Commands not specific to the function¶

--version

Print the program version and licensing information. Note that you cannot abbreviate this command.

--help, -h

Print a usage message summarizing the most useful command-line options. Note that you cannot abbreviate this command.

--warranty

Print warranty information. Note that you cannot abbreviate this command.

--dump-options

Print a list of all available options and commands. Note that you cannot abbreviate this command.

Commands to select the type of operation¶

--encrypt

Perform an encryption. The keys the data is encrypted to must be set using the option --recipient.

--decrypt

Perform a decryption; the type of input is automatically determined. It may either be in binary form or PEM encoded; automatic determination of base-64 encoding is not done.

--sign

Create a digital signature. The key used is either the fist one found in the keybox or those set with the --local-user option.

--verify

Check a signature file for validity. Depending on the arguments a detached signature may also be checked.

--server

Run in server mode and wait for commands on the stdin.

--call-dirmngr command [args]

Behave as a Dirmngr client issuing the request command with the optional list of args. The output of the Dirmngr is printed stdout. Please note that file names given as arguments should have an absolute file name (i.e., commencing with /) because they are passed verbatim to the Dirmngr and the working directory of the Dirmngr might not be the same as the one of this client. Currently it is not possible to pass data via stdin to the Dirmngr. command should not contain spaces.

This is command is required for certain maintaining tasks of the dirmngr where a dirmngr must be able to call back to gpgsm. See the Dirmngr manual for details.

--call-protect-tool arguments

Certain maintenance operations are done by an external program call gpg-protect-tool; this is usually not installed in a directory listed in the PATH variable. This command provides a simple wrapper to access this tool. arguments are passed verbatim to this command; use ‘--help’ to get a list of supported operations.

How to manage the certificates and keys¶

--generate-key

--gen-key

This command allows the creation of a certificate signing request or a self-signed certificate. It is commonly used along with the --output option to save the created CSR or certificate into a file. If used with the --batch a parameter file is used to create the CSR or certificate and it is further possible to create non-self-signed certificates.

--list-keys

-k

List all available certificates stored in the local key database. Note that the displayed data might be reformatted for better human readability and illegal characters are replaced by safe substitutes.

--list-secret-keys

-K

List all available certificates for which a corresponding a secret key is available.

--list-external-keys pattern

List certificates matching pattern using an external server. This utilizes the dirmngr service.

--list-chain

Same as --list-keys but also prints all keys making up the chain.

--dump-cert

--dump-keys

List all available certificates stored in the local key database using a format useful mainly for debugging.

--dump-chain

Same as --dump-keys but also prints all keys making up the chain.

--dump-secret-keys

List all available certificates for which a corresponding a secret key is available using a format useful mainly for debugging.

--dump-external-keys pattern

List certificates matching pattern using an external server. This utilizes the dirmngr service. It uses a format useful mainly for debugging.

--show-certs [files]

This command takes certificate files as input and prints information about them in the same format as --dump-cert does. Each file may either contain a single binary certificate or several PEM encoded certificates. If no files are given, the input is taken from stdin.

Please note that the listing format may be changed in future releases and that the option --with-colons has currently no effect.

--keydb-clear-some-cert-flags

This is a debugging aid to reset certain flags in the key database which are used to cache certain certificate statuses. It is especially useful if a bad CRL or a weird running OCSP responder did accidentally revoke certificate. There is no security issue with this command because gpgsm always make sure that the validity of a certificate is checked right before it is used.

--delete-keys pattern

Delete the keys matching pattern. Note that there is no command to delete the secret part of the key directly. In case you need to do this, you should run the command gpgsm --dump-secret-keys KEYID before you delete the key, copy the string of hex-digits in the ``keygrip'' line and delete the file consisting of these hex-digits and the suffix .key from the ‘private-keys-v1.d’ directory below our GnuPG home directory (usually ‘~/.gnupg’).

--export [pattern]

Export all certificates stored in the Keybox or those specified by the optional pattern. Those pattern consist of a list of user ids (see: [how-to-specify-a-user-id]). When used along with the --armor option a few informational lines are prepended before each block. There is one limitation: As there is no commonly agreed upon way to pack more than one certificate into an ASN.1 structure, the binary export (i.e., without using armor) works only for the export of one certificate. Thus it is required to specify a pattern which yields exactly one certificate. Ephemeral certificate are only exported if all pattern are given as fingerprints or keygrips.

--export-secret-key-p12 key-id

Export the private key and the certificate identified by key-id using the PKCS#12 format. When used with the --armor option a few informational lines are prepended to the output. Note, that the PKCS#12 format is not very secure and proper transport security should be used to convey the exported key. (See: [option --p12-charset].)

