist and are writable:
3326 'ROOT/home' for the GnuPG home and 'ROOT/usr/local/var/cache/gnupg'
3327 for internal cache files.
3329 '--display-charset name'
3330 Set the name of the native character set. This is used to convert
3331 some informational strings like user IDs to the proper UTF-8
3332 encoding. Note that this has nothing to do with the character set
3333 of data to be encrypted or signed; GnuPG does not recode
3334 user-supplied data. If this option is not used, the default
3335 character set is determined from the current locale. A verbosity
3336 level of 3 shows the chosen set. Valid values for 'name' are:
3339 This is the Latin 1 set.
3345 This is currently an alias for the Latin 1 set.
3348 The usual Russian set (RFC-1489).
3351 Bypass all translations and assume that the OS uses native
3356 Assume that command line arguments are given as UTF-8 strings. The
3357 default ('--no-utf8-strings') is to assume that arguments are
3358 encoded in the character set as specified by '--display-charset'.
3359 These options affect all following arguments. Both options may be
3360 used multiple times.
3363 Read options from 'file' and do not try to read them from the
3364 default options file in the homedir (see '--homedir'). This option
3365 is ignored if used in an options file.
3368 Shortcut for '--options /dev/null'. This option is detected before
3369 an attempt to open an option file. Using this option will also
3370 prevent the creation of a '~/.gnupg' homedir.
3373 '--compress-level n'
3374 '--bzip2-compress-level n'
3375 Set compression level to 'n' for the ZIP and ZLIB compression
3376 algorithms. The default is to use the default compression level of
3377 zlib (normally 6). '--bzip2-compress-level' sets the compression
3378 level for the BZIP2 compression algorithm (defaulting to 6 as
3379 well). This is a different option from '--compress-level' since
3380 BZIP2 uses a significant amount of memory for each additional
3381 compression level. '-z' sets both. A value of 0 for 'n' disables
3384 '--bzip2-decompress-lowmem'
3385 Use a different decompression method for BZIP2 compressed files.
3386 This alternate method uses a bit more than half the memory, but
3387 also runs at half the speed. This is useful under extreme low
3388 memory circumstances when the file was originally compressed at a
3389 high '--bzip2-compress-level'.
3391 '--mangle-dos-filenames'
3392 '--no-mangle-dos-filenames'
3393 Older version of Windows cannot handle filenames with more than one
3394 dot. '--mangle-dos-filenames' causes GnuPG to replace (rather than
3395 add to) the extension of an output filename to avoid this problem.
3396 This option is off by default and has no effect on non-Windows
3400 '--no-ask-cert-level'
3401 When making a key signature, prompt for a certification level. If
3402 this option is not specified, the certification level used is set
3403 via '--default-cert-level'. See '--default-cert-level' for
3404 information on the specific levels and how they are used.
3405 '--no-ask-cert-level' disables this option. This option defaults
3408 '--default-cert-level n'
3409 The default to use for the check level when signing a key.
3411 0 means you make no particular claim as to how carefully you
3414 1 means you believe the key is owned by the person who claims to
3415 own it but you could not, or did not verify the key at all. This
3416 is useful for a "persona" verification, where you sign the key of a
3419 2 means you did casual verification of the key. For example, this
3420 could mean that you verified the key fingerprint and checked the
3421 user ID on the key against a photo ID.
3423 3 means you did extensive verification of the key. For example,
3424 this could mean that you verified the key fingerprint with the
3425 owner of the key in person, and that you checked, by means of a
3426 hard to forge document with a photo ID (such as a passport) that
3427 the name of the key owner matches the name in the user ID on the
3428 key, and finally that you verified (by exchange of email) that the
3429 email address on the key belongs to the key owner.
3431 Note that the examples given above for levels 2 and 3 are just
3432 that: examples. In the end, it is up to you to decide just what
3433 "casual" and "extensive" mean to you.
3435 This option defaults to 0 (no particular claim).
3438 When building the trust database, treat any signatures with a
3439 certification level below this as invalid. Defaults to 2, which
3440 disregards level 1 signatures. Note that level 0 "no particular
3441 claim" signatures are always accepted.
3443 '--trusted-key long key ID'
3444 Assume that the specified key (which must be given as a full 8 byte
3445 key ID) is as trustworthy as one of your own secret keys. This
3446 option is useful if you don't want to keep your secret keys (or one
3447 of them) online but still want to be able to check the validity of
3448 a given recipient's or signator's key.
3450 '--trust-model pgp|classic|tofu|tofu+pgp|direct|always|auto'
3451 Set what trust model GnuPG should follow. The models are:
3454 This is the Web of Trust combined with trust signatures as
3455 used in PGP 5.x and later. This is the default trust model
3456 when creating a new trust database.
3459 This is the standard Web of Trust as introduced by PGP 2.
3462 TOFU stands for Trust On First Use. In this trust model, the
3463 first time a key is seen, it is memorized. If later another
3464 key is seen with a user id with the same email address, a
3465 warning is displayed indicating that there is a conflict and
3466 that the key might be a forgery and an attempt at a
3467 man-in-the-middle attack.
3469 Because a potential attacker is able to control the email
3470 address and thereby circumvent the conflict detection
3471 algorithm by using an email address that is similar in
3472 appearance to a trusted email address, whenever a message is
3473 verified, statistics about the number of messages signed with
3474 the key are shown. In this way, a user can easily identify
3475 attacks using fake keys for regular correspondents.
3477 When compared with the Web of Trust, TOFU offers significantly
3478 weaker security guarantees. In particular, TOFU only helps
3479 ensure consistency (that is, that the binding between a key
3480 and email address doesn't change). A major advantage of TOFU
3481 is that it requires little maintenance to use correctly. To
3482 use the web of trust properly, you need to actively sign keys
3483 and mark users as trusted introducers. This is a
3484 time-consuming process and anecdotal evidence suggests that
3485 even security-conscious users rarely take the time to do this
3486 thoroughly and instead rely on an ad-hoc TOFU process.
3488 In the TOFU model, policies are associated with bindings
3489 between keys and email addresses (which are extracted from
3490 user ids and normalized). There are five policies, which can
3491 be set manually using the '--tofu-policy' option. The default
3492 policy can be set using the '--tofu-default-policy' option.
3494 The TOFU policies are: 'auto', 'good', 'unknown', 'bad' and
3495 'ask'. The 'auto' policy is used by default (unless
3496 overridden by '--tofu-default-policy') and marks a binding as
3497 marginally trusted. The 'good', 'unknown' and 'bad' policies
3498 mark a binding as fully trusted, as having unknown trust or as
3499 having trust never, respectively. The 'unknown' policy is
3500 useful for just using TOFU to detect conflicts, but to never
3501 assign positive trust to a binding. The final policy, 'ask'
3502 prompts the user to indicate the binding's trust. If batch
3503 mode is enabled (or input is inappropriate in the context),
3504 then the user is not prompted and the 'undefined' trust level
3508 This trust model combines TOFU with the Web of Trust. This is
3509 done by computing the trust level for each model and then
3510 taking the maximum trust level where the trust levels are
3511 ordered as follows: 'unknown < undefined < marginal < fully <
3512 ultimate < expired < never'.
3514 By setting '--tofu-default-policy=unknown', this model can be
3515 used to implement the web of trust with TOFU's conflict
3516 detection algorithm, but without its assignment of positive
3517 trust values, which some security-conscious users don't like.
3520 Key validity is set directly by the user and not calculated
3521 via the Web of Trust.
3524 Skip key validation and assume that used keys are always fully
3525 valid. You generally won't use this unless you are using some
3526 external validation scheme. This option also suppresses the
3527 "[uncertain]" tag printed with signature checks when there is
3528 no evidence that the user ID is bound to the key. Note that
3529 this trust model still does not allow the use of expired,
3530 revoked, or disabled keys.
3533 Select the trust model depending on whatever the internal
3534 trust database says. This is the default model if such a
3535 database already exists.
3537 '--auto-key-locate parameters'
3538 '--no-auto-key-locate'
3539 GnuPG can automatically locate and retrieve keys as needed using
3540 this option. This happens when encrypting to an email address (in
3541 the "user@example.com" form), and there are no user@example.com
3542 keys on the local keyring. This option takes any number of the
3543 following mechanisms, in the order they are to be tried:
3546 Locate a key using DNS CERT, as specified in RFC-4398.
3549 Locate a key using DNS PKA.
3552 Locate a key using DANE, as specified in
3553 draft-ietf-dane-openpgpkey-05.txt.
3556 Locate a key using the Web Key Directory protocol. This is an
3557 experimental method and semantics may change.
3560 Using DNS Service Discovery, check the domain in question for
3561 any LDAP keyservers to use. If this fails, attempt to locate
3562 the key using the PGP Universal method of checking
3563 'ldap://keys.(thedomain)'.
3566 Locate a key using whatever keyserver is defined using the
3567 '--keyserver' option.
3570 In addition, a keyserver URL as used in the '--keyserver'
3571 option may be used here to query that particular keyserver.
3574 Locate the key using the local keyrings. This mechanism
3575 allows the user to select the order a local key lookup is
3576 done. Thus using '--auto-key-locate local' is identical to
3577 '--no-auto-key-locate'.
3580 This flag disables the standard local key lookup, done before
3581 any of the mechanisms defined by the '--auto-key-locate' are
3582 tried. The position of this mechanism in the list does not
3583 matter. It is not required if 'local' is also used.
3586 Clear all defined mechanisms. This is useful to override
3587 mechanisms given in a config file.
3589 '--auto-key-retrieve'
3590 '--no-auto-key-retrieve'
3591 This option enables the automatic retrieving of keys from a
3592 keyserver when verifying signatures made by keys that are not on
3595 If the method "wkd" is included in the list of methods given to
3596 'auto-key-locate', the Signer's User ID is part of the signature,
3597 and the option '--disable-signer-uid' is not used, the "wkd" method
3598 may also be used to retrieve a key.
3600 Note that this option makes a "web bug" like behavior possible.
3601 Keyserver or Web Key Directory operators can see which keys you
3602 request, so by sending you a message signed by a brand new key
3603 (which you naturally will not have on your local keyring), the
3604 operator can tell both your IP address and the time when you
3605 verified the signature.
3607 '--keyid-format none|short|0xshort|long|0xlong'
3608 Select how to display key IDs. "none" does not show the key ID at
3609 all but shows the fingerprint in a separate line. "short" is the
3610 traditional 8-character key ID. "long" is the more accurate (but
3611 less convenient) 16-character key ID. Add an "0x" to either to
3612 include an "0x" at the beginning of the key ID, as in 0x99242560.
3613 Note that this option is ignored if the option '--with-colons' is
3617 This option is deprecated - please use the '--keyserver' in
3618 'dirmngr.conf' instead.
3620 Use 'name' as your keyserver. This is the server that
3621 '--receive-keys', '--send-keys', and '--search-keys' will
3622 communicate with to receive keys from, send keys to, and search for
3623 keys on. The format of the 'name' is a URI:
3624 'scheme:[//]keyservername[:port]' The scheme is the type of
3625 keyserver: "hkp" for the HTTP (or compatible) keyservers, "ldap"
3626 for the LDAP keyservers, or "mailto" for the Graff email keyserver.
3627 Note that your particular installation of GnuPG may have other
3628 keyserver types available as well. Keyserver schemes are
3629 case-insensitive. After the keyserver name, optional keyserver
3630 configuration options may be provided. These are the same as the
3631 global '--keyserver-options' from below, but apply only to this
3632 particular keyserver.
3634 Most keyservers synchronize with each other, so there is generally
3635 no need to send keys to more than one server. The keyserver
3636 'hkp://keys.gnupg.net' uses round robin DNS to give a different
3637 keyserver each time you use it.
3639 '--keyserver-options name=value'
3640 This is a space or comma delimited string that gives options for
3641 the keyserver. Options can be prefixed with a 'no-' to give the
3642 opposite meaning. Valid import-options or export-options may be
3643 used here as well to apply to importing ('--recv-key') or exporting
3644 ('--send-key') a key from a keyserver. While not all options are
3645 available for all keyserver types, some common options are:
3648 When searching for a key with '--search-keys', include keys
3649 that are marked on the keyserver as revoked. Note that not
3650 all keyservers differentiate between revoked and unrevoked
3651 keys, and for such keyservers this option is meaningless.
3652 Note also that most keyservers do not have cryptographic
3653 verification of key revocations, and so turning this option
3654 off may result in skipping keys that are incorrectly marked as
3658 When searching for a key with '--search-keys', include keys
3659 that are marked on the keyserver as disabled. Note that this
3660 option is not used with HKP keyservers.
3663 This is the same as the option 'auto-key-retrieve'.
3666 When using '--refresh-keys', if the key in question has a
3667 preferred keyserver URL, then use that preferred keyserver to
3668 refresh the key from. In addition, if auto-key-retrieve is
3669 set, and the signature being verified has a preferred
3670 keyserver URL, then use that preferred keyserver to fetch the
3671 key from. Note that this option introduces a "web bug": The
3672 creator of the key can see when the keys is refreshed. Thus
3673 this option is not enabled by default.
3676 If '--auto-key-retrieve' is used, and the signature being
3677 verified has a PKA record, then use the PKA information to
3678 fetch the key. Defaults to "yes".
3681 When receiving a key, include subkeys as potential targets.
3682 Note that this option is not used with HKP keyservers, as they
3683 do not support retrieving keys by subkey id.
3686 Tell the keyserver helper program how long (in seconds) to try
3687 and perform a keyserver action before giving up. Note that
3688 performing multiple actions at the same time uses this timeout
3689 value per action. For example, when retrieving multiple keys
3690 via '--receive-keys', the timeout applies separately to each
3691 key retrieval, and not to the '--receive-keys' command as a
3692 whole. Defaults to 30 seconds.
3695 This option is deprecated. Set the proxy to use for HTTP and
3696 HKP keyservers. This overrides any proxy defined in
3700 This option has no more function since GnuPG 2.1. Use the
3701 'dirmngr' configuration options instead.
3704 This option has no more function since GnuPG 2.1. Use the
3705 'dirmngr' configuration options instead.
3708 This option has no more function since GnuPG 2.1. Use the
3709 'dirmngr' configuration options instead.
3712 This option has no more function since GnuPG 2.1. Use the
3713 'dirmngr' configuration options instead.
3715 '--completes-needed n'
3716 Number of completely trusted users to introduce a new key signer
3719 '--marginals-needed n'
3720 Number of marginally trusted users to introduce a new key signer
3723 '--tofu-default-policy auto|good|unknown|bad|ask'
3724 The default TOFU policy (defaults to 'auto'). For more information
3725 about the meaning of this option, *note trust-model-tofu::.
3727 '--max-cert-depth n'
3728 Maximum depth of a certification chain (default is 5).
3731 Do not cache the verification status of key signatures. Caching
3732 gives a much better performance in key listings. However, if you
3733 suspect that your public keyring is not safe against write
3734 modifications, you can use this option to disable the caching. It
3735 probably does not make sense to disable it because all kind of
3736 damage can be done if someone else has write access to your public
3739 '--auto-check-trustdb'
3740 '--no-auto-check-trustdb'
3741 If GnuPG feels that its information about the Web of Trust has to
3742 be updated, it automatically runs the '--check-trustdb' command
3743 internally. This may be a time consuming process.
3744 '--no-auto-check-trustdb' disables this option.
3748 This is dummy option. 'gpg' always requires the agent.
3751 This is dummy option. It has no effect when used with 'gpg'.
3753 '--agent-program FILE'
3754 Specify an agent program to be used for secret key operations. The
3755 default value is determined by running 'gpgconf' with the option
3756 '--list-dirs'. Note that the pipe symbol ('|') is used for a
3757 regression test suite hack and may thus not be used in the file
3760 '--dirmngr-program FILE'
3761 Specify a dirmngr program to be used for keyserver access. The
3762 default value is '/usr/local/bin/dirmngr'.
3765 Do not start the gpg-agent or the dirmngr if it has not yet been
3766 started and its service is required. This option is mostly useful
3767 on machines where the connection to gpg-agent has been redirected
3768 to another machines. If dirmngr is required on the remote machine,
3769 it may be started manually using 'gpgconf --launch dirmngr'.
3772 Lock the databases the first time a lock is requested and do not
3773 release the lock until the process terminates.
3776 Release the locks every time a lock is no longer needed. Use this
3777 to override a previous '--lock-once' from a config file.
3780 Disable locking entirely. This option should be used only in very
3781 special environments, where it can be assured that only one process
3782 is accessing those files. A bootable floppy with a stand-alone
3783 encryption system will probably use this. Improper usage of this
3784 option may lead to data and key corruption.
3786 '--exit-on-status-write-error'
3787 This option will cause write errors on the status FD to immediately
3788 terminate the process. That should in fact be the default but it
3789 never worked this way and thus we need an option to enable this, so
3790 that the change won't break applications which close their end of a
3791 status fd connected pipe too early. Using this option along with
3792 '--enable-progress-filter' may be used to cleanly cancel long
3793 running gpg operations.
3795 '--limit-card-insert-tries n'
3796 With 'n' greater than 0 the number of prompts asking to insert a
3797 smartcard gets limited to N-1. Thus with a value of 1 gpg won't at
3798 all ask to insert a card if none has been inserted at startup.
3799 This option is useful in the configuration file in case an
3800 application does not know about the smartcard support and waits ad
3801 infinitum for an inserted card.
