gpg
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Name
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gpg ---- encryption and signing tool

Synopsis
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DESCRIPTION
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gpg is the main program for the GnuPG system.

This man page only lists the commands and options available. For a more verbose documentation get the GNU Privacy Handbook (GPH), which is available at http://www.gnupg.org/gph/ . You will find a list of HOWTO documents at http://www.gnupg.org/docs.html .

Please remember that option parsing stops as soon as a non option is encountered, you can explicitly stop option parsing by using the special option "---".

COMMANDS
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gpg recognizes these commands:

-s, ---sign
     Make a signature. This command may be combined with ---encrypt.

---clearsign
     Make a clear text signature.

-b, ---detach-sign
     Make a detached signature.

-e, ---encrypt
     Encrypt data. This option may be combined with ---sign.

-c, ---symmetric
     Encrypt with symmetric cipher only. This command asks for a passphrase.

---store
     Store only (make a simple RFC1991 packet).

---decrypt file
     Decrypt file (or stdin if no file is specified) and write it to stdout (or the file specified with ---output). If the decrypted file is signed, the signature is also verified. This command differs from the default operation, as it never writes to the filename which is included in the file and it rejects files which don't begin with an encrypted message.

---verify sigfile signed-files
     Assume that sigfile is a signature and verify it without generating any output. With no arguments, the signature packet is read from stdin. If only a sigfile is given, it may be a complete signature or a detached signature, in which case the signed stuff is expected in a file without the ".sig" or ".asc" extension. With more than 1 argument, the first should be a detached signature and the remaining files are the signed stuff. To read the signed stuff from stdin, use - as the second filename. For security reasons a detached signature cannot read the signed material from stdin without denoting it in the above way.

---verify-files files
     This is a special version of the ---verify command which does not work with detached signatures. The command expects the files to be verified either on the command line or reads the filenames from stdin; each name must be on separate line. The command is intended for quick checking of many files.

---list-keys names
---list-public-keys names
     List all keys from the public keyrings, or just the ones given on the command line.

---list-secret-keys names
     List all keys from the secret keyrings, or just the ones given on the command line.

---list-sigs names
     Same as ---list-keys, but the signatures are listed too.

---check-sigs names
     Same as ---list-sigs, but the signatures are verified.

---fingerprint names
     List all keys with their fingerprints. This is the same output as ---list-keys but with the additional output of a line with the fingerprint. May also be combined with ---list-sigs or --check-sigs. If this command is given twice, the fingerprints of all secondary keys are listed too.

---list-packets
     List only the sequence of packets. This is mainly useful for debugging.

---gen-key
     Generate a new key pair. This command is normally only used interactively.

     There is an experimental feature which allows you to create keys in batch mode. See the file doc/DETAILS in the source distribution on how to use this.

---edit-key name
     Present a menu which enables you to do all key related tasks:

     sign
          Make a signature on key of user name If the key is not yet signed by the default user (or the users given with -u), the program displays the information of the key again, together with its fingerprint and asks whether it should be signed. This question is repeated for all users specified with -u.

     lsign
          Same as ---sign but the signature is marked as non-exportable and will therefore never be used by others. This may be used to make keys valid only in the local environment.

     nrsign
          Same as ---sign but the signature is marked as non-revocable and can therefore never be revoked.

     nrlsign
          Combines the functionality of nrsign and lsign to make a signature that is both non-revocable and non-exportable.

     revsig
          Revoke a signature. GnuPG asks for every signature which has been done by one of the secret keys, whether a revocation certificate should be generated.

     trust
          Change the owner trust value. This updates the trust-db immediately and no save is required.

     disable
     enable
          Disable or enable an entire key. A disabled key can normally not be used for encryption.

     adduid
          Create an alternate user id.

     addphoto
          Create a photographic user id.

     deluid
          Delete a user id.

     addkey
          Add a subkey to this key.

     delkey
          Remove a subkey.

     revkey
          Revoke a subkey.

     expire
          Change the key expiration time. If a key is selected, the time of this key will be changed. With no selection the key expiration of the primary key is changed.

     passwd
          Change the passphrase of the secret key.

     primary
          Flag the current user id as the primary one, removes the primary user id flag from all other user ids and sets the timestamp of all affected self-signatures one second ahead. Note that setting a photo user ID as primary makes it primary over other photo user IDs, and setting a regular user ID as primary makes it primary over other regular user IDs.

     uid n
          Toggle selection of user id with index n. Use 0 to deselect all.

     key n
          Toggle selection of subkey with index n. Use 0 to deselect all.

     check
          Check all selected user ids.

     showphoto
          Display the selected photographic user id.

     pref
          List preferences.

     showpref
          More verbose preferences listing.

     setpref string
          Set the list of user ID preferences to string, this should be a string similar to the one printed by "pref". Using an empty string will set the default preference string, using "none" will set the preferences to nil. Only available algorithms are allowed. This command just initializes an internal list and does not change anything unless another command which changes the self-signatures is used.

     updpref
          Change the preferences of all user IDs (or just of the selected ones to the current list of preferences. The timestamp of all affected self-signatures fill be advanced by one second.

     toggle
          Toggle between public and secret key listing.

     save
          Save all changes to the key rings and quit.

     quit
          Quit the program without updating the key rings.

