{ "mode": "man", "parameter": "gpg1", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/gpg1/1/json", "generated": "2026-09-01T20:31:16Z", "synopsis": "gpg [--homedir dir] [--options file] [options] command [args]", "sections": { "NAME": { "content": "gpg - OpenPGP encryption and signing tool\n", "subsections": [] }, "SYNOPSIS": { "content": "gpg [--homedir dir] [--options file] [options] command [args]\n\n", "subsections": [] }, "DESCRIPTION": { "content": "gpg is the OpenPGP only version of the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG). It is a tool to provide\ndigital encryption and signing services using the OpenPGP standard. gpg features complete key\nmanagement and all bells and whistles you can expect from a decent OpenPGP implementation.\n\nThis is the standalone version of gpg. For desktop use you should consider using gpg2 from\nthe GnuPG-2 package\n([On some platforms gpg2 is installed under the name gpg]).\n\n\n\n\n\n\n", "subsections": [] }, "RETURN VALUE": { "content": "The program returns 0 if everything was fine, 1 if at least a signature was bad, and other\nerror codes for fatal errors.\n\n", "subsections": [] }, "WARNINGS": { "content": "Use a *good* password for your user account and a *good* passphrase to protect your secret\nkey. This passphrase is the weakest part of the whole system. Programs to do dictionary at‐\ntacks on your secret keyring are very easy to write and so you should protect your\n\"~/.gnupg/\" directory very well.\n\nKeep in mind that, if this program is used over a network (telnet), it is *very* easy to spy\nout your passphrase!\n\nIf you are going to verify detached signatures, make sure that the program knows about it;\neither give both filenames on the command line or use '-' to specify STDIN.\n\n", "subsections": [] }, "INTEROPERABILITY": { "content": "GnuPG tries to be a very flexible implementation of the OpenPGP standard. In particular,\nGnuPG implements many of the optional parts of the standard, such as the SHA-512 hash, and\nthe ZLIB and BZIP2 compression algorithms. It is important to be aware that not all OpenPGP\nprograms implement these optional algorithms and that by forcing their use via the --cipher-\nalgo, --digest-algo, --cert-digest-algo, or --compress-algo options in GnuPG, it is possible\nto create a perfectly valid OpenPGP message, but one that cannot be read by the intended re‐\ncipient.\n\nThere are dozens of variations of OpenPGP programs available, and each supports a slightly\ndifferent subset of these optional algorithms. For example, until recently, no (unhacked)\nversion of PGP supported the BLOWFISH cipher algorithm. A message using BLOWFISH simply could\nnot be read by a PGP user. By default, GnuPG uses the standard OpenPGP preferences system\nthat will always do the right thing and create messages that are usable by all recipients,\nregardless of which OpenPGP program they use. Only override this safe default if you really\nknow what you are doing.\n\nIf you absolutely must override the safe default, or if the preferences on a given key are\ninvalid for some reason, you are far better off using the --pgp6, --pgp7, or --pgp8 options.\nThese options are safe as they do not force any particular algorithms in violation of\nOpenPGP, but rather reduce the available algorithms to a \"PGP-safe\" list.\n\n", "subsections": [] }, "COMMANDS": { "content": "Commands are not distinguished from options except for the fact that only one command is al‐\nlowed.\n\ngpg may be run with no commands, in which case it will perform a reasonable action depending\non the type of file it is given as input (an encrypted message is decrypted, a signature is\nverified, a file containing keys is listed).\n\nPlease remember that option as well as command parsing stops as soon as a non-option is en‐\ncountered, you can explicitly stop parsing by using the special option --.\n\n\n\n\n\n", "subsections": [ { "name": "Commands not specific to the function", "content": "" }, { "name": "--version", "content": "Print the program version and licensing information. Note that you cannot abbreviate\nthis command.\n\n", "long": "--version" }, { "name": "--help", "content": "", "long": "--help" }, { "name": "-h", "content": "cannot abbreviate this command.\n\n", "flag": "-h" }, { "name": "--warranty", "content": "Print warranty information.\n\n", "long": "--warranty" }, { "name": "--dump-options", "content": "Print a list of all available options and commands. Note that you cannot abbreviate\nthis command.\n", "long": "--dump-options" }, { "name": "Commands to select the type of operation", "content": "" }, { "name": "--sign", "content": "", "long": "--sign" }, { "name": "-s --encrypt", "content": "crypted message), --symmetric (for a signed and symmetrically encrypted message), or\n--encrypt and --symmetric together (for a signed message that may be decrypted via a\nsecret key or a passphrase). The key to be used for signing is chosen by default or\ncan be set with the --local-user and --default-key options.\n\n", "flag": "-s", "long": "--encrypt" }, { "name": "--clearsign", "content": "Make a clear text signature. The content in a clear text signature is readable with‐\nout any special software. OpenPGP software is only needed to verify the signature.\nClear text signatures may modify end-of-line whitespace for platform independence and\nare not intended to be reversible. The key to be used for signing is chosen by de‐\nfault or can be set with the --local-user and --default-key options.\n\n\n", "long": "--clearsign" }, { "name": "--detach-sign", "content": "", "long": "--detach-sign" }, { "name": "-b", "content": "", "flag": "-b" }, { "name": "--encrypt", "content": "", "long": "--encrypt" }, { "name": "-e --sign", "content": "sage), --symmetric (for a message that may be decrypted via a secret key or a\npassphrase), or --sign and --symmetric together (for a signed message that may be de‐\ncrypted via a secret key or a passphrase).\n\n", "flag": "-e", "long": "--sign" }, { "name": "--symmetric", "content": "", "long": "--symmetric" }, { "name": "-c", "content": "is AES128, but may be chosen with the --cipher-algo option. This option may be com‐\nbined with --sign (for a signed and symmetrically encrypted message), --encrypt (for a\nmessage that may be decrypted via a secret key or a passphrase), or --sign and --en‐\ncrypt together (for a signed message that may be decrypted via a secret key or a\npassphrase).\n\n", "flag": "-c" }, { "name": "--store", "content": "Store only (make a simple RFC1991 literal data packet).\n\n", "long": "--store" }, { "name": "--decrypt", "content": "", "long": "--decrypt" }, { "name": "-d", "content": "write it to STDOUT (or the file specified with --output). If the decrypted file is\nsigned, the signature is also verified. This command differs from the default opera‐\ntion, as it never writes to the filename which is included in the file and it rejects\nfiles which don't begin with an encrypted message.\n\n", "flag": "-d" }, { "name": "--verify", "content": "Assume that the first argument is a signed file and verify it without generating any\noutput. With no arguments, the signature packet is read from STDIN. If only a one\nargument is given, it is expected to be a complete signature.\n\nWith more than 1 argument, the first should be a detached signature and the remaining\nfiles make up the the signed data. To read the signed data from STDIN, use '-' as the\nsecond filename. For security reasons a detached signature cannot read the signed ma‐\nterial from STDIN without denoting it in the above way.\n\nNote: If the option --batch is not used, gpg may assume that a single argument is a\nfile with a detached signature and it will try to find a matching data file by strip‐\nping certain suffixes. Using this historical feature to verify a detached signature\nis strongly discouraged; always specify the data file too.\n\nNote: When verifying a cleartext signature, gpg verifies only what makes up the clear‐\ntext signed data and not any extra data outside of the cleartext signature or header\nlines following directly the dash marker line. The option --output may be used to\nwrite out the actual signed data; but there are other pitfalls with this format as\nwell. It is suggested to avoid cleartext signatures in favor of detached signatures.\n\n\n", "long": "--verify" }, { "name": "--multifile", "content": "This modifies certain other commands to accept multiple files for processing on the\ncommand line or read from STDIN with each filename on a separate line. This allows for\nmany files to be processed at once. --multifile may currently be used along with\n--verify, --encrypt, and --decrypt. Note that --multifile --verify may not be used\nwith detached signatures.\n\n", "long": "--multifile" }, { "name": "--verify-files", "content": "Identical to --multifile --verify.\n\n", "long": "--verify-files" }, { "name": "--encrypt-files", "content": "Identical to --multifile --encrypt.\n\n", "long": "--encrypt-files" }, { "name": "--decrypt-files", "content": "Identical to --multifile --decrypt.\n\n", "long": "--decrypt-files" }, { "name": "--list-keys", "content": "", "long": "--list-keys" }, { "name": "-k", "content": "", "flag": "-k" }, { "name": "--list-public-keys", "content": "List all keys from the public keyrings, or just the keys given on the command line.\n\n-k is slightly different from --list-keys in that it allows only for one argument and\ntakes the second argument as the keyring to search. This is for command line compati‐\nbility with PGP 2 and has been removed in gpg2.\n\nAvoid using the output of this command in scripts or other programs as it is likely to\nchange as GnuPG changes. See --with-colons for a machine-parseable key listing command\nthat is appropriate for use in scripts and other programs.\n\n", "long": "--list-public-keys" }, { "name": "--list-secret-keys", "content": "", "long": "--list-secret-keys" }, { "name": "-K", "content": "# after the letters sec means that the secret key is not usable (for example, if it\nwas created via --export-secret-subkeys).\n\n", "flag": "-K" }, { "name": "--list-sigs", "content": "Same as --list-keys, but the signatures are listed too.\n\nFor each signature listed, there are several flags in between the \"sig\" tag and keyid.\nThese flags give additional information about each signature. From left to right, they\nare the numbers 1-3 for certificate check level (see --ask-cert-level), \"L\" for a lo‐\ncal or non-exportable signature (see --lsign-key), \"R\" for a nonRevocable signature\n(see the --edit-key command \"nrsign\"), \"P\" for a signature that contains a policy URL\n(see --cert-policy-url), \"N\" for a signature that contains a notation (see --cert-no‐\ntation), \"X\" for an eXpired signature (see --ask-cert-expire), and the numbers 1-9 or\n\"T\" for 10 and above to indicate trust signature levels (see the --edit-key command\n\"tsign\").\n\n", "long": "--list-sigs" }, { "name": "--check-sigs", "content": "Same as --list-sigs, but the signatures are verified. Note that for performance rea‐\nsons the revocation status of a signing key is not shown.\n\nThe status of the verification is indicated by a flag directly following the \"sig\" tag\n(and thus before the flags described above for --list-sigs). A \"!\" indicates that the\nsignature has been successfully verified, a \"-\" denotes a bad signature and a \"%\" is\nused if an error occurred while checking the signature (e.g. a non supported algo‐\nrithm).\n\n\n", "long": "--check-sigs" }, { "name": "--fingerprint", "content": "List all keys (or the specified ones) along with their fingerprints. This is the same\noutput as --list-keys but with the additional output of a line with the fingerprint.\nMay also be combined with --list-sigs or --check-sigs. If this command is given\ntwice, the fingerprints of all secondary keys are listed too.\n\n", "long": "--fingerprint" }, { "name": "--list-packets", "content": "List only the sequence of packets. This is mainly useful for debugging.\n\n\n", "long": "--list-packets" }, { "name": "--card-edit", "content": "Present a menu to work with a smartcard. The subcommand \"help\" provides an overview on\navailable commands. For a detailed description, please see the Card HOWTO at\nhttps://gnupg.org/documentation/howtos.html#GnuPG-cardHOWTO .\n\n", "long": "--card-edit" }, { "name": "--card-status", "content": "Show the content of the smart card.\n\n", "long": "--card-status" }, { "name": "--change-pin", "content": "Present a menu to allow changing the PIN of a smartcard. This functionality is also\navailable as the subcommand \"passwd\" with the --card-edit command.\n\n", "long": "--change-pin" }, { "name": "--delete-key name", "content": "Remove key from the public keyring. In batch mode either --yes is required or the key\nmust be specified by fingerprint. This is a safeguard against accidental deletion of\nmultiple keys.\n\n", "long": "--delete-key" }, { "name": "--delete-secret-key name", "content": "Remove key from the secret keyring. In batch mode the key must be specified by finger‐\nprint.\n\n", "long": "--delete-secret-key" }, { "name": "--delete-secret-and-public-key name", "content": "Same as --delete-key, but if a secret key exists, it will be removed first. In batch\nmode the key must be specified by fingerprint.\n\n", "long": "--delete-secret-and-public-key" }, { "name": "--export", "content": "Either export all keys from all keyrings (default keyrings and those registered via\noption --keyring), or if at least one name is given, those of the given name. The ex‐\nported keys are written to STDOUT or to the file given with option --output. Use to‐\ngether with --armor to mail those keys.\n\n", "long": "--export" }, { "name": "--send-keys key IDs", "content": "Similar to --export but sends the keys to a keyserver. Fingerprints may be used in‐\nstead of key IDs. Option --keyserver must be used to give the name of this keyserver.\nDon't send your complete keyring to a keyserver --- select only those keys which are\nnew or changed by you. If no key IDs are given, gpg does nothing.\n\n", "long": "--send-keys" }, { "name": "--export-secret-keys", "content": "", "long": "--export-secret-keys" }, { "name": "--export-secret-subkeys", "content": "Same as --export, but exports the secret keys instead. The exported keys are written\nto STDOUT or to the file given with option --output. This command is often used along\nwith the option --armor to allow easy printing of the key for paper backup; however\nthe external tool paperkey does a better job for creating backups on paper. Note that\nexporting a secret key can be a security risk if the exported keys are send over an\ninsecure channel.\n\nThe second form of the command has the special property to render the secret part of\nthe primary key useless; this is a GNU extension to OpenPGP and other implementations\ncan not be expected to successfully import such a key. Its intended use is to gener‐\nated a full key with an additional signing subkey on a dedicated machine and then us‐\ning this command to export the key without the primary key to the main machine.\n\nSee the option --simple-sk-checksum if you want to import an exported secret key into\nancient OpenPGP implementations.\n\n", "long": "--export-secret-subkeys" }, { "name": "--import", "content": "", "long": "--import" }, { "name": "--fast-import", "content": "Import/merge keys. This adds the given keys to the keyring. The fast version is cur‐\nrently just a synonym.\n\nThere are a few other options which control how this command works. Most notable here\nis the --import-options merge-only option which does not insert new keys but does only\nthe merging of new signatures, user-IDs and subkeys.\n\n", "long": "--fast-import" }, { "name": "--recv-keys key IDs", "content": "Import the keys with the given key IDs from a keyserver. Option --keyserver must be\nused to give the name of this keyserver.\n\n", "long": "--recv-keys" }, { "name": "--refresh-keys", "content": "Request updates from a keyserver for keys that already exist on the local keyring.\nThis is useful for updating a key with the latest signatures, user IDs, etc. Calling\nthis with no arguments will refresh the entire keyring. Option --keyserver must be\nused to give the name of the keyserver for all keys that do not have preferred key‐\nservers set (see --keyserver-options honor-keyserver-url).\n\n", "long": "--refresh-keys" }, { "name": "--search-keys names", "content": "Search the keyserver for the given names. Multiple names given here will be joined to‐\ngether to create the search string for the keyserver. Option --keyserver must be used\nto give the name of this keyserver. Keyservers that support different search methods\nallow using the syntax specified in \"How to specify a user ID\" below. Note that dif‐\nferent keyserver types support different search methods. Currently only LDAP supports\nthem all.\n\n", "long": "--search-keys" }, { "name": "--fetch-keys URIs", "content": "Retrieve keys located at the specified URIs. Note that different installations of\nGnuPG may support different protocols (HTTP, FTP, LDAP, etc.)\n\n", "long": "--fetch-keys" }, { "name": "--update-trustdb", "content": "Do trust database maintenance. This command iterates over all keys and builds the Web\nof Trust. This is an interactive command because it may have to ask for the \"own‐\nertrust\" values for keys. The user has to give an estimation of how far she trusts the\nowner of the displayed key to correctly certify (sign) other keys. GnuPG only asks for\nthe ownertrust value if it has not yet been assigned to a key. Using the --edit-key\nmenu, the assigned value can be changed at any time.\n\n", "long": "--update-trustdb" }, { "name": "--check-trustdb", "content": "Do trust database maintenance without user interaction. From time to time the trust\ndatabase must be updated so that expired keys or signatures and the resulting changes\nin the Web of Trust can be tracked. Normally, GnuPG will calculate when this is re‐\nquired and do it automatically unless --no-auto-check-trustdb is set. This command can\nbe used to force a trust database check at any time. The processing is identical to\nthat of --update-trustdb but it skips keys with a not yet defined \"ownertrust\".\n\nFor use with cron jobs, this command can be used together with --batch in which case\nthe trust database check is done only if a check is needed. To force a run even in\nbatch mode add the option --yes.\n\n\n", "long": "--check-trustdb" }, { "name": "--export-ownertrust", "content": "Send the ownertrust values to STDOUT. This is useful for backup purposes as these val‐\nues are the only ones which can't be re-created from a corrupted trustdb. Example:\ngpg --export-ownertrust > otrust.txt\n\n\n", "long": "--export-ownertrust" }, { "name": "--import-ownertrust", "content": "Update the trustdb with the ownertrust values stored in files (or STDIN if not given);\nexisting values will be overwritten. In case of a severely damaged trustdb and if you\nhave a recent backup of the ownertrust values (e.g. in the file ‘otrust.txt’, you may\nre-create the trustdb using these commands:\ncd ~/.gnupg\nrm trustdb.gpg\ngpg --import-ownertrust < otrust.txt\n\n\n", "long": "--import-ownertrust" }, { "name": "--rebuild-keydb-caches", "content": "When updating from version 1.0.6 to 1.0.7 this command should be used to create signa‐\nture caches in the keyring. It might be handy in other situations too.\n\n", "long": "--rebuild-keydb-caches" }, { "name": "--print-md algo", "content": "", "long": "--print-md" }, { "name": "--print-mds", "content": "Print message digest of algorithm ALGO for all given files or STDIN. With the second\nform (or a deprecated \"*\" as algo) digests for all available algorithms are printed.\n\n", "long": "--print-mds" }, { "name": "--gen-random 0|1|2 count", "content": "Emit count random bytes of the given quality level 0, 1 or 2. If count is not given or\nzero, an endless sequence of random bytes will be emitted. If used with --armor the\noutput will be base64 encoded. PLEASE, don't use this command unless you know what\nyou are doing; it may remove precious entropy from the system!\n\n", "long": "--gen-random" }, { "name": "--gen-prime mode bits", "content": "Use the source, Luke :-). The output format is still subject to change.\n\n\n", "long": "--gen-prime" }, { "name": "--enarmor", "content": "", "long": "--enarmor" }, { "name": "--dearmor", "content": "Pack or unpack an arbitrary input into/from an OpenPGP ASCII armor. This is a GnuPG\nextension to OpenPGP and in general not very useful.\n\n", "long": "--dearmor" }, { "name": "How to manage your keys", "content": "This section explains the main commands for key management\n\n\n" }, { "name": "--gen-key", "content": "Generate a new key pair using the current default parameters. This is the standard\ncommand to create a new key.\n\nThere is also a feature which allows you to create keys in batch mode. See the the\nmanual section ``Unattended key generation'' on how to use this.\n\n", "long": "--gen-key" }, { "name": "--gen-revoke name", "content": "Generate a revocation certificate for the complete key. To revoke a subkey or a signa‐\nture, use the --edit command.\n\n", "long": "--gen-revoke" }, { "name": "--desig-revoke name", "content": "Generate a designated revocation certificate for a key. This allows a user (with the\npermission of the keyholder) to revoke someone else's key.\n\n\n", "long": "--desig-revoke" }, { "name": "--edit-key", "content": "Present a menu which enables you to do most of the key management related tasks. It\nexpects the specification of a key on the command line.\n\n\n\nuid n Toggle selection of user ID or photographic user ID with index n. Use * to se‐\nlect all and 0 to deselect all.\n\n\nkey n Toggle selection of subkey with index n. Use * to select all and 0 to deselect\nall.\n\n\nsign Make a signature on key of user name If the key is not yet signed by the de‐\nfault user (or the users given with -u), the program displays the information\nof the key again, together with its fingerprint and asks whether it should be\nsigned. This question is repeated for all users specified with -u.\n\n\nlsign Same as \"sign\" but the signature is marked as non-exportable and will therefore\nnever be used by others. This may be used to make keys valid only in the local\nenvironment.\n\n\nnrsign Same as \"sign\" but the signature is marked as non-revocable and can therefore\nnever be revoked.\n\n\ntsign Make a trust signature. This is a signature that combines the notions of certi‐\nfication (like a regular signature), and trust (like the \"trust\" command). It\nis generally only useful in distinct communities or groups.\n\nNote that \"l\" (for local / non-exportable), \"nr\" (for non-revocable, and \"t\" (for\ntrust) may be freely mixed and prefixed to \"sign\" to create a signature of any type\ndesired.\n\n\n\ndelsig Delete a signature. Note that it is not possible to retract a signature, once\nit has been send to the public (i.e. to a keyserver). In that case you better\nuse revsig.\n\n\nrevsig Revoke a signature. For every signature which has been generated by one of the\nsecret keys, GnuPG asks whether a revocation certificate should be generated.\n\n\ncheck Check the signatures on all selected user IDs.\n\n\nadduid Create an additional user ID.\n\n\naddphoto\nCreate a photographic user ID. This will prompt for a JPEG file that will be\nembedded into the user ID. Note that a very large JPEG will make for a very\nlarge key. Also note that some programs will display your JPEG unchanged\n(GnuPG), and some programs will scale it to fit in a dialog box (PGP).\n\n\nshowphoto\nDisplay the selected photographic user ID.\n\n\ndeluid Delete a user ID or photographic user ID. Note that it is not possible to re‐\ntract a user id, once it has been send to the public (i.e. to a keyserver). In\nthat case you better use revuid.