3803 '--no-random-seed-file'
3804 GnuPG uses a file to store its internal random pool over
3805 invocations. This makes random generation faster; however
3806 sometimes write operations are not desired. This option can be
3807 used to achieve that with the cost of slower random generation.
3810 Suppress the initial copyright message.
3812 '--no-secmem-warning'
3813 Suppress the warning about "using insecure memory".
3815 '--no-permission-warning'
3816 Suppress the warning about unsafe file and home directory
3817 ('--homedir') permissions. Note that the permission checks that
3818 GnuPG performs are not intended to be authoritative, but rather
3819 they simply warn about certain common permission problems. Do not
3820 assume that the lack of a warning means that your system is secure.
3822 Note that the warning for unsafe '--homedir' permissions cannot be
3823 suppressed in the gpg.conf file, as this would allow an attacker to
3824 place an unsafe gpg.conf file in place, and use this file to
3825 suppress warnings about itself. The '--homedir' permissions
3826 warning may only be suppressed on the command line.
3829 Suppress the warning about missing MDC integrity protection.
3832 '--no-require-secmem'
3833 Refuse to run if GnuPG cannot get secure memory. Defaults to no
3834 (i.e. run, but give a warning).
3836 '--require-cross-certification'
3837 '--no-require-cross-certification'
3838 When verifying a signature made from a subkey, ensure that the
3839 cross certification "back signature" on the subkey is present and
3840 valid. This protects against a subtle attack against subkeys that
3841 can sign. Defaults to '--require-cross-certification' for 'gpg'.
3845 Allow the user to do certain nonsensical or "silly" things like
3846 signing an expired or revoked key, or certain potentially
3847 incompatible things like generating unusual key types. This also
3848 disables certain warning messages about potentially incompatible
3849 actions. As the name implies, this option is for experts only. If
3850 you don't fully understand the implications of what it allows you
3851 to do, leave this off. '--no-expert' disables this option.
3854 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPG Key related Options, Next: GPG Input and Output, Prev: GPG Configuration Options, Up: GPG Options
3856 4.2.2 Key related options
3857 -------------------------
3861 Encrypt for user id NAME. If this option or '--hidden-recipient'
3862 is not specified, GnuPG asks for the user-id unless
3863 '--default-recipient' is given.
3865 '--hidden-recipient NAME'
3867 Encrypt for user ID NAME, but hide the key ID of this user's key.
3868 This option helps to hide the receiver of the message and is a
3869 limited countermeasure against traffic analysis. If this option or
3870 '--recipient' is not specified, GnuPG asks for the user ID unless
3871 '--default-recipient' is given.
3873 '--recipient-file FILE'
3875 This option is similar to '--recipient' except that it encrypts to
3876 a key stored in the given file. FILE must be the name of a file
3877 containing exactly one key. 'gpg' assumes that the key in this
3878 file is fully valid.
3880 '--hidden-recipient-file FILE'
3882 This option is similar to '--hidden-recipient' except that it
3883 encrypts to a key stored in the given file. FILE must be the name
3884 of a file containing exactly one key. 'gpg' assumes that the key
3885 in this file is fully valid.
3888 Same as '--recipient' but this one is intended for use in the
3889 options file and may be used with your own user-id as an
3890 "encrypt-to-self". These keys are only used when there are other
3891 recipients given either by use of '--recipient' or by the asked
3892 user id. No trust checking is performed for these user ids and
3893 even disabled keys can be used.
3895 '--hidden-encrypt-to name'
3896 Same as '--hidden-recipient' but this one is intended for use in
3897 the options file and may be used with your own user-id as a hidden
3898 "encrypt-to-self". These keys are only used when there are other
3899 recipients given either by use of '--recipient' or by the asked
3900 user id. No trust checking is performed for these user ids and
3901 even disabled keys can be used.
3904 Disable the use of all '--encrypt-to' and '--hidden-encrypt-to'
3907 '--group name=value'
3908 Sets up a named group, which is similar to aliases in email
3909 programs. Any time the group name is a recipient ('-r' or
3910 '--recipient'), it will be expanded to the values specified.
3911 Multiple groups with the same name are automatically merged into a
3914 The values are 'key IDs' or fingerprints, but any key description
3915 is accepted. Note that a value with spaces in it will be treated
3916 as two different values. Note also there is only one level of
3917 expansion -- you cannot make an group that points to another group.
3918 When used from the command line, it may be necessary to quote the
3919 argument to this option to prevent the shell from treating it as
3923 Remove a given entry from the '--group' list.
3926 Remove all entries from the '--group' list.
3930 Use NAME as the key to sign with. Note that this option overrides
3934 This option has two purposes. MBOX must either be a complete user
3935 id with a proper mail address or just a mail address. When
3936 creating a signature this option tells gpg the user id of a key
3937 used to make a signature if the key was not directly specified by a
3938 user id. When verifying a signature the MBOX is used to restrict
3939 the information printed by the TOFU code to matching user ids.
3941 '--try-secret-key NAME'
3942 For hidden recipients GPG needs to know the keys to use for trial
3943 decryption. The key set with '--default-key' is always tried
3944 first, but this is often not sufficient. This option allows
3945 setting more keys to be used for trial decryption. Although any
3946 valid user-id specification may be used for NAME it makes sense to
3947 use at least the long keyid to avoid ambiguities. Note that
3948 gpg-agent might pop up a pinentry for a lot keys to do the trial
3949 decryption. If you want to stop all further trial decryption you
3950 may use close-window button instead of the cancel button.
3953 Don't look at the key ID as stored in the message but try all
3954 secret keys in turn to find the right decryption key. This option
3955 forces the behaviour as used by anonymous recipients (created by
3956 using '--throw-keyids' or '--hidden-recipient') and might come
3957 handy in case where an encrypted message contains a bogus key ID.
3959 '--skip-hidden-recipients'
3960 '--no-skip-hidden-recipients'
3961 During decryption skip all anonymous recipients. This option helps
3962 in the case that people use the hidden recipients feature to hide
3963 there own encrypt-to key from others. If oneself has many secret
3964 keys this may lead to a major annoyance because all keys are tried
3965 in turn to decrypt something which was not really intended for it.
3966 The drawback of this option is that it is currently not possible to
3967 decrypt a message which includes real anonymous recipients.
3970 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPG Input and Output, Next: OpenPGP Options, Prev: GPG Key related Options, Up: GPG Options
3972 4.2.3 Input and Output
3973 ----------------------
3977 Create ASCII armored output. The default is to create the binary
3981 Assume the input data is not in ASCII armored format.
3985 Write output to FILE. To write to stdout use '-' as the filename.
3988 This option sets a limit on the number of bytes that will be
3989 generated when processing a file. Since OpenPGP supports various
3990 levels of compression, it is possible that the plaintext of a given
3991 message may be significantly larger than the original OpenPGP
3992 message. While GnuPG works properly with such messages, there is
3993 often a desire to set a maximum file size that will be generated
3994 before processing is forced to stop by the OS limits. Defaults to
3995 0, which means "no limit".
3997 '--input-size-hint N'
3998 This option can be used to tell GPG the size of the input data in
3999 bytes. N must be a positive base-10 number. This option is only
4000 useful if the input is not taken from a file. GPG may use this
4001 hint to optimize its buffer allocation strategy. It is also used
4002 by the '--status-fd' line "PROGRESS" to provide a value for "total"
4003 if that is not available by other means.
4005 '--import-options parameters'
4006 This is a space or comma delimited string that gives options for
4007 importing keys. Options can be prepended with a 'no-' to give the
4008 opposite meaning. The options are:
4011 Allow importing key signatures marked as "local". This is not
4012 generally useful unless a shared keyring scheme is being used.
4016 Normally possible still existing ownertrust values of a key
4017 are cleared if a key is imported. This is in general
4018 desirable so that a formerly deleted key does not
4019 automatically gain an ownertrust values merely due to import.
4020 On the other hand it is sometimes necessary to re-import a
4021 trusted set of keys again but keeping already assigned
4022 ownertrust values. This can be achieved by using this option.
4024 repair-pks-subkey-bug
4025 During import, attempt to repair the damage caused by the PKS
4026 keyserver bug (pre version 0.9.6) that mangles keys with
4027 multiple subkeys. Note that this cannot completely repair the
4028 damaged key as some crucial data is removed by the keyserver,
4029 but it does at least give you back one subkey. Defaults to no
4030 for regular '--import' and to yes for keyserver
4034 Show a listing of the key as imported right before it is
4035 stored. This can be combined with the option '--dry-run' to
4039 Run the entire import code but instead of storing the key to
4040 the local keyring write it to the output. The export options
4041 'export-pka' and 'export-dane' affect the output. This option
4042 can be used to remove all invalid parts from a key without the
4046 During import, allow key updates to existing keys, but do not
4047 allow any new keys to be imported. Defaults to no.
4050 After import, compact (remove all signatures except the
4051 self-signature) any user IDs from the new key that are not
4052 usable. Then, remove any signatures from the new key that are
4053 not usable. This includes signatures that were issued by keys
4054 that are not present on the keyring. This option is the same
4055 as running the '--edit-key' command "clean" after import.
4059 Import the smallest key possible. This removes all signatures
4060 except the most recent self-signature on each user ID. This
4061 option is the same as running the '--edit-key' command
4062 "minimize" after import. Defaults to no.
4066 Import in key restore mode. This imports all data which is
4067 usually skipped during import; including all GnuPG specific
4068 data. All other contradicting options are overridden.
4070 '--import-filter NAME=EXPR'
4071 '--export-filter NAME=EXPR'
4072 These options define an import/export filter which are applied to
4073 the imported/exported keyblock right before it will be
4074 stored/written. NAME defines the type of filter to use, EXPR the
4075 expression to evaluate. The option can be used several times which
4076 then appends more expression to the same NAME.
4078 The available filter types are:
4081 This filter will keep a user id packet and its dependent
4082 packets in the keyblock if the expression evaluates to true.
4085 This filter drops the selected subkeys. Currently only
4086 implemented for -export-filter.
4089 This filter drops the selected key signatures on user ids.
4090 Self-signatures are not considered. Currently only
4091 implemented for -import-filter.
4093 For the syntax of the expression see the chapter "FILTER
4094 EXPRESSIONS". The property names for the expressions depend on the
4095 actual filter type and are indicated in the following table.
4097 The available properties are:
4100 A string with the user id. (keep-uid)
4103 The addr-spec part of a user id with mailbox or the empty
4107 A number with the public key algorithm of a key or subkey
4108 packet. (drop-subkey)
4112 The first is the timestamp a public key or subkey packet was
4113 created. The second is the same but given as an ISO string,
4114 e.g. "2016-08-17". (drop-subkey)
4117 Boolean indicating whether the user id is the primary one.
4121 Boolean indicating whether a key or subkey is a secret one.
4126 The first is the timestamp a signature packet was created.
4127 The second is the same but given as an ISO string, e.g.
4128 "2016-08-17". (drop-sig)
4131 A number with the public key algorithm of a signature packet.
4135 A number with the digest algorithm of a signature packet.
4138 '--export-options parameters'
4139 This is a space or comma delimited string that gives options for
4140 exporting keys. Options can be prepended with a 'no-' to give the
4141 opposite meaning. The options are:
4144 Allow exporting key signatures marked as "local". This is not
4145 generally useful unless a shared keyring scheme is being used.
4149 Include attribute user IDs (photo IDs) while exporting. This
4150 is useful to export keys if they are going to be used by an
4151 OpenPGP program that does not accept attribute user IDs.
4154 export-sensitive-revkeys
4155 Include designated revoker information that was marked as
4156 "sensitive". Defaults to no.
4160 Export for use as a backup. The exported data includes all
4161 data which is needed to restore the key or keys later with
4162 GnuPG. The format is basically the OpenPGP format but enhanced
4163 with GnuPG specific data. All other contradicting options are
4167 Compact (remove all signatures from) user IDs on the key being
4168 exported if the user IDs are not usable. Also, do not export
4169 any signatures that are not usable. This includes signatures
4170 that were issued by keys that are not present on the keyring.
4171 This option is the same as running the '--edit-key' command
4172 "clean" before export except that the local copy of the key is
4173 not modified. Defaults to no.
4176 Export the smallest key possible. This removes all signatures
4177 except the most recent self-signature on each user ID. This
4178 option is the same as running the '--edit-key' command
4179 "minimize" before export except that the local copy of the key
4180 is not modified. Defaults to no.
4183 Instead of outputting the key material output PKA records
4184 suitable to put into DNS zone files. An ORIGIN line is
4185 printed before each record to allow diverting the records to
4186 the corresponding zone file.
4189 Instead of outputting the key material output OpenPGP DANE
4190 records suitable to put into DNS zone files. An ORIGIN line
4191 is printed before each record to allow diverting the records
4192 to the corresponding zone file.
4195 Print key listings delimited by colons. Note that the output will
4196 be encoded in UTF-8 regardless of any '--display-charset' setting.
4197 This format is useful when GnuPG is called from scripts and other
4198 programs as it is easily machine parsed. The details of this
4199 format are documented in the file 'doc/DETAILS', which is included
4200 in the GnuPG source distribution.
4203 Do not merge primary user ID and primary key in '--with-colon'
4204 listing mode and print all timestamps as seconds since 1970-01-01.
4205 Since GnuPG 2.0.10, this mode is always used and thus this option
4206 is obsolete; it does not harm to use it though.
4208 '--legacy-list-mode'
4209 Revert to the pre-2.1 public key list mode. This only affects the
4210 human readable output and not the machine interface (i.e.
4211 '--with-colons'). Note that the legacy format does not convey
4212 suitable information for elliptic curves.
4214 '--with-fingerprint'
4215 Same as the command '--fingerprint' but changes only the format of
4216 the output and may be used together with another command.
4218 '--with-subkey-fingerprint'
4219 If a fingerprint is printed for the primary key, this option forces
4220 printing of the fingerprint for all subkeys. This could also be
4221 achieved by using the '--with-fingerprint' twice but by using this
4222 option along with keyid-format "none" a compact fingerprint is
4225 '--with-icao-spelling'
4226 Print the ICAO spelling of the fingerprint in addition to the hex
4230 Include the keygrip in the key listings. In '--with-colons' mode
4231 this is implicitly enable for secret keys.
4234 Print a Web Key Directory identifier along with each user ID in key
4235 listings. This is an experimental feature and semantics may
4239 Include info about the presence of a secret key in public key
4240 listings done with '--with-colons'.
4243 File: gnupg.info, Node: OpenPGP Options, Next: Compliance Options, Prev: GPG Input and Output, Up: GPG Options
4245 4.2.4 OpenPGP protocol specific options
4246 ---------------------------------------
4250 Treat input files as text and store them in the OpenPGP canonical
4251 text form with standard "CRLF" line endings. This also sets the
4252 necessary flags to inform the recipient that the encrypted or
4253 signed data is text and may need its line endings converted back to
4254 whatever the local system uses. This option is useful when
4255 communicating between two platforms that have different line ending
4256 conventions (UNIX-like to Mac, Mac to Windows, etc).
4257 '--no-textmode' disables this option, and is the default.
4260 '--no-force-v3-sigs'
4262 '--no-force-v4-certs'
4263 These options are obsolete and have no effect since GnuPG 2.1.
4266 Force the use of encryption with a modification detection code.
4267 This is always used with the newer ciphers (those with a blocksize
4268 greater than 64 bits), or if all of the recipient keys indicate MDC
4269 support in their feature flags.
4272 Disable the use of the modification detection code. Note that by
4273 using this option, the encrypted message becomes vulnerable to a
4274 message modification attack.
4276 '--disable-signer-uid'
4277 By default the user ID of the signing key is embedded in the data
4278 signature. As of now this is only done if the signing key has been
4279 specified with 'local-user' using a mail address. This information
4280 can be helpful for verifier to locate the key; see option
4281 '--auto-key-retrieve'.
4283 '--personal-cipher-preferences string'
4284 Set the list of personal cipher preferences to 'string'. Use 'gpg
4285 --version' to get a list of available algorithms, and use 'none' to
4286 set no preference at all. This allows the user to safely override
4287 the algorithm chosen by the recipient key preferences, as GPG will
4288 only select an algorithm that is usable by all recipients. The
4289 most highly ranked cipher in this list is also used for the
4290 '--symmetric' encryption command.
4292 '--personal-digest-preferences string'
4293 Set the list of personal digest preferences to 'string'. Use 'gpg
4294 --version' to get a list of available algorithms, and use 'none' to
4295 set no preference at all. This allows the user to safely override
4296 the algorithm chosen by the recipient key preferences, as GPG will
4297 only select an algorithm that is usable by all recipients. The
4298 most highly ranked digest algorithm in this list is also used when
4299 signing without encryption (e.g. '--clear-sign' or '--sign').
4301 '--personal-compress-preferences string'
4302 Set the list of personal compression preferences to 'string'. Use
4303 'gpg --version' to get a list of available algorithms, and use
4304 'none' to set no preference at all. This allows the user to safely
4305 override the algorithm chosen by the recipient key preferences, as
4306 GPG will only select an algorithm that is usable by all recipients.
4307 The most highly ranked compression algorithm in this list is also
4308 used when there are no recipient keys to consider (e.g.
4311 '--s2k-cipher-algo name'
4312 Use 'name' as the cipher algorithm for symmetric encryption with a
4313 passphrase if '--personal-cipher-preferences' and '--cipher-algo'
4314 are not given. The default is AES-128.