     The listing shows you the key with its secondary keys and all user ids. Selected keys or user ids are indicated by an asterisk. The trust value is displayed with the primary key: the first is the assigned owner trust and the second is the calculated trust value. Letters are used for the values:

     -
          No ownertrust assigned / not yet calculated.

     e
          Trust calculation has failed; probably due to an expired key.

     q
          Not enough information for calculation.

     n
          Never trust this key.

     m
          Marginally trusted.

     f
          Fully trusted.

     u
          Ultimately trusted.

---sign-key name
     Signs a public key with your secret key. This is a shortcut version of the subcommand "sign" from ---edit.

---lsign-key name
     Signs a public key with your secret key but marks it as non-exportable. This is a shortcut version of the subcommand "lsign" from ---edit.

---nrsign-key name
     Signs a public key with your secret key but marks it as non-revocable. This is a shortcut version of the subcommand "nrsign" from ---edit.

---delete-key name
     Remove key from the public keyring

---delete-secret-key name
     Remove key from the secret and public keyring

---delete-secret-and-public-key name
     Same as ---delete-key, but if a secret key exists, it will be removed first.

---gen-revoke
     Generate a revocation certificate for the complete key. To revoke a subkey or a signature, use the ---edit command.

---export names
     Either export all keys from all keyrings (default keyrings and those registered via option ---keyring), or if at least one name is given, those of the given name. The new keyring is written to stdout or to the file given with option "output". Use together with ---armor to mail those keys.

---send-keys names
     Same as ---export but sends the keys to a keyserver. Option ---keyserver must be used to give the name of this keyserver. Don't send your complete keyring to a keyserver - select only those keys which are new or changed by you.

---export-all names
     Same as ---export, but also exports keys which are not compatible with OpenPGP.

---export-secret-keys names
---export-secret-subkeys names
     Same as ---export, but exports the secret keys instead. This is normally not very useful and a security risk. The second form of the command has the special property to render the secret part of the primary key useless; this is a GNU extension to OpenPGP and other implementations can not be expected to successfully import such a key. See the option ---simple-sk-checksum if you want to import such an exported key with an older OpenPGP implementation.

---import files
---fast-import files
     Import/merge keys. This adds the given keys to the keyring. The fast version is currently just a synonym.

     There are a few other options which control how this command works. Most notable here is the ---merge-only option which does not insert new keys but does only the merging of new signatures, user-IDs and subkeys.

---recv-keys key IDs
     Import the keys with the given key IDs from a keyserver. Option ---keyserver must be used to give the name of this keyserver.

---search-keys names
     Search the keyserver for the given names. Multiple names given here will be joined together to create the search string for the keyserver. Option ---keyserver must be used to give the name of this keyserver.

---update-trustdb
     Do trust DB maintenance. This command goes over all keys and builds the Web-of-Trust. This is an interactive command because it may has to ask for the "ownertrust" values of keys. The user has to give an estimation in how far she trusts the owner of the displayed key to correctly certify (sign) other keys. It does only ask for that value if it has not yet been assigned to a key. Using the edit menu, that value can be changed at any time later.

---check-trustdb
     Do trust DB maintenance without user interaction. Form time to time the trust database must be updated so that expired keys and resulting changes in the Web-of-Trust can be tracked. GnuPG tries to figure when this is required and then does it implicitly; this command can be used to force such a check. The processing is identically to that of ---update-trustdb but it skips keys with a not yet defined "ownertrust".

     For use with cron jobs, this command can be used together with ---batch in which case the check is only done when it is due. To force a run even in batch mode add the option ---yes.

---export-ownertrust file
     Store the ownertrust values into file (or stdin if not given). This is useful for backup purposes as these values are the only ones which can't be re-created from a corrupted trust DB.

---import-ownertrust files
     Update the trustdb with the ownertrust values stored in files (or stdin if not given); existing values will be overwritten.

---print-md algo files
---print-mds files
     Print message digest of algorithm ALGO for all given files or stdin. With the second form (or a deprecated "*" as algo) digests for all available algorithms are printed.

---gen-random 0|1|2 count
     Emit COUNT random bytes of the given quality level. If count is not given or zero, an endless sequence of random bytes will be emitted. PLEASE, don't use this command unless you know what you are doing; it may remove precious entropy from the system!