\n\n\nrevuid Revoke a user ID or photographic user ID.\n\n\nprimary\nFlag the current user id as the primary one, removes the primary user id flag\nfrom all other user ids and sets the timestamp of all affected self-signatures\none second ahead. Note that setting a photo user ID as primary makes it primary\nover other photo user IDs, and setting a regular user ID as primary makes it\nprimary over other regular user IDs.\n\n\nkeyserver\nSet a preferred keyserver for the specified user ID(s). This allows other users\nto know where you prefer they get your key from. See --keyserver-options honor-\nkeyserver-url for more on how this works. Setting a value of \"none\" removes an\nexisting preferred keyserver.\n\n\nnotation\nSet a name=value notation for the specified user ID(s). See --cert-notation for\nmore on how this works. Setting a value of \"none\" removes all notations, set‐\nting a notation prefixed with a minus sign (-) removes that notation, and set‐\nting a notation name (without the =value) prefixed with a minus sign removes\nall notations with that name.\n\n\npref List preferences from the selected user ID. This shows the actual preferences,\nwithout including any implied preferences.\n\n\nshowpref\nMore verbose preferences listing for the selected user ID. This shows the pref‐\nerences in effect by including the implied preferences of 3DES (cipher), SHA-1\n(digest), and Uncompressed (compression) if they are not already included in\nthe preference list. In addition, the preferred keyserver and signature nota‐\ntions (if any) are shown.\n\n\nsetpref string\nSet the list of user ID preferences to string for all (or just the selected)\nuser IDs. Calling setpref with no arguments sets the preference list to the de‐\nfault (either built-in or set via --default-preference-list), and calling set‐\npref with \"none\" as the argument sets an empty preference list. Use gpg --ver‐\nsion to get a list of available algorithms. Note that while you can change the\npreferences on an attribute user ID (aka \"photo ID\"), GnuPG does not select\nkeys via attribute user IDs so these preferences will not be used by GnuPG.\n\nWhen setting preferences, you should list the algorithms in the order which\nyou'd like to see them used by someone else when encrypting a message to your\nkey. If you don't include 3DES, it will be automatically added at the end.\nNote that there are many factors that go into choosing an algorithm (for exam‐\nple, your key may not be the only recipient), and so the remote OpenPGP appli‐\ncation being used to send to you may or may not follow your exact chosen order\nfor a given message. It will, however, only choose an algorithm that is\npresent on the preference list of every recipient key. See also the INTEROPER‐\nABILITY WITH OTHER OPENPGP PROGRAMS section below.\n\n\naddkey Add a subkey to this key.\n\n\naddcardkey\nGenerate a subkey on a card and add it to this key.\n\n\nkeytocard\nTransfer the selected secret subkey (or the primary key if no subkey has been\nselected) to a smartcard. The secret key in the keyring will be replaced by a\nstub if the key could be stored successfully on the card and you use the save\ncommand later. Only certain key types may be transferred to the card. A sub\nmenu allows you to select on what card to store the key. Note that it is not\npossible to get that key back from the card - if the card gets broken your se‐\ncret key will be lost unless you have a backup somewhere.\n\n\nbkuptocard file\nRestore the given file to a card. This command may be used to restore a backup\nkey (as generated during card initialization) to a new card. In almost all\ncases this will be the encryption key. You should use this command only with\nthe corresponding public key and make sure that the file given as argument is\nindeed the backup to restore. You should then select 2 to restore as encryption\nkey. You will first be asked to enter the passphrase of the backup key and\nthen for the Admin PIN of the card.\n\n\ndelkey Remove a subkey (secondart key). Note that it is not possible to retract a sub‐\nkey, once it has been send to the public (i.e. to a keyserver). In that case\nyou better use revkey.\n\n\nrevkey Revoke a subkey.\n\n\nexpire Change the key or subkey expiration time. If a subkey is selected, the expira‐\ntion time of this subkey will be changed. With no selection, the key expiration\nof the primary key is changed.\n\n\ntrust Change the owner trust value for the key. This updates the trust-db immediately\nand no save is required.\n\n\ndisable\nenable Disable or enable an entire key. A disabled key can not normally be used for\nencryption.\n\n\naddrevoker\nAdd a designated revoker to the key. This takes one optional argument: \"sensi‐\ntive\". If a designated revoker is marked as sensitive, it will not be exported\nby default (see export-options).\n\n\npasswd Change the passphrase of the secret key.\n\n\ntoggle Toggle between public and secret key listing.\n\n\nclean Compact (by removing all signatures except the selfsig) any user ID that is no\nlonger usable (e.g. revoked, or expired). Then, remove any signatures that are\nnot usable by the trust calculations. Specifically, this removes any signature\nthat does not validate, any signature that is superseded by a later signature,\nrevoked signatures, and signatures issued by keys that are not present on the\nkeyring.\n\n\nminimize\nMake the key as small as possible. This removes all signatures from each user\nID except for the most recent self-signature.\n\n\ncross-certify\nAdd cross-certification signatures to signing subkeys that may not currently\nhave them. Cross-certification signatures protect against a subtle attack\nagainst signing subkeys. See --require-cross-certification. All new keys gen‐\nerated have this signature by default, so this option is only useful to bring\nolder keys up to date.\n\n\nsave Save all changes to the key rings and quit.\n\n\nquit Quit the program without updating the key rings.\n\nThe listing shows you the key with its secondary keys and all user ids. The primary\nuser id is indicated by a dot, and selected keys or user ids are indicated by an as‐\nterisk. The trust value is displayed with the primary key: the first is the assigned\nowner trust and the second is the calculated trust value. Letters are used for the\nvalues:\n\n\n\n- No ownertrust assigned / not yet calculated.\n\n\ne Trust calculation has failed; probably due to an expired key.\n\n\nq Not enough information for calculation.\n\n\nn Never trust this key.\n\n\nm Marginally trusted.\n\n\nf Fully trusted.\n\n\nu Ultimately trusted.\n\n\n", "long": "--edit-key" }, { "name": "--sign-key name", "content": "Signs a public key with your secret key. This is a shortcut version of the subcommand\n\"sign\" from --edit.\n\n", "long": "--sign-key" }, { "name": "--lsign-key name", "content": "Signs a public key with your secret key but marks it as non-exportable. This is a\nshortcut version of the subcommand \"lsign\" from --edit-key.\n\n", "long": "--lsign-key" } ] }, "OPTIONS": { "content": "gpg features a bunch of options to control the exact behaviour and to change the default con‐\nfiguration.\n\n\nLong options can be put in an options file (default \"~/.gnupg/gpg.conf\"). Short option names\nwill not work - for example, \"armor\" is a valid option for the options file, while \"a\" is\nnot. Do not write the 2 dashes, but simply the name of the option and any required arguments.\nLines with a hash ('#') as the first non-white-space character are ignored. Commands may be\nput in this file too, but that is not generally useful as the command will execute automati‐\ncally with every execution of gpg.\n\nPlease remember that option parsing stops as soon as a non-option is encountered, you can ex‐\nplicitly stop parsing by using the special option --.\n\n\n", "subsections": [ { "name": "How to change the configuration", "content": "These options are used to change the configuration and are usually found in the option file.\n\n\n\n--default-key name\nUse name as the default key to sign with. If this option is not used, the default key\nis the first key found in the secret keyring. Note that -u or --local-user overrides\nthis option.\n\n\n--default-recipient name\nUse name as default recipient if option --recipient is not used and don't ask if this\nis a valid one. name must be non-empty.\n\n" }, { "name": "--default-recipient-self", "content": "Use the default key as default recipient if option --recipient is not used and don't\nask if this is a valid one. The default key is the first one from the secret keyring\nor the one set with --default-key.\n\n", "long": "--default-recipient-self" }, { "name": "--no-default-recipient", "content": "Reset --default-recipient and --default-recipient-self.\n\n", "long": "--no-default-recipient" }, { "name": "-v, --verbose", "content": "Give more information during processing. If used twice, the input data is listed in\ndetail.\n\n", "flag": "-v", "long": "--verbose" }, { "name": "--no-verbose", "content": "Reset verbose level to 0.\n\n", "long": "--no-verbose" }, { "name": "-q, --quiet", "content": "Try to be as quiet as possible.\n\n", "flag": "-q", "long": "--quiet" }, { "name": "--batch", "content": "", "long": "--batch" }, { "name": "--no-batch", "content": "Use batch mode. Never ask, do not allow interactive commands. --no-batch disables\nthis option. This option is commonly used for unattended operations.\n\nWARNING: Unattended operation bears a higher risk of being exposed to security at‐\ntacks. In particular any unattended use of GnuPG which involves the use of secret\nkeys should take care not to provide an decryption oracle. There are several standard\npre-cautions against being used as an oracle. For example never return detailed error\nmessages or any diagnostics printed by your software to the remote site. Consult with\nan expert in case of doubt.\n\nNote that even with a filename given on the command line, gpg might still need to read\nfrom STDIN (in particular if gpg figures that the input is a detached signature and no\ndata file has been specified). Thus if you do not want to feed data via STDIN, you\nshould connect STDIN to ‘/dev/null’.\n\n\n", "long": "--no-batch" }, { "name": "--no-tty", "content": "Make sure that the TTY (terminal) is never used for any output. This option is needed\nin some cases because GnuPG sometimes prints warnings to the TTY even if --batch is\nused.\n\n\n--yes Assume \"yes\" on most questions.\n\n\n--no Assume \"no\" on most questions.\n\n\n", "long": "--no-tty" }, { "name": "--list-options parameters", "content": "This is a space or comma delimited string that gives options used when listing keys\nand signatures (that is, --list-keys, --list-sigs, --list-public-keys, --list-secret-\nkeys, and the --edit-key functions). Options can be prepended with a no- (after the\ntwo dashes) to give the opposite meaning. The options are:\n\n\n\nshow-photos\nCauses --list-keys, --list-sigs, --list-public-keys, and --list-secret-keys to\ndisplay any photo IDs attached to the key. Defaults to no. See also --photo-\nviewer. Does not work with --with-colons: see --attribute-fd for the appropri‐\nate way to get photo data for scripts and other frontends.\n\n\nshow-usage\nShow usage information for keys and subkeys in the standard key listing. This\nis a list of letters indicating the allowed usage for a key (E=encryption,\nS=signing, C=certification, A=authentication). Defaults to no.\n\n\nshow-policy-urls\nShow policy URLs in the --list-sigs or --check-sigs listings. Defaults to no.\n\n\nshow-notations\nshow-std-notations\nshow-user-notations\nShow all, IETF standard, or user-defined signature notations in the --list-sigs\nor --check-sigs listings. Defaults to no.\n\n\nshow-keyserver-urls\nShow any preferred keyserver URL in the --list-sigs or --check-sigs listings.\nDefaults to no.\n\n\nshow-uid-validity\nDisplay the calculated validity of user IDs during key listings. Defaults to\nno.\n\n\nshow-unusable-uids\nShow revoked and expired user IDs in key listings. Defaults to no.\n\n\nshow-unusable-subkeys\nShow revoked and expired subkeys in key listings. Defaults to no.\n\n\nshow-keyring\nDisplay the keyring name at the head of key listings to show which keyring a\ngiven key resides on. Defaults to no.\n\n\nshow-sig-expire\nShow signature expiration dates (if any) during --list-sigs or --check-sigs\nlistings. Defaults to no.\n\n\nshow-sig-subpackets\nInclude signature subpackets in the key listing. This option can take an op‐\ntional argument list of the subpackets to list. If no argument is passed, list\nall subpackets. Defaults to no. This option is only meaningful when using\n--with-colons along with --list-sigs or --check-sigs.\n\n\n", "long": "--list-options" }, { "name": "--verify-options parameters", "content": "This is a space or comma delimited string that gives options used when verifying sig‐\nnatures. Options can be prepended with a `no-' to give the opposite meaning. The op‐\ntions are:\n\n\n\nshow-photos\nDisplay any photo IDs present on the key that issued the signature. Defaults\nto no. See also --photo-viewer.\n\n\nshow-policy-urls\nShow policy URLs in the signature being verified. Defaults to no.\n\n\nshow-notations\nshow-std-notations\nshow-user-notations\nShow all, IETF standard, or user-defined signature notations in the signature\nbeing verified. Defaults to IETF standard.\n\n\nshow-keyserver-urls\nShow any preferred keyserver URL in the signature being verified. Defaults to\nno.\n\n\nshow-uid-validity\nDisplay the calculated validity of the user IDs on the key that issued the sig‐\nnature. Defaults to no.\n\n\nshow-unusable-uids\nShow revoked and expired user IDs during signature verification. Defaults to\nno.\n\n\nshow-primary-uid-only\nShow only the primary user ID during signature verification. That is all the\nAKA lines as well as photo Ids are not shown with the signature verification\nstatus.\n\n\npka-lookups\nEnable PKA lookups to verify sender addresses. Note that PKA is based on DNS,\nand so enabling this option may disclose information on when and what signa‐\ntures are verified or to whom data is encrypted. This is similar to the \"web\nbug\" described for the auto-key-retrieve feature.\n\n\npka-trust-increase\nRaise the trust in a signature to full if the signature passes PKA validation.\nThis option is only meaningful if pka-lookups is set.\n\n", "long": "--verify-options" }, { "name": "--enable-large-rsa", "content": "", "long": "--enable-large-rsa" }, { "name": "--disable-large-rsa", "content": "With --gen-key and --batch, enable the creation of larger RSA secret keys than is gen‐\nerally recommended (up to 8192 bits). These large keys are more expensive to use, and\ntheir signatures and certifications are also larger.\n\n", "long": "--disable-large-rsa" }, { "name": "--enable-dsa2", "content": "", "long": "--enable-dsa2" }, { "name": "--disable-dsa2", "content": "Enable hash truncation for all DSA keys even for old DSA Keys up to 1024 bit. This is\nalso the default with --openpgp. Note that older versions of GnuPG also required this\nflag to allow the generation of DSA larger than 1024 bit.\n\n", "long": "--disable-dsa2" }, { "name": "--photo-viewer string", "content": "This is the command line that should be run to view a photo ID. \"%i\" will be expanded\nto a filename containing the photo. \"%I\" does the same, except the file will not be\ndeleted once the viewer exits. Other flags are \"%k\" for the key ID, \"%K\" for the long\nkey ID, \"%f\" for the key fingerprint, \"%t\" for the extension of the image type (e.g.\n\"jpg\"), \"%T\" for the MIME type of the image (e.g. \"image/jpeg\"), \"%v\" for the single-\ncharacter calculated validity of the image being viewed (e.g. \"f\"), \"%V\" for the cal‐\nculated validity as a string (e.g. \"full\"), \"%U\" for a base32 encoded hash of the\nuser ID, and \"%%\" for an actual percent sign. If neither %i or %I are present, then\nthe photo will be supplied to the viewer on standard input.\n\nThe default viewer is \"xloadimage -fork -quiet -title 'KeyID 0x%k' STDIN\". Note that\nif your image viewer program is not secure, then executing it from GnuPG does not make\nit secure.\n\n", "long": "--photo-viewer" }, { "name": "--exec-path string", "content": "Sets a list of directories to search for photo viewers and keyserver helpers. If not\nprovided, keyserver helpers use the compiled-in default directory, and photo viewers\nuse the $PATH environment variable. Note, that on W32 system this value is ignored\nwhen searching for keyserver helpers.\n\n", "long": "--exec-path" }, { "name": "--keyring file", "content": "Add file to the current list of keyrings. If file begins with a tilde and a slash,\nthese are replaced by the $HOME directory. If the filename does not contain a slash,\nit is assumed to be in the GnuPG home directory (\"~/.gnupg\" if --homedir or $GNUPGHOME\nis not used).\n\nNote that this adds a keyring to the current list. If the intent is to use the speci‐\nfied keyring alone, use --keyring along with --no-default-keyring.\n\n", "long": "--keyring" }, { "name": "--secret-keyring file", "content": "Same as --keyring but for the secret keyrings.\n\n", "long": "--secret-keyring" }, { "name": "--primary-keyring file", "content": "Designate file as the primary public keyring. This means that newly imported keys (via\n--import or keyserver --recv-from) will go to this keyring.\n\n", "long": "--primary-keyring" }, { "name": "--trustdb-name file", "content": "Use file instead of the default trustdb. If file begins with a tilde and a slash,\nthese are replaced by the $HOME directory. If the filename does not contain a slash,\nit is assumed to be in the GnuPG home directory (‘~/.gnupg’ if --homedir or $GNUPGHOME\nis not used).\n\n\n\n--homedir dir\nSet the name of the home directory to dir. If this option is not used, the home direc‐\ntory defaults to ‘~/.gnupg’. It is only recognized when given on the command line.\nIt also overrides any home directory stated through the environment variable\n‘GNUPGHOME’ or (on Windows systems) by means of the Registry entry HKCU\\Soft‐\nware\\GNU\\GnuPG:HomeDir.\n\nOn Windows systems it is possible to install GnuPG as a portable application. In this\ncase only this command line option is considered, all other ways to set a home direc‐\ntory are ignored.\n\nTo install GnuPG as a portable application under Windows, create an empty file name\n‘gpgconf.ctl’ in the same directory as the tool ‘gpgconf.exe’. The root of the in‐\nstallation is than that directory; or, if ‘gpgconf.exe’ has been installed directly\nbelow a directory named ‘bin’, its parent directory. You also need to make sure that\nthe following directories exist and are writable: ‘ROOT/home’ for the GnuPG home and\n‘ROOT/var/cache/gnupg’ for internal cache files.\n\n\n", "long": "--trustdb-name" }, { "name": "--pcsc-driver file", "content": "Use file to access the smartcard reader. The current default is `libpcsclite.so.1' for\nGLIBC based systems, `/System/Library/Frameworks/PCSC.framework/PCSC' for MAC OS X,\n`winscard.dll' for Windows and `libpcsclite.so' for other systems.\n\n", "long": "--pcsc-driver" }, { "name": "--disable-ccid", "content": "Disable the integrated support for CCID compliant readers. This allows falling back to\none of the other drivers even if the internal CCID driver can handle the reader. Note,\nthat CCID support is only available if libusb was available at build time.\n\n", "long": "--disable-ccid" }, { "name": "--reader-port number_or_string", "content": "This option may be used to specify the port of the card terminal. A value of 0 refers\nto the first serial device; add 32768 to access USB devices. The default is 32768\n(first USB device). PC/SC or CCID readers might need a string here; run the program in\nverbose mode to get a list of available readers. The default is then the first reader\nfound.\n\n", "long": "--reader-port" }, { "name": "--display-charset name", "content": "Set the name of the native character set. This is used to convert some informational\nstrings like user IDs to the proper UTF-8 encoding. Note that this has nothing to do\nwith the character set of data to be encrypted or signed; GnuPG does not recode user-\nsupplied data. If this option is not used, the default character set is determined\nfrom the current locale. A verbosity level of 3 shows the chosen set. Valid values\nfor name are:\n\n\n\niso-8859-1\nThis is the Latin 1 set.\n\n\niso-8859-2\nThe Latin 2 set.\n\n\niso-8859-15\nThis is currently an alias for the Latin 1 set.\n\n\nkoi8-r The usual Russian set (rfc1489).\n\n\nutf-8 Bypass all translations and assume that the OS uses native UTF-8 encoding.\n\n", "long": "--display-charset" }, { "name": "--utf8-strings", "content": "", "long": "--utf8-strings" }, { "name": "--no-utf8-strings", "content": "Assume that command line arguments are given as UTF8 strings. The default (--no-\nutf8-strings) is to assume that arguments are encoded in the character set as speci‐\nfied by --display-charset. These options affect all following arguments. Both options\nmay be used multiple times.\n\n\n", "long": "--no-utf8-strings" }, { "name": "--options file", "content": "Read options from file and do not try to read them from the default options file in\nthe homedir (see --homedir). This option is ignored if used in an options file.\n\n", "long": "--options" }, { "name": "--no-options", "content": "Shortcut for --options /dev/null. This option is detected before an attempt to open an\noption file. Using this option will also prevent the creation of a ‘~/.gnupg’ home‐\ndir.\n\n", "long": "--no-options" }, { "name": "-z n", "content": "", "flag": "-z" }, { "name": "--compress-level n", "content": "", "long": "--compress-level" }, { "name": "--bzip2-compress-level n", "content": "Set compression level to n for the ZIP and ZLIB compression algorithms. The default is\nto use the default compression level of zlib (normally 6). --bzip2-compress-level sets\nthe compression level for the BZIP2 compression algorithm (defaulting to 6 as well).\nThis is a different option from --compress-level since BZIP2 uses a significant amount\nof memory for each additional compression level. -z sets both. A value of 0 for n\ndisables compression.\n\n", "long": "--bzip2-compress-level" }, { "name": "--bzip2-decompress-lowmem", "content": "Use a different decompression method for BZIP2 compressed files. This alternate method\nuses a bit more than half the memory, but also runs at half the speed. This is useful\nunder extreme low memory circumstances when the file was originally compressed at a\nhigh --bzip2-compress-level.\n\n\n", "long": "--bzip2-decompress-lowmem" }, { "name": "--mangle-dos-filenames", "content": "", "long": "--mangle-dos-filenames" }, { "name": "--no-mangle-dos-filenames", "content": "Older version of Windows cannot handle filenames with more than one dot. --mangle-dos-\nfilenames causes GnuPG to replace (rather than add to) the extension of an output\nfilename to avoid this problem. This option is off by default and has no effect on\nnon-Windows platforms.\n\n", "long": "--no-mangle-dos-filenames" }, { "name": "--ask-cert-level", "content": "", "long": "--ask-cert-level" }, { "name": "--no-ask-cert-level", "content": "When making a key signature, prompt for a certification level. If this option is not\nspecified, the certification level used is set via --default-cert-level. See --de‐\nfault-cert-level for information on the specific levels and how they are used. --no-\nask-cert-level disables this option. This option defaults to no.\n\n", "long": "--no-ask-cert-level" }, { "name": "--default-cert-level n", "content": "The default to use for the check level when signing a key.\n\n0 means you make no particular claim as to how carefully you verified the key.