4316 '--s2k-digest-algo name'
4317 Use 'name' as the digest algorithm used to mangle the passphrases
4318 for symmetric encryption. The default is SHA-1.
4321 Selects how passphrases for symmetric encryption are mangled. If
4322 'n' is 0 a plain passphrase (which is in general not recommended)
4323 will be used, a 1 adds a salt (which should not be used) to the
4324 passphrase and a 3 (the default) iterates the whole process a
4325 number of times (see '--s2k-count').
4328 Specify how many times the passphrases mangling for symmetric
4329 encryption is repeated. This value may range between 1024 and
4330 65011712 inclusive. The default is inquired from gpg-agent. Note
4331 that not all values in the 1024-65011712 range are legal and if an
4332 illegal value is selected, GnuPG will round up to the nearest legal
4333 value. This option is only meaningful if '--s2k-mode' is set to
4337 File: gnupg.info, Node: Compliance Options, Next: GPG Esoteric Options, Prev: OpenPGP Options, Up: GPG Options
4339 4.2.5 Compliance options
4340 ------------------------
4342 These options control what GnuPG is compliant to. Only one of these
4343 options may be active at a time. Note that the default setting of this
4344 is nearly always the correct one. See the INTEROPERABILITY WITH OTHER
4345 OPENPGP PROGRAMS section below before using one of these options.
4348 Use standard GnuPG behavior. This is essentially OpenPGP behavior
4349 (see '--openpgp'), but with some additional workarounds for common
4350 compatibility problems in different versions of PGP. This is the
4351 default option, so it is not generally needed, but it may be useful
4352 to override a different compliance option in the gpg.conf file.
4355 Reset all packet, cipher and digest options to strict OpenPGP
4356 behavior. Use this option to reset all previous options like
4357 '--s2k-*', '--cipher-algo', '--digest-algo' and '--compress-algo'
4358 to OpenPGP compliant values. All PGP workarounds are disabled.
4361 Reset all packet, cipher and digest options to strict RFC-4880
4362 behavior. Note that this is currently the same thing as
4366 Enable experimental features from proposed updates to RFC-4880.
4367 This option can be used in addition to the other compliance
4368 options. Warning: The behavior may change with any GnuPG release
4369 and created keys or data may not be usable with future GnuPG
4373 Reset all packet, cipher and digest options to strict RFC-2440
4377 Set up all options to be as PGP 6 compliant as possible. This
4378 restricts you to the ciphers IDEA (if the IDEA plugin is
4379 installed), 3DES, and CAST5, the hashes MD5, SHA1 and RIPEMD160,
4380 and the compression algorithms none and ZIP. This also disables
4381 '--throw-keyids', and making signatures with signing subkeys as PGP
4382 6 does not understand signatures made by signing subkeys.
4384 This option implies '--disable-mdc --escape-from-lines'.
4387 Set up all options to be as PGP 7 compliant as possible. This is
4388 identical to '--pgp6' except that MDCs are not disabled, and the
4389 list of allowable ciphers is expanded to add AES128, AES192,
4390 AES256, and TWOFISH.
4393 Set up all options to be as PGP 8 compliant as possible. PGP 8 is
4394 a lot closer to the OpenPGP standard than previous versions of PGP,
4395 so all this does is disable '--throw-keyids' and set
4396 '--escape-from-lines'. All algorithms are allowed except for the
4397 SHA224, SHA384, and SHA512 digests.
4399 '--compliance STRING'
4400 This option can be used instead of one of the options above. Valid
4401 values for STRING are the above option names (without the double
4402 dash) and possibly others as shown when using "help" for VALUE.
4405 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPG Esoteric Options, Next: Deprecated Options, Prev: Compliance Options, Up: GPG Options
4407 4.2.6 Doing things one usually doesn't want to do
4408 -------------------------------------------------
4412 Don't make any changes (this is not completely implemented).
4415 Changes the behaviour of some commands. This is like '--dry-run'
4416 but different in some cases. The semantic of this option may be
4417 extended in the future. Currently it only skips the actual
4418 decryption pass and therefore enables a fast listing of the
4423 Prompt before overwriting any files.
4425 '--debug-level LEVEL'
4426 Select the debug level for investigating problems. LEVEL may be a
4427 numeric value or by a keyword:
4430 No debugging at all. A value of less than 1 may be used
4431 instead of the keyword.
4433 Some basic debug messages. A value between 1 and 2 may be
4434 used instead of the keyword.
4436 More verbose debug messages. A value between 3 and 5 may be
4437 used instead of the keyword.
4439 Even more detailed messages. A value between 6 and 8 may be
4440 used instead of the keyword.
4442 All of the debug messages you can get. A value greater than 8
4443 may be used instead of the keyword. The creation of hash
4444 tracing files is only enabled if the keyword is used.
4446 How these messages are mapped to the actual debugging flags is not
4447 specified and may change with newer releases of this program. They
4448 are however carefully selected to best aid in debugging.
4451 Set debugging flags. All flags are or-ed and FLAGS may be given in
4452 C syntax (e.g. 0x0042) or as a comma separated list of flag names.
4453 To get a list of all supported flags the single word "help" can be
4457 Set all useful debugging flags.
4460 Set stdout into line buffered mode. This option is only honored
4461 when given on the command line.
4463 '--faked-system-time EPOCH'
4464 This option is only useful for testing; it sets the system time
4465 back or forth to EPOCH which is the number of seconds elapsed since
4466 the year 1970. Alternatively EPOCH may be given as a full ISO time
4467 string (e.g. "20070924T154812").
4469 If you suffix EPOCH with an exclamation mark (!), the system time
4470 will appear to be frozen at the specified time.
4472 '--enable-progress-filter'
4473 Enable certain PROGRESS status outputs. This option allows
4474 frontends to display a progress indicator while gpg is processing
4475 larger files. There is a slight performance overhead using it.
4478 Write special status strings to the file descriptor 'n'. See the
4479 file DETAILS in the documentation for a listing of them.
4481 '--status-file file'
4482 Same as '--status-fd', except the status data is written to file
4486 Write log output to file descriptor 'n' and not to STDERR.
4489 '--logger-file file'
4490 Same as '--logger-fd', except the logger data is written to file
4491 'file'. Use 'socket://' to log to socket.
4494 Write attribute subpackets to the file descriptor 'n'. This is
4495 most useful for use with '--status-fd', since the status messages
4496 are needed to separate out the various subpackets from the stream
4497 delivered to the file descriptor.
4499 '--attribute-file file'
4500 Same as '--attribute-fd', except the attribute data is written to
4505 Use 'string' as a comment string in cleartext signatures and ASCII
4506 armored messages or keys (see '--armor'). The default behavior is
4507 not to use a comment string. '--comment' may be repeated multiple
4508 times to get multiple comment strings. '--no-comments' removes all
4509 comments. It is a good idea to keep the length of a single comment
4510 below 60 characters to avoid problems with mail programs wrapping
4511 such lines. Note that comment lines, like all other header lines,
4512 are not protected by the signature.
4516 Force inclusion of the version string in ASCII armored output. If
4517 given once only the name of the program and the major number is
4518 emitted, given twice the minor is also emitted, given thrice the
4519 micro is added, and given four times an operating system
4520 identification is also emitted. '--no-emit-version' (default)
4521 disables the version line.
4523 '--sig-notation name=value'
4524 '--cert-notation name=value'
4525 '-N, --set-notation name=value'
4526 Put the name value pair into the signature as notation data.
4527 'name' must consist only of printable characters or spaces, and
4528 must contain a '@' character in the form keyname@domain.example.com
4529 (substituting the appropriate keyname and domain name, of course).
4530 This is to help prevent pollution of the IETF reserved notation
4531 namespace. The '--expert' flag overrides the '@' check. 'value'
4532 may be any printable string; it will be encoded in UTF-8, so you
4533 should check that your '--display-charset' is set correctly. If
4534 you prefix 'name' with an exclamation mark (!), the notation data
4535 will be flagged as critical (rfc4880:5.2.3.16). '--sig-notation'
4536 sets a notation for data signatures. '--cert-notation' sets a
4537 notation for key signatures (certifications). '--set-notation'
4540 There are special codes that may be used in notation names. "%k"
4541 will be expanded into the key ID of the key being signed, "%K" into
4542 the long key ID of the key being signed, "%f" into the fingerprint
4543 of the key being signed, "%s" into the key ID of the key making the
4544 signature, "%S" into the long key ID of the key making the
4545 signature, "%g" into the fingerprint of the key making the
4546 signature (which might be a subkey), "%p" into the fingerprint of
4547 the primary key of the key making the signature, "%c" into the
4548 signature count from the OpenPGP smartcard, and "%%" results in a
4549 single "%". %k, %K, and %f are only meaningful when making a key
4550 signature (certification), and %c is only meaningful when using the
4553 '--sig-policy-url string'
4554 '--cert-policy-url string'
4555 '--set-policy-url string'
4556 Use 'string' as a Policy URL for signatures (rfc4880:5.2.3.20). If
4557 you prefix it with an exclamation mark (!), the policy URL packet
4558 will be flagged as critical. '--sig-policy-url' sets a policy url
4559 for data signatures. '--cert-policy-url' sets a policy url for key
4560 signatures (certifications). '--set-policy-url' sets both.
4562 The same %-expandos used for notation data are available here as
4565 '--sig-keyserver-url string'
4566 Use 'string' as a preferred keyserver URL for data signatures. If
4567 you prefix it with an exclamation mark (!), the keyserver URL
4568 packet will be flagged as critical.
4570 The same %-expandos used for notation data are available here as
4573 '--set-filename string'
4574 Use 'string' as the filename which is stored inside messages. This
4575 overrides the default, which is to use the actual filename of the
4576 file being encrypted. Using the empty string for 'string'
4577 effectively removes the filename from the output.
4579 '--for-your-eyes-only'
4580 '--no-for-your-eyes-only'
4581 Set the 'for your eyes only' flag in the message. This causes
4582 GnuPG to refuse to save the file unless the '--output' option is
4583 given, and PGP to use a "secure viewer" with a claimed
4584 Tempest-resistant font to display the message. This option
4585 overrides '--set-filename'. '--no-for-your-eyes-only' disables
4588 '--use-embedded-filename'
4589 '--no-use-embedded-filename'
4590 Try to create a file with a name as embedded in the data. This can
4591 be a dangerous option as it enables overwriting files. Defaults to
4594 '--cipher-algo name'
4595 Use 'name' as cipher algorithm. Running the program with the
4596 command '--version' yields a list of supported algorithms. If this
4597 is not used the cipher algorithm is selected from the preferences
4598 stored with the key. In general, you do not want to use this
4599 option as it allows you to violate the OpenPGP standard.
4600 '--personal-cipher-preferences' is the safe way to accomplish the
4603 '--digest-algo name'
4604 Use 'name' as the message digest algorithm. Running the program
4605 with the command '--version' yields a list of supported algorithms.
4606 In general, you do not want to use this option as it allows you to
4607 violate the OpenPGP standard. '--personal-digest-preferences' is
4608 the safe way to accomplish the same thing.
4610 '--compress-algo name'
4611 Use compression algorithm 'name'. "zlib" is RFC-1950 ZLIB
4612 compression. "zip" is RFC-1951 ZIP compression which is used by
4613 PGP. "bzip2" is a more modern compression scheme that can compress
4614 some things better than zip or zlib, but at the cost of more memory
4615 used during compression and decompression. "uncompressed" or
4616 "none" disables compression. If this option is not used, the
4617 default behavior is to examine the recipient key preferences to see
4618 which algorithms the recipient supports. If all else fails, ZIP is
4619 used for maximum compatibility.
4621 ZLIB may give better compression results than ZIP, as the
4622 compression window size is not limited to 8k. BZIP2 may give even
4623 better compression results than that, but will use a significantly
4624 larger amount of memory while compressing and decompressing. This
4625 may be significant in low memory situations. Note, however, that
4626 PGP (all versions) only supports ZIP compression. Using any
4627 algorithm other than ZIP or "none" will make the message unreadable
4628 with PGP. In general, you do not want to use this option as it
4629 allows you to violate the OpenPGP standard.
4630 '--personal-compress-preferences' is the safe way to accomplish the
4633 '--cert-digest-algo name'
4634 Use 'name' as the message digest algorithm used when signing a key.
4635 Running the program with the command '--version' yields a list of
4636 supported algorithms. Be aware that if you choose an algorithm
4637 that GnuPG supports but other OpenPGP implementations do not, then
4638 some users will not be able to use the key signatures you make, or
4639 quite possibly your entire key.
4641 '--disable-cipher-algo name'
4642 Never allow the use of 'name' as cipher algorithm. The given name
4643 will not be checked so that a later loaded algorithm will still get
4646 '--disable-pubkey-algo name'
4647 Never allow the use of 'name' as public key algorithm. The given
4648 name will not be checked so that a later loaded algorithm will
4653 Do not put the recipient key IDs into encrypted messages. This
4654 helps to hide the receivers of the message and is a limited
4655 countermeasure against traffic analysis.(1) On the receiving side,
4656 it may slow down the decryption process because all available
4657 secret keys must be tried. '--no-throw-keyids' disables this
4658 option. This option is essentially the same as using
4659 '--hidden-recipient' for all recipients.
4661 '--not-dash-escaped'
4662 This option changes the behavior of cleartext signatures so that
4663 they can be used for patch files. You should not send such an
4664 armored file via email because all spaces and line endings are
4665 hashed too. You can not use this option for data which has 5
4666 dashes at the beginning of a line, patch files don't have this. A
4667 special armor header line tells GnuPG about this cleartext
4670 '--escape-from-lines'
4671 '--no-escape-from-lines'
4672 Because some mailers change lines starting with "From " to ">From "
4673 it is good to handle such lines in a special way when creating
4674 cleartext signatures to prevent the mail system from breaking the
4675 signature. Note that all other PGP versions do it this way too.
4676 Enabled by default. '--no-escape-from-lines' disables this option.
4678 '--passphrase-repeat n'
4679 Specify how many times 'gpg' will request a new passphrase be
4680 repeated. This is useful for helping memorize a passphrase.
4681 Defaults to 1 repetition.
4684 Read the passphrase from file descriptor 'n'. Only the first line
4685 will be read from file descriptor 'n'. If you use 0 for 'n', the
4686 passphrase will be read from STDIN. This can only be used if only
4687 one passphrase is supplied.
4689 Note that this passphrase is only used if the option '--batch' has
4690 also been given. This is different from GnuPG version 1.x.
4692 '--passphrase-file file'
4693 Read the passphrase from file 'file'. Only the first line will be
4694 read from file 'file'. This can only be used if only one
4695 passphrase is supplied. Obviously, a passphrase stored in a file
4696 is of questionable security if other users can read this file.
4697 Don't use this option if you can avoid it. Note that this
4698 passphrase is only used if the option '--batch' has also been
4699 given. This is different from GnuPG version 1.x.
4701 '--passphrase string'
4702 Use 'string' as the passphrase. This can only be used if only one
4703 passphrase is supplied. Obviously, this is of very questionable
4704 security on a multi-user system. Don't use this option if you can
4705 avoid it. Note that this passphrase is only used if the option
4706 '--batch' has also been given. This is different from GnuPG
4709 '--pinentry-mode mode'
4710 Set the pinentry mode to 'mode'. Allowed values for 'mode' are:
4712 Use the default of the agent, which is 'ask'.
4714 Force the use of the Pinentry.
4716 Emulate use of Pinentry's cancel button.
4718 Return a Pinentry error ("No Pinentry").
4720 Redirect Pinentry queries to the caller. Note that in
4721 contrast to Pinentry the user is not prompted again if he
4722 enters a bad password.
4725 This is a replacement for the deprecated shared-memory IPC mode.
4726 If this option is enabled, user input on questions is not expected
4727 from the TTY but from the given file descriptor. It should be used
4728 together with '--status-fd'. See the file doc/DETAILS in the
4729 source distribution for details on how to use it.
4731 '--command-file file'
4732 Same as '--command-fd', except the commands are read out of file
4735 '--allow-non-selfsigned-uid'
4736 '--no-allow-non-selfsigned-uid'
4737 Allow the import and use of keys with user IDs which are not
4738 self-signed. This is not recommended, as a non self-signed user ID
4739 is trivial to forge. '--no-allow-non-selfsigned-uid' disables.
4741 '--allow-freeform-uid'
4742 Disable all checks on the form of the user ID while generating a
4743 new one. This option should only be used in very special
4744 environments as it does not ensure the de-facto standard format of
4747 '--ignore-time-conflict'
4748 GnuPG normally checks that the timestamps associated with keys and
4749 signatures have plausible values. However, sometimes a signature
4750 seems to be older than the key due to clock problems. This option
4751 makes these checks just a warning. See also '--ignore-valid-from'
4752 for timestamp issues on subkeys.
4754 '--ignore-valid-from'
4755 GnuPG normally does not select and use subkeys created in the
4756 future. This option allows the use of such keys and thus exhibits
4757 the pre-1.0.7 behaviour. You should not use this option unless
4758 there is some clock problem. See also '--ignore-time-conflict' for
4759 timestamp issues with signatures.
4761 '--ignore-crc-error'
4762 The ASCII armor used by OpenPGP is protected by a CRC checksum
4763 against transmission errors. Occasionally the CRC gets mangled
4764 somewhere on the transmission channel but the actual content (which
4765 is protected by the OpenPGP protocol anyway) is still okay. This
4766 option allows GnuPG to ignore CRC errors.