---gen-prime mode bits qbits
     Use the source, Luke :-). The output format is still subject to change.

---version
     Print version information along with a list of supported algorithms.

---warranty
     Print warranty information.

-h, ---help
     Print usage information. This is a really long list even though it doesn't list all options.

OPTIONS
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Long options can be put in an options file (default "~/.gnupg/options"). Do not write the 2 dashes, but simply the name of the option and any required arguments. Lines with a hash as the first non-white-space character are ignored. Commands may be put in this file too, but that does not make sense.

gpg recognizes these options:

-a, ---armor
     Create ASCII armored output.

-o, ---output file
     Write output to file.

-u, ---local-user name
     Use name as the user ID to sign. This option is silently ignored for the list commands, so that it can be used in an options file.

---default-key name
     Use name as default user ID for signatures. If this is not used the default user ID is the first user ID found in the secret keyring.

-r, ---recipient name

     Encrypt for user id name. If this option is not specified, GnuPG asks for the user-id unless ---default-recipient is given

---default-recipient name
     Use name as default recipient if option ---recipient is not used and don't ask if this is a valid one. name must be non-empty.

---default-recipient-self
     Use the default key as default recipient if option ---recipient is not used and don't ask if this is a valid one. The default key is the first one from the secret keyring or the one set with ---default-key.

---no-default-recipient
     Reset ---default-recipient and --default-recipient-self.

---encrypt-to name
     Same as ---recipient but this one is intended for use in the options file and may be used with your own user-id as an "encrypt-to-self". These keys are only used when there are other recipients given either by use of ---recipient or by the asked user id. No trust checking is performed for these user ids and even disabled keys can be used.

---no-encrypt-to
     Disable the use of all ---encrypt-to keys.

-v, ---verbose
     Give more information during processing. If used twice, the input data is listed in detail.

-q, ---quiet
     Try to be as quiet as possible.

-z n
     Set compression level to n. A value of 0 for n disables compression. Default is to use the default compression level of zlib (normally 6).

-t, ---textmode
     Use canonical text mode. If -t (but not ---textmode) is used together with armoring and signing, this enables clearsigned messages. This kludge is needed for PGP compatibility; normally you would use ---sign or --clearsign to selected the type of the signature.

-n, ---dry-run
     Don't make any changes (this is not completely implemented).

-i, ---interactive
     Prompt before overwriting any files.

---batch
     Use batch mode. Never ask, do not allow interactive commands.

---no-tty
     Make sure that the TTY (terminal) is never used for any output. This option is needed in some cases because GnuPG sometimes prints warnings to the TTY if ---batch is used.

---no-batch
     Disable batch mode. This may be of use if ---batch is enabled from an options file.

---yes
     Assume "yes" on most questions.

---no
     Assume "no" on most questions.

---default-cert-check-level n
     The default to use for the check level when signing a key.

     0 means you make no particular claim as to how carefully you verified the key.

     1 means you believe the key is owned by the person who claims to own it but you could not, or did not verify the key at all. This is useful for a "persona" verification, where you sign the key of a pseudonymous user.

     2 means you did casual verification of the key. For example, this could mean that you verified that the key fingerprint and checked the user ID on the key against a photo ID.

     3 means you did extensive verification of the key. For example, this could mean that you verified the key fingerprint with the owner of the key in person, and that you checked, by means of a hard to forge document with a photo ID (such as a passport) that the name of the key owner matches the name in the user ID on the key, and finally that you verified (by exchange of email) that the email address on the key belongs to the key owner.

     Note that the examples given above for levels 2 and 3 are just that: examples. In the end, it is up to you to decide just what "casual" and "extensive" mean to you.

     This option defaults to 0.

---trusted-key long key ID
     Assume that the specified key (which must be given as a full 8 byte key ID) is as trustworthy as one of your own secret keys. This option is useful if you don't want to keep your secret keys (or one of them) online but still want to be able to check the validity of a given recipient's or signator's key.

---always-trust
     Skip key validation and assume that used keys are always fully trusted. You won't use this unless you have installed some external validation scheme. This option also suppresses the "[uncertain]" tag printed with signature checks when there is no evidence that the user ID is bound to the key.

---keyserver name
     Use name as your keyserver. This is the server that ---recv-keys, ---send-keys, and --search-keys will communicate with to receive keys from, send keys to, and search for keys on. The format of the name is a URI: `scheme:[//]keyservername[:port]' The scheme is the type of keyserver: "hkp" for the Horowitz (or compatible) keyservers, "ldap" for the NAI LDAP keyserver, or "mailto" for the Horowitz email keyserver. Note that your particular installation of GnuPG may have other keyserver types available as well.