\n\n1 means you believe the key is owned by the person who claims to own it but you could\nnot, or did not verify the key at all. This is useful for a \"persona\" verification,\nwhere you sign the key of a pseudonymous user.\n\n2 means you did casual verification of the key. For example, this could mean that you\nverified the key fingerprint and checked the user ID on the key against a photo ID.\n\n3 means you did extensive verification of the key. For example, this could mean that\nyou verified the key fingerprint with the owner of the key in person, and that you\nchecked, by means of a hard to forge document with a photo ID (such as a passport)\nthat the name of the key owner matches the name in the user ID on the key, and finally\nthat you verified (by exchange of email) that the email address on the key belongs to\nthe key owner.\n\nNote that the examples given above for levels 2 and 3 are just that: examples. In the\nend, it is up to you to decide just what \"casual\" and \"extensive\" mean to you.\n\nThis option defaults to 0 (no particular claim).\n\n", "long": "--default-cert-level" }, { "name": "--min-cert-level", "content": "When building the trust database, treat any signatures with a certification level be‐\nlow this as invalid. Defaults to 2, which disregards level 1 signatures. Note that\nlevel 0 \"no particular claim\" signatures are always accepted.\n\n", "long": "--min-cert-level" }, { "name": "--trusted-key long key ID", "content": "Assume that the specified key (which must be given as a full 8 byte key ID) is as\ntrustworthy as one of your own secret keys. This option is useful if you don't want to\nkeep your secret keys (or one of them) online but still want to be able to check the\nvalidity of a given recipient's or signator's key.\n\n", "long": "--trusted-key", "arg": "ID" }, { "name": "--trust-model pgp|classic|direct|always|auto", "content": "Set what trust model GnuPG should follow. The models are:\n\n\n\npgp This is the Web of Trust combined with trust signatures as used in PGP 5.x and\nlater. This is the default trust model when creating a new trust database.\n\n\nclassic\nThis is the standard Web of Trust as introduced by PGP 2.\n\n\ndirect Key validity is set directly by the user and not calculated via the Web of\nTrust.\n\n\nalways Skip key validation and assume that used keys are always fully valid. You gen‐\nerally won't use this unless you are using some external validation scheme.\nThis option also suppresses the \"[uncertain]\" tag printed with signature checks\nwhen there is no evidence that the user ID is bound to the key. Note that this\ntrust model still does not allow the use of expired, revoked, or disabled keys.\n\n\nauto Select the trust model depending on whatever the internal trust database says.\nThis is the default model if such a database already exists.\n\n", "long": "--trust-model" }, { "name": "--auto-key-locate parameters", "content": "", "long": "--auto-key-locate" }, { "name": "--no-auto-key-locate", "content": "GnuPG can automatically locate and retrieve keys as needed using this option. This\nhappens when encrypting to an email address (in the \"user@example.com\" form), and\nthere are no user@example.com keys on the local keyring. This option takes any number\nof the following mechanisms, in the order they are to be tried:\n\n\n\ncert Locate a key using DNS CERT, as specified in rfc4398.\n\n\npka Locate a key using DNS PKA.\n\n\nldap Using DNS Service Discovery, check the domain in question for any LDAP key‐\nservers to use. If this fails, attempt to locate the key using the PGP Univer‐\nsal method of checking 'ldap://keys.(thedomain)'.\n\n\nkeyserver\nLocate a key using whatever keyserver is defined using the --keyserver option.\n\n\nkeyserver-URL\nIn addition, a keyserver URL as used in the --keyserver option may be used here\nto query that particular keyserver.\n\n\nlocal Locate the key using the local keyrings. This mechanism allows the user to se‐\nlect the order a local key lookup is done. Thus using '--auto-key-locate lo‐\ncal' is identical to --no-auto-key-locate.\n\n\nnodefault\nThis flag disables the standard local key lookup, done before any of the mecha‐\nnisms defined by the --auto-key-locate are tried. The position of this mecha‐\nnism in the list does not matter. It is not required if local is also used.\n\n\nclear Clear all defined mechanisms. This is useful to override mechanisms given in a\nconfig file.\n\n\n", "long": "--no-auto-key-locate" }, { "name": "--keyid-format short|0xshort|long|0xlong", "content": "Select how to display key IDs. \"short\" is the traditional 8-character key ID. \"long\"\nis the more accurate (but less convenient) 16-character key ID. Add an \"0x\" to either\nto include an \"0x\" at the beginning of the key ID, as in 0x99242560. Note that this\noption is ignored if the option --with-colons is used.\n\n", "long": "--keyid-format" }, { "name": "--keyserver name", "content": "Use name as your keyserver. This is the server that --recv-keys, --send-keys, and\n--search-keys will communicate with to receive keys from, send keys to, and search for\nkeys on. The format of the name is a URI: `scheme:[//]keyservername[:port]' The scheme\nis the type of keyserver: \"hkp\" for the HTTP (or compatible) keyservers, \"ldap\" for\nthe LDAP keyservers, or \"mailto\" for the Graff email keyserver. Note that your partic‐\nular installation of GnuPG may have other keyserver types available as well. Keyserver\nschemes are case-insensitive. After the keyserver name, optional keyserver configura‐\ntion options may be provided. These are the same as the global --keyserver-options\nfrom below, but apply only to this particular keyserver.\n\nMost keyservers synchronize with each other, so there is generally no need to send\nkeys to more than one server. The keyserver hkp://keys.gnupg.net uses round robin DNS\nto give a different keyserver each time you use it.\n\n", "long": "--keyserver" }, { "name": "--keyserver-options name=value1", "content": "This is a space or comma delimited string that gives options for the keyserver. Op‐\ntions can be prefixed with a `no-' to give the opposite meaning. Valid import-options\nor export-options may be used here as well to apply to importing (--recv-key) or ex‐\nporting (--send-key) a key from a keyserver. While not all options are available for\nall keyserver types, some common options are:\n\n\n\ninclude-revoked\nWhen searching for a key with --search-keys, include keys that are marked on\nthe keyserver as revoked. Note that not all keyservers differentiate between\nrevoked and unrevoked keys, and for such keyservers this option is meaningless.\nNote also that most keyservers do not have cryptographic verification of key\nrevocations, and so turning this option off may result in skipping keys that\nare incorrectly marked as revoked.\n\n\ninclude-disabled\nWhen searching for a key with --search-keys, include keys that are marked on\nthe keyserver as disabled. Note that this option is not used with HKP key‐\nservers.\n\n\nauto-key-retrieve\nThis option enables the automatic retrieving of keys from a keyserver when ver‐\nifying signatures made by keys that are not on the local keyring.\n\nNote that this option makes a \"web bug\" like behavior possible. Keyserver op‐\nerators can see which keys you request, so by sending you a message signed by a\nbrand new key (which you naturally will not have on your local keyring), the\noperator can tell both your IP address and the time when you verified the sig‐\nnature.\n\n\nhonor-keyserver-url\nWhen using --refresh-keys, if the key in question has a preferred keyserver\nURL, then use that preferred keyserver to refresh the key from. In addition, if\nauto-key-retrieve is set, and the signature being verified has a preferred key‐\nserver URL, then use that preferred keyserver to fetch the key from. Defaults\nto yes.\n\n\nhonor-pka-record\nIf auto-key-retrieve is set, and the signature being verified has a PKA record,\nthen use the PKA information to fetch the key. Defaults to yes.\n\n\ninclude-subkeys\nWhen receiving a key, include subkeys as potential targets. Note that this op‐\ntion is not used with HKP keyservers, as they do not support retrieving keys by\nsubkey id.\n\n\nuse-temp-files\nOn most Unix-like platforms, GnuPG communicates with the keyserver helper pro‐\ngram via pipes, which is the most efficient method. This option forces GnuPG to\nuse temporary files to communicate. On some platforms (such as Win32 and RISC\nOS), this option is always enabled.\n\n\nkeep-temp-files\nIf using `use-temp-files', do not delete the temp files after using them. This\noption is useful to learn the keyserver communication protocol by reading the\ntemporary files.\n\n\nverbose\nTell the keyserver helper program to be more verbose. This option can be re‐\npeated multiple times to increase the verbosity level.\n\n\ntimeout\nTell the keyserver helper program how long (in seconds) to try and perform a\nkeyserver action before giving up. Note that performing multiple actions at the\nsame time uses this timeout value per action. For example, when retrieving\nmultiple keys via --recv-keys, the timeout applies separately to each key re‐\ntrieval, and not to the --recv-keys command as a whole. Defaults to 30 seconds.\n\n\nhttp-proxy=value\nSet the proxy to use for HTTP and HKP keyservers. This overrides the\n\"httpproxy\" environment variable, if any.\n\n\n\nmax-cert-size\nWhen retrieving a key via DNS CERT, only accept keys up to this size. Defaults\nto 16384 bytes.\n\n\ndebug Turn on debug output in the keyserver helper program. Note that the details of\ndebug output depends on which keyserver helper program is being used, and in\nturn, on any libraries that the keyserver helper program uses internally\n(libcurl, openldap, etc).\n\n\ncheck-cert\nEnable certificate checking if the keyserver presents one (for hkps or ldaps).\nDefaults to on.\n\n\nca-cert-file\nProvide a certificate store to override the system default. Only necessary if\ncheck-cert is enabled, and the keyserver is using a certificate that is not\npresent in a system default certificate list.\n\nNote that depending on the SSL library that the keyserver helper is built with,\nthis may actually be a directory or a file.\n\n\n", "long": "--keyserver-options" }, { "name": "--completes-needed n", "content": "Number of completely trusted users to introduce a new key signer (defaults to 1).\n\n", "long": "--completes-needed" }, { "name": "--marginals-needed n", "content": "Number of marginally trusted users to introduce a new key signer (defaults to 3)\n\n", "long": "--marginals-needed" }, { "name": "--max-cert-depth n", "content": "Maximum depth of a certification chain (default is 5).\n\n", "long": "--max-cert-depth" }, { "name": "--simple-sk-checksum", "content": "Secret keys are integrity protected by using a SHA-1 checksum. This method is part of\nthe upcoming enhanced OpenPGP specification but GnuPG already uses it as a countermea‐\nsure against certain attacks. Old applications don't understand this new format, so\nthis option may be used to switch back to the old behaviour. Using this option bears a\nsecurity risk. Note that using this option only takes effect when the secret key is\nencrypted - the simplest way to make this happen is to change the passphrase on the\nkey (even changing it to the same value is acceptable).\n\n", "long": "--simple-sk-checksum" }, { "name": "--no-sig-cache", "content": "Do not cache the verification status of key signatures. Caching gives a much better\nperformance in key listings. However, if you suspect that your public keyring is not\nsave against write modifications, you can use this option to disable the caching. It\nprobably does not make sense to disable it because all kind of damage can be done if\nsomeone else has write access to your public keyring.\n\n", "long": "--no-sig-cache" }, { "name": "--no-sig-create-check", "content": "This options is obsolete. It has no function.\n\n", "long": "--no-sig-create-check" }, { "name": "--auto-check-trustdb", "content": "", "long": "--auto-check-trustdb" }, { "name": "--no-auto-check-trustdb", "content": "If GnuPG feels that its information about the Web of Trust has to be updated, it auto‐\nmatically runs the --check-trustdb command internally. This may be a time consuming\nprocess. --no-auto-check-trustdb disables this option.\n\n", "long": "--no-auto-check-trustdb" }, { "name": "--use-agent", "content": "", "long": "--use-agent" }, { "name": "--no-use-agent", "content": "Try to use the GnuPG-Agent. With this option, GnuPG first tries to connect to the\nagent before it asks for a passphrase. --no-use-agent disables this option. Note,\nthat the tool gpg-preset-passphrase, which comes with GnuPG-2, cannot be used to pre‐\nset a passphrase for this version of GnuPG.\n\n", "long": "--no-use-agent" }, { "name": "--gpg-agent-info", "content": "Override the value of the environment variable 'GPGAGENTINFO'. This is only used\nwhen --use-agent has been given. Given that this option is not anymore used by gpg2,\nit should be avoided if possible.\n\n\n", "long": "--gpg-agent-info" }, { "name": "--lock-once", "content": "Lock the databases the first time a lock is requested and do not release the lock un‐\ntil the process terminates.\n\n", "long": "--lock-once" }, { "name": "--lock-multiple", "content": "Release the locks every time a lock is no longer needed. Use this to override a previ‐\nous --lock-once from a config file.\n\n", "long": "--lock-multiple" }, { "name": "--lock-never", "content": "Disable locking entirely. This option should be used only in very special environ‐\nments, where it can be assured that only one process is accessing those files. A\nbootable floppy with a stand-alone encryption system will probably use this. Improper\nusage of this option may lead to data and key corruption.\n\n", "long": "--lock-never" }, { "name": "--exit-on-status-write-error", "content": "This option will cause write errors on the status FD to immediately terminate the\nprocess. That should in fact be the default but it never worked this way and thus we\nneed an option to enable this, so that the change won't break applications which close\ntheir end of a status fd connected pipe too early. Using this option along with --en‐\nable-progress-filter may be used to cleanly cancel long running gpg operations.\n\n", "long": "--exit-on-status-write-error" }, { "name": "--limit-card-insert-tries n", "content": "With n greater than 0 the number of prompts asking to insert a smartcard gets limited\nto N-1. Thus with a value of 1 gpg won't at all ask to insert a card if none has been\ninserted at startup. This option is useful in the configuration file in case an appli‐\ncation does not know about the smartcard support and waits ad infinitum for an in‐\nserted card.\n\n", "long": "--limit-card-insert-tries" }, { "name": "--no-random-seed-file", "content": "GnuPG uses a file to store its internal random pool over invocations. This makes ran‐\ndom generation faster; however sometimes write operations are not desired. This option\ncan be used to achieve that with the cost of slower random generation.\n\n", "long": "--no-random-seed-file" }, { "name": "--no-greeting", "content": "Suppress the initial copyright message.\n\n", "long": "--no-greeting" }, { "name": "--no-secmem-warning", "content": "Suppress the warning about \"using insecure memory\".\n\n", "long": "--no-secmem-warning" }, { "name": "--no-permission-warning", "content": "Suppress the warning about unsafe file and home directory (--homedir) permissions.\nNote that the permission checks that GnuPG performs are not intended to be authorita‐\ntive, but rather they simply warn about certain common permission problems. Do not as‐\nsume that the lack of a warning means that your system is secure.\n\nNote that the warning for unsafe --homedir permissions cannot be suppressed in the\ngpg.conf file, as this would allow an attacker to place an unsafe gpg.conf file in\nplace, and use this file to suppress warnings about itself. The --homedir permissions\nwarning may only be suppressed on the command line.\n\n", "long": "--no-permission-warning" }, { "name": "--no-mdc-warning", "content": "Suppress the warning about missing MDC integrity protection.\n\n", "long": "--no-mdc-warning" }, { "name": "--require-secmem", "content": "", "long": "--require-secmem" }, { "name": "--no-require-secmem", "content": "Refuse to run if GnuPG cannot get secure memory. Defaults to no (i.e. run, but give a\nwarning).\n\n\n", "long": "--no-require-secmem" }, { "name": "--require-cross-certification", "content": "", "long": "--require-cross-certification" }, { "name": "--no-require-cross-certification", "content": "When verifying a signature made from a subkey, ensure that the cross certification\n\"back signature\" on the subkey is present and valid. This protects against a subtle\nattack against subkeys that can sign. Defaults to --require-cross-certification for\ngpg.\n\n", "long": "--no-require-cross-certification" }, { "name": "--expert", "content": "", "long": "--expert" }, { "name": "--no-expert", "content": "Allow the user to do certain nonsensical or \"silly\" things like signing an expired or\nrevoked key, or certain potentially incompatible things like generating unusual key\ntypes. This also disables certain warning messages about potentially incompatible ac‐\ntions. As the name implies, this option is for experts only. If you don't fully under‐\nstand the implications of what it allows you to do, leave this off. --no-expert dis‐\nables this option.\n\n", "long": "--no-expert" }, { "name": "Key related options", "content": "--recipient name" }, { "name": "-r --hidden-recipient", "content": "asks for the user-id unless --default-recipient is given.\n\n\n--hidden-recipient name", "flag": "-r", "long": "--hidden-recipient" }, { "name": "-R", "content": "hide the receiver of the message and is a limited countermeasure against traffic\nanalysis. If this option or --recipient is not specified, GnuPG asks for the user ID\nunless --default-recipient is given.\n\n", "flag": "-R" }, { "name": "--encrypt-to name", "content": "Same as --recipient but this one is intended for use in the options file and may be\nused with your own user-id as an \"encrypt-to-self\". These keys are only used when\nthere are other recipients given either by use of --recipient or by the asked user id.\nNo trust checking is performed for these user ids and even disabled keys can be used.\n\n", "long": "--encrypt-to" }, { "name": "--hidden-encrypt-to name", "content": "Same as --hidden-recipient but this one is intended for use in the options file and\nmay be used with your own user-id as a hidden \"encrypt-to-self\". These keys are only\nused when there are other recipients given either by use of --recipient or by the\nasked user id. No trust checking is performed for these user ids and even disabled\nkeys can be used.\n\n", "long": "--hidden-encrypt-to" }, { "name": "--no-encrypt-to", "content": "Disable the use of all --encrypt-to and --hidden-encrypt-to keys.\n\n", "long": "--no-encrypt-to" }, { "name": "--group name=value1", "content": "Sets up a named group, which is similar to aliases in email programs. Any time the\ngroup name is a recipient (-r or --recipient), it will be expanded to the values spec‐\nified. Multiple groups with the same name are automatically merged into a single\ngroup.\n\nThe values are key IDs or fingerprints, but any key description is accepted. Note that\na value with spaces in it will be treated as two different values. Note also there is\nonly one level of expansion --- you cannot make an group that points to another group.\nWhen used from the command line, it may be necessary to quote the argument to this op‐\ntion to prevent the shell from treating it as multiple arguments.\n\n", "long": "--group" }, { "name": "--ungroup name", "content": "Remove a given entry from the --group list.\n\n", "long": "--ungroup" }, { "name": "--no-groups", "content": "Remove all entries from the --group list.\n\n\n--local-user name", "long": "--no-groups" }, { "name": "-u --default-key", "content": "", "flag": "-u", "long": "--default-key" }, { "name": "--try-all-secrets", "content": "Don't look at the key ID as stored in the message but try all secret keys in turn to\nfind the right decryption key. This option forces the behaviour as used by anonymous\nrecipients (created by using --throw-keyids or --hidden-recipient) and might come\nhandy in case where an encrypted message contains a bogus key ID.\n\n\n", "long": "--try-all-secrets" }, { "name": "Input and Output", "content": "" }, { "name": "--armor", "content": "", "long": "--armor" }, { "name": "-a", "content": "", "flag": "-a" }, { "name": "--no-armor", "content": "Assume the input data is not in ASCII armored format.\n\n\n--output file", "long": "--no-armor" }, { "name": "-o _", "content": "Write output to file.\n\n", "flag": "-o" }, { "name": "--max-output n", "content": "This option sets a limit on the number of bytes that will be generated when processing\na file. Since OpenPGP supports various levels of compression, it is possible that the\nplaintext of a given message may be significantly larger than the original OpenPGP\nmessage. While GnuPG works properly with such messages, there is often a desire to set\na maximum file size that will be generated before processing is forced to stop by the\nOS limits. Defaults to 0, which means \"no limit\".\n\n", "long": "--max-output" }, { "name": "--import-options parameters", "content": "This is a space or comma delimited string that gives options for importing keys. Op‐\ntions can be prepended with a `no-' to give the opposite meaning. The options are:\n\n\n\nimport-local-sigs\nAllow importing key signatures marked as \"local\". This is not generally useful\nunless a shared keyring scheme is being used. Defaults to no.\n\n\nkeep-ownertrust\nNormally possible still existing ownertrust values of a key are cleared if a\nkey is imported. This is in general desirable so that a formerly deleted key\ndoes not automatically gain an ownertrust values merely due to import. On the\nother hand it is sometimes necessary to re-import a trusted set of keys again\nbut keeping already assigned ownertrust values. This can be achieved by using\nthis option.\n\n\nrepair-pks-subkey-bug\nDuring import, attempt to repair the damage caused by the PKS keyserver bug\n(pre version 0.9.6) that mangles keys with multiple subkeys. Note that this\ncannot completely repair the damaged key as some crucial data is removed by the\nkeyserver, but it does at least give you back one subkey. Defaults to no for\nregular --import and to yes for keyserver --recv-keys.\n\n\nmerge-only\nDuring import, allow key updates to existing keys, but do not allow any new\nkeys to be imported. Defaults to no.\n\n\nimport-clean\nAfter import, compact (remove all signatures except the self-signature) any\nuser IDs from the new key that are not usable. Then, remove any signatures\nfrom the new key that are not usable. This includes signatures that were is‐\nsued by keys that are not present on the keyring. This option is the same as\nrunning the --edit-key command \"clean\" after import. Defaults to no.\n\n\nimport-minimal\nImport the smallest key possible. This removes all signatures except the most\nrecent self-signature on each user ID. This option is the same as running the\n--edit-key command \"minimize\" after import. Defaults to no.\n\n", "long": "--import-options" }, { "name": "--export-options parameters", "content": "This is a space or comma delimited string that gives options for exporting keys. Op‐\ntions can be prepended with a `no-' to give the opposite meaning. The options are:\n\n\n\nexport-local-sigs\nAllow exporting key signatures marked as \"local\". This is not generally useful\nunless a shared keyring scheme is being used. Defaults to no.\n\n\nexport-attributes\nInclude attribute user IDs (photo IDs) while exporting. This is useful to ex‐\nport keys if they are going to be used by an OpenPGP program that does not ac‐\ncept attribute user IDs. Defaults to yes.