GPG Configuration Options (Using the GNU Privacy Guard) (2024)

Use name as the default key to sign with. It is suggested touse a fingerprint or at least a long keyID for name. If thisoption is not used, the default key is the first key found in thesecret keyring. Note that -u or --local-useroverrides this option. This option may be given multiple times. Inthis case, the last key for which a secret key is available is used.If there is no secret key available for any of the specified values,GnuPG will not emit an error message but continue as if this optionwasn’t given.

Use name as default recipient if option --recipient isnot used and don’t ask if this is a valid one. name must benon-empty and it is suggested to use a fingerprint for name.

Use the default key as default recipient if option --recipient is notused and don’t ask if this is a valid one. The default key is the firstone from the secret keyring or the one set with --default-key.

Reset --default-recipient and --default-recipient-self.Should not be used in an option file.

Give more information during processing. If usedtwice, the input data is listed in detail.

Reset verbose level to 0. Should not be used in an option file.

Try to be as quiet as possible. Should not be used in an option file.

Use batch mode. Never ask, do not allow interactive commands.--no-batch disables this option. Note that even with afilename given on the command line, gpg might still need to read fromSTDIN (in particular if gpg figures that the input is adetached signature and no data file has been specified). Thus if youdo not want to feed data via STDIN, you should connect STDIN to/dev/null.

It is highly recommended to use this option along with the options--status-fd and --with-colons for any unattended use ofgpg. Should not be used in an option file.

Make sure that the TTY (terminal) is never used for any output.This option is needed in some cases because GnuPG sometimes printswarnings to the TTY even if --batch is used.

Assume "yes" on most questions. Should not be used in an option file.

Assume "no" on most questions. Should not be used in an option file.

A list filter can be used to output only certain keys during keylisting commands. For the available property names, see the descriptionof --import-filter.

This is a space or comma delimited string that gives options used whenlisting keys and signatures (that is, --list-keys,--check-signatures, --list-public-keys,--list-secret-keys, and the --edit-key functions).Options can be prepended with a no- (after the two dashes) togive the opposite meaning. The options are:

show-photos

Causes --list-keys, --check-signatures, --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 appropriate 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 yes.

show-policy-urls

Show policy URLs in the --check-signatures listings. Defaults to no.

show-notations

show-std-notations

show-user-notations

Show all, IETF standard, or user-defined signature notations in the --check-signatures listings. Defaults to no.

show-keyserver-urls

Show any preferred keyserver URL in the --check-signatures listings. Defaults to no.

show-uid-validity

Display the calculated validity of user IDs during key listings. Defaults to yes.

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-unusable-sigs

Show key signature made using weak or unsupported algorithms.

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 --check-signatures listings. Defaults to no.

show-sig-subpackets

Include signature subpackets in the key listing. This option can take an optional 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 --check-signatures.

show-only-fpr-mbox

For each user-id which has a valid mail address print only the fingerprint followed by the mail address.

sort-sigs

With –list-sigs and –check-sigs sort the signatures by keyID and creation time to make it easier to view the history of these signatures. The self-signature is also listed before other signatures. Defaults to yes.

This is a space or comma delimited string that gives options used whenverifying signatures. Options can be prepended with a ‘no-’ to givethe opposite meaning. The options 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 yes.

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 yes.

show-uid-validity

Display the calculated validity of the user IDs on the key that issued the signature. Defaults to yes.

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.

With –generate-key and –batch, enable the creation of RSA secret keys aslarge as 8192 bit. Note: 8192 bit is more than is generallyrecommended. These large keys don’t significantly improve security,but they are more expensive to use, and their signatures andcertifications are larger. This option is only available if thebinary was build with large-secmem support.

Enable hash truncation for all DSA keys even for old DSA Keys up to1024 bit. This is also the default with --openpgp. Notethat older versions of GnuPG also required this flag to allow thegeneration of DSA larger than 1024 bit.

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 thesame, 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 beingviewed (e.g. "f"), "%V" for the calculated 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.

On Unix the default viewer isxloadimage -fork -quiet -title 'KeyID 0x%k' STDINwith a fallback todisplay -title 'KeyID 0x%k' %iand finally toxdg-open %i.On Windows!ShellExecute 400 %i is used; here the command is a metacommand to use that API call followed by a wait time in millisecondswhich is used to give the viewer time to read the temporary image filebefore gpg deletes it again. Note that if your image viewer programis not secure, then executing it from gpg does not make it secure.