--export-secret-key-p8 key-id

--export-secret-key-raw key-id

Export the private key of the certificate identified by key-id with any encryption stripped. The ...-raw command exports in PKCS#1 format; the ...-p8 command exports in PKCS#8 format. When used with the --armor option a few informational lines are prepended to the output. These commands are useful to prepare a key for use on a TLS server.

--import [files]

Import the certificates from the PEM or binary encoded files as well as from signed-only messages. This command may also be used to import a secret key from a PKCS#12 file.

--learn-card

Read information about the private keys from the smartcard and import the certificates from there. This command utilizes the gpg-agent and in turn the scdaemon.

--change-passphrase user_id

--passwd user_id

Change the passphrase of the private key belonging to the certificate specified as user_id. Note, that changing the passphrase/PIN of a smartcard is not yet supported.

How to change the configuration¶

These options are used to change the configuration and are usually found in the option file.

--options file

Reads configuration from file instead of from the default per-user configuration file. The default configuration file is named ‘gpgsm.conf’ and expected in the ‘.gnupg’ directory directly below the home directory of the user.

--homedir dir

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

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

-v

--verbose

Outputs additional information while running. You can increase the verbosity by giving several verbose commands to gpgsm, such as ‘-vv’.

--keyserver string

This is a deprecated option. It was used to add an LDAP server to use for X.509 certificate and CRL lookup. The alias --ldapserver existed from version 2.2.28 to 2.2.33 and 2.3.2 to 2.3.4 but is now entirely ignored.

LDAP servers must be given in the configuration for dirmngr.

--policy-file filename

Change the default name of the policy file to filename. The default name is ‘policies.txt’.

--agent-program file

Specify an agent program to be used for secret key operations. The default value is determined by running the command gpgconf. Note that the pipe symbol (|) is used for a regression test suite hack and may thus not be used in the file name.

--dirmngr-program file

Specify a dirmngr program to be used for CRL checks. The default value is ‘/usr/bin/dirmngr’.

--prefer-system-dirmngr

This option is obsolete and ignored.

--disable-dirmngr

Entirely disable the use of the Dirmngr.

--no-autostart

Do not start the gpg-agent or the dirmngr if it has not yet been started and its service is required. This option is mostly useful on machines where the connection to gpg-agent has been redirected to another machines. If dirmngr is required on the remote machine, it may be started manually using gpgconf --launch dirmngr.

--no-secmem-warning

Do not print a warning when the so called "secure memory" cannot be used.

--log-file file

When running in server mode, append all logging output to file. Use ‘socket://’ to log to socket.

--log-time

Prefix all log output with a timestamp even if no log file is used.

Certificate related options¶

--enable-policy-checks

--disable-policy-checks

By default policy checks are enabled. These options may be used to change it.

--enable-crl-checks

--disable-crl-checks

By default the CRL checks are enabled and the DirMngr is used to check for revoked certificates. The disable option is most useful with an off-line network connection to suppress this check and also to avoid that new certificates introduce a web bug by including a certificate specific CRL DP. The disable option also disables an issuer certificate lookup via the authorityInfoAccess property of the certificate; the --enable-issuer-key-retrieve can be used to make use of that property anyway.

--enable-trusted-cert-crl-check

--disable-trusted-cert-crl-check

By default the CRL for trusted root certificates are checked like for any other certificates. This allows a CA to revoke its own certificates voluntary without the need of putting all ever issued certificates into a CRL. The disable option may be used to switch this extra check off. Due to the caching done by the Dirmngr, there will not be any noticeable performance gain. Note, that this also disables possible OCSP checks for trusted root certificates. A more specific way of disabling this check is by adding the ``relax'' keyword to the root CA line of the ‘trustlist.txt’

--force-crl-refresh

Tell the dirmngr to reload the CRL for each request. For better performance, the dirmngr will actually optimize this by suppressing the loading for short time intervals (e.g., 30 minutes). This option is useful to make sure that a fresh CRL is available for certificates hold in the keybox. The suggested way of doing this is by using it along with the option --with-validation for a key listing command. This option should not be used in a configuration file.

--enable-issuer-based-crl-check

Run a CRL check even for certificates which do not have any CRL distribution point. This requires that a suitable LDAP server has been configured in Dirmngr and that the CRL can be found using the issuer. This option reverts to what GnuPG did up to version 2.2.20. This option is in general not useful.

--enable-ocsp

--disable-ocsp

By default OCSP checks are disabled. The enable option may be used to enable OCSP checks via Dirmngr. If CRL checks are also enabled, CRLs will be used as a fallback if for some reason an OCSP request will not succeed. Note, that you have to allow OCSP requests in Dirmngr's configuration too (option --allow-ocsp) and configure Dirmngr properly. If you do not do so you will get the error code ‘Not supported’.