\n\n\nexport-sensitive-revkeys\nInclude designated revoker information that was marked as \"sensitive\". Defaults\nto no.\n\n\nexport-reset-subkey-passwd\nWhen using the --export-secret-subkeys command, this option resets the\npassphrases for all exported subkeys to empty. This is useful when the exported\nsubkey is to be used on an unattended machine where a passphrase doesn't neces‐\nsarily make sense. Defaults to no.\n\n\nexport-clean\nCompact (remove all signatures from) user IDs on the key being exported if the\nuser IDs are not usable. Also, do not export any signatures that are not us‐\nable. This includes signatures that were issued by keys that are not present on\nthe keyring. This option is the same as running the --edit-key command \"clean\"\nbefore export except that the local copy of the key is not modified. Defaults\nto no.\n\n\nexport-minimal\nExport the smallest key possible. This removes all signatures except the most\nrecent self-signature on each user ID. This option is the same as running the\n--edit-key command \"minimize\" before export except that the local copy of the\nkey is not modified. Defaults to no.\n\n", "long": "--export-options" }, { "name": "--with-colons", "content": "Print key listings delimited by colons. Note that the output will be encoded in UTF-8\nregardless of any --display-charset setting. This format is useful when GnuPG is\ncalled from scripts and other programs as it is easily machine parsed. The details of\nthis format are documented in the file ‘doc/DETAILS’, which is included in the GnuPG\nsource distribution.\n\n", "long": "--with-colons" }, { "name": "--fixed-list-mode", "content": "Do not merge primary user ID and primary key in --with-colon listing mode and print\nall timestamps as seconds since 1970-01-01.\n\n", "long": "--fixed-list-mode" }, { "name": "--with-fingerprint", "content": "Same as the command --fingerprint but changes only the format of the output and may be\nused together with another command.\n\n", "long": "--with-fingerprint" }, { "name": "OpenPGP protocol specific options.", "content": "" }, { "name": "-t, --textmode", "content": "", "flag": "-t", "long": "--textmode" }, { "name": "--no-textmode", "content": "Treat input files as text and store them in the OpenPGP canonical text form with stan‐\ndard \"CRLF\" line endings. This also sets the necessary flags to inform the recipient\nthat the encrypted or signed data is text and may need its line endings converted back\nto whatever the local system uses. This option is useful when communicating between\ntwo platforms that have different line ending conventions (UNIX-like to Mac, Mac to\nWindows, etc). --no-textmode disables this option, and is the default.\n\nIf -t (but not --textmode) is used together with armoring and signing, this enables\nclearsigned messages. This kludge is needed for command-line compatibility with com‐\nmand-line versions of PGP; normally you would use --sign or --clearsign to select the\ntype of the signature.\n\n", "long": "--no-textmode" }, { "name": "--force-v3-sigs", "content": "", "long": "--force-v3-sigs" }, { "name": "--no-force-v3-sigs", "content": "OpenPGP states that an implementation should generate v4 signatures but PGP versions 5\nthrough 7 only recognize v4 signatures on key material. This option forces v3 signa‐\ntures for signatures on data. Note that this option implies --no-ask-sig-expire, and\nunsets --sig-policy-url, --sig-notation, and --sig-keyserver-url, as these features\ncannot be used with v3 signatures. --no-force-v3-sigs disables this option. Defaults\nto no.\n\n", "long": "--no-force-v3-sigs" }, { "name": "--force-v4-certs", "content": "", "long": "--force-v4-certs" }, { "name": "--no-force-v4-certs", "content": "Always use v4 key signatures even on v3 keys. This option also changes the default\nhash algorithm for v3 RSA keys from MD5 to SHA-1. --no-force-v4-certs disables this\noption.\n\n", "long": "--no-force-v4-certs" }, { "name": "--force-mdc", "content": "Force the use of encryption with a modification detection code. This is always used\nwith the newer ciphers (those with a blocksize greater than 64 bits), or if all of the\nrecipient keys indicate MDC support in their feature flags.\n\n", "long": "--force-mdc" }, { "name": "--disable-mdc", "content": "Disable the use of the modification detection code. Note that by using this option,\nthe encrypted message becomes vulnerable to a message modification attack.\n\n", "long": "--disable-mdc" }, { "name": "--personal-cipher-preferences string", "content": "Set the list of personal cipher preferences to string. Use gpg --version to get a\nlist of available algorithms, and use none to set no preference at all. This allows\nthe user to safely override the algorithm chosen by the recipient key preferences, as\nGPG will only select an algorithm that is usable by all recipients. The most highly\nranked cipher in this list is also used for the --symmetric encryption command.\n\n", "long": "--personal-cipher-preferences" }, { "name": "--personal-digest-preferences string", "content": "Set the list of personal digest preferences to string. Use gpg --version to get a\nlist of available algorithms, and use none to set no preference at all. This allows\nthe user to safely override the algorithm chosen by the recipient key preferences, as\nGPG will only select an algorithm that is usable by all recipients. The most highly\nranked digest algorithm in this list is also used when signing without encryption\n(e.g. --clearsign or --sign).\n\n", "long": "--personal-digest-preferences" }, { "name": "--personal-compress-preferences string", "content": "Set the list of personal compression preferences to string. Use gpg --version to get\na list of available algorithms, and use none to set no preference at all. This allows\nthe user to safely override the algorithm chosen by the recipient key preferences, as\nGPG will only select an algorithm that is usable by all recipients. The most highly\nranked compression algorithm in this list is also used when there are no recipient\nkeys to consider (e.g. --symmetric).\n\n", "long": "--personal-compress-preferences" }, { "name": "--s2k-cipher-algo name", "content": "Use name as the cipher algorithm used to protect secret keys. The default cipher is\nAES128. This cipher is also used for conventional encryption if --personal-cipher-\npreferences and --cipher-algo is not given.\n\n", "long": "--s2k-cipher-algo" }, { "name": "--s2k-digest-algo name", "content": "Use name as the digest algorithm used to mangle the passphrases. The default algo‐\nrithm is SHA-1.\n\n", "long": "--s2k-digest-algo" }, { "name": "--s2k-mode n", "content": "Selects how passphrases are mangled. If n is 0 a plain passphrase (which is not recom‐\nmended) will be used, a 1 adds a salt to the passphrase and a 3 (the default) iterates\nthe whole process a number of times (see --s2k-count). Unless --rfc1991 is used, this\nmode is also used for conventional encryption.\n\n", "long": "--s2k-mode" }, { "name": "--s2k-count n", "content": "Specify how many times the passphrase mangling is repeated. This value may range be‐\ntween 1024 and 65011712 inclusive. The default is inquired from gpg-agent. Note that\nnot all values in the 1024-65011712 range are legal and if an illegal value is se‐\nlected, GnuPG will round up to the nearest legal value. This option is only meaning‐\nful if --s2k-mode is 3.\n\n\n", "long": "--s2k-count" }, { "name": "Compliance options", "content": "These options control what GnuPG is compliant to. Only one of these options may be active at\na time. Note that the default setting of this is nearly always the correct one. See the IN‐\nTEROPERABILITY WITH OTHER OPENPGP PROGRAMS section below before using one of these options.\n\n\n" }, { "name": "--gnupg", "content": "Use standard GnuPG behavior. This is essentially OpenPGP behavior (see --openpgp), but\nwith some additional workarounds for common compatibility problems in different ver‐\nsions of PGP. This is the default option, so it is not generally needed, but it may be\nuseful to override a different compliance option in the gpg.conf file.\n\n", "long": "--gnupg" }, { "name": "--openpgp", "content": "Reset all packet, cipher and digest options to strict OpenPGP behavior. Use this op‐\ntion to reset all previous options like --s2k-*, --cipher-algo, --digest-algo and\n--compress-algo to OpenPGP compliant values. All PGP workarounds are disabled.\n\n", "long": "--openpgp" }, { "name": "--rfc4880", "content": "Reset all packet, cipher and digest options to strict RFC-4880 behavior. Note that\nthis is currently the same thing as --openpgp.\n\n", "long": "--rfc4880" }, { "name": "--rfc2440", "content": "Reset all packet, cipher and digest options to strict RFC-2440 behavior.\n\n", "long": "--rfc2440" }, { "name": "--rfc1991", "content": "Try to be more RFC-1991 (PGP 2.x) compliant. This option is deprecated will be re‐\nmoved in GnuPG 2.1.\n\n\n--pgp2 Set up all options to be as PGP 2.x compliant as possible, and warn if an action is\ntaken (e.g. encrypting to a non-RSA key) that will create a message that PGP 2.x will\nnot be able to handle. Note that `PGP 2.x' here means `MIT PGP 2.6.2'. There are other\nversions of PGP 2.x available, but the MIT release is a good common baseline.\n\nThis option implies --rfc1991 --disable-mdc --no-force-v4-certs\n--escape-from-lines --force-v3-sigs --allow-weak-digest-algos\n--cipher-algo IDEA --digest-algo MD5 --compress-algo ZIP. It also disables\n--textmode when encrypting.\n\nThis option is deprecated will be removed in GnuPG 2.1. The reason for dropping PGP-2\nsupport is that the PGP 2 format is not anymore considered safe (for example due to\nthe use of the broken MD5 algorithm). Note that the decryption of PGP-2 created mes‐\nsages will continue to work.\n\n\n--pgp6 Set up all options to be as PGP 6 compliant as possible. This restricts you to the ci‐\nphers IDEA (if the IDEA plugin is installed), 3DES, and CAST5, the hashes MD5, SHA1\nand RIPEMD160, and the compression algorithms none and ZIP. This also disables\n--throw-keyids, and making signatures with signing subkeys as PGP 6 does not under‐\nstand signatures made by signing subkeys.\n\nThis option implies --disable-mdc --escape-from-lines --force-v3-sigs.\n\n\n--pgp7 Set up all options to be as PGP 7 compliant as possible. This is identical to --pgp6\nexcept that MDCs are not disabled, and the list of allowable ciphers is expanded to\nadd AES128, AES192, AES256, and TWOFISH.\n\n\n--pgp8 Set up all options to be as PGP 8 compliant as possible. PGP 8 is a lot closer to the\nOpenPGP standard than previous versions of PGP, so all this does is disable --throw-\nkeyids and set --escape-from-lines. All algorithms are allowed except for the SHA224,\nSHA384, and SHA512 digests.\n\n", "long": "--rfc1991" }, { "name": "Doing things one usually doesn't want to do.", "content": "" }, { "name": "-n", "content": "", "flag": "-n" }, { "name": "--dry-run", "content": "Don't make any changes (this is not completely implemented).\n\n", "long": "--dry-run" }, { "name": "--list-only", "content": "Changes the behaviour of some commands. This is like --dry-run but different in some\ncases. The semantic of this command may be extended in the future. Currently it only\nskips the actual decryption pass and therefore enables a fast listing of the encryp‐\ntion keys.\n\n", "long": "--list-only" }, { "name": "-i", "content": "", "flag": "-i" }, { "name": "--interactive", "content": "Prompt before overwriting any files.\n\n\n--debug-level level\nSelect the debug level for investigating problems. level may be a numeric value or by\na keyword:\n\n\nnone No debugging at all. A value of less than 1 may be used instead of the key‐\nword.\n\nbasic Some basic debug messages. A value between 1 and 2 may be used instead of the\nkeyword.\n\nadvanced\nMore verbose debug messages. A value between 3 and 5 may be used instead of\nthe keyword.\n\nexpert Even more detailed messages. A value between 6 and 8 may be used instead of\nthe keyword.\n\nguru All of the debug messages you can get. A value greater than 8 may be used in‐\nstead of the keyword. The creation of hash tracing files is only enabled if\nthe keyword is used.\n\nHow these messages are mapped to the actual debugging flags is not specified and may change\nwith newer releases of this program. They are however carefully selected to best aid in de‐\nbugging.\n\n\n--debug flags\nSet debugging flags. All flags are or-ed and flags may be given in C syntax (e.g.\n0x0042).\n\n", "long": "--interactive" }, { "name": "--debug-all", "content": "Set all useful debugging flags.\n\n", "long": "--debug-all" }, { "name": "--debug-ccid-driver", "content": "Enable debug output from the included CCID driver for smartcards. Note that this op‐\ntion is only available on some system.\n\n", "long": "--debug-ccid-driver" }, { "name": "--enable-progress-filter", "content": "Enable certain PROGRESS status outputs. This option allows frontends to display a\nprogress indicator while gpg is processing larger files. There is a slight perfor‐\nmance overhead using it.\n\n", "long": "--enable-progress-filter" }, { "name": "--status-fd n", "content": "Write special status strings to the file descriptor n. See the file DETAILS in the\ndocumentation for a listing of them.\n\n", "long": "--status-fd" }, { "name": "--status-file file", "content": "Same as --status-fd, except the status data is written to file file.\n\n", "long": "--status-file" }, { "name": "--logger-fd n", "content": "Write log output to file descriptor n and not to STDERR.\n\n", "long": "--logger-fd" }, { "name": "--log-file file", "content": "", "long": "--log-file" }, { "name": "--logger-file file", "content": "Same as --logger-fd, except the logger data is written to file file. Note that --log-\nfile is only implemented for GnuPG-2.\n\n", "long": "--logger-file" }, { "name": "--attribute-fd n", "content": "Write attribute subpackets to the file descriptor n. This is most useful for use with\n--status-fd, since the status messages are needed to separate out the various subpack‐\nets from the stream delivered to the file descriptor.\n\n", "long": "--attribute-fd" }, { "name": "--attribute-file file", "content": "Same as --attribute-fd, except the attribute data is written to file file.\n\n", "long": "--attribute-file" }, { "name": "--comment string", "content": "", "long": "--comment" }, { "name": "--no-comments", "content": "Use string as a comment string in clear text signatures and ASCII armored messages or\nkeys (see --armor). The default behavior is not to use a comment string. --comment may\nbe repeated multiple times to get multiple comment strings. --no-comments removes all\ncomments. It is a good idea to keep the length of a single comment below 60 charac‐\nters to avoid problems with mail programs wrapping such lines. Note that comment\nlines, like all other header lines, are not protected by the signature.\n\n", "long": "--no-comments" }, { "name": "--emit-version", "content": "", "long": "--emit-version" }, { "name": "--no-emit-version", "content": "Force inclusion of the version string in ASCII armored output. If given once only the\nname of the program and the major number is emitted, given twice the minor is also\nemitted, given triple the micro is added, and given quad an operating system identifi‐\ncation is also emitted. --no-emit-version (default) disables the version line.\n\n", "long": "--no-emit-version" }, { "name": "--sig-notation name=value", "content": "", "long": "--sig-notation" }, { "name": "--cert-notation name=value", "content": "", "long": "--cert-notation" }, { "name": "-N, --set-notation name=value", "content": "Put the name value pair into the signature as notation data. name must consist only\nof printable characters or spaces, and must contain a '@' character in the form key‐\nname@domain.example.com (substituting the appropriate keyname and domain name, of\ncourse). This is to help prevent pollution of the IETF reserved notation namespace.\nThe --expert flag overrides the '@' check. value may be any printable string; it will\nbe encoded in UTF8, so you should check that your --display-charset is set correctly.\nIf you prefix name with an exclamation mark (!), the notation data will be flagged as\ncritical (rfc4880:5.2.3.16). --sig-notation sets a notation for data signatures.\n--cert-notation sets a notation for key signatures (certifications). --set-notation\nsets both.\n\nThere are special codes that may be used in notation names. \"%k\" will be expanded into\nthe key ID of the key being signed, \"%K\" into the long key ID of the key being signed,\n\"%f\" into the fingerprint of the key being signed, \"%s\" into the key ID of the key\nmaking the signature, \"%S\" into the long key ID of the key making the signature, \"%g\"\ninto the fingerprint of the key making the signature (which might be a subkey), \"%p\"\ninto the fingerprint of the primary key of the key making the signature, \"%c\" into the\nsignature count from the OpenPGP smartcard, and \"%%\" results in a single \"%\". %k, %K,\nand %f are only meaningful when making a key signature (certification), and %c is only\nmeaningful when using the OpenPGP smartcard.\n\n", "flag": "-N", "long": "--set-notation" }, { "name": "--sig-policy-url string", "content": "", "long": "--sig-policy-url" }, { "name": "--cert-policy-url string", "content": "", "long": "--cert-policy-url" }, { "name": "--set-policy-url string", "content": "Use string as a Policy URL for signatures (rfc4880:5.2.3.20). If you prefix it with\nan exclamation mark (!), the policy URL packet will be flagged as critical. --sig-pol‐\nicy-url sets a policy url for data signatures. --cert-policy-url sets a policy url for\nkey signatures (certifications). --set-policy-url sets both.\n\nThe same %-expandos used for notation data are available here as well.\n\n", "long": "--set-policy-url" }, { "name": "--sig-keyserver-url string", "content": "Use string as a preferred keyserver URL for data signatures. If you prefix it with an\nexclamation mark (!), the keyserver URL packet will be flagged as critical.\n\nThe same %-expandos used for notation data are available here as well.\n\n", "long": "--sig-keyserver-url" }, { "name": "--set-filename string", "content": "Use string as the filename which is stored inside messages. This overrides the de‐\nfault, which is to use the actual filename of the file being encrypted.\n\n", "long": "--set-filename" }, { "name": "--for-your-eyes-only", "content": "", "long": "--for-your-eyes-only" }, { "name": "--no-for-your-eyes-only", "content": "Set the `for your eyes only' flag in the message. This causes GnuPG to refuse to save\nthe file unless the --output option is given, and PGP to use a \"secure viewer\" with a\nclaimed Tempest-resistant font to display the message. This option overrides --set-\nfilename. --no-for-your-eyes-only disables this option.\n\n", "long": "--no-for-your-eyes-only" }, { "name": "--use-embedded-filename", "content": "", "long": "--use-embedded-filename" }, { "name": "--no-use-embedded-filename", "content": "Try to create a file with a name as embedded in the data. This can be a dangerous op‐\ntion as it enables overwriting files. Defaults to no.\n\n", "long": "--no-use-embedded-filename" }, { "name": "--cipher-algo name", "content": "Use name as cipher algorithm. Running the program with the command --version yields a\nlist of supported algorithms. If this is not used the cipher algorithm is selected\nfrom the preferences stored with the key. In general, you do not want to use this op‐\ntion as it allows you to violate the OpenPGP standard. --personal-cipher-preferences\nis the safe way to accomplish the same thing.\n\n", "long": "--cipher-algo" }, { "name": "--digest-algo name", "content": "Use name as the message digest algorithm. Running the program with the command --ver‐\nsion yields a list of supported algorithms. In general, you do not want to use this\noption as it allows you to violate the OpenPGP standard. --personal-digest-preferences\nis the safe way to accomplish the same thing.\n\n", "long": "--digest-algo" }, { "name": "--compress-algo name", "content": "Use compression algorithm name. \"zlib\" is RFC-1950 ZLIB compression. \"zip\" is RFC-1951\nZIP compression which is used by PGP. \"bzip2\" is a more modern compression scheme\nthat can compress some things better than zip or zlib, but at the cost of more memory\nused during compression and decompression. \"uncompressed\" or \"none\" disables compres‐\nsion. If this option is not used, the default behavior is to examine the recipient key\npreferences to see which algorithms the recipient supports. If all else fails, ZIP is\nused for maximum compatibility.\n\nZLIB may give better compression results than ZIP, as the compression window size is\nnot limited to 8k. BZIP2 may give even better compression results than that, but will\nuse a significantly larger amount of memory while compressing and decompressing. This\nmay be significant in low memory situations. Note, however, that PGP (all versions)\nonly supports ZIP compression. Using any algorithm other than ZIP or \"none\" will make\nthe message unreadable with PGP. In general, you do not want to use this option as it\nallows you to violate the OpenPGP standard. --personal-compress-preferences is the\nsafe way to accomplish the same thing.\n\n", "long": "--compress-algo" }, { "name": "--cert-digest-algo name", "content": "Use name as the message digest algorithm used when signing a key. Running the program\nwith the command --version yields a list of supported algorithms. Be aware that if you\nchoose an algorithm that GnuPG supports but other OpenPGP implementations do not, then\nsome users will not be able to use the key signatures you make, or quite possibly your\nentire key.\n\n", "long": "--cert-digest-algo" }, { "name": "--disable-cipher-algo name", "content": "Never allow the use of name as cipher algorithm. The given name will not be checked\nso that a later loaded algorithm will still get disabled.\n\n", "long": "--disable-cipher-algo" }, { "name": "--disable-pubkey-algo name", "content": "Never allow the use of name as public key algorithm. The given name will not be\nchecked so that a later loaded algorithm will still get disabled.\n\n", "long": "--disable-pubkey-algo" }, { "name": "--throw-keyids", "content": "", "long": "--throw-keyids" }, { "name": "--no-throw-keyids", "content": "Do not put the recipient key IDs into encrypted messages. This helps to hide the re‐\nceivers of the message and is a limited countermeasure against traffic analysis. ([Us‐\ning a little social engineering anyone who is able to decrypt the message can check\nwhether one of the other recipients is the one he suspects.]) On the receiving side,\nit may slow down the decryption process because all available secret keys must be\ntried. --no-throw-keyids disables this option. This option is essentially the same as\nusing --hidden-recipient for all recipients.\n\n", "long": "--no-throw-keyids" }, { "name": "--not-dash-escaped", "content": "This option changes the behavior of cleartext signatures so that they can be used for\npatch files. You should not send such an armored file via email because all spaces and\nline endings are hashed too. You can not use this option for data which has 5 dashes\nat the beginning of a line, patch files don't have this. A special armor header line\ntells GnuPG about this cleartext signature option.\n\n", "long": "--not-dash-escaped" }, { "name": "--escape-from-lines", "content": "", "long": "--escape-from-lines" }, { "name": "--no-escape-from-lines", "content": "Because some mailers change lines starting with \"From \" to \">From \" it is good to han‐\ndle such lines in a special way when creating cleartext signatures to prevent the mail\nsystem from breaking the signature. Note that all other PGP versions do it this way\ntoo. Enabled by default. --no-escape-from-lines disables this option.