Sets a list of directories to search for photo viewers If not providedphoto viewers use the PATH environment variable.

Add file to the current list of keyrings. If file beginswith a tilde and a slash, these are replaced by the $HOME directory. Ifthe filename does not contain a slash, it is assumed to be in the GnuPGhome directory ("~/.gnupg" unless --homedir or $GNUPGHOME isused).

Note that this adds a keyring to the current list. If the intent is touse the specified keyring alone, use --keyring along with--no-default-keyring.

If the option --no-keyring has been used no keyrings willbe used at all.

Note that if the option use-keyboxd is enabled incommon.conf, no keyrings are used at all and keys are allmaintained by the keyboxd process in its own database.

This is a varian of --keyring and designates file asthe primary public keyring. This means that newly imported keys (via--import or keyserver --recv-from) will go to thiskeyring.

This is an obsolete option and ignored. All secret keys are stored inthe private-keys-v1.d directory below the GnuPG home directory.

Use file instead of the default trustdb. If file beginswith a tilde and a slash, these are replaced by the $HOME directory. Ifthe filename does not contain a slash, it is assumed to be in the GnuPGhome directory (~/.gnupg if --homedir or $GNUPGHOME isnot used).

Set the name of the home directory to dir. If this option is notused, the home directory defaults to ~/.gnupg. It is onlyrecognized when given on the command line. It also overrides any homedirectory stated through the environment variable GNUPGHOME or(on Windows systems) by means of the Registry entryHKCU\Software\GNU\GnuPG:HomeDir.

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

Set the name of the native character set. This is used to convert someinformational strings like user IDs to the proper UTF-8 encoding.Note that this has nothing to do with the character set of data to beencrypted or signed; GnuPG does not recode user-supplied data. If thisoption is not used, the default character set is determined from thecurrent locale. A verbosity level of 3 shows the chosen set. Thisoption should not be used on Windows. Valid values for nameare:

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 (RFC-1489).

utf-8

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

Assume that command line arguments are given as UTF-8 strings. Thedefault (--no-utf8-strings) is to assume that arguments areencoded in the character set as specified by--display-charset. These options affect all followingarguments. Both options may be used multiple times.This option should not be used in an option file.

This option has no effect on Windows. There the internal used UTF-8encoding is translated for console input and output. The command linearguments are expected as Unicode and translated to UTF-8. Thus whencalling this program from another, make sure to use the Unicodeversion of CreateProcess.

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

Shortcut for --options /dev/null. This option is detectedbefore an attempt to open an option file. Using this option will alsoprevent the creation of a ~/.gnupg homedir.

Set compression level to n for the ZIP and ZLIB compressionalgorithms. The default is to use the default compression level of zlib(normally 6). --bzip2-compress-level sets the compression levelfor the BZIP2 compression algorithm (defaulting to 6 as well). This is adifferent option from --compress-level since BZIP2 uses asignificant amount of memory for each additional compression level.

Option -z sets both. A value of 0 for n disablescompression. A value of -1 forces compression using the defaultlevel. Option --no-compress is identical to -z0.

Except for the --store command compression is always usedunless gpg detects that the input is already compressed. Toinhibit the use of compression use -z0 or--no-compress; to force compression use -z-1 oroption z with another compression level than the default asindicated by -1. Note that this overriding of the default deectionworks only with z and not with the long variant of thisoption.

Use a different decompression method for BZIP2 compressed files. Thisalternate method uses a bit more than half the memory, but also runsat half the speed. This is useful under extreme low memorycirc*mstances when the file was originally compressed at a high--bzip2-compress-level.

Older version of Windows cannot handle filenames with more than onedot. --mangle-dos-filenames causes GnuPG to replace (ratherthan add to) the extension of an output filename to avoid thisproblem. This option is off by default and has no effect on non-Windowsplatforms.

When making a key signature, prompt for a certification level. If thisoption is not specified, the certification level used is set via--default-cert-level. See --default-cert-level forinformation on the specific levels and how they areused. --no-ask-cert-level disables this option. This optiondefaults to no.