     Most keyservers synchronize with each other, so there is generally no need to send keys to more than one server. Using the command "host -l pgp.net | grep wwwkeys" gives you a list of HKP keyservers. When using one of the wwwkeys servers, due to load balancing using round-robin DNS you may notice that you get a different key server each time.

---keyserver-options parameters
     This is a space or comma delimited string that gives options for the keyserver. Options can be prepended with a `no-' to give the opposite meaning. While not all options are available for all keyserver types, some common options are:

     include-revoked
          When receiving or searching for a key, include keys that are marked on the keyserver as revoked. Note that this option is always set when using the NAI HKP keyserver, as this keyserver does not differentiate between revoked and unrevoked keys.

     include-disabled
          When receiving or searching for a key, include keys that are marked on the keyserver as disabled. Note that this option is not used with HKP keyservers, as they do not support disabling keys.

     use-temp-files
          On most Unix-like platforms, GnuPG communicates with the keyserver helper program via pipes, which is the most efficient method. This option forces GnuPG to use temporary files to communicate. On some platforms (such as Win32 and RISC OS), this option is always enabled.

     keep-temp-files
          If using `use-temp-files', do not delete the temp files after using them. This option is useful to learn the keyserver communication protocol by reading the temporary files.

     verbose
          Tell the keyserver helper program to be more verbose. This option can be repeated multiple times to increase the verbosity level.

     honor-http-proxy
          For keyserver schemes that use HTTP (such as HKP), try to access the keyserver over the proxy set with the environment variable "http_proxy".

     auto-key-retrieve
          This option enables the automatic retrieving of keys from a keyserver when verifying signatures made by keys that are not on the local keyring.

---show-photos
     Causes ---list-keys, --list-sigs, --list-public-keys, and ---list-secret-keys to also display the photo ID attached to a key, if any. See also ---photo-viewer.

---no-show-photos
     Resets the ---show-photos flag.

---photo-viewer string
     This is the command line that should be run to view a photo ID. "%i" will be expanded to a filename containing the photo. "%I" does the same, except the file will not be deleted once the viewer exits. Other flags are "%k" for the key ID, "%K" for the long key ID, "%f" for the key fingerprint, "%t" for the extension of the image type (e.g. "jpg"), "%T" for the MIME type of the image (e.g. "image/jpeg"), and "%%" for an actual percent sign. If neither %i or %I are present, then the photo will be supplied to the viewer on standard input.

     The default viewer is "xloadimage -fork -quiet -title 'KeyID 0x%k' stdin"

---show-keyring
     Causes ---list-keys, --list-public-keys, and --list-secret-keys to display the name of the keyring a given key resides on. This is only useful when you're listing a specific key or set of keys. It has no effect when listing all keys.

---keyring file
     Add file to the list of keyrings. If file begins with a tilde and a slash, these are replaced by the HOME directory. If the filename does not contain a slash, it is assumed to be in the home-directory ("~/.gnupg" if ---homedir is not used). The filename may be prefixed with a scheme:

     "gnupg-ring:" is the default one.

     It might make sense to use it together with ---no-default-keyring.

---secret-keyring file
     Same as ---keyring but for the secret keyrings.

---homedir directory
     Set the name of the home directory to directory If this option is not used it defaults to "~/.gnupg". It does not make sense to use this in a options file. This also overrides the environment variable "GNUPGHOME".

---charset name
     Set the name of the native character set. This is used to convert some strings to proper UTF-8 encoding. Valid values for name are:

     iso-8859-1
          This is the default Latin 1 set.

     iso-8859-2
          The Latin 2 set.

     koi8-r
          The usual Russian set (rfc1489).

     utf-8
          Bypass all translations and assume that the OS uses native UTF-8 encoding.

---utf8-strings
---no-utf8-strings
     Assume that the arguments are already given as UTF8 strings. The default (---no-utf8-strings) is to assume that arguments are encoded in the character set as specified by ---charset. These options affect all following arguments. Both options may be used multiple times.

---options file
     Read options from file and do not try to read them from the default options file in the homedir (see ---homedir). This option is ignored if used in an options file.

---no-options
     Shortcut for "---options /dev/null". This option is detected before an attempt to open an option file. Using this option will also prevent the creation of a "~./gnupg" homedir.

---load-extension name
     Load an extension module. If name does not contain a slash it is searched in "/usr/local/lib/gnupg" See the manual for more information about extensions.

---debug flags
     Set debugging flags. All flags are or-ed and flags may be given in C syntax (e.g. 0x0042).

---debug-all
     Set all useful debugging flags.

---status-fd n
     Write special status strings to the file descriptor n. See the file DETAILS in the documentation for a listing of them.