\n\n", "long": "--no-escape-from-lines" }, { "name": "--passphrase-repeat n", "content": "Specify how many times gpg will request a new passphrase be repeated. This is useful\nfor helping memorize a passphrase. Defaults to 1 repetition.\n\n", "long": "--passphrase-repeat" }, { "name": "--passphrase-fd n", "content": "Read the passphrase from file descriptor n. Only the first line will be read from file\ndescriptor n. If you use 0 for n, the passphrase will be read from STDIN. This can\nonly be used if only one passphrase is supplied.\n\n", "long": "--passphrase-fd" }, { "name": "--passphrase-file file", "content": "Read the passphrase from file file. Only the first line will be read from file file.\nThis can only be used if only one passphrase is supplied. Obviously, a passphrase\nstored in a file is of questionable security if other users can read this file. Don't\nuse this option if you can avoid it.\n\n", "long": "--passphrase-file" }, { "name": "--passphrase string", "content": "Use string as the passphrase. This can only be used if only one passphrase is sup‐\nplied. Obviously, this is of very questionable security on a multi-user system. Don't\nuse this option if you can avoid it.\n\n", "long": "--passphrase" }, { "name": "--command-fd n", "content": "This is a replacement for the deprecated shared-memory IPC mode. If this option is\nenabled, user input on questions is not expected from the TTY but from the given file\ndescriptor. It should be used together with --status-fd. See the file doc/DETAILS in\nthe source distribution for details on how to use it.\n\n", "long": "--command-fd" }, { "name": "--command-file file", "content": "Same as --command-fd, except the commands are read out of file file\n\n", "long": "--command-file" }, { "name": "--allow-non-selfsigned-uid", "content": "", "long": "--allow-non-selfsigned-uid" }, { "name": "--no-allow-non-selfsigned-uid", "content": "Allow the import and use of keys with user IDs which are not self-signed. This is not\nrecommended, as a non self-signed user ID is trivial to forge. --no-allow-non-self‐\nsigned-uid disables.\n\n", "long": "--no-allow-non-selfsigned-uid" }, { "name": "--allow-freeform-uid", "content": "Disable all checks on the form of the user ID while generating a new one. This option\nshould only be used in very special environments as it does not ensure the de-facto\nstandard format of user IDs.\n\n", "long": "--allow-freeform-uid" }, { "name": "--ignore-time-conflict", "content": "GnuPG normally checks that the timestamps associated with keys and signatures have\nplausible values. However, sometimes a signature seems to be older than the key due to\nclock problems. This option makes these checks just a warning. See also --ignore-\nvalid-from for timestamp issues on subkeys.\n\n", "long": "--ignore-time-conflict" }, { "name": "--ignore-valid-from", "content": "GnuPG normally does not select and use subkeys created in the future. This option al‐\nlows the use of such keys and thus exhibits the pre-1.0.7 behaviour. You should not\nuse this option unless there is some clock problem. See also --ignore-time-conflict\nfor timestamp issues with signatures.\n\n", "long": "--ignore-valid-from" }, { "name": "--ignore-crc-error", "content": "The ASCII armor used by OpenPGP is protected by a CRC checksum against transmission\nerrors. Occasionally the CRC gets mangled somewhere on the transmission channel but\nthe actual content (which is protected by the OpenPGP protocol anyway) is still okay.\nThis option allows GnuPG to ignore CRC errors.\n\n", "long": "--ignore-crc-error" }, { "name": "--ignore-mdc-error", "content": "This option changes a MDC integrity protection failure into a warning. This can be\nuseful if a message is partially corrupt, but it is necessary to get as much data as\npossible out of the corrupt message. However, be aware that a MDC protection failure\nmay also mean that the message was tampered with intentionally by an attacker.\n\n", "long": "--ignore-mdc-error" }, { "name": "--allow-weak-digest-algos", "content": "Signatures made with known-weak digest algorithms are normally rejected with an ``in‐\nvalid digest algorithm'' message. This option allows the verification of signatures\nmade with such weak algorithms. MD5 is the only digest algorithm considered weak by\ndefault. See also --weak-digest to reject other digest algorithms.\n\n", "long": "--allow-weak-digest-algos" }, { "name": "--weak-digest name", "content": "Treat the specified digest algorithm as weak. Signatures made over weak digests algo‐\nrithms are normally rejected. This option can be supplied multiple times if multiple\nalgorithms should be considered weak. See also --allow-weak-digest-algos to disable\nrejection of weak digests. MD5 is always considered weak, and does not need to be\nlisted explicitly.\n\n\n", "long": "--weak-digest" }, { "name": "--no-default-keyring", "content": "Do not add the default keyrings to the list of keyrings. Note that GnuPG will not op‐\nerate without any keyrings, so if you use this option and do not provide alternate\nkeyrings via --keyring or --secret-keyring, then GnuPG will still use the default pub‐\nlic or secret keyrings.\n\n", "long": "--no-default-keyring" }, { "name": "--skip-verify", "content": "Skip the signature verification step. This may be used to make the decryption faster\nif the signature verification is not needed.\n\n", "long": "--skip-verify" }, { "name": "--with-key-data", "content": "Print key listings delimited by colons (like --with-colons) and print the public key\ndata.\n\n", "long": "--with-key-data" }, { "name": "--fast-list-mode", "content": "Changes the output of the list commands to work faster; this is achieved by leaving\nsome parts empty. Some applications don't need the user ID and the trust information\ngiven in the listings. By using this options they can get a faster listing. The exact\nbehaviour of this option may change in future versions. If you are missing some in‐\nformation, don't use this option.\n\n", "long": "--fast-list-mode" }, { "name": "--no-literal", "content": "This is not for normal use. Use the source to see for what it might be useful.\n\n", "long": "--no-literal" }, { "name": "--set-filesize", "content": "This is not for normal use. Use the source to see for what it might be useful.\n\n", "long": "--set-filesize" }, { "name": "--show-session-key", "content": "Display the session key used for one message. See --override-session-key for the coun‐\nterpart of this option.\n\nWe think that Key Escrow is a Bad Thing; however the user should have the freedom to\ndecide whether to go to prison or to reveal the content of one specific message with‐\nout compromising all messages ever encrypted for one secret key. DON'T USE IT UNLESS\nYOU ARE REALLY FORCED TO DO SO.\n\n", "long": "--show-session-key" }, { "name": "--override-session-key string", "content": "Don't use the public key but the session key string. The format of this string is the\nsame as the one printed by --show-session-key. This option is normally not used but\ncomes handy in case someone forces you to reveal the content of an encrypted message;\nusing this option you can do this without handing out the secret key.\n\n", "long": "--override-session-key" }, { "name": "--ask-sig-expire", "content": "", "long": "--ask-sig-expire" }, { "name": "--no-ask-sig-expire", "content": "When making a data signature, prompt for an expiration time. If this option is not\nspecified, the expiration time set via --default-sig-expire is used. --no-ask-sig-ex‐\npire disables this option.\n\n", "long": "--no-ask-sig-expire" }, { "name": "--default-sig-expire", "content": "The default expiration time to use for signature expiration. Valid values are \"0\" for\nno expiration, a number followed by the letter d (for days), w (for weeks), m (for\nmonths), or y (for years) (for example \"2m\" for two months, or \"5y\" for five years),\nor an absolute date in the form YYYY-MM-DD. Defaults to \"0\".\n\n", "long": "--default-sig-expire" }, { "name": "--ask-cert-expire", "content": "", "long": "--ask-cert-expire" }, { "name": "--no-ask-cert-expire", "content": "When making a key signature, prompt for an expiration time. If this option is not\nspecified, the expiration time set via --default-cert-expire is used. --no-ask-cert-\nexpire disables this option.\n\n", "long": "--no-ask-cert-expire" }, { "name": "--default-cert-expire", "content": "The default expiration time to use for key signature expiration. Valid values are \"0\"\nfor no expiration, a number followed by the letter d (for days), w (for weeks), m (for\nmonths), or y (for years) (for example \"2m\" for two months, or \"5y\" for five years),\nor an absolute date in the form YYYY-MM-DD. Defaults to \"0\".\n\n", "long": "--default-cert-expire" }, { "name": "--allow-secret-key-import", "content": "This is an obsolete option and is not used anywhere.\n\n", "long": "--allow-secret-key-import" }, { "name": "--allow-multiple-messages", "content": "", "long": "--allow-multiple-messages" }, { "name": "--no-allow-multiple-messages", "content": "Allow processing of multiple OpenPGP messages contained in a single file or stream.\nSome programs that call GPG are not prepared to deal with multiple messages being\nprocessed together, so this option defaults to no. Note that versions of GPG prior to\n1.4.7 always allowed multiple messages.\n\nWarning: Do not use this option unless you need it as a temporary workaround!\n\n\n", "long": "--no-allow-multiple-messages" }, { "name": "--enable-special-filenames", "content": "This options enables a mode in which filenames of the form ‘-&n’, where n is a non-\nnegative decimal number, refer to the file descriptor n and not to a file with that\nname.\n\n", "long": "--enable-special-filenames" }, { "name": "--no-expensive-trust-checks", "content": "Experimental use only.\n\n", "long": "--no-expensive-trust-checks" }, { "name": "--preserve-permissions", "content": "Don't change the permissions of a secret keyring back to user read/write only. Use\nthis option only if you really know what you are doing.\n\n", "long": "--preserve-permissions" }, { "name": "--default-preference-list string", "content": "Set the list of default preferences to string. This preference list is used for new\nkeys and becomes the default for \"setpref\" in the edit menu.\n\n", "long": "--default-preference-list" }, { "name": "--default-keyserver-url name", "content": "Set the default keyserver URL to name. This keyserver will be used as the keyserver\nURL when writing a new self-signature on a key, which includes key generation and\nchanging preferences.\n\n", "long": "--default-keyserver-url" }, { "name": "--list-config", "content": "Display various internal configuration parameters of GnuPG. This option is intended\nfor external programs that call GnuPG to perform tasks, and is thus not generally use‐\nful. See the file ‘doc/DETAILS’ in the source distribution for the details of which\nconfiguration items may be listed. --list-config is only usable with --with-colons\nset.\n\n", "long": "--list-config" }, { "name": "--gpgconf-list", "content": "This command is similar to --list-config but in general only internally used by the\ngpgconf tool.\n\n", "long": "--gpgconf-list" }, { "name": "--gpgconf-test", "content": "This is more or less dummy action. However it parses the configuration file and re‐\nturns with failure if the configuration file would prevent gpg from startup. Thus it\nmay be used to run a syntax check on the configuration file.\n\n", "long": "--gpgconf-test" }, { "name": "Deprecated options", "content": "" }, { "name": "--load-extension name", "content": "Load an extension module. If name does not contain a slash it is searched for in the\ndirectory configured when GnuPG was built (generally \"/usr/local/lib/gnupg\"). Exten‐\nsions are not generally useful anymore, and the use of this option is deprecated.\n\n", "long": "--load-extension" }, { "name": "--show-photos", "content": "", "long": "--show-photos" }, { "name": "--no-show-photos", "content": "Causes --list-keys, --list-sigs, --list-public-keys, --list-secret-keys, and verifying\na signature to also display the photo ID attached to the key, if any. See also\n--photo-viewer. These options are deprecated. Use --list-options [no-]show-photos\nand/or --verify-options [no-]show-photos instead.\n\n", "long": "--no-show-photos" }, { "name": "--show-keyring", "content": "Display the keyring name at the head of key listings to show which keyring a given key\nresides on. This option is deprecated: use --list-options [no-]show-keyring instead.\n\n", "long": "--show-keyring" }, { "name": "--ctapi-driver file", "content": "Use file to access the smartcard reader. The current default is `libtowitoko.so'. Note\nthat the use of this interface is deprecated; it may be removed in future releases.\n\n", "long": "--ctapi-driver" }, { "name": "--always-trust", "content": "Identical to --trust-model always. This option is deprecated.\n\n", "long": "--always-trust" }, { "name": "--show-notation", "content": "", "long": "--show-notation" }, { "name": "--no-show-notation", "content": "Show signature notations in the --list-sigs or --check-sigs listings as well as when\nverifying a signature with a notation in it. These options are deprecated. Use --list-\noptions [no-]show-notation and/or --verify-options [no-]show-notation instead.\n\n", "long": "--no-show-notation" }, { "name": "--show-policy-url", "content": "", "long": "--show-policy-url" }, { "name": "--no-show-policy-url", "content": "Show policy URLs in the --list-sigs or --check-sigs listings as well as when verifying\na signature with a policy URL in it. These options are deprecated. Use --list-options\n[no-]show-policy-url and/or --verify-options [no-]show-policy-url instead.\n\n\n", "long": "--no-show-policy-url" } ] }, "EXAMPLES": { "content": "", "subsections": [ { "name": "gpg -se -r Bob file", "content": "sign and encrypt for user Bob\n\n" }, { "name": "gpg --clearsign file", "content": "make a clear text signature\n\n" }, { "name": "gpg -sb file", "content": "make a detached signature\n\n" }, { "name": "gpg -u 0x12345678 -sb file", "content": "make a detached signature with the key 0x12345678\n\n" }, { "name": "gpg --list-keys user_ID", "content": "show keys\n\n" }, { "name": "gpg --fingerprint user_ID", "content": "show fingerprint\n\n" }, { "name": "gpg --verify pgpfile", "content": "" }, { "name": "gpg --verify sigfile", "content": "Verify the signature of the file but do not output the data. The second form is used\nfor detached signatures, where sigfile is the detached signature (either ASCII armored\nor binary) and are the signed data; if this is not given, the name of the file holding\nthe signed data is constructed by cutting off the extension (\".asc\" or \".sig\") of sig‐\nfile or by asking the user for the filename.\n" } ] }, "HOW TO SPECIFY A USER ID": { "content": "There are different ways to specify a user ID to GnuPG. Some of them are only valid for gpg\nothers are only good for gpgsm. Here is the entire list of ways to specify a key:\n\n\n", "subsections": [ { "name": "By key Id.", "content": "This format is deduced from the length of the string and its content or 0x prefix. The\nkey Id of an X.509 certificate are the low 64 bits of its SHA-1 fingerprint. The use\nof key Ids is just a shortcut, for all automated processing the fingerprint should be\nused.\n\nWhen using gpg an exclamation mark (!) may be appended to force using the specified\nprimary or secondary key and not to try and calculate which primary or secondary key\nto use.\n\nThe last four lines of the example give the key ID in their long form as internally\nused by the OpenPGP protocol. You can see the long key ID using the option --with-\ncolons.\n\n234567C4\n0F34E556E\n01347A56A\n0xAB123456\n\n234AABBCC34567C4\n0F323456784E56EAB\n01AB3FED1347A5612\n0x234AABBCC34567C4\n\n\n\n" }, { "name": "By fingerprint.", "content": "This format is deduced from the length of the string and its content or the 0x prefix.\nNote, that only the 20 byte version fingerprint is available with gpgsm (i.e. the\nSHA-1 hash of the certificate).\n\nWhen using gpg an exclamation mark (!) may be appended to force using the specified\nprimary or secondary key and not to try and calculate which primary or secondary key\nto use.\n\nThe best way to specify a key Id is by using the fingerprint. This avoids any ambigu‐\nities in case that there are duplicated key IDs.\n\n1234343434343434C434343434343434\n123434343434343C3434343434343734349A3434\n0E12343434343434343434EAB3484343434343434\n0xE12343434343434343434EAB3484343434343434\n\n\ngpgsm also accepts colons between each pair of hexadecimal digits because this is the de-\nfacto standard on how to present X.509 fingerprints. gpg also allows the use of the space\nseparated SHA-1 fingerprint as printed by the key listing commands.\n\n" }, { "name": "By exact match on OpenPGP user ID.", "content": "This is denoted by a leading equal sign. It does not make sense for X.509 certifi‐\ncates.\n\n=Heinrich Heine \n\n" }, { "name": "By exact match on an email address.", "content": "This is indicated by enclosing the email address in the usual way with left and right\nangles.\n\n\n\n\n" }, { "name": "By word match.", "content": "All words must match exactly (not case sensitive) but can appear in any order in the\nuser ID or a subjects name. Words are any sequences of letters, digits, the under‐\nscore and all characters with bit 7 set.\n\n+Heinrich Heine duesseldorf\n\n" }, { "name": "By exact match on the subject's DN.", "content": "This is indicated by a leading slash, directly followed by the RFC-2253 encoded DN of\nthe subject. Note that you can't use the string printed by \"gpgsm --list-keys\" be‐\ncause that one as been reordered and modified for better readability; use --with-\ncolons to print the raw (but standard escaped) RFC-2253 string\n\n/CN=Heinrich Heine,O=Poets,L=Paris,C=FR\n\n" }, { "name": "By exact match on the issuer's DN.", "content": "This is indicated by a leading hash mark, directly followed by a slash and then di‐\nrectly followed by the rfc2253 encoded DN of the issuer. This should return the Root\ncert of the issuer. See note above.\n\n#/CN=Root Cert,O=Poets,L=Paris,C=FR\n\n\n" }, { "name": "By exact match on serial number and issuer's DN.", "content": "This is indicated by a hash mark, followed by the hexadecimal representation of the\nserial number, then followed by a slash and the RFC-2253 encoded DN of the issuer. See\nnote above.\n\n#4F03/CN=Root Cert,O=Poets,L=Paris,C=FR\n\n" }, { "name": "By keygrip", "content": "This is indicated by an ampersand followed by the 40 hex digits of a keygrip. gpgsm\nprints the keygrip when using the command --dump-cert. It does not yet work for\nOpenPGP keys.\n\n&D75F22C3F86E355877348498CDC92BD21010A480\n\n\n" }, { "name": "By substring match.", "content": "This is the default mode but applications may want to explicitly indicate this by\nputting the asterisk in front. Match is not case sensitive.\n\nHeine\n*Heine\n\n\n\nPlease note that we have reused the hash mark identifier which was used in old GnuPG versions\nto indicate the so called local-id. It is not anymore used and there should be no conflict\nwhen used with X.509 stuff.\n\nUsing the RFC-2253 format of DNs has the drawback that it is not possible to map them back to\nthe original encoding, however we don't have to do this because our key database stores this\nencoding as meta data.\n\n\n\n\n" } ] }, "FILES": { "content": "There are a few configuration files to control certain aspects of gpg's operation. Unless\nnoted, they are expected in the current home directory (see: [option --homedir]).\n\n\n", "subsections": [ { "name": "gpg.conf", "content": "This is the standard configuration file read by gpg on startup. It may contain any\nvalid long option; the leading two dashes may not be entered and the option may not be\nabbreviated. This default name may be changed on the command line (see: [gpg-option\n--options]). You should backup this file.\n\n\nNote that on larger installations, it is useful to put predefined files into the directory\n‘/etc/skel/.gnupg/’ so that newly created users start up with a working configuration.\n\nFor internal purposes gpg creates and maintains a few other files; They all live in in the\ncurrent home directory (see: [option --homedir]). Only the gpg may modify these files.\n\n\n" }, { "name": "~/.gnupg/pubring.gpg", "content": "The public keyring. You should backup this file.\n\n" }, { "name": "~/.gnupg/pubring.gpg.lock", "content": "The lock file for the public keyring.\n\n" }, { "name": "~/.gnupg/pubring.kbx", "content": "" }, { "name": "~/.gnupg/pubring.kbx.lock", "content": "A public keyring and its lock file used by GnuPG versions >= 2. It is ignored by\nGnuPG 1.x\n\n" }, { "name": "~/.gnupg/secring.gpg", "content": "The secret keyring. You should backup this file.\n\n" }, { "name": "~/.gnupg/trustdb.gpg", "content": "The trust database. There is no need to backup this file; it is better to backup the\nownertrust values (see: [option --export-ownertrust]).\n\n" }, { "name": "~/.gnupg/trustdb.gpg.lock", "content": "The lock file for the trust database.\n\n" }, { "name": "~/.gnupg/random_seed", "content": "A file used to preserve the state of the internal random pool.\n\n" }, { "name": "~/.gnupg/secring.gpg.lock", "content": "The lock file for the secret keyring.\n\n" }, { "name": "~/.gnupg/openpgp-revocs.d/", "content": "This is the directory where gpg stores pre-generated revocation certificates. The\nfile name corresponds to the OpenPGP fingerprint of the respective key. It is sug‐\ngested to backup those certificates and if the primary private key is not stored on\nthe disk to move them to an external storage device. Anyone who can access theses\nfiles is able to revoke the corresponding key. You may want to print them out. You\nshould backup all files in this directory and take care to keep this backup closed\naway.\n\n" }, { "name": "/usr[/local]/share/gnupg/options.skel", "content": "The skeleton options file.\n\n" }, { "name": "/usr[/local]/lib/gnupg/", "content": "Default location for extensions.\n\n\nOperation is further controlled by a few environment variables:\n\n\n\nHOME Used to locate the default home directory.\n\n\nGNUPGHOME\nIf set directory used instead of \"~/.gnupg\".\n\n\nGPGAGENTINFO\nUsed to locate the gpg-agent. This is only honored when --use-agent is set.\n\nThe value consists of 3 colon delimited fields: The first is the path to the Unix Do‐\nmain Socket, the second the PID of the gpg-agent and the protocol version which should\nbe set to 1. When starting the gpg-agent as described in its documentation, this vari‐\nable is set to the correct value. The option --gpg-agent-info can be used to override\nit.\n\n\nPINENTRYUSERDATA\nThis value is passed via gpg-agent to pinentry. It is useful to convey extra informa‐\ntion to a custom pinentry.\n\n\nCOLUMNS\nLINES Used to size some displays to the full size of the screen.\n\n\n\nLANGUAGE\nApart from its use by GNU, it is used in the W32 version to override the language se‐\nlection done through the Registry. If used and set to a valid and available language\nname (langid), the file with the translation is loaded from\n\ngpgdir/gnupg.nls/langid.mo. Here gpgdir is the directory out of which the gpg binary\nhas been loaded. If it can't be loaded the Registry is tried and as last resort the\nnative Windows locale system is used.\n\n" } ] }, "BUGS": { "content": "On older systems this program should be installed as setuid(root). This is necessary to lock\nmemory pages. Locking memory pages prevents the operating system from writing memory pages\n(which may contain passphrases or other sensitive material) to disk. If you get no warning\nmessage about insecure memory your operating system supports locking without being root. The\nprogram drops root privileges as soon as locked memory is allocated.