Ubuntu Manpage: gpgconf - Modify .gnupg home directories

Provided by: gpgconf_2.2.27-3ubuntu2.4_amd64

NAME

       gpgconf - Modify .gnupg home directories

SYNOPSIS

       gpgconf [options] --list-components
       gpgconf [options] --list-options component
       gpgconf [options] --change-options component

DESCRIPTION

The gpgconf is a utility to automatically and reasonable safely query and modify configuration files in
the ‘.gnupg’ home directory. It is designed not to be invoked manually by the user, but automatically by
graphical user interfaces (GUI). ([Please note that currently no locking is done, so concurrent access
should be avoided. There are some precautions to avoid corruption with concurrent usage, but results may
be inconsistent and some changes may get lost. The stateless design makes it difficult to provide more
guarantees.])

gpgconf provides access to the configuration of one or more components of the GnuPG system. These
components correspond more or less to the programs that exist in the GnuPG framework, like GPG, GPGSM,
DirMngr, etc. But this is not a strict one-to-one relationship. Not all configuration options are
available through gpgconf. gpgconf provides a generic and abstract method to access the most important
configuration options that can feasibly be controlled via such a mechanism.

gpgconf can be used to gather and change the options available in each component, and can also provide
their default values. gpgconf will give detailed type information that can be used to restrict the
user's input without making an attempt to commit the changes.

gpgconf provides the backend of a configuration editor. The configuration editor would usually be a
graphical user interface program that displays the current options, their default values, and allows the
user to make changes to the options. These changes can then be made active with gpgconf again. Such a
program that uses gpgconf in this way will be called GUI throughout this section.

COMMANDS

One of the following commands must be given:

--list-components
List all components. This is the default command used if none is specified.

--check-programs
List all available backend programs and test whether they are runnable.

--list-options component
List all options of the component component.

--change-options component
Change the options of the component component.

--check-options component
Check the options for the component component.

--apply-profile file
Apply the configuration settings listed in file to the configuration files. If file has no suffix
and no slashes the command first tries to read a file with the suffix .prf from the data directory
(gpgconf --list-dirs datadir) before it reads the file verbatim. A profile is divided into
sections using the bracketed component name. Each section then lists the option which shall go
into the respective configuration file.

--apply-defaults
Update all configuration files with values taken from the global configuration file (usually
‘/etc/gnupg/gpgconf.conf’).

--list-dirs [names]
Lists the directories used by gpgconf. One directory is listed per line, and each line consists
of a colon-separated list where the first field names the directory type (for example sysconfdir)
and the second field contains the percent-escaped directory. Although they are not directories,
the socket file names used by gpg-agent and dirmngr are printed as well. Note that the socket
file names and the homedir lines are the default names and they may be overridden by command line
switches. If names are given only the directories or file names specified by the list names are
printed without any escaping.

--list-config [filename]
List the global configuration file in a colon separated format. If filename is given, check that
file instead.

--check-config [filename]
Run a syntax check on the global configuration file. If filename is given, check that file
instead.

--query-swdb package_name [version_string]
Returns the current version for package_name and if version_string is given also an indicator on
whether an update is available. The actual file with the software version is automatically
downloaded and checked by dirmngr. dirmngr uses a thresholds to avoid download the file too often
and it does this by default only if it can be done via Tor. To force an update of that file this
command can be used:

gpg-connect-agent --dirmngr 'loadswdb --force' /bye

--reload [component]
Reload all or the given component. This is basically the same as sending a SIGHUP to the
component. Components which don't support reloading are ignored. Without component or by using
"all" for component all components which are daemons are reloaded.

--launch [component]
If the component is not already running, start it. component must be a daemon. This is in
general not required because the system starts these daemons as needed. However, external
software making direct use of gpg-agent or dirmngr may use this command to ensure that they are
started. Using "all" for component launches all components which are daemons.

--kill [component]
Kill the given component that runs as a daemon, including gpg-agent, dirmngr, and scdaemon. A
component which does not run as a daemon will be ignored. Using "all" for component kills all
components running as daemons. Note that as of now reload and kill have the same effect for
scdaemon.

--create-socketdir
Create a directory for sockets below /run/user or /var/run/user. This is command is only required
if a non default home directory is used and the /run based sockets shall be used. For the default
home directory GnUPG creates a directory on the fly.

--remove-socketdir
Remove a directory created with command --create-socketdir.

OPTIONS

The following options may be used:

-o file
--output file
Write output to file. Default is to write to stdout.