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

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

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

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

3 means you did extensive verification of the key. For example, thiscould mean that you verified the key fingerprint with the owner of thekey in person, and that you checked, by means of a hard to forgedocument with a photo ID (such as a passport) that the name of the keyowner matches the name in the user ID on the key, and finally that youverified (by exchange of email) that the email address on the keybelongs 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).

When building the trust database, treat any signatures with acertification level below this as invalid. Defaults to 2, whichdisregards level 1 signatures. Note that level 0 "no particularclaim" signatures are always accepted.

Assume that the specified key (which should be given as fingerprint)is as trustworthy as one of your own secret keys. This option isuseful 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 givenrecipient’s or signator’s key. If the given key is not locallyavailable but an LDAP keyserver is configured the missing key isimported from that server. The value "none" is explicitly allowed todistinguish between the use of any trusted-key option and no use ofthis option at all (e.g. due to the --no-options option).

Add the key specified by fingerprint as a designated revoker tonewly created keys. If the fingerprint is prefixed with the keyword“sensitive:” that info is normally not exported wit the key. Thisoption may be given several time to add more than one designatedrevoker. If the keyword “clear” is used instead of a fingerprint,all designated options previously encountered are discarded.Designated revokers are marked on the key as non-revocable. Note thata designated revoker specified using a parameter file will also beadded to the key.

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.

tofu

TOFU stands for Trust On First Use. In this experimental trust model, the first time a key is seen, it is memorized. If later another key with a user id with the same email address is seen, both keys are marked as suspect. In that case, the next time either is used, a warning is displayed describing the conflict, why it might have occurred (either the user generated a new key and failed to cross sign the old and new keys, the key is forgery, or a man-in-the-middle attack is being attempted), and the user is prompted to manually confirm the validity of the key in question.

Because a potential attacker is able to control the email address and thereby circumvent the conflict detection algorithm by using an email address that is similar in appearance to a trusted email address, whenever a message is verified, statistics about the number of messages signed with the key are shown. In this way, a user can easily identify attacks using fake keys for regular correspondents.

When compared with the Web of Trust, TOFU offers significantly weaker security guarantees. In particular, TOFU only helps ensure consistency (that is, that the binding between a key and email address doesn’t change). A major advantage of TOFU is that it requires little maintenance to use correctly. To use the web of trust properly, you need to actively sign keys and mark users as trusted introducers. This is a time-consuming process and anecdotal evidence suggests that even security-conscious users rarely take the time to do this thoroughly and instead rely on an ad-hoc TOFU process.

In the TOFU model, policies are associated with bindings between keys and email addresses (which are extracted from user ids and normalized). There are five policies, which can be set manually using the --tofu-policy option. The default policy can be set using the --tofu-default-policy option.

The TOFU policies are: auto, good, unknown, bad and ask. The auto policy is used by default (unless overridden by --tofu-default-policy) and marks a binding as marginally trusted. The good, unknown and bad policies mark a binding as fully trusted, as having unknown trust or as having trust never, respectively. The unknown policy is useful for just using TOFU to detect conflicts, but to never assign positive trust to a binding. The final policy, ask prompts the user to indicate the binding’s trust. If batch mode is enabled (or input is inappropriate in the context), then the user is not prompted and the undefined trust level is returned.

tofu+pgp

This experimental trust model combines TOFU with the Web of Trust. This is done by computing the trust level for each model and then taking the maximum trust level where the trust levels are ordered as follows: unknown < undefined < marginal < fully < ultimate < expired < never.

By setting --tofu-default-policy=unknown, this model can be used to implement the web of trust with TOFU’s conflict detection algorithm, but without its assignment of positive trust values, which some security-conscious users don’t like.

direct

Key validity is set directly by the user and not calculated via the Web of Trust. This model is solely based on the key and does not distinguish user IDs. Note that when changing to another trust model the trust values assigned to a key are transformed into ownertrust values, which also indicate how you trust the owner of the key to sign other keys.

always

Skip key validation and assume that used keys are always fully valid. You generally 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. Note that a tofu trust model is not considered here and must be enabled explicitly.

Identical to --trust-model always.