4768 '--ignore-mdc-error'
4769 This option changes a MDC integrity protection failure into a
4770 warning. This can be useful if a message is partially corrupt, but
4771 it is necessary to get as much data as possible out of the corrupt
4772 message. However, be aware that a MDC protection failure may also
4773 mean that the message was tampered with intentionally by an
4776 '--allow-weak-digest-algos'
4777 Signatures made with known-weak digest algorithms are normally
4778 rejected with an "invalid digest algorithm" message. This option
4779 allows the verification of signatures made with such weak
4780 algorithms. MD5 is the only digest algorithm considered weak by
4781 default. See also '--weak-digest' to reject other digest
4784 '--weak-digest name'
4785 Treat the specified digest algorithm as weak. Signatures made over
4786 weak digests algorithms are normally rejected. This option can be
4787 supplied multiple times if multiple algorithms should be considered
4788 weak. See also '--allow-weak-digest-algos' to disable rejection of
4789 weak digests. MD5 is always considered weak, and does not need to
4790 be listed explicitly.
4792 '--no-default-keyring'
4793 Do not add the default keyrings to the list of keyrings. Note that
4794 GnuPG will not operate without any keyrings, so if you use this
4795 option and do not provide alternate keyrings via '--keyring' or
4796 '--secret-keyring', then GnuPG will still use the default public or
4800 Do not add use any keyrings even if specified as options.
4803 Skip the signature verification step. This may be used to make the
4804 decryption faster if the signature verification is not needed.
4807 Print key listings delimited by colons (like '--with-colons') and
4808 print the public key data.
4811 Changes the output of the list commands to work faster; this is
4812 achieved by leaving some parts empty. Some applications don't need
4813 the user ID and the trust information given in the listings. By
4814 using this options they can get a faster listing. The exact
4815 behaviour of this option may change in future versions. If you are
4816 missing some information, don't use this option.
4819 This is not for normal use. Use the source to see for what it
4823 This is not for normal use. Use the source to see for what it
4826 '--show-session-key'
4827 Display the session key used for one message. See
4828 '--override-session-key' for the counterpart of this option.
4830 We think that Key Escrow is a Bad Thing; however the user should
4831 have the freedom to decide whether to go to prison or to reveal the
4832 content of one specific message without compromising all messages
4833 ever encrypted for one secret key.
4835 You can also use this option if you receive an encrypted message
4836 which is abusive or offensive, to prove to the administrators of
4837 the messaging system that the ciphertext transmitted corresponds to
4838 an inappropriate plaintext so they can take action against the
4841 '--override-session-key string'
4842 '--override-session-key-fd fd'
4843 Don't use the public key but the session key 'string' respective
4844 the session key taken from the first line read from file descriptor
4845 'fd'. The format of this string is the same as the one printed by
4846 '--show-session-key'. This option is normally not used but comes
4847 handy in case someone forces you to reveal the content of an
4848 encrypted message; using this option you can do this without
4849 handing out the secret key. Note that using
4850 '--override-session-key' may reveal the session key to all local
4851 users via the global process table.
4854 '--no-ask-sig-expire'
4855 When making a data signature, prompt for an expiration time. If
4856 this option is not specified, the expiration time set via
4857 '--default-sig-expire' is used. '--no-ask-sig-expire' disables
4860 '--default-sig-expire'
4861 The default expiration time to use for signature expiration. Valid
4862 values are "0" for no expiration, a number followed by the letter d
4863 (for days), w (for weeks), m (for months), or y (for years) (for
4864 example "2m" for two months, or "5y" for five years), or an
4865 absolute date in the form YYYY-MM-DD. Defaults to "0".
4868 '--no-ask-cert-expire'
4869 When making a key signature, prompt for an expiration time. If
4870 this option is not specified, the expiration time set via
4871 '--default-cert-expire' is used. '--no-ask-cert-expire' disables
4874 '--default-cert-expire'
4875 The default expiration time to use for key signature expiration.
4876 Valid values are "0" for no expiration, a number followed by the
4877 letter d (for days), w (for weeks), m (for months), or y (for
4878 years) (for example "2m" for two months, or "5y" for five years),
4879 or an absolute date in the form YYYY-MM-DD. Defaults to "0".
4881 '--default-new-key-algo STRING'
4882 This option can be used to change the default algorithms for key
4883 generation. Note that the advanced key generation commands can
4884 always be used to specify a key algorithm directly. Please consult
4885 the source code to learn the syntax of STRING.
4887 '--allow-secret-key-import'
4888 This is an obsolete option and is not used anywhere.
4890 '--allow-multiple-messages'
4891 '--no-allow-multiple-messages'
4892 Allow processing of multiple OpenPGP messages contained in a single
4893 file or stream. Some programs that call GPG are not prepared to
4894 deal with multiple messages being processed together, so this
4895 option defaults to no. Note that versions of GPG prior to 1.4.7
4896 always allowed multiple messages.
4898 Warning: Do not use this option unless you need it as a temporary
4901 '--enable-special-filenames'
4902 This option enables a mode in which filenames of the form '-&n',
4903 where n is a non-negative decimal number, refer to the file
4904 descriptor n and not to a file with that name.
4906 '--no-expensive-trust-checks'
4907 Experimental use only.
4909 '--preserve-permissions'
4910 Don't change the permissions of a secret keyring back to user
4911 read/write only. Use this option only if you really know what you
4914 '--default-preference-list string'
4915 Set the list of default preferences to 'string'. This preference
4916 list is used for new keys and becomes the default for "setpref" in
4919 '--default-keyserver-url name'
4920 Set the default keyserver URL to 'name'. This keyserver will be
4921 used as the keyserver URL when writing a new self-signature on a
4922 key, which includes key generation and changing preferences.
4925 Display various internal configuration parameters of GnuPG. This
4926 option is intended for external programs that call GnuPG to perform
4927 tasks, and is thus not generally useful. See the file
4928 'doc/DETAILS' in the source distribution for the details of which
4929 configuration items may be listed. '--list-config' is only usable
4930 with '--with-colons' set.
4932 '--list-gcrypt-config'
4933 Display various internal configuration parameters of Libgcrypt.
4936 This command is similar to '--list-config' but in general only
4937 internally used by the 'gpgconf' tool.
4940 This is more or less dummy action. However it parses the
4941 configuration file and returns with failure if the configuration
4942 file would prevent 'gpg' from startup. Thus it may be used to run
4943 a syntax check on the configuration file.
4945 ---------- Footnotes ----------
4947 (1) Using a little social engineering anyone who is able to decrypt
4948 the message can check whether one of the other recipients is the one he
4952 File: gnupg.info, Node: Deprecated Options, Prev: GPG Esoteric Options, Up: GPG Options
4954 4.2.7 Deprecated options
4955 ------------------------
4959 Causes '--list-keys', '--list-signatures', '--list-public-keys',
4960 '--list-secret-keys', and verifying a signature to also display the
4961 photo ID attached to the key, if any. See also '--photo-viewer'.
4962 These options are deprecated. Use '--list-options
4963 [no-]show-photos' and/or '--verify-options [no-]show-photos'
4967 Display the keyring name at the head of key listings to show which
4968 keyring a given key resides on. This option is deprecated: use
4969 '--list-options [no-]show-keyring' instead.
4972 Identical to '--trust-model always'. This option is deprecated.
4975 '--no-show-notation'
4976 Show signature notations in the '--list-signatures' or
4977 '--check-signatures' listings as well as when verifying a signature
4978 with a notation in it. These options are deprecated. Use
4979 '--list-options [no-]show-notation' and/or '--verify-options
4980 [no-]show-notation' instead.
4983 '--no-show-policy-url'
4984 Show policy URLs in the '--list-signatures' or '--check-signatures'
4985 listings as well as when verifying a signature with a policy URL in
4986 it. These options are deprecated. Use '--list-options
4987 [no-]show-policy-url' and/or '--verify-options
4988 [no-]show-policy-url' instead.
4991 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPG Configuration, Next: GPG Examples, Prev: GPG Options, Up: Invoking GPG
4993 4.3 Configuration files
4994 =======================
4996 There are a few configuration files to control certain aspects of
4997 'gpg''s operation. Unless noted, they are expected in the current home
4998 directory (*note option --homedir::).
5001 This is the standard configuration file read by 'gpg' on startup.
5002 It may contain any valid long option; the leading two dashes may
5003 not be entered and the option may not be abbreviated. This default
5004 name may be changed on the command line (*note gpg-option
5005 --options::). You should backup this file.
5007 Note that on larger installations, it is useful to put predefined
5008 files into the directory '/etc/skel/.gnupg' so that newly created users
5009 start up with a working configuration. For existing users a small
5010 helper script is provided to create these files (*note addgnupghome::).
5012 For internal purposes 'gpg' creates and maintains a few other files;
5013 They all live in in the current home directory (*note option
5014 --homedir::). Only the 'gpg' program may modify these files.
5017 This is the default home directory which is used if neither the
5018 environment variable 'GNUPGHOME' nor the option '--homedir' is
5021 '~/.gnupg/pubring.gpg'
5022 The public keyring. You should backup this file.
5024 '~/.gnupg/pubring.gpg.lock'
5025 The lock file for the public keyring.
5027 '~/.gnupg/pubring.kbx'
5028 The public keyring using a different format. This file is shared
5029 with 'gpgsm'. You should backup this file.
5031 '~/.gnupg/pubring.kbx.lock'
5032 The lock file for 'pubring.kbx'.
5034 '~/.gnupg/secring.gpg'
5035 A secret keyring as used by GnuPG versions before 2.1. It is not
5036 used by GnuPG 2.1 and later.
5038 '~/.gnupg/secring.gpg.lock'
5039 The lock file for the secret keyring.
5041 '~/.gnupg/.gpg-v21-migrated'
5042 File indicating that a migration to GnuPG 2.1 has been done.
5044 '~/.gnupg/trustdb.gpg'
5045 The trust database. There is no need to backup this file; it is
5046 better to backup the ownertrust values (*note option
5047 --export-ownertrust::).
5049 '~/.gnupg/trustdb.gpg.lock'
5050 The lock file for the trust database.
5052 '~/.gnupg/random_seed'
5053 A file used to preserve the state of the internal random pool.
5055 '~/.gnupg/openpgp-revocs.d/'
5056 This is the directory where gpg stores pre-generated revocation
5057 certificates. The file name corresponds to the OpenPGP fingerprint
5058 of the respective key. It is suggested to backup those
5059 certificates and if the primary private key is not stored on the
5060 disk to move them to an external storage device. Anyone who can
5061 access theses files is able to revoke the corresponding key. You
5062 may want to print them out. You should backup all files in this
5063 directory and take care to keep this backup closed away.
5065 '/usr/local/share/gnupg/options.skel'
5066 The skeleton options file.
5068 Operation is further controlled by a few environment variables:
5071 Used to locate the default home directory.
5074 If set directory used instead of "~/.gnupg".
5077 This variable is obsolete; it was used by GnuPG versions before
5081 This value is passed via gpg-agent to pinentry. It is useful to
5082 convey extra information to a custom pinentry.
5086 Used to size some displays to the full size of the screen.
5089 Apart from its use by GNU, it is used in the W32 version to
5090 override the language selection done through the Registry. If used
5091 and set to a valid and available language name (LANGID), the file
5092 with the translation is loaded from 'GPGDIR/gnupg.nls/LANGID.mo'.
5093 Here GPGDIR is the directory out of which the gpg binary has been
5094 loaded. If it can't be loaded the Registry is tried and as last
5095 resort the native Windows locale system is used.
5098 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPG Examples, Next: Unattended Usage of GPG, Prev: GPG Configuration, Up: Invoking GPG
5103 gpg -se -r 'Bob' 'file'
5104 sign and encrypt for user Bob
5106 gpg -clear-sign 'file'
5107 make a cleartext signature
5110 make a detached signature
5112 gpg -u 0x12345678 -sb 'file'
5113 make a detached signature with the key 0x12345678
5115 gpg -list-keys 'user_ID'
5118 gpg -fingerprint 'user_ID'
5121 gpg -verify 'pgpfile'
5122 gpg -verify 'sigfile' ['datafile']
5123 Verify the signature of the file but do not output the data unless
5124 requested. The second form is used for detached signatures, where
5125 'sigfile' is the detached signature (either ASCII armored or
5126 binary) and 'datafile' are the signed data; if this is not given,
5127 the name of the file holding the signed data is constructed by
5128 cutting off the extension (".asc" or ".sig") of 'sigfile' or by
5129 asking the user for the filename. If the option '--output' is also
5130 used the signed data is written to the file specified by that
5131 option; use '-' to write the signed data to stdout.
5136 The options '--import-filter' and '--export-filter' use expressions with
5137 this syntax (square brackets indicate an optional part and curly braces
5138 a repetition, white space between the elements are allowed):
5140 [lc] {[{flag}] PROPNAME op VALUE [lc]}
5142 The name of a property (PROPNAME) may only consist of letters, digits
5143 and underscores. The description for the filter type describes which
5144 properties are defined. If an undefined property is used it evaluates
5145 to the empty string. Unless otherwise noted, the VALUE must always be
5146 given and may not be the empty string. No quoting is defined for the
5147 value, thus the value may not contain the strings '&&' or '||', which
5148 are used as logical connection operators. The flag '--' can be used to
5149 remove this restriction.
5151 Numerical values are computed as long int; standard C notation
5152 applies. LC is the logical connection operator; either '&&' for a
5153 conjunction or '||' for a disjunction. A conjunction is assumed at the
5154 begin of an expression. Conjunctions have higher precedence than
5155 disjunctions. If VALUE starts with one of the characters used in any OP
5156 a space after the OP is required.
5158 The supported operators (OP) are:
5161 Substring must match.
5164 Substring must not match.
5167 The full string must match.
5170 The full string must not match.
5173 The numerical value must match.
5176 The numerical value must not match.
5179 The numerical value of the field must be LE than the value.
5182 The numerical value of the field must be LT than the value.
5185 The numerical value of the field must be GT than the value.
5188 The numerical value of the field must be GE than the value.
5191 The string value of the field must be less or equal than the value.
5194 The string value of the field must be less than the value.
5197 The string value of the field must be greater than the value.
5200 The string value of the field must be greater or equal than the
5204 True if value is not empty (no value allowed).
5207 True if value is empty (no value allowed).
5210 Alias for "PROPNAME != 0" (no value allowed).
5213 Alias for "PROPNAME == 0" (no value allowed).
5215 Values for FLAG must be space separated. The supported flags are:
5218 VALUE spans to the end of the expression.
5220 The string match in this part is done case-sensitive.
5222 The filter options concatenate several specifications for a filter of
5223 the same type. For example the four options in this example:
5225 --import-option keep-uid="uid =~ Alfa"
5226 --import-option keep-uid="&& uid !~ Test"
5227 --import-option keep-uid="|| uid =~ Alpha"
5228 --import-option keep-uid="uid !~ Test"
5230 which is equivalent to
5233 keep-uid="uid =~ Alfa" && uid !~ Test" || uid =~ Alpha" && "uid !~ Test"
5235 imports only the user ids of a key containing the strings "Alfa" or
5236 "Alpha" but not the string "test".
5241 The program returns 0 if everything was fine, 1 if at least a signature
5242 was bad, and other error codes for fatal errors.
5247 Use a *good* password for your user account and a *good* passphrase to
5248 protect your secret key. This passphrase is the weakest part of the
5249 whole system. Programs to do dictionary attacks on your secret keyring
5250 are very easy to write and so you should protect your "~/.gnupg/"
5251 directory very well.
5253 Keep in mind that, if this program is used over a network (telnet),
5254 it is *very* easy to spy out your passphrase!
5256 If you are going to verify detached signatures, make sure that the
5257 program knows about it; either give both filenames on the command line
5258 or use '-' to specify STDIN.
5260 INTEROPERABILITY WITH OTHER OPENPGP PROGRAMS
5261 ********************************************
5263 GnuPG tries to be a very flexible implementation of the OpenPGP
5264 standard. In particular, GnuPG implements many of the optional parts of
5265 the standard, such as the SHA-512 hash, and the ZLIB and BZIP2
5266 compression algorithms. It is important to be aware that not all
5267 OpenPGP programs implement these optional algorithms and that by forcing
5268 their use via the '--cipher-algo', '--digest-algo',
5269 '--cert-digest-algo', or '--compress-algo' options in GnuPG, it is
5270 possible to create a perfectly valid OpenPGP message, but one that
5271 cannot be read by the intended recipient.
5273 There are dozens of variations of OpenPGP programs available, and
5274 each supports a slightly different subset of these optional algorithms.
5275 For example, until recently, no (unhacked) version of PGP supported the
5276 BLOWFISH cipher algorithm. A message using BLOWFISH simply could not be
5277 read by a PGP user. By default, GnuPG uses the standard OpenPGP
5278 preferences system that will always do the right thing and create
5279 messages that are usable by all recipients, regardless of which OpenPGP
5280 program they use. Only override this safe default if you really know
5283 If you absolutely must override the safe default, or if the
5284 preferences on a given key are invalid for some reason, you are far
5285 better off using the '--pgp6', '--pgp7', or '--pgp8' options. These
5286 options are safe as they do not force any particular algorithms in
5287 violation of OpenPGP, but rather reduce the available algorithms to a
5293 On older systems this program should be installed as setuid(root). This
5294 is necessary to lock memory pages. Locking memory pages prevents the
5295 operating system from writing memory pages (which may contain
5296 passphrases or other sensitive material) to disk. If you get no warning
5297 message about insecure memory your operating system supports locking
5298 without being root. The program drops root privileges as soon as locked
5299 memory is allocated.