---logger-fd n
     Write log output to file descriptor n and not to stderr.

---no-comment
     Do not write comment packets. This option affects only the generation of secret keys. Please note, that this has nothing to do with the comments in clear text signatures.

---comment string
     Use string as comment string in clear text signatures. The default is not do write a comment string.

---default-comment
     Force to write the standard comment string in clear text signatures. Use this to overwrite a ---comment from a config file. This option is now obsolete because there is no default comment string anymore.

---no-version
     Omit the version string in clear text signatures.

---emit-version
     Force to write the version string in clear text signatures. Use this to overwrite a previous ---no-version from a config file.

-N, ---notation-data name=value
     Put the name value pair into the signature as notation data. name must consist only of alphanumeric characters, digits or the underscore; the first character must not be a digit. value may be any printable string; it will be encoded in UTF8, so you should check that your ---charset is set correctly. If you prefix name with an exclamation mark, the notation data will be flagged as critical (rfc2440:5.2.3.15).

---show-notation
     Show key signature notations in the ---list-sigs or --check-sigs listings.

---no-show-notation
     Do not show key signature notations in the ---list-sigs or --check-sigs listings.

---set-policy-url string
     Use string as Policy URL for signatures (rfc2440:5.2.3.19). If you prefix it with an exclamation mark, the policy URL packet will be flagged as critical.

---show-policy-url
     Show any policy URLs set in the ---list-sigs or --check-sigs listings.

---no-show-policy-url
     Do not show any policy URLs set in the ---list-sigs or --check-sigs listings.

---set-filename string
     Use string as the name of file which is stored in messages.

---for-your-eyes-only
     Set the `for your eyes only' flag in the message. This causes GnuPG to refuse to save the file unless the ---output option is given, and PGP to use the "secure viewer" with a Tempest-resistant font to display the message. This option overrides ---set-filename.

---no-for-your-eyes-only
     Resets the ---for-your-eyes-only flag.

---use-embedded-filename
     Try to create a file with a name as embedded in the data. This can be a dangerous option as it allows to overwrite files.

---completes-needed n
     Number of completely trusted users to introduce a new key signer (defaults to 1).

---marginals-needed n
     Number of marginally trusted users to introduce a new key signer (defaults to 3)

---max-cert-depth n
     Maximum depth of a certification chain (default is 5).

---cipher-algo name
     Use name as cipher algorithm. Running the program with the command ---version yields a list of supported algorithms. If this is not used the cipher algorithm is selected from the preferences stored with the key.

---digest-algo name
     Use name as message digest algorithm. Running the program with the command ---version yields a list of supported algorithms. Please note that using this option may violate the OpenPGP requirement, that a 160 bit hash is to be used for DSA.

---s2k-cipher-algo name
     Use name as the cipher algorithm used to protect secret keys. The default cipher is BLOWFISH. This cipher is also used for conventional encryption if ---cipher-algo is not given.

---s2k-digest-algo name
     Use name as the digest algorithm used to mangle the passphrases. The default algorithm is RIPE-MD-160. This digest algorithm is also used for conventional encryption if ---digest-algo is not given.

---s2k-mode n
     Selects how passphrases are mangled. If n is 0 a plain passphrase (which is not recommended) will be used, a 1 (default) adds a salt to the passphrase and a 3 iterates the whole process a couple of times. Unless ---rfc1991 is used, this mode is also used for conventional encryption.

---simple-sk-checksum
     Secret keys are integrity protected by using a SHA-1 checksum. This method will be part of an enhanced OpenPGP specification but GnuPG already uses it as a countermeasure against certain attacks. Old applications don't understand this new format, so this option may be used to switch back to the old behaviour. Using this this option bears a security risk.

---compress-algo n
     Use compression algorithm n. Default is 2 which is RFC1950 compression. You may use 1 to use the old zlib version (RFC1951) which is used by PGP. 0 disables compression. The default algorithm may give better results because the window size is not limited to 8K. If this is not used the OpenPGP behavior is used, i.e. the compression algorithm is selected from the preferences; note, that this can't be done if you do not encrypt the data.

---disable-cipher-algo name
     Never allow the use of name as cipher algorithm. The given name will not be checked so that a later loaded algorithm will still get disabled.

---disable-pubkey-algo name
     Never allow the use of name as public key algorithm. The given name will not be checked so that a later loaded algorithm will still get disabled.

---no-sig-cache
     Do not cache the verification status of key signatures. Caching gives a much better performance in key listings. However, if you suspect that your public keyring is not save against write modifications, you can use this option to disable the caching. It probably does not make sense to disable it because all kind of damage can be done if someone else has write access to your public keyring.