--auto-issuer-key-retrieve

If a required certificate is missing while validating the chain of certificates, try to load that certificate from an external location. This usually means that Dirmngr is employed to search for the certificate. Note that this option makes a "web bug" like behavior possible. LDAP server operators 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 keybox), the operator can tell both your IP address and the time when you verified the signature. Note that if CRL checking is not disabled issuer certificates are retrieved in any case using the caIssuers authorityInfoAccess method.

--validation-model name

This option changes the default validation model. The only possible values are "shell" (which is the default), "chain" which forces the use of the chain model and "steed" for a new simplified model. The chain model is also used if an option in the ‘trustlist.txt’ or an attribute of the certificate requests it. However the standard model (shell) is in that case always tried first.

--ignore-cert-extension oid

Add oid to the list of ignored certificate extensions. The oid is expected to be in dotted decimal form, like 2.5.29.3. This option may be used more than once. Critical flagged certificate extensions matching one of the OIDs in the list are treated as if they are actually handled and thus the certificate will not be rejected due to an unknown critical extension. Use this option with care because extensions are usually flagged as critical for a reason.

Input and Output¶

--armor

-a

Create PEM encoded output. Default is binary output.

--base64

Create Base-64 encoded output; i.e., PEM without the header lines.

--assume-armor

Assume the input data is PEM encoded. Default is to autodetect the encoding but this is may fail.

--assume-base64

Assume the input data is plain base-64 encoded.

--assume-binary

Assume the input data is binary encoded.

--input-size-hint n

This option can be used to tell GPGSM the size of the input data in bytes. n must be a positive base-10 number. It is used by the --status-fd line ``PROGRESS'' to provide a value for ``total'' if that is not available by other means.

--p12-charset name

gpgsm uses the UTF-8 encoding when encoding passphrases for PKCS#12 files. This option may be used to force the passphrase to be encoded in the specified encoding name. This is useful if the application used to import the key uses a different encoding and thus will not be able to import a file generated by gpgsm. Commonly used values for name are Latin1 and CP850. Note that gpgsm itself automagically imports any file with a passphrase encoded to the most commonly used encodings.

--default-key user_id

Use user_id as the standard key for signing. This key is used if no other key has been defined as a signing key. Note, that the first --local-users option also sets this key if it has not yet been set; however --default-key always overrides this.

--local-user user_id

-u user_id

Set the user(s) to be used for signing. The default is the first secret key found in the database.

--recipient name

-r

Encrypt to the user id name. There are several ways a user id may be given (see: [how-to-specify-a-user-id]).

--output file

-o file

Write output to file. The default is to write it to stdout.

--with-key-data

Displays extra information with the --list-keys commands. Especially a line tagged grp is printed which tells you the keygrip of a key. This string is for example used as the file name of the secret key. Implies --with-colons.

--with-validation

When doing a key listing, do a full validation check for each key and print the result. This is usually a slow operation because it requires a CRL lookup and other operations.

When used along with --import, a validation of the certificate to import is done and only imported if it succeeds the test. Note that this does not affect an already available certificate in the DB. This option is therefore useful to simply verify a certificate.

--with-md5-fingerprint

For standard key listings, also print the MD5 fingerprint of the certificate.

--with-keygrip

Include the keygrip in standard key listings. Note that the keygrip is always listed in --with-colons mode.

--with-secret

Include info about the presence of a secret key in public key listings done with --with-colons.

--no-pretty-dn

By default gpgsm prints distinguished names (DNs) like the Issuer or Subject in a more readable format (e.g., using a well defined order of the parts). However, this format can't be used as input strings. This option reverts printing to standard RFC-2253 format and thus avoids the need to use --dump-cert or --with-colons to get the ``real'' name.

How to change how the CMS is created¶

--include-certs n

Using n of -2 includes all certificate except for the root cert, -1 includes all certs, 0 does not include any certs, 1 includes only the signers cert and all other positive values include up to n certificates starting with the signer cert. The default is -2.

--cipher-algo oid

Use the cipher algorithm with the ASN.1 object identifier oid for encryption. For convenience the strings 3DES, AES and AES256 may be used instead of their OIDs. The default is AES (2.16.840.1.101.3.4.1.2).

--digest-algo name

Use name as the message digest algorithm. Usually this algorithm is deduced from the respective signing certificate. This option forces the use of the given algorithm and may lead to severe interoperability problems.

Doing things one usually do not want to do¶

--chuid uid

Change the current user to uid which may either be a number or a name. This can be used from the root account to run gpgsm for another user. If uid is not the current UID a standard PATH is set and the envvar GNUPGHOME is unset. To override the latter the option --homedir can be used. This option has only an effect when used on the command line. This option has currently no effect at all on Windows.