5301 Note also that some systems (especially laptops) have the ability to
5302 "suspend to disk" (also known as "safe sleep" or "hibernate"). This
5303 writes all memory to disk before going into a low power or even powered
5304 off mode. Unless measures are taken in the operating system to protect
5305 the saved memory, passphrases or other sensitive material may be
5306 recoverable from it later.
5308 Before you report a bug you should first search the mailing list
5309 archives for similar problems and second check whether such a bug has
5310 already been reported to our bug tracker at http://bugs.gnupg.org .
5313 File: gnupg.info, Node: Unattended Usage of GPG, Prev: GPG Examples, Up: Invoking GPG
5315 4.5 Unattended Usage
5316 ====================
5318 'gpg' is often used as a backend engine by other software. To help with
5319 this a machine interface has been defined to have an unambiguous way to
5320 do this. The options '--status-fd' and '--batch' are almost always
5325 * Programmatic use of GnuPG:: Programmatic use of GnuPG
5326 * Ephemeral home directories:: Ephemeral home directories
5327 * The quick key manipulation interface:: The quick key manipulation interface
5328 * Unattended GPG key generation:: Unattended key generation
5331 File: gnupg.info, Node: Programmatic use of GnuPG, Next: Ephemeral home directories, Up: Unattended Usage of GPG
5333 4.5.1 Programmatic use of GnuPG
5334 -------------------------------
5336 Please consider using GPGME instead of calling 'gpg' directly. GPGME
5337 offers a stable, backend-independent interface for many cryptographic
5338 operations. It supports OpenPGP and S/MIME, and also allows interaction
5339 with various GnuPG components.
5341 GPGME provides a C-API, and comes with bindings for C++, Qt, and
5342 Python. Bindings for other languages are available.
5345 File: gnupg.info, Node: Ephemeral home directories, Next: The quick key manipulation interface, Prev: Programmatic use of GnuPG, Up: Unattended Usage of GPG
5347 4.5.2 Ephemeral home directories
5348 --------------------------------
5350 Sometimes you want to contain effects of some operation, for example you
5351 want to import a key to inspect it, but you do not want this key to be
5352 added to your keyring. In earlier versions of GnuPG, it was possible to
5353 specify alternate keyring files for both public and secret keys. In
5354 modern GnuPG versions, however, we changed how secret keys are stored in
5355 order to better protect secret key material, and it was not possible to
5356 preserve this interface.
5358 The preferred way to do this is to use ephemeral home directories.
5359 This technique works across all versions of GnuPG.
5361 Create a temporary directory, create (or copy) a configuration that
5362 meets your needs, make 'gpg' use this directory either using the
5363 environment variable GNUPGHOME, or the option '--homedir'. GPGME
5364 supports this too on a per-context basis, by modifying the engine info
5365 of contexts. Now execute whatever operation you like, import and export
5366 key material as necessary. Once finished, you can delete the directory.
5367 All GnuPG backend services that were started will detect this and shut
5371 File: gnupg.info, Node: The quick key manipulation interface, Next: Unattended GPG key generation, Prev: Ephemeral home directories, Up: Unattended Usage of GPG
5373 4.5.3 The quick key manipulation interface
5374 ------------------------------------------
5376 Recent versions of GnuPG have an interface to manipulate keys without
5377 using the interactive command '--edit-key'. This interface was added
5378 mainly for the benefit of GPGME (please consider using GPGME, see the
5379 manual subsection "Programmatic use of GnuPG"). This interface is
5380 described in the subsection "How to manage your keys".
5383 File: gnupg.info, Node: Unattended GPG key generation, Prev: The quick key manipulation interface, Up: Unattended Usage of GPG
5385 4.5.4 Unattended key generation
5386 -------------------------------
5388 The command '--generate-key' may be used along with the option '--batch'
5389 for unattended key generation. This is the most flexible way of
5390 generating keys, but it is also the most complex one. Consider using
5391 the quick key manipulation interface described in the previous
5392 subsection "The quick key manipulation interface".
5394 The parameters for the key are either read from stdin or given as a
5395 file on the command line. The format of the parameter file is as
5398 * Text only, line length is limited to about 1000 characters.
5399 * UTF-8 encoding must be used to specify non-ASCII characters.
5400 * Empty lines are ignored.
5401 * Leading and trailing while space is ignored.
5402 * A hash sign as the first non white space character indicates a
5404 * Control statements are indicated by a leading percent sign, the
5405 arguments are separated by white space from the keyword.
5406 * Parameters are specified by a keyword, followed by a colon.
5407 Arguments are separated by white space.
5408 * The first parameter must be 'Key-Type'; control statements may be
5410 * The order of the parameters does not matter except for 'Key-Type'
5411 which must be the first parameter. The parameters are only used
5412 for the generated keyblock (primary and subkeys); parameters from
5413 previous sets are not used. Some syntactically checks may be
5415 * Key generation takes place when either the end of the parameter
5416 file is reached, the next 'Key-Type' parameter is encountered or at
5417 the control statement '%commit' is encountered.
5422 Print TEXT as diagnostic.
5425 Suppress actual key generation (useful for syntax checking).
5428 Perform the key generation. Note that an implicit commit is done
5429 at the next Key-Type parameter.
5432 Do not write the key to the default or commandline given keyring
5433 but to FILENAME. This must be given before the first commit to
5434 take place, duplicate specification of the same filename is
5435 ignored, the last filename before a commit is used. The filename
5436 is used until a new filename is used (at commit points) and all
5437 keys are written to that file. If a new filename is given, this
5438 file is created (and overwrites an existing one).
5440 See the previous subsection "Ephemeral home directories" for a more
5441 robust way to contain side-effects.
5444 This option is a no-op for GnuPG 2.1 and later.
5446 See the previous subsection "Ephemeral home directories".
5450 This option is a no-op for GnuPG 2.1 and later.
5453 Using this option allows the creation of keys without any
5454 passphrase protection. This option is mainly intended for
5458 If given the keys are created using a faster and a somewhat less
5459 secure random number generator. This option may be used for keys
5460 which are only used for a short time and do not require full
5461 cryptographic strength. It takes only effect if used together with
5462 the control statement '%no-protection'.
5467 Starts a new parameter block by giving the type of the primary key.
5468 The algorithm must be capable of signing. This is a required
5469 parameter. ALGO may either be an OpenPGP algorithm number or a
5470 string with the algorithm name. The special value 'default' may be
5471 used for ALGO to create the default key type; in this case a
5472 'Key-Usage' shall not be given and 'default' also be used for
5476 The requested length of the generated key in bits. The default is
5477 returned by running the command 'gpg --gpgconf-list'.
5480 This is optional and used to generate a CSR or certificate for an
5481 already existing key. Key-Length will be ignored when given.
5483 Key-Usage: USAGE-LIST
5484 Space or comma delimited list of key usages. Allowed values are
5485 'encrypt', 'sign', and 'auth'. This is used to generate the key
5486 flags. Please make sure that the algorithm is capable of this
5487 usage. Note that OpenPGP requires that all primary keys are
5488 capable of certification, so no matter what usage is given here,
5489 the 'cert' flag will be on. If no 'Key-Usage' is specified and the
5490 'Key-Type' is not 'default', all allowed usages for that particular
5491 algorithm are used; if it is not given but 'default' is used the
5492 usage will be 'sign'.
5495 This generates a secondary key (subkey). Currently only one subkey
5496 can be handled. See also 'Key-Type' above.
5498 Subkey-Length: NBITS
5499 Length of the secondary key (subkey) in bits. The default is
5500 returned by running the command 'gpg --gpgconf-list'.
5502 Subkey-Usage: USAGE-LIST
5503 Key usage lists for a subkey; similar to 'Key-Usage'.
5506 If you want to specify a passphrase for the secret key, enter it
5507 here. Default is to use the Pinentry dialog to ask for a
5511 Name-Comment: COMMENT
5513 The three parts of a user name. Remember to use UTF-8 encoding
5514 here. If you don't give any of them, no user ID is created.
5516 Expire-Date: ISO-DATE|(NUMBER[d|w|m|y])
5517 Set the expiration date for the key (and the subkey). It may
5518 either be entered in ISO date format (e.g. "20000815T145012") or
5519 as number of days, weeks, month or years after the creation date.
5520 The special notation "seconds=N" is also allowed to specify a
5521 number of seconds since creation. Without a letter days are
5522 assumed. Note that there is no check done on the overflow of the
5523 type used by OpenPGP for timestamps. Thus you better make sure
5524 that the given value make sense. Although OpenPGP works with time
5525 intervals, GnuPG uses an absolute value internally and thus the
5526 last year we can represent is 2105.
5528 Creation-Date: ISO-DATE
5529 Set the creation date of the key as stored in the key information
5530 and which is also part of the fingerprint calculation. Either a
5531 date like "1986-04-26" or a full timestamp like "19860426T042640"
5532 may be used. The time is considered to be UTC. The special
5533 notation "seconds=N" may be used to directly specify a the number
5534 of seconds since Epoch (Unix time). If it is not given the current
5538 Set the cipher, hash, and compression preference values for this
5539 key. This expects the same type of string as the sub-command
5540 'setpref' in the '--edit-key' menu.
5542 Revoker: ALGO:FPR [sensitive]
5543 Add a designated revoker to the generated key. Algo is the public
5544 key algorithm of the designated revoker (i.e. RSA=1, DSA=17, etc.)
5545 FPR is the fingerprint of the designated revoker. The optional
5546 'sensitive' flag marks the designated revoker as sensitive
5547 information. Only v4 keys may be designated revokers.
5550 This is an optional parameter that specifies the preferred
5551 keyserver URL for the key.
5554 This is an optional parameter only used with the status lines
5555 KEY_CREATED and KEY_NOT_CREATED. STRING may be up to 100 characters
5556 and should not contain spaces. It is useful for batch key
5557 generation to associate a key parameter block with a status line.
5559 Here is an example on how to create a key in an ephemeral home
5561 $ export GNUPGHOME="$(mktemp -d)"
5563 %echo Generating a basic OpenPGP key
5568 Name-Real: Joe Tester
5569 Name-Comment: with stupid passphrase
5570 Name-Email: joe@foo.bar
5573 # Do a commit here, so that we can later print "done" :-)
5577 $ gpg --batch --generate-key foo
5579 $ gpg --list-secret-keys
5580 /tmp/tmp.0NQxB74PEf/pubring.kbx
5581 -------------------------------
5582 sec dsa1024 2016-12-16 [SCA]
5583 768E895903FC1C44045C8CB95EEBDB71E9E849D0
5584 uid [ultimate] Joe Tester (with stupid passphrase) <joe@foo.bar>
5585 ssb elg1024 2016-12-16 [E]
5587 If you want to create a key with the default algorithms you would use
5589 %echo Generating a default key
5591 Subkey-Type: default
5592 Name-Real: Joe Tester
5593 Name-Comment: with stupid passphrase
5594 Name-Email: joe@foo.bar
5597 # Do a commit here, so that we can later print "done" :-)
5602 File: gnupg.info, Node: Invoking GPGSM, Next: Invoking SCDAEMON, Prev: Invoking GPG, Up: Top
5607 'gpgsm' is a tool similar to 'gpg' to provide digital encryption and
5608 signing services on X.509 certificates and the CMS protocol. It is
5609 mainly used as a backend for S/MIME mail processing. 'gpgsm' includes a
5610 full featured certificate management and complies with all rules defined
5611 for the German Sphinx project.
5613 *Note Option Index::, for an index to 'GPGSM''s commands and options.
5617 * GPGSM Commands:: List of all commands.
5618 * GPGSM Options:: List of all options.
5619 * GPGSM Configuration:: Configuration files.
5620 * GPGSM Examples:: Some usage examples.
5622 Developer information:
5623 * Unattended Usage:: Using 'gpgsm' from other programs.
5624 * GPGSM Protocol:: The protocol the server mode uses.
5627 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPGSM Commands, Next: GPGSM Options, Up: Invoking GPGSM
5632 Commands are not distinguished from options except for the fact that
5633 only one command is allowed.
5637 * General GPGSM Commands:: Commands not specific to the functionality.
5638 * Operational GPGSM Commands:: Commands to select the type of operation.
5639 * Certificate Management:: How to manage certificates.
5642 File: gnupg.info, Node: General GPGSM Commands, Next: Operational GPGSM Commands, Up: GPGSM Commands
5644 5.1.1 Commands not specific to the function
5645 -------------------------------------------
5648 Print the program version and licensing information. Note that you
5649 cannot abbreviate this command.
5652 Print a usage message summarizing the most useful command-line
5653 options. Note that you cannot abbreviate this command.
5656 Print warranty information. Note that you cannot abbreviate this
5660 Print a list of all available options and commands. Note that you
5661 cannot abbreviate this command.
5664 File: gnupg.info, Node: Operational GPGSM Commands, Next: Certificate Management, Prev: General GPGSM Commands, Up: GPGSM Commands
5666 5.1.2 Commands to select the type of operation
5667 ----------------------------------------------
5670 Perform an encryption. The keys the data is encrypted to must be
5671 set using the option '--recipient'.
5674 Perform a decryption; the type of input is automatically
5675 determined. It may either be in binary form or PEM encoded;
5676 automatic determination of base-64 encoding is not done.
5679 Create a digital signature. The key used is either the fist one
5680 found in the keybox or those set with the '--local-user' option.
5683 Check a signature file for validity. Depending on the arguments a
5684 detached signature may also be checked.
5687 Run in server mode and wait for commands on the 'stdin'.
5689 '--call-dirmngr COMMAND [ARGS]'
5690 Behave as a Dirmngr client issuing the request COMMAND with the
5691 optional list of ARGS. The output of the Dirmngr is printed
5692 stdout. Please note that file names given as arguments should have
5693 an absolute file name (i.e. commencing with '/') because they are
5694 passed verbatim to the Dirmngr and the working directory of the
5695 Dirmngr might not be the same as the one of this client. Currently
5696 it is not possible to pass data via stdin to the Dirmngr. COMMAND
5697 should not contain spaces.
5699 This is command is required for certain maintaining tasks of the
5700 dirmngr where a dirmngr must be able to call back to 'gpgsm'. See
5701 the Dirmngr manual for details.
5703 '--call-protect-tool ARGUMENTS'
5704 Certain maintenance operations are done by an external program call
5705 'gpg-protect-tool'; this is usually not installed in a directory
5706 listed in the PATH variable. This command provides a simple
5707 wrapper to access this tool. ARGUMENTS are passed verbatim to this
5708 command; use '--help' to get a list of supported operations.
5711 File: gnupg.info, Node: Certificate Management, Prev: Operational GPGSM Commands, Up: GPGSM Commands
5713 5.1.3 How to manage the certificates and keys
5714 ---------------------------------------------
5718 This command allows the creation of a certificate signing request
5719 or a self-signed certificate. It is commonly used along with the
5720 '--output' option to save the created CSR or certificate into a
5721 file. If used with the '--batch' a parameter file is used to
5722 create the CSR or certificate and it is further possible to create
5723 non-self-signed certificates.
5727 List all available certificates stored in the local key database.
5728 Note that the displayed data might be reformatted for better human
5729 readability and illegal characters are replaced by safe
5732 '--list-secret-keys'
5734 List all available certificates for which a corresponding a secret
5737 '--list-external-keys PATTERN'
5738 List certificates matching PATTERN using an external server. This
5739 utilizes the 'dirmngr' service.
5742 Same as '--list-keys' but also prints all keys making up the chain.
5746 List all available certificates stored in the local key database
5747 using a format useful mainly for debugging.
5750 Same as '--dump-keys' but also prints all keys making up the chain.
5752 '--dump-secret-keys'
5753 List all available certificates for which a corresponding a secret
5754 key is available using a format useful mainly for debugging.
5756 '--dump-external-keys PATTERN'
5757 List certificates matching PATTERN using an external server. This
5758 utilizes the 'dirmngr' service. It uses a format useful mainly for
5761 '--keydb-clear-some-cert-flags'
5762 This is a debugging aid to reset certain flags in the key database
5763 which are used to cache certain certificate stati. It is
5764 especially useful if a bad CRL or a weird running OCSP responder
5765 did accidentally revoke certificate. There is no security issue
5766 with this command because 'gpgsm' always make sure that the
5767 validity of a certificate is checked right before it is used.
5769 '--delete-keys PATTERN'
5770 Delete the keys matching PATTERN. Note that there is no command to
5771 delete the secret part of the key directly. In case you need to do
5772 this, you should run the command 'gpgsm --dump-secret-keys KEYID'
5773 before you delete the key, copy the string of hex-digits in the
5774 "keygrip" line and delete the file consisting of these hex-digits
5775 and the suffix '.key' from the 'private-keys-v1.d' directory below
5776 our GnuPG home directory (usually '~/.gnupg').
5778 '--export [PATTERN]'
5779 Export all certificates stored in the Keybox or those specified by
5780 the optional PATTERN. Those pattern consist of a list of user ids
5781 (*note how-to-specify-a-user-id::). When used along with the
5782 '--armor' option a few informational lines are prepended before
5783 each block. There is one limitation: As there is no commonly
5784 agreed upon way to pack more than one certificate into an ASN.1
5785 structure, the binary export (i.e. without using 'armor') works
5786 only for the export of one certificate. Thus it is required to
5787 specify a PATTERN which yields exactly one certificate. Ephemeral
5788 certificate are only exported if all PATTERN are given as
5789 fingerprints or keygrips.