---no-sig-create-check
     GnuPG normally verifies each signature right after creation to protect against bugs and hardware malfunctions which could leak out bits from the secret key. This extra verification needs some time (about 115% for DSA keys), and so this option can be used to disable it. However, due to the fact that the signature creation needs manual interaction, this performance penalty does not matter in most settings.

---auto-check-trustdb
     If GnuPG feels that its information about the Web-of-Trust has to be updated, it automatically runs the ---check-trustdb command internally. This may be a time consuming process.

---no-auto-check-trustdb
     Resets the ---auto-check-trustdb option.

---throw-keyid
     Do not put the keyid into encrypted packets. This option hides the receiver of the message and is a countermeasure against traffic analysis. It may slow down the decryption process because all available secret keys are tried.

---not-dash-escaped
     This option changes the behavior of cleartext signatures so that they can be used for patch files. You should not send such an armored file via email because all spaces and line endings are hashed too. You can not use this option for data which has 5 dashes at the beginning of a line, patch files don't have this. A special armor header line tells GnuPG about this cleartext signature option.

---escape-from-lines
     Because some mailers change lines starting with "From " to "<From " it is good to handle such lines in a special way when creating cleartext signatures. All other PGP versions do it this way too. This option is not enabled by default because it would violate rfc2440.

---passphrase-fd n
     Read the passphrase from file descriptor n. If you use 0 for n, the passphrase will be read from stdin. This can only be used if only one passphrase is supplied. Don't use this option if you can avoid it.

---command-fd n
     This is a replacement for the deprecated shared-memory IPC mode. If this option is enabled, user input on questions is not expected from the TTY but from the given file descriptor. It should be used together with ---status-fd. See the file doc/DETAILS in the source distribution for details on how to use it.

---use-agent
     Try to use the GnuPG-Agent. Please note that this agent is still under development. With this option, GnuPG first tries to connect to the agent before it asks for a passphrase.

---gpg-agent-info
     Override the value of the environment variable GPG_AGENT_INFO. This is only used when ---use-agent has been given

---rfc1991
     Try to be more RFC1991 (PGP 2.x) compliant.

---pgp2
     Set up all options to be as PGP 2.x compliant as possible, and warn if an action is taken (e.g. encrypting to a non-RSA key) that will create a message that PGP 2.x will not be able to handle. Note that `PGP 2.x' here means `MIT PGP 2.6.2'. There are other versions of PGP 2.x available, but the MIT release is a good common baseline.

     This option implies `---rfc1991 --no-openpgp --disable-mdc ---no-force-v4-certs --no-comment --escape-from --force-v3-sigs ---no-ask-sig-expire --no-ask-cert-expire --cipher-algo IDEA ---digest-algo MD5 --compress-algo 1'

---no-pgp2
     Resets the ---pgp2 option.

---pgp6
     Set up all options to be as PGP 6 compliant as possible. This restricts you to the ciphers IDEA (if the IDEA plugin is installed), 3DES, and CAST5, the hashes MD5, SHA1 and RIPEMD160, and the compression algorithms none and ZIP. This also disables making signatures with signing subkeys as PGP 6 does not understand signatures made by signing subkeys.

     This option implies `---disable-mdc --no-comment --escape-from ---force-v3-sigs --no-ask-sig-expire --compress-algo 1'

---no-pgp6
     Resets the ---pgp6 option.

---openpgp
     Reset all packet, cipher and digest options to OpenPGP behavior. Use this option to reset all previous options like ---rfc1991, --force-v3-sigs, --s2k-*, ---cipher-algo, --digest-algo and --compress-algo to OpenPGP compliant values. All PGP workarounds are also disabled.

---force-v3-sigs
     OpenPGP states that an implementation should generate v4 signatures but PGP versions 5 and higher do only recognizes v4 signatures on key material. This option forces v3 signatures for signatures on data.

---no-force-v3-sigs
     Reset the ---force-v3-sigs option.

---force-v4-certs
     Always use v4 key signatures even on v3 keys. This option also changes the default hash algorithm for v3 RSA keys from MD5 to SHA-1.

---no-force-v4-certs
     Reset the ---force-v4-certs option.

---force-mdc
     Force the use of encryption with appended manipulation code. This is always used with the newer ciphers (those with a blocksize greater than 64 bit).

---allow-non-selfsigned-uid
     Allow the import and use of keys with user IDs which are not self-signed. This is not recommended, as a non self-signed user ID is trivial to forge.

---no-allow-non-selfsigned-uid
     Reset the ---allow-non-selfsigned-uid option.

---allow-freeform-uid
     Disable all checks on the form of the user ID while generating a new one. This option should only be used in very special environments as it does not ensure the de-facto standard format of user IDs.