-v
--verbose
Outputs additional information while running. Specifically, this extends numerical field values
by human-readable descriptions.

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

--homedir dir
Set the name of the home directory to dir. If this option is not used, the home directory defaults
to ‘~/.gnupg’. It is only recognized when given on the command line. It also overrides any home
directory stated through the environment variable ‘GNUPGHOME’ or (on Windows systems) by means of
the Registry entry HKCU\Software\GNU\GnuPG:HomeDir.

On Windows systems it is possible to install GnuPG as a portable application. In this case only
this command line option is considered, all other ways to set a home directory are ignored.

To install GnuPG as a portable application under Windows, create an empty file named ‘gpgconf.ctl’
in the same directory as the tool ‘gpgconf.exe’. The root of the installation is then that
directory; or, if ‘gpgconf.exe’ has been installed directly below a directory named ‘bin’, its
parent directory. You also need to make sure that the following directories exist and are
writable: ‘ROOT/home’ for the GnuPG home and ‘ROOT/var/cache/gnupg’ for internal cache files.

-n
--dry-run
Do not actually change anything. This is currently only implemented for --change-options and can
be used for testing purposes.

-r
--runtime
Only used together with --change-options. If one of the modified options can be changed in a
running daemon process, signal the running daemon to ask it to reparse its configuration file
after changing.

This means that the changes will take effect at run-time, as far as this is possible. Otherwise,
they will take effect at the next start of the respective backend programs.

--status-fd n
Write special status strings to the file descriptor n. This program returns the status messages
SUCCESS or FAILURE which are helpful when the caller uses a double fork approach and can't easily
get the return code of the process.

USAGE

The command --list-components will list all components that can be configured with gpgconf. Usually, one
component will correspond to one GnuPG-related program and contain the options of that program's
configuration file that can be modified using gpgconf. However, this is not necessarily the case. A
component might also be a group of selected options from several programs, or contain entirely virtual
options that have a special effect rather than changing exactly one option in one configuration file.

A component is a set of configuration options that semantically belong together. Furthermore, several
changes to a component can be made in an atomic way with a single operation. The GUI could for example
provide a menu with one entry for each component, or a window with one tabulator sheet per component.

The command --list-components lists all available components, one per line. The format of each line is:

name:description:pgmname:

name This field contains a name tag of the component. The name tag is used to specify the component in
all communication with gpgconf. The name tag is to be used verbatim. It is thus not in any
escaped format.

description
The string in this field contains a human-readable description of the component. It can be
displayed to the user of the GUI for informational purposes. It is percent-escaped and localized.

pgmname
The string in this field contains the absolute name of the program's file. It can be used to
unambiguously invoke that program. It is percent-escaped.

Example:
$ gpgconf --list-components
gpg:GPG for OpenPGP:/usr/local/bin/gpg2:
gpg-agent:GPG Agent:/usr/local/bin/gpg-agent:
scdaemon:Smartcard Daemon:/usr/local/bin/scdaemon:
gpgsm:GPG for S/MIME:/usr/local/bin/gpgsm:
dirmngr:Directory Manager:/usr/local/bin/dirmngr:

Checking programs

The command --check-programs is similar to --list-components but works on backend programs and not on
components. It runs each program to test whether it is installed and runnable. This also includes a
syntax check of all config file options of the program.

The command --check-programs lists all available programs, one per line. The format of each line is:

name:description:pgmname:avail:okay:cfgfile:line:error:

name This field contains a name tag of the program which is identical to the name of the component.
The name tag is to be used verbatim. It is thus not in any escaped format. This field may be
empty to indicate a continuation of error descriptions for the last name. The description and
pgmname fields are then also empty.

pgmname
The string in this field contains the absolute name of the program's file. It can be used to
unambiguously invoke that program. It is percent-escaped.

avail The boolean value in this field indicates whether the program is installed and runnable.

okay The boolean value in this field indicates whether the program's config file is syntactically okay.

cfgfile
If an error occurred in the configuration file (as indicated by a false value in the field okay),
this field has the name of the failing configuration file. It is percent-escaped.

line If an error occurred in the configuration file, this field has the line number of the failing
statement in the configuration file. It is an unsigned number.

error If an error occurred in the configuration file, this field has the error text of the failing
statement in the configuration file. It is percent-escaped and localized.

In the following example the dirmngr is not runnable and the configuration file of scdaemon is not okay.