5791 '--export-secret-key-p12 KEY-ID'
5792 Export the private key and the certificate identified by KEY-ID in
5793 a PKCS#12 format. When used with the '--armor' option a few
5794 informational lines are prepended to the output. Note, that the
5795 PKCS#12 format is not very secure and this command is only provided
5796 if there is no other way to exchange the private key. (*Note
5797 option --p12-charset::.)
5799 '--export-secret-key-p8 KEY-ID'
5800 '--export-secret-key-raw KEY-ID'
5801 Export the private key of the certificate identified by KEY-ID with
5802 any encryption stripped. The '...-raw' command exports in PKCS#1
5803 format; the '...-p8' command exports in PKCS#8 format. When used
5804 with the '--armor' option a few informational lines are prepended
5805 to the output. These commands are useful to prepare a key for use
5809 Import the certificates from the PEM or binary encoded files as
5810 well as from signed-only messages. This command may also be used
5811 to import a secret key from a PKCS#12 file.
5814 Read information about the private keys from the smartcard and
5815 import the certificates from there. This command utilizes the
5816 'gpg-agent' and in turn the 'scdaemon'.
5818 '--change-passphrase USER_ID'
5820 Change the passphrase of the private key belonging to the
5821 certificate specified as USER_ID. Note, that changing the
5822 passphrase/PIN of a smartcard is not yet supported.
5825 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPGSM Options, Next: GPGSM Configuration, Prev: GPGSM Commands, Up: Invoking GPGSM
5830 'GPGSM' features a bunch of options to control the exact behaviour and
5831 to change the default configuration.
5835 * Configuration Options:: How to change the configuration.
5836 * Certificate Options:: Certificate related options.
5837 * Input and Output:: Input and Output.
5838 * CMS Options:: How to change how the CMS is created.
5839 * Esoteric Options:: Doing things one usually do not want to do.
5842 File: gnupg.info, Node: Configuration Options, Next: Certificate Options, Up: GPGSM Options
5844 5.2.1 How to change the configuration
5845 -------------------------------------
5847 These options are used to change the configuration and are usually found
5851 Reads configuration from FILE instead of from the default per-user
5852 configuration file. The default configuration file is named
5853 'gpgsm.conf' and expected in the '.gnupg' directory directly below
5854 the home directory of the user.
5857 Set the name of the home directory to DIR. If this option is not
5858 used, the home directory defaults to '~/.gnupg'. It is only
5859 recognized when given on the command line. It also overrides any
5860 home directory stated through the environment variable 'GNUPGHOME'
5861 or (on Windows systems) by means of the Registry entry
5862 HKCU\SOFTWARE\GNU\GNUPG:HOMEDIR.
5864 On Windows systems it is possible to install GnuPG as a portable
5865 application. In this case only this command line option is
5866 considered, all other ways to set a home directory are ignored.
5868 To install GnuPG as a portable application under Windows, create an
5869 empty file named 'gpgconf.ctl' in the same directory as the tool
5870 'gpgconf.exe'. The root of the installation is then that
5871 directory; or, if 'gpgconf.exe' has been installed directly below a
5872 directory named 'bin', its parent directory. You also need to make
5873 sure that the following directories exist and are writable:
5874 'ROOT/home' for the GnuPG home and 'ROOT/usr/local/var/cache/gnupg'
5875 for internal cache files.
5879 Outputs additional information while running. You can increase the
5880 verbosity by giving several verbose commands to 'gpgsm', such as
5883 '--policy-file FILENAME'
5884 Change the default name of the policy file to FILENAME.
5886 '--agent-program FILE'
5887 Specify an agent program to be used for secret key operations. The
5888 default value is determined by running the command 'gpgconf'. Note
5889 that the pipe symbol ('|') is used for a regression test suite hack
5890 and may thus not be used in the file name.
5892 '--dirmngr-program FILE'
5893 Specify a dirmngr program to be used for CRL checks. The default
5894 value is '/usr/local/bin/dirmngr'.
5896 '--prefer-system-dirmngr'
5897 If a system wide 'dirmngr' is running in daemon mode, first try to
5898 connect to this one. Fallback to a pipe based server if this does
5899 not work. Under Windows this option is ignored because the system
5900 dirmngr is always used.
5903 Entirely disable the use of the Dirmngr.
5906 Do not start the gpg-agent or the dirmngr if it has not yet been
5907 started and its service is required. This option is mostly useful
5908 on machines where the connection to gpg-agent has been redirected
5909 to another machines. If dirmngr is required on the remote machine,
5910 it may be started manually using 'gpgconf --launch dirmngr'.
5912 '--no-secmem-warning'
5913 Do not print a warning when the so called "secure memory" cannot be
5917 When running in server mode, append all logging output to FILE.
5918 Use 'socket://' to log to socket.
5921 File: gnupg.info, Node: Certificate Options, Next: Input and Output, Prev: Configuration Options, Up: GPGSM Options
5923 5.2.2 Certificate related options
5924 ---------------------------------
5926 '--enable-policy-checks'
5927 '--disable-policy-checks'
5928 By default policy checks are enabled. These options may be used to
5931 '--enable-crl-checks'
5932 '--disable-crl-checks'
5933 By default the CRL checks are enabled and the DirMngr is used to
5934 check for revoked certificates. The disable option is most useful
5935 with an off-line network connection to suppress this check.
5937 '--enable-trusted-cert-crl-check'
5938 '--disable-trusted-cert-crl-check'
5939 By default the CRL for trusted root certificates are checked like
5940 for any other certificates. This allows a CA to revoke its own
5941 certificates voluntary without the need of putting all ever issued
5942 certificates into a CRL. The disable option may be used to switch
5943 this extra check off. Due to the caching done by the Dirmngr,
5944 there will not be any noticeable performance gain. Note, that this
5945 also disables possible OCSP checks for trusted root certificates.
5946 A more specific way of disabling this check is by adding the
5947 "relax" keyword to the root CA line of the 'trustlist.txt'
5949 '--force-crl-refresh'
5950 Tell the dirmngr to reload the CRL for each request. For better
5951 performance, the dirmngr will actually optimize this by suppressing
5952 the loading for short time intervals (e.g. 30 minutes). This
5953 option is useful to make sure that a fresh CRL is available for
5954 certificates hold in the keybox. The suggested way of doing this
5955 is by using it along with the option '--with-validation' for a key
5956 listing command. This option should not be used in a configuration
5961 By default OCSP checks are disabled. The enable option may be used
5962 to enable OCSP checks via Dirmngr. If CRL checks are also enabled,
5963 CRLs will be used as a fallback if for some reason an OCSP request
5964 will not succeed. Note, that you have to allow OCSP requests in
5965 Dirmngr's configuration too (option '--allow-ocsp') and configure
5966 Dirmngr properly. If you do not do so you will get the error code
5969 '--auto-issuer-key-retrieve'
5970 If a required certificate is missing while validating the chain of
5971 certificates, try to load that certificate from an external
5972 location. This usually means that Dirmngr is employed to search
5973 for the certificate. Note that this option makes a "web bug" like
5974 behavior possible. LDAP server operators can see which keys you
5975 request, so by sending you a message signed by a brand new key
5976 (which you naturally will not have on your local keybox), the
5977 operator can tell both your IP address and the time when you
5978 verified the signature.
5980 '--validation-model NAME'
5981 This option changes the default validation model. The only
5982 possible values are "shell" (which is the default), "chain" which
5983 forces the use of the chain model and "steed" for a new simplified
5984 model. The chain model is also used if an option in the
5985 'trustlist.txt' or an attribute of the certificate requests it.
5986 However the standard model (shell) is in that case always tried
5989 '--ignore-cert-extension OID'
5990 Add OID to the list of ignored certificate extensions. The OID is
5991 expected to be in dotted decimal form, like '2.5.29.3'. This
5992 option may be used more than once. Critical flagged certificate
5993 extensions matching one of the OIDs in the list are treated as if
5994 they are actually handled and thus the certificate will not be
5995 rejected due to an unknown critical extension. Use this option
5996 with care because extensions are usually flagged as critical for a
6000 File: gnupg.info, Node: Input and Output, Next: CMS Options, Prev: Certificate Options, Up: GPGSM Options
6002 5.2.3 Input and Output
6003 ----------------------
6007 Create PEM encoded output. Default is binary output.
6010 Create Base-64 encoded output; i.e. PEM without the header lines.
6013 Assume the input data is PEM encoded. Default is to autodetect the
6014 encoding but this is may fail.
6017 Assume the input data is plain base-64 encoded.
6020 Assume the input data is binary encoded.
6022 '--p12-charset NAME'
6023 'gpgsm' uses the UTF-8 encoding when encoding passphrases for
6024 PKCS#12 files. This option may be used to force the passphrase to
6025 be encoded in the specified encoding NAME. This is useful if the
6026 application used to import the key uses a different encoding and
6027 thus will not be able to import a file generated by 'gpgsm'.
6028 Commonly used values for NAME are 'Latin1' and 'CP850'. Note that
6029 'gpgsm' itself automagically imports any file with a passphrase
6030 encoded to the most commonly used encodings.
6032 '--default-key USER_ID'
6033 Use USER_ID as the standard key for signing. This key is used if
6034 no other key has been defined as a signing key. Note, that the
6035 first '--local-users' option also sets this key if it has not yet
6036 been set; however '--default-key' always overrides this.
6038 '--local-user USER_ID'
6040 Set the user(s) to be used for signing. The default is the first
6041 secret key found in the database.
6045 Encrypt to the user id NAME. There are several ways a user id may
6046 be given (*note how-to-specify-a-user-id::).
6050 Write output to FILE. The default is to write it to stdout.
6053 Displays extra information with the '--list-keys' commands.
6054 Especially a line tagged 'grp' is printed which tells you the
6055 keygrip of a key. This string is for example used as the file name
6059 When doing a key listing, do a full validation check for each key
6060 and print the result. This is usually a slow operation because it
6061 requires a CRL lookup and other operations.
6063 When used along with '--import', a validation of the certificate to
6064 import is done and only imported if it succeeds the test. Note
6065 that this does not affect an already available certificate in the
6066 DB. This option is therefore useful to simply verify a certificate.
6068 '--with-md5-fingerprint'
6069 For standard key listings, also print the MD5 fingerprint of the
6073 Include the keygrip in standard key listings. Note that the
6074 keygrip is always listed in '--with-colons' mode.
6077 Include info about the presence of a secret key in public key
6078 listings done with '--with-colons'.
6081 File: gnupg.info, Node: CMS Options, Next: Esoteric Options, Prev: Input and Output, Up: GPGSM Options
6083 5.2.4 How to change how the CMS is created
6084 ------------------------------------------
6087 Using N of -2 includes all certificate except for the root cert, -1
6088 includes all certs, 0 does not include any certs, 1 includes only
6089 the signers cert and all other positive values include up to N
6090 certificates starting with the signer cert. The default is -2.
6093 Use the cipher algorithm with the ASN.1 object identifier OID for
6094 encryption. For convenience the strings '3DES', 'AES' and 'AES256'
6095 may be used instead of their OIDs. The default is 'AES'
6096 (2.16.840.1.101.3.4.1.2).
6098 '--digest-algo name'
6099 Use 'name' as the message digest algorithm. Usually this algorithm
6100 is deduced from the respective signing certificate. This option
6101 forces the use of the given algorithm and may lead to severe
6102 interoperability problems.
6105 File: gnupg.info, Node: Esoteric Options, Prev: CMS Options, Up: GPGSM Options
6107 5.2.5 Doing things one usually do not want to do
6108 ------------------------------------------------
6110 '--extra-digest-algo NAME'
6111 Sometimes signatures are broken in that they announce a different
6112 digest algorithm than actually used. 'gpgsm' uses a one-pass data
6113 processing model and thus needs to rely on the announced digest
6114 algorithms to properly hash the data. As a workaround this option
6115 may be used to tell 'gpgsm' to also hash the data using the
6116 algorithm NAME; this slows processing down a little bit but allows
6117 verification of such broken signatures. If 'gpgsm' prints an error
6118 like "digest algo 8 has not been enabled" you may want to try this
6119 option, with 'SHA256' for NAME.
6121 '--faked-system-time EPOCH'
6122 This option is only useful for testing; it sets the system time
6123 back or forth to EPOCH which is the number of seconds elapsed since
6124 the year 1970. Alternatively EPOCH may be given as a full ISO time
6125 string (e.g. "20070924T154812").
6127 '--with-ephemeral-keys'
6128 Include ephemeral flagged keys in the output of key listings. Note
6129 that they are included anyway if the key specification for a
6130 listing is given as fingerprint or keygrip.
6132 '--debug-level LEVEL'
6133 Select the debug level for investigating problems. LEVEL may be a
6134 numeric value or by a keyword:
6137 No debugging at all. A value of less than 1 may be used
6138 instead of the keyword.
6140 Some basic debug messages. A value between 1 and 2 may be
6141 used instead of the keyword.
6143 More verbose debug messages. A value between 3 and 5 may be
6144 used instead of the keyword.
6146 Even more detailed messages. A value between 6 and 8 may be
6147 used instead of the keyword.
6149 All of the debug messages you can get. A value greater than 8
6150 may be used instead of the keyword. The creation of hash
6151 tracing files is only enabled if the keyword is used.
6153 How these messages are mapped to the actual debugging flags is not
6154 specified and may change with newer releases of this program. They
6155 are however carefully selected to best aid in debugging.
6158 This option is only useful for debugging and the behaviour may
6159 change at any time without notice; using '--debug-levels' is the
6160 preferred method to select the debug verbosity. FLAGS are bit
6161 encoded and may be given in usual C-Syntax. The currently defined
6165 X.509 or OpenPGP protocol related data
6167 values of big number integers
6169 low level crypto operations
6175 show memory statistics
6177 write hashed data to files named 'dbgmd-000*'
6179 trace Assuan protocol
6181 Note, that all flags set using this option may get overridden by
6185 Same as '--debug=0xffffffff'
6187 '--debug-allow-core-dump'
6188 Usually 'gpgsm' tries to avoid dumping core by well written code
6189 and by disabling core dumps for security reasons. However, bugs
6190 are pretty durable beasts and to squash them it is sometimes useful
6191 to have a core dump. This option enables core dumps unless the Bad
6192 Thing happened before the option parsing.
6194 '--debug-no-chain-validation'
6195 This is actually not a debugging option but only useful as such.
6196 It lets 'gpgsm' bypass all certificate chain validation checks.
6198 '--debug-ignore-expiration'
6199 This is actually not a debugging option but only useful as such.
6200 It lets 'gpgsm' ignore all notAfter dates, this is used by the
6204 Read the passphrase from file descriptor 'n'. Only the first line
6205 will be read from file descriptor 'n'. If you use 0 for 'n', the
6206 passphrase will be read from STDIN. This can only be used if only
6207 one passphrase is supplied.
6209 Note that this passphrase is only used if the option '--batch' has
6212 '--pinentry-mode mode'
6213 Set the pinentry mode to 'mode'. Allowed values for 'mode' are:
6215 Use the default of the agent, which is 'ask'.
6217 Force the use of the Pinentry.
6219 Emulate use of Pinentry's cancel button.
6221 Return a Pinentry error ("No Pinentry").
6223 Redirect Pinentry queries to the caller. Note that in
6224 contrast to Pinentry the user is not prompted again if he
6225 enters a bad password.
6227 '--no-common-certs-import'
6228 Suppress the import of common certificates on keybox creation.
6230 All the long options may also be given in the configuration file
6231 after stripping off the two leading dashes.
6234 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPGSM Configuration, Next: GPGSM Examples, Prev: GPGSM Options, Up: Invoking GPGSM
6236 5.3 Configuration files
6237 =======================
6239 There are a few configuration files to control certain aspects of
6240 'gpgsm''s operation. Unless noted, they are expected in the current
6241 home directory (*note option --homedir::).
6244 This is the standard configuration file read by 'gpgsm' on startup.
6245 It may contain any valid long option; the leading two dashes may
6246 not be entered and the option may not be abbreviated. This default
6247 name may be changed on the command line (*note gpgsm-option
6248 --options::). You should backup this file.
6251 This is a list of allowed CA policies. This file should list the
6252 object identifiers of the policies line by line. Empty lines and
6253 lines starting with a hash mark are ignored. Policies missing in
6254 this file and not marked as critical in the certificate will print
6255 only a warning; certificates with policies marked as critical and
6256 not listed in this file will fail the signature verification. You
6257 should backup this file.
6259 For example, to allow only the policy 2.289.9.9, the file should
6266 This is the list of root certificates used for qualified
6267 certificates. They are defined as certificates capable of creating
6268 legally binding signatures in the same way as handwritten
6269 signatures are. Comments start with a hash mark and empty lines
6270 are ignored. Lines do have a length limit but this is not a
6271 serious limitation as the format of the entries is fixed and
6272 checked by 'gpgsm': A non-comment line starts with optional
6273 whitespace, followed by exactly 40 hex characters, white space and
6274 a lowercased 2 letter country code. Additional data delimited with
6275 by a white space is current ignored but might late be used for
6278 Note that even if a certificate is listed in this file, this does
6279 not mean that the certificate is trusted; in general the
6280 certificates listed in this file need to be listed also in
6283 This is a global file an installed in the data directory (e.g.
6284 '/usr/local/share/gnupg/qualified.txt'). GnuPG installs a suitable
6285 file with root certificates as used in Germany. As new Root-CA
6286 certificates may be issued over time, these entries may need to be
6287 updated; new distributions of this software should come with an
6288 updated list but it is still the responsibility of the
6289 Administrator to check that this list is correct.
6291 Every time 'gpgsm' uses a certificate for signing or verification
6292 this file will be consulted to check whether the certificate under
6293 question has ultimately been issued by one of these CAs. If this
6294 is the case the user will be informed that the verified signature
6295 represents a legally binding ("qualified") signature. When
6296 creating a signature using such a certificate an extra prompt will
6297 be issued to let the user confirm that such a legally binding
6298 signature shall really be created.