---ignore-time-conflict
     GnuPG normally checks that the timestamps associated with keys and signatures have plausible values. However, sometimes a signature seems to be older than the key due to clock problems. This option makes these checks just a warning.

---ignore-valid-from
     GnuPG normally does not select and use subkeys created in the future. This option allows the use of such keys and thus exhibits the pre-1.0.7 behaviour. You should not use this option unless you there is some clock problem.

---ignore-crc-error
     The ASCII armor used by OpenPG is protected by a CRC checksum against transmission errors. Sometimes it happens that the CRC gets mangled somewhere on the transmission channel but the actual content (which is anyway protected by the OpenPGP protocol) is still okay. This option will let gpg ignore CRC errors.

---lock-once
     Lock the databases the first time a lock is requested and do not release the lock until the process terminates.

---lock-multiple
     Release the locks every time a lock is no longer needed. Use this to override a previous ---lock-once from a config file.

---lock-never
     Disable locking entirely. This option should be used only in very special environments, where it can be assured that only one process is accessing those files. A bootable floppy with a stand-alone encryption system will probably use this. Improper usage of this option may lead to data and key corruption.

---no-random-seed-file
     GnuPG uses a file to store its internal random pool over invocations. This makes random generation faster; however sometimes write operations are not desired. This option can be used to achieve that with the cost of slower random generation.

---no-verbose
     Reset verbose level to 0.

---no-greeting
     Suppress the initial copyright message but do not enter batch mode.

---no-secmem-warning
     Suppress the warning about "using insecure memory".

---no-permission-warning
     Suppress the warning about unsafe file permissions.

---no-armor
     Assume the input data is not in ASCII armored format.

---no-default-keyring
     Do not add the default keyrings to the list of keyrings.

---skip-verify
     Skip the signature verification step. This may be used to make the decryption faster if the signature verification is not needed.

---with-colons
     Print key listings delimited by colons. Note, that the output will be encoded in UTF-8 regardless of any ---charset setting.

---with-key-data
     Print key listings delimited by colons (like ---with-colons) and print the public key data.

---with-fingerprint
     Same as the command ---fingerprint but changes only the format of the output and may be used together with another command.

---fast-list-mode
     Changes the output of the list commands to work faster; this is achieved by leaving some parts empty. Some applications don't need the user ID and the trust information given in the listings. By using this options they can get a faster listing. The exact behaviour of this option may change in future versions.

---fixed-list-mode
     Do not merge user ID and primary key in ---with-colon listing mode and print all timestamps as seconds since 1970-01-01.

---list-only
     Changes the behaviour of some commands. This is like ---dry-run but different in some cases. The semantic of this command may be extended in the future. Currently it only skips the actual decryption pass and therefore enables a fast listing of the encryption keys.

---no-literal
     This is not for normal use. Use the source to see for what it might be useful.

---set-filesize
     This is not for normal use. Use the source to see for what it might be useful.

---emulate-md-encode-bug
     GnuPG versions prior to 1.0.2 had a bug in the way a signature was encoded. This options enables a workaround by checking faulty signatures again with the encoding used in old versions. This may only happen for ElGamal signatures which are not widely used.

---show-session-key
     Display the session key used for one message. See ---override-session-key for the counterpart of this option.

     We think that Key-Escrow is a Bad Thing; however the user should have the freedom to decide whether to go to prison or to reveal the content of one specific message without compromising all messages ever encrypted for one secret key. DON'T USE IT UNLESS YOU ARE REALLY FORCED TO DO SO.

---override-session-key string
     Don't use the public key but the session key string. The format of this string is the same as the one printed by ---show-session-key. This option is normally not used but comes handy in case someone forces you to reveal the content of an encrypted message; using this option you can do this without handing out the secret key.

---ask-sig-expire
     When making a data signature, prompt for an expiration time. If this option is not specified, the expiration time is "never".

---no-ask-sig-expire
     Resets the ---ask-sig-expire option.

---ask-cert-expire
     When making a key signature, prompt for an expiration time. If this option is not specified, the expiration time is "never".

---no-ask-cert-expire
     Resets the ---ask-cert-expire option.

---expert
     Allow the user to do certain nonsenical or "silly" things like signing an expired or revoked key, or certain potentially incompatible things like adding more than one photo ID to a single key. In general, this option is for experts only. If you don't really understand what it is doing, leave this off.

---no-expert
     Resets the ---expert option.

---merge-only
     Don't insert new keys into the keyrings while doing an import.

---allow-secret-key-import
     This is an obsolete option and is not used anywhere.

---try-all-secrets
     Don't look at the key ID as stored in the message but try all secret keys in turn to find the right decryption key. This option forces the behaviour as used by anonymous recipients (created by using ---throw-keyid) and might come handy in case where an encrypted message contains a bogus key ID.