\n\nNote also that some systems (especially laptops) have the ability to ``suspend to disk''\n(also known as ``safe sleep'' or ``hibernate''). This writes all memory to disk before going\ninto a low power or even powered off mode. Unless measures are taken in the operating system\nto protect the saved memory, passphrases or other sensitive material may be recoverable from\nit later.\n\nBefore you report a bug you should first search the mailing list archives for similar prob‐\nlems and second check whether such a bug has already been reported to our bug tracker at\nhttp://bugs.gnupg.org .\n\n\n", "subsections": [] }, "SEE ALSO": { "content": "gpgv(1),\n\nThe full documentation for this tool is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If GnuPG and the\ninfo program are properly installed at your site, the command\n\ninfo gnupg\n\nshould give you access to the complete manual including a menu structure and an index.\n\nGnuPG 1.4.23 2024-03-15 GPG(1)", "subsections": [] } }, "summary": "gpg - OpenPGP encryption and signing tool", "flags": [ { "flag": "", "long": "--default-recipient-self", "arg": null, "description": "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." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-default-recipient", "arg": null, "description": "Reset --default-recipient and --default-recipient-self." }, { "flag": "-v", "long": "--verbose", "arg": null, "description": "Give more information during processing. If used twice, the input data is listed in detail." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-verbose", "arg": null, "description": "Reset verbose level to 0." }, { "flag": "-q", "long": "--quiet", "arg": null, "description": "Try to be as quiet as possible." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--batch", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-batch", "arg": null, "description": "Use batch mode. Never ask, do not allow interactive commands. --no-batch disables this option. This option is commonly used for unattended operations. WARNING: Unattended operation bears a higher risk of being exposed to security at‐ tacks. In particular any unattended use of GnuPG which involves the use of secret keys should take care not to provide an decryption oracle. There are several standard pre-cautions against being used as an oracle. For example never return detailed error messages or any diagnostics printed by your software to the remote site. Consult with an expert in case of doubt. Note that even with a filename given on the command line, gpg might still need to read from STDIN (in particular if gpg figures that the input is a detached signature and no data file has been specified). Thus if you do not want to feed data via STDIN, you should connect STDIN to ‘/dev/null’." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-tty", "arg": null, "description": "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 even if --batch is used. --yes Assume \"yes\" on most questions. --no Assume \"no\" on most questions." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--list-options", "arg": null, "description": "This is a space or comma delimited string that gives options used when listing keys and signatures (that is, --list-keys, --list-sigs, --list-public-keys, --list-secret- keys, and the --edit-key functions). Options can be prepended with a no- (after the two dashes) to give the opposite meaning. The options are: show-photos Causes --list-keys, --list-sigs, --list-public-keys, and --list-secret-keys to display any photo IDs attached to the key. Defaults to no. See also --photo- viewer. Does not work with --with-colons: see --attribute-fd for the appropri‐ ate way to get photo data for scripts and other frontends. show-usage Show usage information for keys and subkeys in the standard key listing. This is a list of letters indicating the allowed usage for a key (E=encryption, S=signing, C=certification, A=authentication). Defaults to no. show-policy-urls Show policy URLs in the --list-sigs or --check-sigs listings. Defaults to no. show-notations show-std-notations show-user-notations Show all, IETF standard, or user-defined signature notations in the --list-sigs or --check-sigs listings. Defaults to no. show-keyserver-urls Show any preferred keyserver URL in the --list-sigs or --check-sigs listings. Defaults to no. show-uid-validity Display the calculated validity of user IDs during key listings. Defaults to no. show-unusable-uids Show revoked and expired user IDs in key listings. Defaults to no. show-unusable-subkeys Show revoked and expired subkeys in key listings. Defaults to no. show-keyring Display the keyring name at the head of key listings to show which keyring a given key resides on. Defaults to no. show-sig-expire Show signature expiration dates (if any) during --list-sigs or --check-sigs listings. Defaults to no. show-sig-subpackets Include signature subpackets in the key listing. This option can take an op‐ tional argument list of the subpackets to list. If no argument is passed, list all subpackets. Defaults to no. This option is only meaningful when using --with-colons along with --list-sigs or --check-sigs." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--verify-options", "arg": null, "description": "This is a space or comma delimited string that gives options used when verifying sig‐ natures. Options can be prepended with a `no-' to give the opposite meaning. The op‐ tions are: show-photos Display any photo IDs present on the key that issued the signature. Defaults to no. See also --photo-viewer. show-policy-urls Show policy URLs in the signature being verified. Defaults to no. show-notations show-std-notations show-user-notations Show all, IETF standard, or user-defined signature notations in the signature being verified. Defaults to IETF standard. show-keyserver-urls Show any preferred keyserver URL in the signature being verified. Defaults to no. show-uid-validity Display the calculated validity of the user IDs on the key that issued the sig‐ nature. Defaults to no. show-unusable-uids Show revoked and expired user IDs during signature verification. Defaults to no. show-primary-uid-only Show only the primary user ID during signature verification. That is all the AKA lines as well as photo Ids are not shown with the signature verification status. pka-lookups Enable PKA lookups to verify sender addresses. Note that PKA is based on DNS, and so enabling this option may disclose information on when and what signa‐ tures are verified or to whom data is encrypted. This is similar to the \"web bug\" described for the auto-key-retrieve feature. pka-trust-increase Raise the trust in a signature to full if the signature passes PKA validation. This option is only meaningful if pka-lookups is set." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--enable-large-rsa", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--disable-large-rsa", "arg": null, "description": "With --gen-key and --batch, enable the creation of larger RSA secret keys than is gen‐ erally recommended (up to 8192 bits). These large keys are more expensive to use, and their signatures and certifications are also larger." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--enable-dsa2", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--disable-dsa2", "arg": null, "description": "Enable hash truncation for all DSA keys even for old DSA Keys up to 1024 bit. This is also the default with --openpgp. Note that older versions of GnuPG also required this flag to allow the generation of DSA larger than 1024 bit." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--photo-viewer", "arg": null, "description": "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\"), \"%v\" for the single- character calculated validity of the image being viewed (e.g. \"f\"), \"%V\" for the cal‐ culated validity as a string (e.g. \"full\"), \"%U\" for a base32 encoded hash of the user ID, 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\". Note that if your image viewer program is not secure, then executing it from GnuPG does not make it secure." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--exec-path", "arg": null, "description": "Sets a list of directories to search for photo viewers and keyserver helpers. If not provided, keyserver helpers use the compiled-in default directory, and photo viewers use the $PATH environment variable. Note, that on W32 system this value is ignored when searching for keyserver helpers." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--keyring", "arg": null, "description": "Add file to the current 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 GnuPG home directory (\"~/.gnupg\" if --homedir or $GNUPGHOME is not used). Note that this adds a keyring to the current list. If the intent is to use the speci‐ fied keyring alone, use --keyring along with --no-default-keyring." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--secret-keyring", "arg": null, "description": "Same as --keyring but for the secret keyrings." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--primary-keyring", "arg": null, "description": "Designate file as the primary public keyring. This means that newly imported keys (via --import or keyserver --recv-from) will go to this keyring." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--trustdb-name", "arg": null, "description": "Use file instead of the default trustdb. 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 GnuPG home directory (‘~/.gnupg’ if --homedir or $GNUPGHOME is not used). --homedir dir Set the name of the home directory to dir. If this option is not used, the home direc‐ tory 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\\Soft‐ ware\\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 direc‐ tory are ignored. To install GnuPG as a portable application under Windows, create an empty file name ‘gpgconf.ctl’ in the same directory as the tool ‘gpgconf.exe’. The root of the in‐ stallation is than 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." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--pcsc-driver", "arg": null, "description": "Use file to access the smartcard reader. The current default is `libpcsclite.so.1' for GLIBC based systems, `/System/Library/Frameworks/PCSC.framework/PCSC' for MAC OS X, `winscard.dll' for Windows and `libpcsclite.so' for other systems." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--disable-ccid", "arg": null, "description": "Disable the integrated support for CCID compliant readers. This allows falling back to one of the other drivers even if the internal CCID driver can handle the reader. Note, that CCID support is only available if libusb was available at build time." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--reader-port", "arg": null, "description": "This option may be used to specify the port of the card terminal. A value of 0 refers to the first serial device; add 32768 to access USB devices. The default is 32768 (first USB device). PC/SC or CCID readers might need a string here; run the program in verbose mode to get a list of available readers. The default is then the first reader found." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--display-charset", "arg": null, "description": "Set the name of the native character set. This is used to convert some informational strings like user IDs to the proper UTF-8 encoding. Note that this has nothing to do with the character set of data to be encrypted or signed; GnuPG does not recode user- supplied data. If this option is not used, the default character set is determined from the current locale. A verbosity level of 3 shows the chosen set. Valid values for name are: iso-8859-1 This is the Latin 1 set. iso-8859-2 The Latin 2 set. iso-8859-15 This is currently an alias for the Latin 1 set. koi8-r The usual Russian set (rfc1489). utf-8 Bypass all translations and assume that the OS uses native UTF-8 encoding." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--utf8-strings", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-utf8-strings", "arg": null, "description": "Assume that command line arguments are given as UTF8 strings. The default (--no- utf8-strings) is to assume that arguments are encoded in the character set as speci‐ fied by --display-charset. These options affect all following arguments. Both options may be used multiple times." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--options", "arg": null, "description": "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." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-options", "arg": null, "description": "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’ home‐ dir." }, { "flag": "-z", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--compress-level", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--bzip2-compress-level", "arg": null, "description": "Set compression level to n for the ZIP and ZLIB compression algorithms. The default is to use the default compression level of zlib (normally 6). --bzip2-compress-level sets the compression level for the BZIP2 compression algorithm (defaulting to 6 as well). This is a different option from --compress-level since BZIP2 uses a significant amount of memory for each additional compression level. -z sets both. A value of 0 for n disables compression." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--bzip2-decompress-lowmem", "arg": null, "description": "Use a different decompression method for BZIP2 compressed files. This alternate method uses a bit more than half the memory, but also runs at half the speed. This is useful under extreme low memory circumstances when the file was originally compressed at a high --bzip2-compress-level." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--mangle-dos-filenames", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-mangle-dos-filenames", "arg": null, "description": "Older version of Windows cannot handle filenames with more than one dot. --mangle-dos- filenames causes GnuPG to replace (rather than add to) the extension of an output filename to avoid this problem. This option is off by default and has no effect on non-Windows platforms." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--ask-cert-level", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-ask-cert-level", "arg": null, "description": "When making a key signature, prompt for a certification level. If this option is not specified, the certification level used is set via --default-cert-level. See --de‐ fault-cert-level for information on the specific levels and how they are used. --no- ask-cert-level disables this option. This option defaults to no." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--default-cert-level", "arg": null, "description": "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 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 (no particular claim)." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--min-cert-level", "arg": null, "description": "When building the trust database, treat any signatures with a certification level be‐ low this as invalid. Defaults to 2, which disregards level 1 signatures. Note that level 0 \"no particular claim\" signatures are always accepted." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--trusted-key", "arg": "ID", "description": "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." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--trust-model", "arg": null, "description": "Set what trust model GnuPG should follow. The models are: pgp This is the Web of Trust combined with trust signatures as used in PGP 5.x and later. This is the default trust model when creating a new trust database. classic This is the standard Web of Trust as introduced by PGP 2. direct Key validity is set directly by the user and not calculated via the Web of Trust. always Skip key validation and assume that used keys are always fully valid. You gen‐ erally won't use this unless you are using 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. Note that this trust model still does not allow the use of expired, revoked, or disabled keys. auto Select the trust model depending on whatever the internal trust database says. This is the default model if such a database already exists." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--auto-key-locate", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-auto-key-locate", "arg": null, "description": "GnuPG can automatically locate and retrieve keys as needed using this option. This happens when encrypting to an email address (in the \"user@example.com\" form), and there are no user@example.com keys on the local keyring. This option takes any number of the following mechanisms, in the order they are to be tried: cert Locate a key using DNS CERT, as specified in rfc4398. pka Locate a key using DNS PKA. ldap Using DNS Service Discovery, check the domain in question for any LDAP key‐ servers to use. If this fails, attempt to locate the key using the PGP Univer‐ sal method of checking 'ldap://keys.(thedomain)'. keyserver Locate a key using whatever keyserver is defined using the --keyserver option. keyserver-URL In addition, a keyserver URL as used in the --keyserver option may be used here to query that particular keyserver. local Locate the key using the local keyrings. This mechanism allows the user to se‐ lect the order a local key lookup is done. Thus using '--auto-key-locate lo‐ cal' is identical to --no-auto-key-locate. nodefault This flag disables the standard local key lookup, done before any of the mecha‐ nisms defined by the --auto-key-locate are tried. The position of this mecha‐ nism in the list does not matter. It is not required if local is also used. clear Clear all defined mechanisms. This is useful to override mechanisms given in a config file." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--keyid-format", "arg": null, "description": "Select how to display key IDs. \"short\" is the traditional 8-character key ID. \"long\" is the more accurate (but less convenient) 16-character key ID. Add an \"0x\" to either to include an \"0x\" at the beginning of the key ID, as in 0x99242560. Note that this option is ignored if the option --with-colons is used." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--keyserver", "arg": null, "description": "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 HTTP (or compatible) keyservers, \"ldap\" for the LDAP keyservers, or \"mailto\" for the Graff email keyserver. Note that your partic‐ ular installation of GnuPG may have other keyserver types available as well. Keyserver schemes are case-insensitive. After the keyserver name, optional keyserver configura‐ tion options may be provided. These are the same as the global --keyserver-options from below, but apply only to this particular keyserver. Most keyservers synchronize with each other, so there is generally no need to send keys to more than one server. The keyserver hkp://keys.gnupg.net uses round robin DNS to give a different keyserver each time you use it." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--keyserver-options", "arg": null, "description": "This is a space or comma delimited string that gives options for the keyserver. Op‐ tions can be prefixed with a `no-' to give the opposite meaning. Valid import-options or export-options may be used here as well to apply to importing (--recv-key) or ex‐ porting (--send-key) a key from a keyserver. While not all options are available for all keyserver types, some common options are: include-revoked When searching for a key with --search-keys, include keys that are marked on the keyserver as revoked. Note that not all keyservers differentiate between revoked and unrevoked keys, and for such keyservers this option is meaningless. Note also that most keyservers do not have cryptographic verification of key revocations, and so turning this option off may result in skipping keys that are incorrectly marked as revoked. include-disabled When searching for a key with --search-keys, include keys that are marked on the keyserver as disabled. Note that this option is not used with HKP key‐ servers. auto-key-retrieve This option enables the automatic retrieving of keys from a keyserver when ver‐ ifying signatures made by keys that are not on the local keyring. Note that this option makes a \"web bug\" like behavior possible. Keyserver op‐ erators can see which keys you request, so by sending you a message signed by a brand new key (which you naturally will not have on your local keyring), the operator can tell both your IP address and the time when you verified the sig‐ nature. honor-keyserver-url When using --refresh-keys, if the key in question has a preferred keyserver URL, then use that preferred keyserver to refresh the key from. In addition, if auto-key-retrieve is set, and the signature being verified has a preferred key‐ server URL, then use that preferred keyserver to fetch the key from. Defaults to yes. honor-pka-record If auto-key-retrieve is set, and the signature being verified has a PKA record, then use the PKA information to fetch the key. Defaults to yes. include-subkeys When receiving a key, include subkeys as potential targets. Note that this op‐ tion is not used with HKP keyservers, as they do not support retrieving keys by subkey id. use-temp-files On most Unix-like platforms, GnuPG communicates with the keyserver helper pro‐ gram 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 re‐ peated multiple times to increase the verbosity level. timeout Tell the keyserver helper program how long (in seconds) to try and perform a keyserver action before giving up. Note that performing multiple actions at the same time uses this timeout value per action. For example, when retrieving multiple keys via --recv-keys, the timeout applies separately to each key re‐ trieval, and not to the --recv-keys command as a whole. Defaults to 30 seconds. http-proxy=value Set the proxy to use for HTTP and HKP keyservers. This overrides the \"httpproxy\" environment variable, if any. max-cert-size When retrieving a key via DNS CERT, only accept keys up to this size. Defaults to 16384 bytes. debug Turn on debug output in the keyserver helper program. Note that the details of debug output depends on which keyserver helper program is being used, and in turn, on any libraries that the keyserver helper program uses internally (libcurl, openldap, etc). check-cert Enable certificate checking if the keyserver presents one (for hkps or ldaps). Defaults to on. ca-cert-file Provide a certificate store to override the system default. Only necessary if check-cert is enabled, and the keyserver is using a certificate that is not present in a system default certificate list. Note that depending on the SSL library that the keyserver helper is built with, this may actually be a directory or a file." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--completes-needed", "arg": null, "description": "Number of completely trusted users to introduce a new key signer (defaults to 1)." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--marginals-needed", "arg": null, "description": "Number of marginally trusted users to introduce a new key signer (defaults to 3)" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--max-cert-depth", "arg": null, "description": "Maximum depth of a certification chain (default is 5)." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--simple-sk-checksum", "arg": null, "description": "Secret keys are integrity protected by using a SHA-1 checksum. This method is part of the upcoming enhanced OpenPGP specification but GnuPG already uses it as a countermea‐ sure 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 option bears a security risk. Note that using this option only takes effect when the secret key is encrypted - the simplest way to make this happen is to change the passphrase on the key (even changing it to the same value is acceptable)." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-sig-cache", "arg": null, "description": "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." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-sig-create-check", "arg": null, "description": "This options is obsolete. It has no function." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--auto-check-trustdb", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-auto-check-trustdb", "arg": null, "description": "If GnuPG feels that its information about the Web of Trust has to be updated, it auto‐ matically runs the --check-trustdb command internally. This may be a time consuming process. --no-auto-check-trustdb disables this option." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--use-agent", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-use-agent", "arg": null, "description": "Try to use the GnuPG-Agent. With this option, GnuPG first tries to connect to the agent before it asks for a passphrase. --no-use-agent disables this option. Note, that the tool gpg-preset-passphrase, which comes with GnuPG-2, cannot be used to pre‐ set a passphrase for this version of GnuPG." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--gpg-agent-info", "arg": null, "description": "Override the value of the environment variable 'GPGAGENTINFO'. This is only used when --use-agent has been given. Given that this option is not anymore used by gpg2, it should be avoided if possible." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--lock-once", "arg": null, "description": "Lock the databases the first time a lock is requested and do not release the lock un‐ til the process terminates." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--lock-multiple", "arg": null, "description": "Release the locks every time a lock is no longer needed. Use this to override a previ‐ ous --lock-once from a config file." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--lock-never", "arg": null, "description": "Disable locking entirely. This option should be used only in very special environ‐ ments, 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." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--exit-on-status-write-error", "arg": null, "description": "This option will cause write errors on the status FD to immediately terminate the process. That should in fact be the default but it never worked this way and thus we need an option to enable this, so that the change won't break applications which close their end of a status fd connected pipe too early. Using this option along with --en‐ able-progress-filter may be used to cleanly cancel long running gpg operations." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--limit-card-insert-tries", "arg": null, "description": "With n greater than 0 the number of prompts asking to insert a smartcard gets limited to N-1. Thus with a value of 1 gpg won't at all ask to insert a card if none has been inserted at startup. This option is useful in the configuration file in case an appli‐ cation does not know about the smartcard support and waits ad infinitum for an in‐ serted card." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-random-seed-file", "arg": null, "description": "GnuPG uses a file to store its internal random pool over invocations. This makes ran‐ dom generation faster; however sometimes write operations are not desired. This option can be used to achieve that with the cost of slower random generation." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-greeting", "arg": null, "description": "Suppress the initial copyright message." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-secmem-warning", "arg": null, "description": "Suppress the warning about \"using insecure memory\"." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-permission-warning", "arg": null, "description": "Suppress the warning about unsafe file and home directory (--homedir) permissions. Note that the permission checks that GnuPG performs are not intended to be authorita‐ tive, but rather they simply warn about certain common permission problems. Do not as‐ sume that the lack of a warning means that your system is secure. Note that the warning for unsafe --homedir permissions cannot be suppressed in the gpg.conf file, as this would allow an attacker to place an unsafe gpg.conf file in place, and use this file to suppress warnings about itself. The --homedir permissions warning may only be suppressed on the command line." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-mdc-warning", "arg": null, "description": "Suppress the warning about missing MDC integrity protection." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--require-secmem", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-require-secmem", "arg": null, "description": "Refuse to run if GnuPG cannot get secure memory. Defaults to no (i.e. run, but give a warning)." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--require-cross-certification", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-require-cross-certification", "arg": null, "description": "When verifying a signature made from a subkey, ensure that the cross certification \"back signature\" on the subkey is present and valid. This protects against a subtle attack against subkeys that can sign. Defaults to --require-cross-certification for gpg." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--expert", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-expert", "arg": null, "description": "Allow the user to do certain nonsensical or \"silly\" things like signing an expired or revoked key, or certain potentially incompatible things like generating unusual key types. This also disables certain warning messages about potentially incompatible ac‐ tions. As the name implies, this option is for experts only. If you don't fully under‐ stand the implications of what it allows you to do, leave this off. --no-expert dis‐ ables this option." }, { "flag": "-r", "long": "--hidden-recipient", "arg": null, "description": "asks for the user-id unless --default-recipient is given. --hidden-recipient name" }, { "flag": "-R", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "hide the receiver of the message and is a limited countermeasure against traffic analysis. If this option or --recipient is not specified, GnuPG asks for the user ID unless --default-recipient is given." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--encrypt-to", "arg": null, "description": "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." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--hidden-encrypt-to", "arg": null, "description": "Same as --hidden-recipient but this one is intended for use in the options file and may be used with your own user-id as a hidden \"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." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-encrypt-to", "arg": null, "description": "Disable the use of all --encrypt-to and --hidden-encrypt-to keys." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--group", "arg": null, "description": "Sets up a named group, which is similar to aliases in email programs. Any time the group name is a recipient (-r or --recipient), it will be expanded to the values spec‐ ified. Multiple groups with the same name are automatically merged into a single group. The values are key IDs or fingerprints, but any key description is accepted. Note that a value with spaces in it will be treated as two different values. Note also there is only one level of expansion --- you cannot make an group that points to another group. When used from the command line, it may be necessary to quote the argument to this op‐ tion to prevent the shell from treating it as multiple arguments." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--ungroup", "arg": null, "description": "Remove a given entry from the --group list." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-groups", "arg": null, "description": "Remove all entries from the --group list. --local-user name" }, { "flag": "-u", "long": "--default-key", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--try-all-secrets", "arg": null, "description": "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-keyids or --hidden-recipient) and might come handy in case where an encrypted message contains a bogus key ID." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--armor", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "-a", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-armor", "arg": null, "description": "Assume the input data is not in ASCII armored format. --output file" }, { "flag": "-o", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "Write output to file." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--max-output", "arg": null, "description": "This option sets a limit on the number of bytes that will be generated when processing a file. Since OpenPGP supports various levels of compression, it is possible that the plaintext of a given message may be significantly larger than the original OpenPGP message. While GnuPG works properly with such messages, there is often a desire to set a maximum file size that will be generated before processing is forced to stop by the OS limits. Defaults to 0, which means \"no limit\"." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--import-options", "arg": null, "description": "This is a space or comma delimited string that gives options for importing keys. Op‐ tions can be prepended with a `no-' to give the opposite meaning. The options are: import-local-sigs Allow importing key signatures marked as \"local\". This is not generally useful unless a shared keyring scheme is being used. Defaults to no. keep-ownertrust Normally possible still existing ownertrust values of a key are cleared if a key is imported. This is in general desirable so that a formerly deleted key does not automatically gain an ownertrust values merely due to import. On the other hand it is sometimes necessary to re-import a trusted set of keys again but keeping already assigned ownertrust values. This can be achieved by using this option. repair-pks-subkey-bug During import, attempt to repair the damage caused by the PKS keyserver bug (pre version 0.9.6) that mangles keys with multiple subkeys. Note that this cannot completely repair the damaged key as some crucial data is removed by the keyserver, but it does at least give you back one subkey. Defaults to no for regular --import and to yes for keyserver --recv-keys. merge-only During import, allow key updates to existing keys, but do not allow any new keys to be imported. Defaults to no. import-clean After import, compact (remove all signatures except the self-signature) any user IDs from the new key that are not usable. Then, remove any signatures from the new key that are not usable. This includes signatures that were is‐ sued by keys that are not present on the keyring. This option is the same as running the --edit-key command \"clean\" after import. Defaults to no. import-minimal Import the smallest key possible. This removes all signatures except the most recent self-signature on each user ID. This option is the same as running the --edit-key command \"minimize\" after import. Defaults to no." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--export-options", "arg": null, "description": "This is a space or comma delimited string that gives options for exporting keys. Op‐ tions can be prepended with a `no-' to give the opposite meaning. The options are: export-local-sigs Allow exporting key signatures marked as \"local\". This is not generally useful unless a shared keyring scheme is being used. Defaults to no. export-attributes Include attribute user IDs (photo IDs) while exporting. This is useful to ex‐ port keys if they are going to be used by an OpenPGP program that does not ac‐ cept attribute user IDs. Defaults to yes. export-sensitive-revkeys Include designated revoker information that was marked as \"sensitive\". Defaults to no. export-reset-subkey-passwd When using the --export-secret-subkeys command, this option resets the passphrases for all exported subkeys to empty. This is useful when the exported subkey is to be used on an unattended machine where a passphrase doesn't neces‐ sarily make sense. Defaults to no. export-clean Compact (remove all signatures from) user IDs on the key being exported if the user IDs are not usable. Also, do not export any signatures that are not us‐ able. This includes signatures that were issued by keys that are not present on the keyring. This option is the same as running the --edit-key command \"clean\" before export except that the local copy of the key is not modified. Defaults to no. export-minimal Export the smallest key possible. This removes all signatures except the most recent self-signature on each user ID. This option is the same as running the --edit-key command \"minimize\" before export except that the local copy of the key is not modified. Defaults to no." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--with-colons", "arg": null, "description": "Print key listings delimited by colons. Note that the output will be encoded in UTF-8 regardless of any --display-charset setting. This format is useful when GnuPG is called from scripts and other programs as it is easily machine parsed. The details of this format are documented in the file ‘doc/DETAILS’, which is included in the GnuPG source distribution." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--fixed-list-mode", "arg": null, "description": "Do not merge primary user ID and primary key in --with-colon listing mode and print all timestamps as seconds since 1970-01-01." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--with-fingerprint", "arg": null, "description": "Same as the command --fingerprint but changes only the format of the output and may be used together with another command." }, { "flag": "-t", "long": "--textmode", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-textmode", "arg": null, "description": "Treat input files as text and store them in the OpenPGP canonical text form with stan‐ dard \"CRLF\" line endings. This also sets the necessary flags to inform the recipient that the encrypted or signed data is text and may need its line endings converted back to whatever the local system uses. This option is useful when communicating between two platforms that have different line ending conventions (UNIX-like to Mac, Mac to Windows, etc). --no-textmode disables this option, and is the default. If -t (but not --textmode) is used together with armoring and signing, this enables clearsigned messages. This kludge is needed for command-line compatibility with com‐ mand-line versions of PGP; normally you would use --sign or --clearsign to select the type of the signature." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--force-v3-sigs", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-force-v3-sigs", "arg": null, "description": "OpenPGP states that an implementation should generate v4 signatures but PGP versions 5 through 7 only recognize v4 signatures on key material. This option forces v3 signa‐ tures for signatures on data. Note that this option implies --no-ask-sig-expire, and unsets --sig-policy-url, --sig-notation, and --sig-keyserver-url, as these features cannot be used with v3 signatures. --no-force-v3-sigs disables this option. Defaults to no." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--force-v4-certs", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-force-v4-certs", "arg": null, "description": "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 disables this option." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--force-mdc", "arg": null, "description": "Force the use of encryption with a modification detection code. This is always used with the newer ciphers (those with a blocksize greater than 64 bits), or if all of the recipient keys indicate MDC support in their feature flags." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--disable-mdc", "arg": null, "description": "Disable the use of the modification detection code. Note that by using this option, the encrypted message becomes vulnerable to a message modification attack." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--personal-cipher-preferences", "arg": null, "description": "Set the list of personal cipher preferences to string. Use gpg --version to get a list of available algorithms, and use none to set no preference at all. This allows the user to safely override the algorithm chosen by the recipient key preferences, as GPG will only select an algorithm that is usable by all recipients. The most highly ranked cipher in this list is also used for the --symmetric encryption command." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--personal-digest-preferences", "arg": null, "description": "Set the list of personal digest preferences to string. Use gpg --version to get a list of available algorithms, and use none to set no preference at all. This allows the user to safely override the algorithm chosen by the recipient key preferences, as GPG will only select an algorithm that is usable by all recipients. The most highly ranked digest algorithm in this list is also used when signing without encryption (e.g. --clearsign or --sign)." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--personal-compress-preferences", "arg": null, "description": "Set the list of personal compression preferences to string. Use gpg --version to get a list of available algorithms, and use none to set no preference at all. This allows the user to safely override the algorithm chosen by the recipient key preferences, as GPG will only select an algorithm that is usable by all recipients. The most highly ranked compression algorithm in this list is also used when there are no recipient keys to consider (e.g. --symmetric)." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--s2k-cipher-algo", "arg": null, "description": "Use name as the cipher algorithm used to protect secret keys. The default cipher is AES128. This cipher is also used for conventional encryption if --personal-cipher- preferences and --cipher-algo is not given." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--s2k-digest-algo", "arg": null, "description": "Use name as the digest algorithm used to mangle the passphrases. The default algo‐ rithm is SHA-1." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--s2k-mode", "arg": null, "description": "Selects how passphrases are mangled. If n is 0 a plain passphrase (which is not recom‐ mended) will be used, a 1 adds a salt to the passphrase and a 3 (the default) iterates the whole process a number of times (see --s2k-count). Unless --rfc1991 is used, this mode is also used for conventional encryption." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--s2k-count", "arg": null, "description": "Specify how many times the passphrase mangling is repeated. This value may range be‐ tween 1024 and 65011712 inclusive. The default is inquired from gpg-agent. Note that not all values in the 1024-65011712 range are legal and if an illegal value is se‐ lected, GnuPG will round up to the nearest legal value. This option is only meaning‐ ful if --s2k-mode is 3." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--gnupg", "arg": null, "description": "Use standard GnuPG behavior. This is essentially OpenPGP behavior (see --openpgp), but with some additional workarounds for common compatibility problems in different ver‐ sions of PGP. This is the default option, so it is not generally needed, but it may be useful to override a different compliance option in the gpg.conf file." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--openpgp", "arg": null, "description": "Reset all packet, cipher and digest options to strict OpenPGP behavior. Use this op‐ tion to reset all previous options like --s2k-*, --cipher-algo, --digest-algo and --compress-algo to OpenPGP compliant values. All PGP workarounds are disabled." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--rfc4880", "arg": null, "description": "Reset all packet, cipher and digest options to strict RFC-4880 behavior. Note that this is currently the same thing as --openpgp." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--rfc2440", "arg": null, "description": "Reset all packet, cipher and digest options to strict RFC-2440 behavior." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--rfc1991", "arg": null, "description": "Try to be more RFC-1991 (PGP 2.x) compliant. This option is deprecated will be re‐ moved in GnuPG 2.1. --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 --disable-mdc --no-force-v4-certs --escape-from-lines --force-v3-sigs --allow-weak-digest-algos --cipher-algo IDEA --digest-algo MD5 --compress-algo ZIP. It also disables --textmode when encrypting. This option is deprecated will be removed in GnuPG 2.1. The reason for dropping PGP-2 support is that the PGP 2 format is not anymore considered safe (for example due to the use of the broken MD5 algorithm). Note that the decryption of PGP-2 created mes‐ sages will continue to work. --pgp6 Set up all options to be as PGP 6 compliant as possible. This restricts you to the ci‐ phers 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 --throw-keyids, and making signatures with signing subkeys as PGP 6 does not under‐ stand signatures made by signing subkeys. This option implies --disable-mdc --escape-from-lines --force-v3-sigs. --pgp7 Set up all options to be as PGP 7 compliant as possible. This is identical to --pgp6 except that MDCs are not disabled, and the list of allowable ciphers is expanded to add AES128, AES192, AES256, and TWOFISH. --pgp8 Set up all options to be as PGP 8 compliant as possible. PGP 8 is a lot closer to the OpenPGP standard than previous versions of PGP, so all this does is disable --throw- keyids and set --escape-from-lines. All algorithms are allowed except for the SHA224, SHA384, and SHA512 digests." }, { "flag": "-n", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--dry-run", "arg": null, "description": "Don't make any changes (this is not completely implemented)." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--list-only", "arg": null, "description": "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 encryp‐ tion keys." }, { "flag": "-i", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--interactive", "arg": null, "description": "Prompt before overwriting any files. --debug-level level Select the debug level for investigating problems. level may be a numeric value or by a keyword: none No debugging at all. A value of less than 1 may be used instead of the key‐ word. basic Some basic debug messages. A value between 1 and 2 may be used instead of the keyword. advanced More verbose debug messages. A value between 3 and 5 may be used instead of the keyword. expert Even more detailed messages. A value between 6 and 8 may be used instead of the keyword. guru All of the debug messages you can get. A value greater than 8 may be used in‐ stead of the keyword. The creation of hash tracing files is only enabled if the keyword is used. How these messages are mapped to the actual debugging flags is not specified and may change with newer releases of this program. They are however carefully selected to best aid in de‐ bugging. --debug flags Set debugging flags. All flags are or-ed and flags may be given in C syntax (e.g. 0x0042)." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--debug-all", "arg": null, "description": "Set all useful debugging flags." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--debug-ccid-driver", "arg": null, "description": "Enable debug output from the included CCID driver for smartcards. Note that this op‐ tion is only available on some system." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--enable-progress-filter", "arg": null, "description": "Enable certain PROGRESS status outputs. This option allows frontends to display a progress indicator while gpg is processing larger files. There is a slight perfor‐ mance overhead using it." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--status-fd", "arg": null, "description": "Write special status strings to the file descriptor n. See the file DETAILS in the documentation for a listing of them." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--status-file", "arg": null, "description": "Same as --status-fd, except the status data is written to file file." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--logger-fd", "arg": null, "description": "Write log output to file descriptor n and not to STDERR." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--log-file", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--logger-file", "arg": null, "description": "Same as --logger-fd, except the logger data is written to file file. Note that --log- file is only implemented for GnuPG-2." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--attribute-fd", "arg": null, "description": "Write attribute subpackets to the file descriptor n. This is most useful for use with --status-fd, since the status messages are needed to separate out the various subpack‐ ets from the stream delivered to the file descriptor." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--attribute-file", "arg": null, "description": "Same as --attribute-fd, except the attribute data is written to file file." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--comment", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-comments", "arg": null, "description": "Use string as a comment string in clear text signatures and ASCII armored messages or keys (see --armor). The default behavior is not to use a comment string. --comment may be repeated multiple times to get multiple comment strings. --no-comments removes all comments. It is a good idea to keep the length of a single comment below 60 charac‐ ters to avoid problems with mail programs wrapping such lines. Note that comment lines, like all other header lines, are not protected by the signature." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--emit-version", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-emit-version", "arg": null, "description": "Force inclusion of the version string in ASCII armored output. If given once only the name of the program and the major number is emitted, given twice the minor is also emitted, given triple the micro is added, and given quad an operating system identifi‐ cation is also emitted. --no-emit-version (default) disables the version line." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--sig-notation", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--cert-notation", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "-N", "long": "--set-notation", "arg": null, "description": "Put the name value pair into the signature as notation data. name must consist only of printable characters or spaces, and must contain a '@' character in the form key‐ name@domain.example.com (substituting the appropriate keyname and domain name, of course). This is to help prevent pollution of the IETF reserved notation namespace. The --expert flag overrides the '@' check. value may be any printable string; it will be encoded in UTF8, so you should check that your --display-charset is set correctly. If you prefix name with an exclamation mark (!), the notation data will be flagged as critical (rfc4880:5.2.3.16). --sig-notation sets a notation for data signatures. --cert-notation sets a notation for key signatures (certifications). --set-notation sets both. There are special codes that may be used in notation names. \"%k\" will be expanded into the key ID of the key being signed, \"%K\" into the long key ID of the key being signed, \"%f\" into the fingerprint of the key being signed, \"%s\" into the key ID of the key making the signature, \"%S\" into the long key ID of the key making the signature, \"%g\" into the fingerprint of the key making the signature (which might be a subkey), \"%p\" into the fingerprint of the primary key of the key making the signature, \"%c\" into the signature count from the OpenPGP smartcard, and \"%%\" results in a single \"%\". %k, %K, and %f are only meaningful when making a key signature (certification), and %c is only meaningful when using the OpenPGP smartcard." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--sig-policy-url", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--cert-policy-url", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--set-policy-url", "arg": null, "description": "Use string as a Policy URL for signatures (rfc4880:5.2.3.20). If you prefix it with an exclamation mark (!), the policy URL packet will be flagged as critical. --sig-pol‐ icy-url sets a policy url for data signatures. --cert-policy-url sets a policy url for key signatures (certifications). --set-policy-url sets both. The same %-expandos used for notation data are available here as well." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--sig-keyserver-url", "arg": null, "description": "Use string as a preferred keyserver URL for data signatures. If you prefix it with an exclamation mark (!), the keyserver URL packet will be flagged as critical. The same %-expandos used for notation data are available here as well." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--set-filename", "arg": null, "description": "Use string as the filename which is stored inside messages. This overrides the de‐ fault, which is to use the actual filename of the file being encrypted." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--for-your-eyes-only", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-for-your-eyes-only", "arg": null, "description": "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 a \"secure viewer\" with a claimed Tempest-resistant font to display the message. This option overrides --set- filename. --no-for-your-eyes-only disables this option." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--use-embedded-filename", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-use-embedded-filename", "arg": null, "description": "Try to create a file with a name as embedded in the data. This can be a dangerous op‐ tion as it enables overwriting files. Defaults to no." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--cipher-algo", "arg": null, "description": "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. In general, you do not want to use this op‐ tion as it allows you to violate the OpenPGP standard. --personal-cipher-preferences is the safe way to accomplish the same thing." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--digest-algo", "arg": null, "description": "Use name as the message digest algorithm. Running the program with the command --ver‐ sion yields a list of supported algorithms. In general, you do not want to use this option as it allows you to violate the OpenPGP standard. --personal-digest-preferences is the safe way to accomplish the same thing." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--compress-algo", "arg": null, "description": "Use compression algorithm name. \"zlib\" is RFC-1950 ZLIB compression. \"zip\" is RFC-1951 ZIP compression which is used by PGP. \"bzip2\" is a more modern compression scheme that can compress some things better than zip or zlib, but at the cost of more memory used during compression and decompression. \"uncompressed\" or \"none\" disables compres‐ sion. If this option is not used, the default behavior is to examine the recipient key preferences to see which algorithms the recipient supports. If all else fails, ZIP is used for maximum compatibility. ZLIB may give better compression results than ZIP, as the compression window size is not limited to 8k. BZIP2 may give even better compression results than that, but will use a significantly larger amount of memory while compressing and decompressing. This may be significant in low memory situations. Note, however, that PGP (all versions) only supports ZIP compression. Using any algorithm other than ZIP or \"none\" will make the message unreadable with PGP. In general, you do not want to use this option as it allows you to violate the OpenPGP standard. --personal-compress-preferences is the safe way to accomplish the same thing." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--cert-digest-algo", "arg": null, "description": "Use name as the message digest algorithm used when signing a key. Running the program with the command --version yields a list of supported algorithms. Be aware that if you choose an algorithm that GnuPG supports but other OpenPGP implementations do not, then some users will not be able to use the key signatures you make, or quite possibly your entire key." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--disable-cipher-algo", "arg": null, "description": "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." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--disable-pubkey-algo", "arg": null, "description": "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." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--throw-keyids", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-throw-keyids", "arg": null, "description": "Do not put the recipient key IDs into encrypted messages. This helps to hide the re‐ ceivers of the message and is a limited countermeasure against traffic analysis. ([Us‐ ing a little social engineering anyone who is able to decrypt the message can check whether one of the other recipients is the one he suspects.]) On the receiving side, it may slow down the decryption process because all available secret keys must be tried. --no-throw-keyids disables this option. This option is essentially the same as using --hidden-recipient for all recipients." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--not-dash-escaped", "arg": null, "description": "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." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--escape-from-lines", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-escape-from-lines", "arg": null, "description": "Because some mailers change lines starting with \"From \" to \">From \" it is good to han‐ dle such lines in a special way when creating cleartext signatures to prevent the mail system from breaking the signature. Note that all other PGP versions do it this way too. Enabled by default. --no-escape-from-lines disables this option." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--passphrase-repeat", "arg": null, "description": "Specify how many times gpg will request a new passphrase be repeated. This is useful for helping memorize a passphrase. Defaults to 1 repetition." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--passphrase-fd", "arg": null, "description": "Read the passphrase from file descriptor n. Only the first line will be read 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." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--passphrase-file", "arg": null, "description": "Read the passphrase from file file. Only the first line will be read from file file. This can only be used if only one passphrase is supplied. Obviously, a passphrase stored in a file is of questionable security if other users can read this file. Don't use this option if you can avoid it." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--passphrase", "arg": null, "description": "Use string as the passphrase. This can only be used if only one passphrase is sup‐ plied. Obviously, this is of very questionable security on a multi-user system. Don't use this option if you can avoid it." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--command-fd", "arg": null, "description": "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." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--command-file", "arg": null, "description": "Same as --command-fd, except the commands are read out of file file" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--allow-non-selfsigned-uid", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-allow-non-selfsigned-uid", "arg": null, "description": "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-self‐ signed-uid disables." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--allow-freeform-uid", "arg": null, "description": "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." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--ignore-time-conflict", "arg": null, "description": "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. See also --ignore- valid-from for timestamp issues on subkeys." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--ignore-valid-from", "arg": null, "description": "GnuPG normally does not select and use subkeys created in the future. This option al‐ lows the use of such keys and thus exhibits the pre-1.0.7 behaviour. You should not use this option unless there is some clock problem. See also --ignore-time-conflict for timestamp issues with signatures." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--ignore-crc-error", "arg": null, "description": "The ASCII armor used by OpenPGP is protected by a CRC checksum against transmission errors. Occasionally the CRC gets mangled somewhere on the transmission channel but the actual content (which is protected by the OpenPGP protocol anyway) is still okay. This option allows GnuPG to ignore CRC errors." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--ignore-mdc-error", "arg": null, "description": "This option changes a MDC integrity protection failure into a warning. This can be useful if a message is partially corrupt, but it is necessary to get as much data as possible out of the corrupt message. However, be aware that a MDC protection failure may also mean that the message was tampered with intentionally by an attacker." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--allow-weak-digest-algos", "arg": null, "description": "Signatures made with known-weak digest algorithms are normally rejected with an ``in‐ valid digest algorithm'' message. This option allows the verification of signatures made with such weak algorithms. MD5 is the only digest algorithm considered weak by default. See also --weak-digest to reject other digest algorithms." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--weak-digest", "arg": null, "description": "Treat the specified digest algorithm as weak. Signatures made over weak digests algo‐ rithms are normally rejected. This option can be supplied multiple times if multiple algorithms should be considered weak. See also --allow-weak-digest-algos to disable rejection of weak digests. MD5 is always considered weak, and does not need to be listed explicitly." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-default-keyring", "arg": null, "description": "Do not add the default keyrings to the list of keyrings. Note that GnuPG will not op‐ erate without any keyrings, so if you use this option and do not provide alternate keyrings via --keyring or --secret-keyring, then GnuPG will still use the default pub‐ lic or secret keyrings." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--skip-verify", "arg": null, "description": "Skip the signature verification step. This may be used to make the decryption faster if the signature verification is not needed." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--with-key-data", "arg": null, "description": "Print key listings delimited by colons (like --with-colons) and print the public key data." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--fast-list-mode", "arg": null, "description": "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. If you are missing some in‐ formation, don't use this option." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-literal", "arg": null, "description": "This is not for normal use. Use the source to see for what it might be useful." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--set-filesize", "arg": null, "description": "This is not for normal use. Use the source to see for what it might be useful." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--show-session-key", "arg": null, "description": "Display the session key used for one message. See --override-session-key for the coun‐ terpart 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 with‐ out compromising all messages ever encrypted for one secret key. DON'T USE IT UNLESS YOU ARE REALLY FORCED TO DO SO." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--override-session-key", "arg": null, "description": "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." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--ask-sig-expire", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-ask-sig-expire", "arg": null, "description": "When making a data signature, prompt for an expiration time. If this option is not specified, the expiration time set via --default-sig-expire is used. --no-ask-sig-ex‐ pire disables this option." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--default-sig-expire", "arg": null, "description": "The default expiration time to use for signature expiration. Valid values are \"0\" for no expiration, a number followed by the letter d (for days), w (for weeks), m (for months), or y (for years) (for example \"2m\" for two months, or \"5y\" for five years), or an absolute date in the form YYYY-MM-DD. Defaults to \"0\"." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--ask-cert-expire", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-ask-cert-expire", "arg": null, "description": "When making a key signature, prompt for an expiration time. If this option is not specified, the expiration time set via --default-cert-expire is used. --no-ask-cert- expire disables this option." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--default-cert-expire", "arg": null, "description": "The default expiration time to use for key signature expiration. Valid values are \"0\" for no expiration, a number followed by the letter d (for days), w (for weeks), m (for months), or y (for years) (for example \"2m\" for two months, or \"5y\" for five years), or an absolute date in the form YYYY-MM-DD. Defaults to \"0\"." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--allow-secret-key-import", "arg": null, "description": "This is an obsolete option and is not used anywhere." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--allow-multiple-messages", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-allow-multiple-messages", "arg": null, "description": "Allow processing of multiple OpenPGP messages contained in a single file or stream. Some programs that call GPG are not prepared to deal with multiple messages being processed together, so this option defaults to no. Note that versions of GPG prior to 1.4.7 always allowed multiple messages. Warning: Do not use this option unless you need it as a temporary workaround!" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--enable-special-filenames", "arg": null, "description": "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." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-expensive-trust-checks", "arg": null, "description": "Experimental use only." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--preserve-permissions", "arg": null, "description": "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." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--default-preference-list", "arg": null, "description": "Set the list of default preferences to string. This preference list is used for new keys and becomes the default for \"setpref\" in the edit menu." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--default-keyserver-url", "arg": null, "description": "Set the default keyserver URL to name. This keyserver will be used as the keyserver URL when writing a new self-signature on a key, which includes key generation and changing preferences." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--list-config", "arg": null, "description": "Display various internal configuration parameters of GnuPG. This option is intended for external programs that call GnuPG to perform tasks, and is thus not generally use‐ ful. See the file ‘doc/DETAILS’ in the source distribution for the details of which configuration items may be listed. --list-config is only usable with --with-colons set." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--gpgconf-list", "arg": null, "description": "This command is similar to --list-config but in general only internally used by the gpgconf tool." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--gpgconf-test", "arg": null, "description": "This is more or less dummy action. However it parses the configuration file and re‐ turns with failure if the configuration file would prevent gpg from startup. Thus it may be used to run a syntax check on the configuration file." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--load-extension", "arg": null, "description": "Load an extension module. If name does not contain a slash it is searched for in the directory configured when GnuPG was built (generally \"/usr/local/lib/gnupg\"). Exten‐ sions are not generally useful anymore, and the use of this option is deprecated." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--show-photos", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-show-photos", "arg": null, "description": "Causes --list-keys, --list-sigs, --list-public-keys, --list-secret-keys, and verifying a signature to also display the photo ID attached to the key, if any. See also --photo-viewer. These options are deprecated. Use --list-options [no-]show-photos and/or --verify-options [no-]show-photos instead." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--show-keyring", "arg": null, "description": "Display the keyring name at the head of key listings to show which keyring a given key resides on. This option is deprecated: use --list-options [no-]show-keyring instead." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--ctapi-driver", "arg": null, "description": "Use file to access the smartcard reader. The current default is `libtowitoko.so'. Note that the use of this interface is deprecated; it may be removed in future releases." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--always-trust", "arg": null, "description": "Identical to --trust-model always. This option is deprecated." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--show-notation", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-show-notation", "arg": null, "description": "Show signature notations in the --list-sigs or --check-sigs listings as well as when verifying a signature with a notation in it. These options are deprecated. Use --list- options [no-]show-notation and/or --verify-options [no-]show-notation instead." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--show-policy-url", "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-show-policy-url", "arg": null, "description": "Show policy URLs in the --list-sigs or --check-sigs listings as well as when verifying a signature with a policy URL in it. These options are deprecated. Use --list-options [no-]show-policy-url and/or --verify-options [no-]show-policy-url instead." } ], "examples": [ "sign and encrypt for user Bob", "make a clear text signature", "make a detached signature", "make a detached signature with the key 0x12345678", "show keys", "show fingerprint", "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", "or binary) and 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 sig‐", "file or by asking the user for the filename." ], "see_also": [ { "name": "gpgv", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/gpgv/1/json" } ] }