$ gpgconf --check-programs
gpg:GPG for OpenPGP:/usr/local/bin/gpg2:1:1:
gpg-agent:GPG Agent:/usr/local/bin/gpg-agent:1:1:
scdaemon:Smartcard Daemon:/usr/local/bin/scdaemon:1:0:
gpgsm:GPG for S/MIME:/usr/local/bin/gpgsm:1:1:
dirmngr:Directory Manager:/usr/local/bin/dirmngr:0:0:

The command configuration file in the same manner as --check-programs, but only for the component
component.

Listing options

Every component contains one or more options. Options may be gathered into option groups to allow the
GUI to give visual hints to the user about which options are related.

The command lists all options (and the groups they belong to) in the component component, one per line.
component must be the string in the field name in the output of the --list-components command.

There is one line for each option and each group. First come all options that are not in any group.
Then comes a line describing a group. Then come all options that belong into each group. Then comes the
next group and so on. There does not need to be any group (and in this case the output will stop after
the last non-grouped option).

The format of each line is:

name:flags:level:description:type:alt-type:argname:default:argdef:value

name This field contains a name tag for the group or option. The name tag is used to specify the group
or option in all communication with gpgconf. The name tag is to be used verbatim. It is thus not
in any escaped format.

flags The flags field contains an unsigned number. Its value is the OR-wise combination of the
following flag values:

group (1)
If this flag is set, this is a line describing a group and not an option.

The following flag values are only defined for options (that is, if the group flag is not used).

optional arg (2)
If this flag is set, the argument is optional. This is never set for type 0 (none)
options.

list (4)
If this flag is set, the option can be given multiple times.

runtime (8)
If this flag is set, the option can be changed at runtime.

default (16)
If this flag is set, a default value is available.

default desc (32)
If this flag is set, a (runtime) default is available. This and the default flag are
mutually exclusive.

no arg desc (64)
If this flag is set, and the optional arg flag is set, then the option has a special
meaning if no argument is given.

no change (128)
If this flag is set, gpgconf ignores requests to change the value. GUI frontends should
grey out this option. Note, that manual changes of the configuration files are still
possible.

level This field is defined for options and for groups. It contains an unsigned number that specifies
the expert level under which this group or option should be displayed. The following expert
levels are defined for options (they have analogous meaning for groups):

basic (0)
This option should always be offered to the user.

advanced (1)
This option may be offered to advanced users.

expert (2)
This option should only be offered to expert users.

invisible (3)
This option should normally never be displayed, not even to expert users.

internal (4)
This option is for internal use only. Ignore it.

The level of a group will always be the lowest level of all options it contains.

description
This field is defined for options and groups. The string in this field contains a human-readable
description of the option or group. It can be displayed to the user of the GUI for informational
purposes. It is percent-escaped and localized.

type This field is only defined for options. It contains an unsigned number that specifies the type of
the option's argument, if any. The following types are defined:

Basic types:

none (0)
No argument allowed.

string (1)
An unformatted string.

int32 (2)
A signed number.

uint32 (3)
An unsigned number.

Complex types:

pathname (32)
A string that describes the pathname of a file. The file does not necessarily need to
exist.

ldap server (33)
A string that describes an LDAP server in the format:

hostname:port:username:password:base_dn

key fingerprint (34)
A string with a 40 digit fingerprint specifying a certificate.

pub key (35)
A string that describes a certificate by user ID, key ID or fingerprint.

sec key (36)
A string that describes a certificate with a key by user ID, key ID or fingerprint.

alias list (37)
A string that describes an alias list, like the one used with gpg's group option. The list
consists of a key, an equal sign and space separated values.

More types will be added in the future. Please see the alt-type field for information on how to cope
with unknown types.

alt-type
This field is identical to type, except that only the types 0 to 31 are allowed. The GUI is
expected to present the user the option in the format specified by type. But if the argument type
type is not supported by the GUI, it can still display the option in the more generic basic type
alt-type. The GUI must support all the defined basic types to be able to display all options.
More basic types may be added in future versions. If the GUI encounters a basic type it doesn't
support, it should report an error and abort the operation.

argname
This field is only defined for options with an argument type type that is not 0. In this case it
may contain a percent-escaped and localized string that gives a short name for the argument. The
field may also be empty, though, in which case a short name is not known.

default
This field is defined only for options for which the default or default desc flag is set. If the
default flag is set, its format is that of an option argument (see: [Format conventions], for
details). If the default value is empty, then no default is known. Otherwise, the value
specifies the default value for this option. If the default desc flag is set, the field is either
empty or contains a description of the effect if the option is not given.

argdef This field is defined only for options for which the optional arg flag is set. If the no arg desc
flag is not set, its format is that of an option argument (see: [Format conventions], for
details). If the default value is empty, then no default is known. Otherwise, the value
specifies the default argument for this option. If the no arg desc flag is set, the field is
either empty or contains a description of the effect of this option if no argument is given.

value This field is defined only for options. Its format is that of an option argument. If it is
empty, then the option is not explicitly set in the current configuration, and the default applies
(if any). Otherwise, it contains the current value of the option. Note that this field is also
meaningful if the option itself does not take a real argument (in this case, it contains the
number of times the option appears).