6300 Because this software has not yet been approved for use with such
6301 certificates, appropriate notices will be shown to indicate this
6305 This is plain text file with a few help entries used with
6306 'pinentry' as well as a large list of help items for 'gpg' and
6307 'gpgsm'. The standard file has English help texts; to install
6308 localized versions use filenames like 'help.LL.txt' with LL
6309 denoting the locale. GnuPG comes with a set of predefined help
6310 files in the data directory (e.g.
6311 '/usr/local/share/gnupg/gnupg/help.de.txt') and allows overriding
6312 of any help item by help files stored in the system configuration
6313 directory (e.g. '/etc/gnupg/help.de.txt'). For a reference of the
6314 help file's syntax, please see the installed 'help.txt' file.
6317 This file is a collection of common certificates used to populated
6318 a newly created 'pubring.kbx'. An administrator may replace this
6319 file with a custom one. The format is a concatenation of PEM
6320 encoded X.509 certificates. This global file is installed in the
6321 data directory (e.g. '/usr/local/share/gnupg/com-certs.pem').
6323 Note that on larger installations, it is useful to put predefined
6324 files into the directory '/etc/skel/.gnupg/' so that newly created users
6325 start up with a working configuration. For existing users a small
6326 helper script is provided to create these files (*note addgnupghome::).
6328 For internal purposes 'gpgsm' creates and maintains a few other
6329 files; they all live in in the current home directory (*note option
6330 --homedir::). Only 'gpgsm' may modify these files.
6333 This a database file storing the certificates as well as meta
6334 information. For debugging purposes the tool 'kbxutil' may be used
6335 to show the internal structure of this file. You should backup
6339 This content of this file is used to maintain the internal state of
6340 the random number generator across invocations. The same file is
6341 used by other programs of this software too.
6344 If this file exists 'gpgsm' will first try to connect to this
6345 socket for accessing 'gpg-agent' before starting a new 'gpg-agent'
6346 instance. Under Windows this socket (which in reality be a plain
6347 file describing a regular TCP listening port) is the standard way
6348 of connecting the 'gpg-agent'.
6351 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPGSM Examples, Next: Unattended Usage, Prev: GPGSM Configuration, Up: Invoking GPGSM
6356 $ gpgsm -er goo@bar.net <plaintext >ciphertext
6359 File: gnupg.info, Node: Unattended Usage, Next: GPGSM Protocol, Prev: GPGSM Examples, Up: Invoking GPGSM
6361 5.5 Unattended Usage
6362 ====================
6364 'gpgsm' is often used as a backend engine by other software. To help
6365 with this a machine interface has been defined to have an unambiguous
6366 way to do this. This is most likely used with the '--server' command
6367 but may also be used in the standard operation mode by using the
6368 '--status-fd' option.
6372 * Automated signature checking:: Automated signature checking.
6373 * CSR and certificate creation:: CSR and certificate creation.
6376 File: gnupg.info, Node: Automated signature checking, Next: CSR and certificate creation, Up: Unattended Usage
6378 5.5.1 Automated signature checking
6379 ----------------------------------
6381 It is very important to understand the semantics used with signature
6382 verification. Checking a signature is not as simple as it may sound and
6383 so the operation is a bit complicated. In most cases it is required to
6384 look at several status lines. Here is a table of all cases a signed
6387 The signature is valid
6388 This does mean that the signature has been successfully verified,
6389 the certificates are all sane. However there are two subcases with
6390 important information: One of the certificates may have expired or
6391 a signature of a message itself as expired. It is a sound practise
6392 to consider such a signature still as valid but additional
6393 information should be displayed. Depending on the subcase 'gpgsm'
6394 will issue these status codes:
6395 signature valid and nothing did expire
6396 'GOODSIG', 'VALIDSIG', 'TRUST_FULLY'
6397 signature valid but at least one certificate has expired
6398 'EXPKEYSIG', 'VALIDSIG', 'TRUST_FULLY'
6399 signature valid but expired
6400 'EXPSIG', 'VALIDSIG', 'TRUST_FULLY' Note, that this case is
6401 currently not implemented.
6403 The signature is invalid
6404 This means that the signature verification failed (this is an
6405 indication of a transfer error, a program error or tampering with
6406 the message). 'gpgsm' issues one of these status codes sequences:
6408 'GOODSIG, VALIDSIG TRUST_NEVER'
6410 Error verifying a signature
6411 For some reason the signature could not be verified, i.e. it
6412 cannot be decided whether the signature is valid or invalid. A
6413 common reason for this is a missing certificate.
6416 File: gnupg.info, Node: CSR and certificate creation, Prev: Automated signature checking, Up: Unattended Usage
6418 5.5.2 CSR and certificate creation
6419 ----------------------------------
6421 The command '--generate-key' may be used along with the option '--batch'
6422 to either create a certificate signing request (CSR) or an X.509
6423 certificate. This is controlled by a parameter file; the format of this
6426 * Text only, line length is limited to about 1000 characters.
6427 * UTF-8 encoding must be used to specify non-ASCII characters.
6428 * Empty lines are ignored.
6429 * Leading and trailing while space is ignored.
6430 * A hash sign as the first non white space character indicates a
6432 * Control statements are indicated by a leading percent sign, the
6433 arguments are separated by white space from the keyword.
6434 * Parameters are specified by a keyword, followed by a colon.
6435 Arguments are separated by white space.
6436 * The first parameter must be 'Key-Type', control statements may be
6438 * The order of the parameters does not matter except for 'Key-Type'
6439 which must be the first parameter. The parameters are only used
6440 for the generated CSR/certificate; parameters from previous sets
6441 are not used. Some syntactically checks may be performed.
6442 * Key generation takes place when either the end of the parameter
6443 file is reached, the next 'Key-Type' parameter is encountered or at
6444 the control statement '%commit' is encountered.
6449 Print TEXT as diagnostic.
6452 Suppress actual key generation (useful for syntax checking).
6455 Perform the key generation. Note that an implicit commit is done
6456 at the next Key-Type parameter.
6461 Starts a new parameter block by giving the type of the primary key.
6462 The algorithm must be capable of signing. This is a required
6463 parameter. The only supported value for ALGO is 'rsa'.
6466 The requested length of a generated key in bits. Defaults to 2048.
6469 This is optional and used to generate a CSR or certificate for an
6470 already existing key. Key-Length will be ignored when given.
6472 Key-Usage: USAGE-LIST
6473 Space or comma delimited list of key usage, allowed values are
6474 'encrypt', 'sign' and 'cert'. This is used to generate the
6475 keyUsage extension. Please make sure that the algorithm is capable
6476 of this usage. Default is to allow encrypt and sign.
6478 Name-DN: SUBJECT-NAME
6479 This is the Distinguished Name (DN) of the subject in RFC-2253
6483 This is an email address for the altSubjectName. This parameter is
6484 optional but may occur several times to add several email addresses
6488 The is an DNS name for the altSubjectName. This parameter is
6489 optional but may occur several times to add several DNS names to a
6493 This is an URI for the altSubjectName. This parameter is optional
6494 but may occur several times to add several URIs to a certificate.
6496 Additional parameters used to create a certificate (in contrast to a
6497 certificate signing request):
6500 If this parameter is given an X.509 certificate will be generated.
6501 SN is expected to be a hex string representing an unsigned integer
6502 of arbitrary length. The special value 'random' can be used to
6503 create a 64 bit random serial number.
6505 Issuer-DN: ISSUER-NAME
6506 This is the DN name of the issuer in RFC-2253 format. If it is not
6507 set it will default to the subject DN and a special GnuPG extension
6508 will be included in the certificate to mark it as a standalone
6511 Creation-Date: ISO-DATE
6512 Not-Before: ISO-DATE
6513 Set the notBefore date of the certificate. Either a date like
6514 '1986-04-26' or '1986-04-26 12:00' or a standard ISO timestamp like
6515 '19860426T042640' may be used. The time is considered to be UTC.
6516 If it is not given the current date is used.
6518 Expire-Date: ISO-DATE
6520 Set the notAfter date of the certificate. Either a date like
6521 '2063-04-05' or '2063-04-05 17:00' or a standard ISO timestamp like
6522 '20630405T170000' may be used. The time is considered to be UTC.
6523 If it is not given a default value in the not too far future is
6526 Signing-Key: KEYGRIP
6527 This gives the keygrip of the key used to sign the certificate. If
6528 it is not given a self-signed certificate will be created. For
6529 compatibility with future versions, it is suggested to prefix the
6532 Hash-Algo: HASH-ALGO
6533 Use HASH-ALGO for this CSR or certificate. The supported hash
6534 algorithms are: 'sha1', 'sha256', 'sha384' and 'sha512'; they may
6535 also be specified with uppercase letters. The default is 'sha256'.
6538 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPGSM Protocol, Prev: Unattended Usage, Up: Invoking GPGSM
6540 5.6 The Protocol the Server Mode Uses
6541 =====================================
6543 Description of the protocol used to access 'GPGSM'. 'GPGSM' does
6544 implement the Assuan protocol and in addition provides a regular command
6545 line interface which exhibits a full client to this protocol (but uses
6546 internal linking). To start 'gpgsm' as a server the command line the
6547 option '--server' must be used. Additional options are provided to
6548 select the communication method (i.e. the name of the socket).
6550 We assume that the connection has already been established; see the
6551 Assuan manual for details.
6555 * GPGSM ENCRYPT:: Encrypting a message.
6556 * GPGSM DECRYPT:: Decrypting a message.
6557 * GPGSM SIGN:: Signing a message.
6558 * GPGSM VERIFY:: Verifying a message.
6559 * GPGSM GENKEY:: Generating a key.
6560 * GPGSM LISTKEYS:: List available keys.
6561 * GPGSM EXPORT:: Export certificates.
6562 * GPGSM IMPORT:: Import certificates.
6563 * GPGSM DELETE:: Delete certificates.
6564 * GPGSM GETAUDITLOG:: Retrieve an audit log.
6565 * GPGSM GETINFO:: Information about the process
6566 * GPGSM OPTION:: Session options.
6569 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPGSM ENCRYPT, Next: GPGSM DECRYPT, Up: GPGSM Protocol
6571 5.6.1 Encrypting a Message
6572 --------------------------
6574 Before encryption can be done the recipient must be set using the
6579 Set the recipient for the encryption. USERID should be the internal
6580 representation of the key; the server may accept any other way of
6581 specification. If this is a valid and trusted recipient the server does
6582 respond with OK, otherwise the return is an ERR with the reason why the
6583 recipient cannot be used, the encryption will then not be done for this
6584 recipient. If the policy is not to encrypt at all if not all recipients
6585 are valid, the client has to take care of this. All 'RECIPIENT'
6586 commands are cumulative until a 'RESET' or an successful 'ENCRYPT'
6589 INPUT FD[=N] [--armor|--base64|--binary]
6591 Set the file descriptor for the message to be encrypted to N.
6592 Obviously the pipe must be open at that point, the server establishes
6593 its own end. If the server returns an error the client should consider
6594 this session failed. If N is not given, this commands uses the last
6595 file descriptor passed to the application. *Note the assuan_sendfd
6596 function: (assuan)fun-assuan_sendfd, on how to do descriptor passing.
6598 The '--armor' option may be used to advice the server that the input
6599 data is in PEM format, '--base64' advices that a raw base-64 encoding is
6600 used, '--binary' advices of raw binary input (BER). If none of these
6601 options is used, the server tries to figure out the used encoding, but
6602 this may not always be correct.
6604 OUTPUT FD[=N] [--armor|--base64]
6606 Set the file descriptor to be used for the output (i.e. the
6607 encrypted message). Obviously the pipe must be open at that point, the
6608 server establishes its own end. If the server returns an error the
6609 client should consider this session failed.
6611 The option '--armor' encodes the output in PEM format, the '--base64'
6612 option applies just a base-64 encoding. No option creates binary output
6615 The actual encryption is done using the command
6619 It takes the plaintext from the 'INPUT' command, writes to the
6620 ciphertext to the file descriptor set with the 'OUTPUT' command, take
6621 the recipients from all the recipients set so far. If this command
6622 fails the clients should try to delete all output currently done or
6623 otherwise mark it as invalid. 'GPGSM' does ensure that there will not
6624 be any security problem with leftover data on the output in this case.
6626 This command should in general not fail, as all necessary checks have
6627 been done while setting the recipients. The input and output pipes are
6631 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPGSM DECRYPT, Next: GPGSM SIGN, Prev: GPGSM ENCRYPT, Up: GPGSM Protocol
6633 5.6.2 Decrypting a message
6634 --------------------------
6636 Input and output FDs are set the same way as in encryption, but 'INPUT'
6637 refers to the ciphertext and 'OUTPUT' to the plaintext. There is no
6638 need to set recipients. 'GPGSM' automatically strips any S/MIME headers
6639 from the input, so it is valid to pass an entire MIME part to the INPUT
6642 The decryption is done by using the command
6646 It performs the decrypt operation after doing some check on the
6647 internal state (e.g. that all needed data has been set). Because it
6648 utilizes the GPG-Agent for the session key decryption, there is no need
6649 to ask the client for a protecting passphrase - GpgAgent takes care of
6650 this by requesting this from the user.
6653 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPGSM SIGN, Next: GPGSM VERIFY, Prev: GPGSM DECRYPT, Up: GPGSM Protocol
6655 5.6.3 Signing a Message
6656 -----------------------
6658 Signing is usually done with these commands:
6660 INPUT FD[=N] [--armor|--base64|--binary]
6662 This tells 'GPGSM' to read the data to sign from file descriptor N.
6664 OUTPUT FD[=M] [--armor|--base64]
6666 Write the output to file descriptor M. If a detached signature is
6667 requested, only the signature is written.
6671 Sign the data set with the 'INPUT' command and write it to the sink
6672 set by 'OUTPUT'. With '--detached', a detached signature is created
6675 The key used for signing is the default one or the one specified in
6676 the configuration file. To get finer control over the keys, it is
6677 possible to use the command
6681 to set the signer's key. USERID should be the internal
6682 representation of the key; the server may accept any other way of
6683 specification. If this is a valid and trusted recipient the server does
6684 respond with OK, otherwise the return is an ERR with the reason why the
6685 key cannot be used, the signature will then not be created using this
6686 key. If the policy is not to sign at all if not all keys are valid, the
6687 client has to take care of this. All 'SIGNER' commands are cumulative
6688 until a 'RESET' is done. Note that a 'SIGN' does not reset this list of
6689 signers which is in contrast to the 'RECIPIENT' command.
6692 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPGSM VERIFY, Next: GPGSM GENKEY, Prev: GPGSM SIGN, Up: GPGSM Protocol
6694 5.6.4 Verifying a Message
6695 -------------------------
6697 To verify a message the command:
6701 is used. It does a verify operation on the message send to the input
6702 FD. The result is written out using status lines. If an output FD was
6703 given, the signed text will be written to that. If the signature is a
6704 detached one, the server will inquire about the signed material and the
6705 client must provide it.
6708 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPGSM GENKEY, Next: GPGSM LISTKEYS, Prev: GPGSM VERIFY, Up: GPGSM Protocol
6710 5.6.5 Generating a Key
6711 ----------------------
6713 This is used to generate a new keypair, store the secret part in the PSE
6714 and the public key in the key database. We will probably add optional
6715 commands to allow the client to select whether a hardware token is used
6716 to store the key. Configuration options to 'GPGSM' can be used to
6717 restrict the use of this command.
6721 'GPGSM' checks whether this command is allowed and then does an
6722 INQUIRY to get the key parameters, the client should then send the key
6723 parameters in the native format:
6725 S: INQUIRE KEY_PARAM native
6730 Please note that the server may send Status info lines while reading
6731 the data lines from the client. After this the key generation takes
6732 place and the server eventually does send an ERR or OK response. Status
6733 lines may be issued as a progress indicator.
6736 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPGSM LISTKEYS, Next: GPGSM EXPORT, Prev: GPGSM GENKEY, Up: GPGSM Protocol
6738 5.6.6 List available keys
6739 -------------------------
6741 To list the keys in the internal database or using an external key
6742 provider, the command:
6746 is used. To allow multiple patterns (which are ORed during the
6747 search) quoting is required: Spaces are to be translated into "+" or
6748 into "%20"; in turn this requires that the usual escape quoting rules
6751 LISTSECRETKEYS PATTERN
6753 Lists only the keys where a secret key is available.
6755 The list commands are affected by the option
6757 OPTION list-mode=MODE
6761 Use default (which is usually the same as 1).
6763 List only the internal keys.
6765 List only the external keys.
6767 List internal and external keys.
6769 Note that options are valid for the entire session.
6772 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPGSM EXPORT, Next: GPGSM IMPORT, Prev: GPGSM LISTKEYS, Up: GPGSM Protocol
6774 5.6.7 Export certificates
6775 -------------------------
6777 To export certificate from the internal key database the command:
6779 EXPORT [--data [--armor] [--base64]] [--] PATTERN
6781 is used. To allow multiple patterns (which are ORed) quoting is
6782 required: Spaces are to be translated into "+" or into "%20"; in turn
6783 this requires that the usual escape quoting rules are done.