---enable-special-filenames
     This options enables a mode in which filenames of the form -&n, where n is a non-negative decimal number, refer to the file descriptor n and not to a file with that name.

---no-expensive-trust-checks
     Experimental use only.

---preserve-permissions
     Don't change the permissions of a secret keyring back to user read/write only. Use this option only if you really know what you are doing.

---preference-list string
     Set the list of preferences to string, this list should be a string similar to the one printed by the command "pref" in the edit menu.

How to specify a user ID
************************

There are different ways on how to specify a user ID to GnuPG; here are some examples:

234567C4
0F34E556E
01347A56A
0xAB123456
     Here the key ID is given in the usual short form.

234AABBCC34567C4
0F323456784E56EAB
01AB3FED1347A5612
0x234AABBCC34567C4
     Here the key ID is given in the long form as used by OpenPGP (you can get the long key ID using the option ---with-colons).

1234343434343434C434343434343434
123434343434343C3434343434343734349A3434
0E12343434343434343434EAB3484343434343434
0xE12343434343434343434EAB3484343434343434
     The best way to specify a key ID is by using the fingerprint of the key. This avoids any ambiguities in case that there are duplicated key IDs (which are really rare for the long key IDs).

=Heinrich Heine <heinrichh@uni-duesseldorf.de>
     Using an exact to match string. The equal sign indicates this.

<heinrichh@uni-duesseldorf.de>
     Using the email address part which must match exactly. The left angle bracket indicates this email address mode.

+Heinrich Heine duesseldorf
     All words must match exactly (not case sensitive) but can appear in any order in the user ID. Words are any sequences of letters, digits, the underscore and all characters with bit 7 set.

Heine
*Heine
     By case insensitive substring matching. This is the default mode but applications may want to explicitly indicate this by putting the asterisk in front.

Note that you can append an exclamation mark to key IDs or fingerprints. This flag which tells GnuPG to use exactly that primary or secondary key and don't try to figure out which secondary or primary key to use.

RETURN VALUE
************

The program returns 0 if everything was fine, 1 if at least a signature was bad, and other error codes for fatal errors.

EXAMPLES
********

gpg -se -r Bob file
     sign and encrypt for user Bob

gpg ---clearsign file
     make a clear text signature

gpg -sb file
     make a detached signature

gpg ---list-keys user_ID
     show keys

gpg ---fingerprint user_ID
     show fingerprint

gpg ---verify pgpfile
gpg ---verify sigfile files
     Verify the signature of the file but do not output the data. The second form is used for detached signatures, where sigfile is the detached signature (either ASCII armored of binary) and files are the signed data; if this is not given the name of the file holding the signed data is constructed by cutting off the extension (".asc" or ".sig") of sigfile or by asking the user for the filename.

ENVIRONMENT
***********

HOME
     Used to locate the default home directory.

GNUPGHOME
     If set directory used instead of "~/.gnupg".

GPG_AGENT_INFO
     Used to locate the gpg-agent; only honred when ---use-agent is set. The value constist of 3 colon delimited fields: The first is the path to the Unix Domain Socket, the second the PID of the gpg-agent and the protocol version which should be set to 1. When starting the gpg-agent as described in its documentation, this variable is set to the correct value. The option ---gpg-agent-info can be used to overide it.

http_proxy
     Only honored when the option ---honor-http-proxy is set.

FILES
*****

~/.gnupg/secring.gpg
     The secret keyring

~/.gnupg/secring.gpg.lock
     and the lock file

~/.gnupg/pubring.gpg
     The public keyring

~/.gnupg/pubring.gpg.lock
     and the lock file

~/.gnupg/trustdb.gpg
     The trust database

~/.gnupg/trustdb.gpg.lock
     and the lock file

~/.gnupg/random_seed
     used to preserve the internal random pool

~/.gnupg/options
     May contain options

/usr[/local]/share/gnupg/options.skel
     Skeleton options file

/usr[/local]/lib/gnupg/
     Default location for extensions

WARNINGS
********

Use a *good* password for your user account and a *good* passphrase to protect your secret key. This passphrase is the weakest part of the whole system. Programs to do dictionary attacks on your secret keyring are very easy to write and so you should protect your "~/.gnupg/" directory very well.

Keep in mind that, if this program is used over a network (telnet), it is *very* easy to spy out your passphrase!

If you are going to verify detached signatures, make sure that the program knows about it; either be giving both filenames on the commandline or using - to specify stdin.

BUGS
****

On many systems this program should be installed as setuid(root). This is necessary to lock memory pages. Locking memory pages prevents the operating system from writing memory pages to disk. If you get no warning message about insecure memory your operating system supports locking without being root. The program drops root privileges as soon as locked memory is allocated.