--extra-digest-algo name

Sometimes signatures are broken in that they announce a different digest algorithm than actually used. gpgsm uses a one-pass data processing model and thus needs to rely on the announced digest algorithms to properly hash the data. As a workaround this option may be used to tell gpgsm to also hash the data using the algorithm name; this slows processing down a little bit but allows verification of such broken signatures. If gpgsm prints an error like ``digest algo 8 has not been enabled'' you may want to try this option, with ‘SHA256’ for name.

--compliance string

Set the compliance mode. Valid values are shown when using "help" for string.

--min-rsa-length n

This option adjusts the compliance mode "de-vs" for stricter key size requirements. For example, a value of 3000 turns rsa2048 and dsa2048 keys into non-VS-NfD compliant keys.

--require-compliance

To check that data has been encrypted according to the rules of the current compliance mode, a gpgsm user needs to evaluate the status lines. This is allows frontends to handle compliance check in a more flexible way. However, for scripted use the required evaluation of the status-line requires quite some effort; this option can be used instead to make sure that the gpgsm process exits with a failure if the compliance rules are not fulfilled. Note that this option has currently an effect only in "de-vs" mode.

--assert-signer fpr_or_file

This option checks whether at least one valid signature on a file has been made with the specified key. The key is either specified as a fingerprint or a file listing fingerprints. The fingerprint must be given or listed in compact format (no colons or spaces in between). As of now only SHA-1 fingerprints are allowed. This option can be given multiple times and each fingerprint is checked against the signing key as well as the corresponding primary key. If fpr_or_file specifies a file, empty lines are ignored as well as all lines starting with a hash sign. With this option gpgsm is guaranteed to return with an exit code of 0 if and only if a signature has been encountered, is valid, and the key matches one of the fingerprints given by this option.

--always-trust

Force encryption to the specified certificates without any validation of the certificate chain. The only requirement is that the certificate is capable of encryption. Note that this option is ineffective if --require-compliance is used.

--ignore-cert-with-oid oid

Add oid to the list of OIDs to be checked while reading certificates from smartcards. The oid is expected to be in dotted decimal form, like 2.5.29.3. This option may be used more than once. As of now certificates with an extended key usage matching one of those OIDs are ignored during a --learn-card operation and not imported. This option can help to keep the local key database clear of unneeded certificates stored on smartcards.

--faked-system-time epoch

This option is only useful for testing; it sets the system time back or forth to epoch which is the number of seconds elapsed since the year 1970. Alternatively epoch may be given as a full ISO time string (e.g., "20070924T154812").

--with-ephemeral-keys

Include ephemeral flagged keys in the output of key listings. Note that they are included anyway if the key specification for a listing is given as fingerprint or keygrip.

--compatibility-flags flags

Set compatibility flags to work around problems due to non-compliant certificates or data. The flags are given as a comma separated list of flag names and are OR-ed together. The special flag "none" clears the list and allows one to start over with an empty list. To get a list of available flags the sole word "help" can be used.

--enable-special-filenames

This option 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.

--disable-fd-translation

This option changes the behaviour for all following options to expect libc file descriptors instead of HANDLE values on the command line. The option has an effect only on Windows.

--debug-level level

Select the debug level for investigating problems. level may be a numeric value or by a keyword:

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 debugging.

--debug flags

Set debug flags. All flags are or-ed and flags may be given in C syntax (e.g., 0x0042) or as a comma separated list of flag names. To get a list of all supported flags the single word "help" can be used. This option is only useful for debugging and the behavior may change at any time without notice.

Note, that all flags set using this option may get overridden by --debug-level.

--debug-all

Same as --debug=0xffffffff

--debug-allow-core-dump

Usually gpgsm tries to avoid dumping core by well written code and by disabling core dumps for security reasons. However, bugs are pretty durable beasts and to squash them it is sometimes useful to have a core dump. This option enables core dumps unless the Bad Thing happened before the option parsing.

--debug-no-chain-validation

This is actually not a debugging option but only useful as such. It lets gpgsm bypass all certificate chain validation checks.

--debug-ignore-expiration

This is actually not a debugging option but only useful as such. It lets gpgsm ignore all notAfter dates, this is used by the regression tests.

--passphrase-fd n

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.

Note that this passphrase is only used if the option --batch has also been given.

--pinentry-mode mode

Set the pinentry mode to mode. Allowed values for mode are:

--request-origin origin

Tell gpgsm to assume that the operation ultimately originated at origin. Depending on the origin certain restrictions are applied and the Pinentry may include an extra note on the origin. Supported values for origin are: local which is the default, remote to indicate a remote origin or browser for an operation requested by a web browser.

--no-common-certs-import

Suppress the import of common certificates on keybox creation.

All the long options may also be given in the configuration file after stripping off the two leading dashes.