6785 If the '--data' option has not been given, the format of the output
6786 depends on what was set with the 'OUTPUT' command. When using PEM
6787 encoding a few informational lines are prepended.
6789 If the '--data' has been given, a target set via 'OUTPUT' is ignored
6790 and the data is returned inline using standard 'D'-lines. This avoids
6791 the need for an extra file descriptor. In this case the options
6792 '--armor' and '--base64' may be used in the same way as with the
6796 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPGSM IMPORT, Next: GPGSM DELETE, Prev: GPGSM EXPORT, Up: GPGSM Protocol
6798 5.6.8 Import certificates
6799 -------------------------
6801 To import certificates into the internal key database, the command
6803 IMPORT [--re-import]
6805 is used. The data is expected on the file descriptor set with the
6806 'INPUT' command. Certain checks are performed on the certificate. Note
6807 that the code will also handle PKCS#12 files and import private keys; a
6808 helper program is used for that.
6810 With the option '--re-import' the input data is expected to a be a
6811 linefeed separated list of fingerprints. The command will re-import the
6812 corresponding certificates; that is they are made permanent by removing
6813 their ephemeral flag.
6816 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPGSM DELETE, Next: GPGSM GETAUDITLOG, Prev: GPGSM IMPORT, Up: GPGSM Protocol
6818 5.6.9 Delete certificates
6819 -------------------------
6821 To delete a certificate the command
6825 is used. To allow multiple patterns (which are ORed) quoting is
6826 required: Spaces are to be translated into "+" or into "%20"; in turn
6827 this requires that the usual escape quoting rules are done.
6829 The certificates must be specified unambiguously otherwise an error
6833 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPGSM GETAUDITLOG, Next: GPGSM GETINFO, Prev: GPGSM DELETE, Up: GPGSM Protocol
6835 5.6.10 Retrieve an audit log
6836 ----------------------------
6838 This command is used to retrieve an audit log.
6840 GETAUDITLOG [--data] [--html]
6842 If '--data' is used, the audit log is send using D-lines instead of
6843 being sent to the file descriptor given by an 'OUTPUT' command. If
6844 '--html' is used, the output is formatted as an XHTML block. This is
6845 designed to be incorporated into a HTML document.
6848 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPGSM GETINFO, Next: GPGSM OPTION, Prev: GPGSM GETAUDITLOG, Up: GPGSM Protocol
6850 5.6.11 Return information about the process
6851 -------------------------------------------
6853 This is a multipurpose function to return a variety of information.
6857 The value of WHAT specifies the kind of information returned:
6859 Return the version of the program.
6861 Return the process id of the process.
6863 Return OK if the agent is running.
6864 'cmd_has_option CMD OPT'
6865 Return OK if the command CMD implements the option OPT. The
6866 leading two dashes usually used with OPT shall not be given.
6868 Return OK if the connection is in offline mode. This may be either
6869 due to a 'OPTION offline=1' or due to 'gpgsm' being started with
6870 option '--disable-dirmngr'.
6873 File: gnupg.info, Node: GPGSM OPTION, Prev: GPGSM GETINFO, Up: GPGSM Protocol
6875 5.6.12 Session options
6876 ----------------------
6878 The standard Assuan option handler supports these options.
6882 These NAMEs are recognized:
6885 Change the session's environment to be passed via gpg-agent to
6886 Pinentry. VALUE is a string of the form '<KEY>[=[<STRING>]]'. If
6887 only '<KEY>' is given the environment variable '<KEY>' is removed
6888 from the session environment, if '<KEY>=' is given that environment
6889 variable is set to the empty string, and if '<STRING>' is given it
6890 is set to that string.
6893 Set the session environment variable 'DISPLAY' is set to VALUE.
6895 Set the session environment variable 'GPG_TTY' is set to VALUE.
6897 Set the session environment variable 'TERM' is set to VALUE.
6899 Set the session environment variable 'LC_CTYPE' is set to VALUE.
6901 Set the session environment variable 'LC_MESSAGES' is set to VALUE.
6903 Set the session environment variable 'XAUTHORITY' is set to VALUE.
6904 'pinentry-user-data'
6905 Set the session environment variable 'PINENTRY_USER_DATA' is set to
6909 This option overrides the command line option '--include-certs'. A
6910 VALUE of -2 includes all certificates except for the root
6911 certificate, -1 includes all certicates, 0 does not include any
6912 certicates, 1 includes only the signers certicate and all other
6913 positive values include up to VALUE certificates starting with the
6917 *Note gpgsm-cmd listkeys::.
6920 If VALUE is true the output of the list commands (*note gpgsm-cmd
6921 listkeys::) is written to the file descriptor set with the last
6922 'OUTPUT' command. If VALUE is false the output is written via data
6923 lines; this is the default.
6926 If VALUE is true for each listed certificate the validation status
6927 is printed. This may result in the download of a CRL or the user
6928 being asked about the trustworthiness of a root certificate. The
6929 default is given by a command line option (*note gpgsm-option
6930 --with-validation::).
6933 If VALUE is true certificates with a corresponding private key are
6934 marked by the list commands.
6937 This option overrides the command line option 'validation-model'
6938 for the session. (*Note gpgsm-option --validation-model::.)
6941 This option globally enables the command line option
6942 '--with-key-data'. (*Note gpgsm-option --with-key-data::.)
6945 If VALUE is true data to write an audit log is gathered. (*Note
6946 gpgsm-cmd getauditlog::.)
6948 'allow-pinentry-notify'
6949 If this option is used notifications about the launch of a Pinentry
6950 are passed back to the client.
6952 'with-ephemeral-keys'
6953 If VALUE is true ephemeral certificates are included in the output
6954 of the list commands.
6957 If this option is used all keys set by the command line option
6958 '--encrypt-to' are ignored.
6961 If VALUE is true or VALUE is not given all network access is
6962 disabled for this session. This is the same as the command line
6963 option '--disable-dirmngr'.
6966 File: gnupg.info, Node: Invoking SCDAEMON, Next: Specify a User ID, Prev: Invoking GPGSM, Up: Top
6968 6 Invoking the SCDAEMON
6969 ***********************
6971 The 'scdaemon' is a daemon to manage smartcards. It is usually invoked
6972 by 'gpg-agent' and in general not used directly.
6974 *Note Option Index::, for an index to 'scdaemon''s commands and
6979 * Scdaemon Commands:: List of all commands.
6980 * Scdaemon Options:: List of all options.
6981 * Card applications:: Description of card applications.
6982 * Scdaemon Configuration:: Configuration files.
6983 * Scdaemon Examples:: Some usage examples.
6984 * Scdaemon Protocol:: The protocol the daemon uses.
6987 File: gnupg.info, Node: Scdaemon Commands, Next: Scdaemon Options, Up: Invoking SCDAEMON
6992 Commands are not distinguished from options except for the fact that
6993 only one command is allowed.
6996 Print the program version and licensing information. Note that you
6997 cannot abbreviate this command.
7000 Print a usage message summarizing the most useful command-line
7001 options. Note that you cannot abbreviate this command.
7004 Print a list of all available options and commands. Note that you
7005 cannot abbreviate this command.
7008 Run in server mode and wait for commands on the 'stdin'. The
7009 default mode is to create a socket and listen for commands there.
7012 Run in server mode and wait for commands on the 'stdin' as well as
7013 on an additional Unix Domain socket. The server command 'GETINFO'
7014 may be used to get the name of that extra socket.
7017 Run the program in the background. This option is required to
7018 prevent it from being accidentally running in the background.
7021 File: gnupg.info, Node: Scdaemon Options, Next: Card applications, Prev: Scdaemon Commands, Up: Invoking SCDAEMON
7027 Reads configuration from FILE instead of from the default per-user
7028 configuration file. The default configuration file is named
7029 'scdaemon.conf' and expected in the '.gnupg' directory directly
7030 below the home directory of the user.
7033 Set the name of the home directory to DIR. If this option is not
7034 used, the home directory defaults to '~/.gnupg'. It is only
7035 recognized when given on the command line. It also overrides any
7036 home directory stated through the environment variable 'GNUPGHOME'
7037 or (on Windows systems) by means of the Registry entry
7038 HKCU\SOFTWARE\GNU\GNUPG:HOMEDIR.
7040 On Windows systems it is possible to install GnuPG as a portable
7041 application. In this case only this command line option is
7042 considered, all other ways to set a home directory are ignored.
7044 To install GnuPG as a portable application under Windows, create an
7045 empty file named 'gpgconf.ctl' in the same directory as the tool
7046 'gpgconf.exe'. The root of the installation is then that
7047 directory; or, if 'gpgconf.exe' has been installed directly below a
7048 directory named 'bin', its parent directory. You also need to make
7049 sure that the following directories exist and are writable:
7050 'ROOT/home' for the GnuPG home and 'ROOT/usr/local/var/cache/gnupg'
7051 for internal cache files.
7055 Outputs additional information while running. You can increase the
7056 verbosity by giving several verbose commands to 'gpgsm', such as
7059 '--debug-level LEVEL'
7060 Select the debug level for investigating problems. LEVEL may be a
7061 numeric value or a keyword:
7064 No debugging at all. A value of less than 1 may be used
7065 instead of the keyword.
7067 Some basic debug messages. A value between 1 and 2 may be
7068 used instead of the keyword.
7070 More verbose debug messages. A value between 3 and 5 may be
7071 used instead of the keyword.
7073 Even more detailed messages. A value between 6 and 8 may be
7074 used instead of the keyword.
7076 All of the debug messages you can get. A value greater than 8
7077 may be used instead of the keyword. The creation of hash
7078 tracing files is only enabled if the keyword is used.
7080 How these messages are mapped to the actual debugging flags is not
7081 specified and may change with newer releases of this program. They
7082 are however carefully selected to best aid in debugging.
7084 Note: All debugging options are subject to change and thus
7085 should not be used by any application program. As the name
7086 says, they are only used as helpers to debug problems.
7089 This option is only useful for debugging and the behavior may
7090 change at any time without notice. FLAGS are bit encoded and may
7091 be given in usual C-Syntax. The currently defined bits are:
7096 values of big number integers
7098 low level crypto operations
7104 show memory statistics
7106 write hashed data to files named 'dbgmd-000*'
7108 trace Assuan protocol. See also option
7109 '--debug-assuan-log-cats'.
7111 trace APDU I/O to the card. This may reveal sensitive data.
7113 trace some card reader related function calls.
7116 Same as '--debug=0xffffffff'
7119 When running in server mode, wait N seconds before entering the
7120 actual processing loop and print the pid. This gives time to
7123 '--debug-ccid-driver'
7124 Enable debug output from the included CCID driver for smartcards.
7125 Using this option twice will also enable some tracing of the T=1
7126 protocol. Note that this option may reveal sensitive data.
7128 '--debug-disable-ticker'
7129 This option disables all ticker functions like checking for card
7132 '--debug-allow-core-dump'
7133 For security reasons we won't create a core dump when the process
7134 aborts. For debugging purposes it is sometimes better to allow
7135 core dump. This option enables it and also changes the working
7136 directory to '/tmp' when running in '--server' mode.
7139 This option appends a thread ID to the PID in the log output.
7141 '--debug-assuan-log-cats CATS'
7142 Changes the active Libassuan logging categories to CATS. The value
7143 for CATS is an unsigned integer given in usual C-Syntax. A value
7144 of of 0 switches to a default category. If this option is not used
7145 the categories are taken from the environment variable
7146 'ASSUAN_DEBUG'. Note that this option has only an effect if the
7147 Assuan debug flag has also been with the option '--debug'. For a
7148 list of categories see the Libassuan manual.
7151 Don't detach the process from the console. This is mainly useful
7155 Append all logging output to FILE. This is very helpful in seeing
7156 what the agent actually does. Use 'socket://' to log to socket.
7158 '--pcsc-driver LIBRARY'
7159 Use LIBRARY to access the smartcard reader. The current default is
7160 'libpcsclite.so'. Instead of using this option you might also want
7161 to install a symbolic link to the default file name (e.g. from
7162 'libpcsclite.so.1').
7164 '--ctapi-driver LIBRARY'
7165 Use LIBRARY to access the smartcard reader. The current default is
7166 'libtowitoko.so'. Note that the use of this interface is
7167 deprecated; it may be removed in future releases.
7170 Disable the integrated support for CCID compliant readers. This
7171 allows falling back to one of the other drivers even if the
7172 internal CCID driver can handle the reader. Note, that CCID
7173 support is only available if libusb was available at build time.
7175 '--reader-port NUMBER_OR_STRING'
7176 This option may be used to specify the port of the card terminal.
7177 A value of 0 refers to the first serial device; add 32768 to access
7178 USB devices. The default is 32768 (first USB device). PC/SC or
7179 CCID readers might need a string here; run the program in verbose
7180 mode to get a list of available readers. The default is then the
7183 To get a list of available CCID readers you may use this command:
7184 echo scd getinfo reader_list \
7185 | gpg-connect-agent --decode | awk '/^D/ {print $2}'
7188 If N is not 0 and no client is actively using the card, the card
7189 will be powered down after N seconds. Powering down the card
7190 avoids a potential risk of damaging a card when used with certain
7191 cheap readers. This also allows applications that are not aware of
7192 Scdaemon to access the card. The disadvantage of using a card
7193 timeout is that accessing the card takes longer and that the user
7194 needs to enter the PIN again after the next power up.
7196 Note that with the current version of Scdaemon the card is powered
7197 down immediately at the next timer tick for any value of N other
7200 '--enable-pinpad-varlen'
7201 Please specify this option when the card reader supports variable
7202 length input for pinpad (default is no). For known readers (listed
7203 in ccid-driver.c and apdu.c), this option is not needed. Note that
7204 if your card reader doesn't supports variable length input but you
7205 want to use it, you need to specify your pinpad request on your
7209 Even if a card reader features a pinpad, do not try to use it.
7212 This option disables the use of admin class commands for card
7213 applications where this is supported. Currently we support it for
7214 the OpenPGP card. This option is useful to inhibit accidental
7215 access to admin class command which could ultimately lock the card
7216 through wrong PIN numbers. Note that GnuPG versions older than
7217 2.0.11 featured an '--allow-admin' option which was required to use
7218 such admin commands. This option has no more effect today because
7219 the default is now to allow admin commands.
7221 '--disable-application NAME'
7222 This option disables the use of the card application named NAME.
7223 This is mainly useful for debugging or if a application with lower
7224 priority should be used by default.
7226 All the long options may also be given in the configuration file
7227 after stripping off the two leading dashes.
7230 File: gnupg.info, Node: Card applications, Next: Scdaemon Configuration, Prev: Scdaemon Options, Up: Invoking SCDAEMON
7232 6.3 Description of card applications
7233 ====================================
7235 'scdaemon' supports the card applications as described below.
7239 * OpenPGP Card:: The OpenPGP card application
7240 * NKS Card:: The Telesec NetKey card application
7241 * DINSIG Card:: The DINSIG card application
7242 * PKCS#15 Card:: The PKCS#15 card application
7243 * Geldkarte Card:: The Geldkarte application
7244 * SmartCard-HSM:: The SmartCard-HSM application
7245 * Undefined Card:: The Undefined stub application
7248 File: gnupg.info, Node: OpenPGP Card, Next: NKS Card, Up: Card applications
7250 6.3.1 The OpenPGP card application "openpgp"
7251 --------------------------------------------
7253 This application is currently only used by 'gpg' but may in future also
7254 be useful with 'gpgsm'. Version 1 and version 2 of the card is
7257 The specifications for these cards are available at
7258 <http://g10code.com/docs/openpgp-card-1.0.pdf> and
7259 <http://g10code.com/docs/openpgp-card-2.0.pdf>.
7262 File: gnupg.info, Node: NKS Card, Next: DINSIG Card, Prev: OpenPGP Card, Up: Card applications
7264 6.3.2 The Telesec NetKey card "nks"
7265 -----------------------------------
7267 This is the main application of the Telesec cards as available in
7268 Germany. It is a superset of the German DINSIG card. The card is used
7272 File: gnupg.info, Node: DINSIG Card, Next: PKCS#15 Card, Prev: NKS Card, Up: Card applications
7274 6.3.3 The DINSIG card application "dinsig"
7275 ------------------------------------------
7277 This is an application as described in the German draft standard _DIN V
7278 66291-1_. It is intended to be used by cards supporting the German
7279 signature law and its bylaws (SigG and SigV).
7282 File: gnupg.info, Node: PKCS#15 Card, Next: Geldkarte Card, Prev: DINSIG Card, Up: Card applications
7284 6.3.4 The PKCS#15 card application "p15"
7285 ----------------------------------------
7287 This is common framework for smart card applications. It is used by
7291 File: gnupg.info, Node: Geldkarte Card, Next: SmartCard-HSM, Prev: PKCS#15 Card, Up: Card applications
7293 6.3.5 The Geldkarte card application "geldkarte"
7294 ------------------------------------------------
7296 This is a simple application to display information of a German
7297 Geldkarte. The Geldkarte is a small amount debit card application which
7298 comes with almost all German banking cards.