man > gpgv(1)

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⚡ TLDR: gpgv (tldr-pages)

Verify OpenPGP signatures.

Verify a clearsigned or inline-signed file (the signature is embedded in the file itself)
gpgv {{path/to/file.asc}}
Verify a detached signature (`.asc` or `.sig`) against its corresponding data file
gpgv {{path/to/signature.asc}} {{path/to/data_file}}
Verify a detached signature using a specific public keyring or exported public key file (`.gpg` or `.kbx`)
gpgv --keyring {{path/to/pubkey_or_keyring.gpg}} {{path/to/signature.asc}} {{path/to/data_file}}
Verify a detached signature using a specific public key file in plain text format (`.txt`)
gpg --dearmor {{-o|--output}} {{path/to/pubkey.gpg}} {{path/to/pubkey.txt}} && gpgv --keyring {{path/to/pubkey.gpg}} {{path/to/signature.asc}} {{path/to/data_file}}

GPGV(1) GNU Privacy Guard 2.4 GPGV(1)

NAME
gpgv - Verify OpenPGP signatures

SYNOPSIS
gpgv [options] signed_files

DESCRIPTION
gpgv is an OpenPGP signature verification tool.

This program is actually a stripped-down version of gpg which is only able to check signa‐
tures. It is somewhat smaller than the fully-blown gpg and uses a different (and simpler) way
to check that the public keys used to make the signature are valid. There are no configura‐
tion files and only a few options are implemented.

gpgv assumes that all keys in the keyring are trustworthy. That does also mean that it does
not check for expired or revoked keys.

If no --keyring option is given, gpgv looks for a ``default'' keyring named ‘trustedkeys.kbx’
(preferred) or ‘trustedkeys.gpg’ in the home directory of GnuPG, either the default home di‐
rectory or the one set by the --homedir option or the GNUPGHOME environment variable. If any
--keyring option is used, gpgv will not look for the default keyring. The --keyring option
may be used multiple times and all specified keyrings will be used together.

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

OPTIONS
gpgv recognizes these options:

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

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

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

--output file
-o file
Write output to file; to write to stdout use -. This option can be used to get the
signed text from a cleartext or binary signature; it also works for detached signa‐
tures, but in that case this option is in general not useful. Note that an existing
file will be overwritten.

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

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

--log-file file
Same as --logger-fd, except the logger data is written to file file. Use ‘socket://’
to log to socket.

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

--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.

--weak-digest name
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. MD5 is always considered weak, and does not
need to be listed explicitly.

--enable-special-filenames
This option enables a mode in which filenames of the form ‘-&n’, where n is a non-neg‐
ative decimal number, refer to the file descriptor n and not to a file with that name.

--assert-pubkey-algo algolist
This option works in the same way as described for gpg.

EXAMPLES
gpgv pgpfile
gpgv sigfile [datafile]
Verify the signature of the file. The second form is used for detached signatures,
where sigfile is the detached signature (either ASCII-armored or binary) and datafile
contains the signed data; if datafile is "-" the signed data is expected on stdin; if
datafile is not given the name of the file holding the signed data is constructed by
cutting off the extension (".asc", ".sig" or ".sign") from sigfile.

FILES
~/.gnupg/trustedkeys.gpg
The default keyring with the allowed keys.

ENVIRONMENT
HOME Used to locate the default home directory.

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