Changing options

The command to change the options of the component component to the specified values. component must be
the string in the field name in the output of the --list-components command. You have to provide the
options that shall be changed in the following format on standard input:

name:flags:new-value

name This is the name of the option to change. name must be the string in the field name in the output
of the --list-options command.

flags The flags field contains an unsigned number. Its value is the OR-wise combination of the
following flag values:

default (16)
If this flag is set, the option is deleted and the default value is used instead (if
applicable).

new-value
The new value for the option. This field is only defined if the default flag is not set. The
format is that of an option argument. If it is empty (or the field is omitted), the default
argument is used (only allowed if the argument is optional for this option). Otherwise, the
option will be set to the specified value.

The output of the command is the same as that of --check-options for the modified configuration file.

Examples:

To set the force option, which is of basic type none (0):

$ echo 'force:0:1' | gpgconf --change-options dirmngr

To delete the force option:

$ echo 'force:16:' | gpgconf --change-options dirmngr

The --runtime option can influence when the changes take effect.

Listing global options

Sometimes it is useful for applications to look at the global options file ‘gpgconf.conf’. The colon
separated listing format is record oriented and uses the first field to identify the record type:

k This describes a key record to start the definition of a new ruleset for a user/group. The format
of a key record is:

k:user:group:

user This is the user field of the key. It is percent escaped. See the definition of the
gpgconf.conf format for details.

group This is the group field of the key. It is percent escaped.

r This describes a rule record. All rule records up to the next key record make up a rule set for
that key. The format of a rule record is:

r:::component:option:flag:value:

component
This is the component part of a rule. It is a plain string.

option This is the option part of a rule. It is a plain string.

flag This is the flags part of a rule. There may be only one flag per rule but by using the
same component and option, several flags may be assigned to an option. It is a plain
string.

value This is the optional value for the option. It is a percent escaped string with a single
quotation mark to indicate a string. The quotation mark is only required to distinguish
between no value specified and an empty string.

Unknown record types should be ignored. Note that there is intentionally no feature to change the global
option file through gpgconf.

Get and compare software versions.

The GnuPG Project operates a server to query the current versions of software packages related to GnuPG.
gpgconf can be used to access this online database. To allow for offline operations, this feature works
by having dirmngr download a file from https://versions.gnupg.org, checking the signature of that file
and storing the file in the GnuPG home directory. If gpgconf is used and dirmngr is running, it may ask
dirmngr to refresh that file before itself uses the file.

The command --query-swdb returns information for the given package in a colon delimited format:

name This is the name of the package as requested. Note that "gnupg" is a special name which is
replaced by the actual package implementing this version of GnuPG. For this name it is also not
required to specify a version because gpgconf takes its own version in this case.

iversion
The currently installed version or an empty string. The value is taken from the command line
argument but may be provided by gpg if not given.

status The status of the software package according to this table:

- No information available. This is either because no current version has been specified or
due to an error.

? The given name is not known in the online database.

u An update of the software is available.

c The installed version of the software is current.

n The installed version is already newer than the released version.

urgency
If the value (the empty string should be considered as zero) is greater than zero an important
update is available.

error This returns an gpg-error error code to distinguish between various failure modes.

filedate
This gives the date of the file with the version numbers in standard ISO format (yyyymmddThhmmss).
The date has been extracted by dirmngr from the signature of the file.

verified
This gives the date in ISO format the file was downloaded. This value can be used to evaluate the
freshness of the information.

version
This returns the version string for the requested software from the file.

reldate
This returns the release date in ISO format.

size This returns the size of the package as decimal number of bytes.

hash This returns a hexified SHA-2 hash of the package.

More fields may be added in future to the output.

FILES

       /etc/gnupg/gpgconf.conf
                If this file exists, it is processed as a global configuration file.
                A commented example can be found in the ‘examples’ directory of
                the distribution.

       GNUPGHOME/swdb.lst
                A file with current software versions.  dirmngr creates
                this file on demand from an online resource.