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

During data signature verification this options checks whether theused public key algorithm matches the algorithms given byalgolist. This option can be given multiple times toconcatenate more algorithms to the list; the delimiter of the list areeither commas or spaces.

The algorithm names given in the list may either be verbatim nameslike "ed25519" with an optional leading single equal sign, or beingprefixed with ">", ">=", "<=", or "<". That prefix operator isapplied to the number part of the algorithm name; for example 2048 in"rsa2048" or 384 in "brainpoolP384r1". If the the leading non-digitsin the name matches, the prefix operator is used to compare the numberpart, a trailing suffix is ignored in this case. For example analgorithm list ">rsa3000, >=brainpool384r1, =ed25519" allows RSAsignatures with more that 3000 bits, Brainpool curves 384 and 512,and the ed25519 algorithm.

With this option gpg (and also gpgv) is guaranteed to return with anexit code of 0 if and only if all valid signatures on data are madeusing a matching algorithm from the given list.

GnuPG can automatically locate and retrieve keys as needed using thisoption. This happens when encrypting to an email address (in the"user@example.com" form), and there are no "user@example.com" keyson the local keyring. This option takes any number of the mechanismslisted below, in the order they are to be tried. Instead of listingthe mechanisms as comma delimited arguments, the option may also begiven several times to add more mechanism. The option--no-auto-key-locate or the mechanism "clear" resets thelist. The default is "local,wkd".

cert

Locate a key using DNS CERT, as specified in RFC-4398.

dane

Locate a key using DANE, as specified in draft-ietf-dane-openpgpkey-05.txt.

wkd

Locate a key using the Web Key Directory protocol.

ldap

Using DNS Service Discovery, check the domain in question for any LDAP keyservers to use. If this fails, attempt to locate the key using the PGP Universal method of checking ‘ldap://keys.(thedomain)’.

ntds

Locate the key using the Active Directory (Windows only). This method also allows one to search by fingerprint using the command --locate-external-key. Note that this mechanism is actually a shortcut for the mechanism ‘keyserver’ but using "ldap:///" as the keyserver.

keyserver

Locate a key using a keyserver. This method also allows one to search by fingerprint using the command --locate-external-key if any of the configured keyservers is an LDAP server.

keyserver-URL

In addition, a keyserver URL as used in the dirmngr configuration may be used here to query that particular keyserver. This method also allows one to search by fingerprint using the command --locate-external-key if the URL specifies an LDAP server.

local

Locate the key using the local keyrings. This mechanism allows the user to select the order a local key lookup is done. Thus using ‘--auto-key-locate local’ is identical to --no-auto-key-locate.

nodefault

This flag disables the standard local key lookup, done before any of the mechanisms defined by the --auto-key-locate are tried. The position of this mechanism 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. Note that a nodefault in mechanisms will also be cleared unless it is given after the clear.

This is an offline mechanism to get a missing key for signatureverification and for later encryption to this key. If this option isenabled and a signature includes an embedded key, that key isused to verify the signature and on verification success the key isimported. The default is --no-auto-key-import.

On the sender (signing) site the option --include-key-blockneeds to be used to put the public part of the signing key as “KeyBlock subpacket” into the signature.

These options enable or disable the automatic retrieving of keys froma keyserver when verifying signatures made by keys that are not on thelocal keyring. The default is --no-auto-key-retrieve.

The order of methods tried to lookup the key is:

1. If the option --auto-key-import is set and the signaturesincludes an embedded key, that key is used to verify the signature andon verification success that key is imported.

2. If a preferred keyserver is specified in the signature and theoption honor-keyserver-url is active (which is not thedefault), that keyserver is tried. Note that the creator of thesignature uses the option --sig-keyserver-url to specify thepreferred keyserver for data signatures.

3. If the signature has the Signer’s UID set (e.g. using--sender while creating the signature) a Web Key Directory(WKD) lookup is done. This is the default configuration but can bedisabled by removing WKD from the auto-key-locate list or by using theoption --disable-signer-uid.

4. If any keyserver is configured and the Issuer Fingerprint is partof the signature (since GnuPG 2.1.16), the configured keyservers aretried.

Note that this option makes a "web bug" like behavior possible.Keyserver or Web Key Directory operators can see which keys yourequest, so by sending you a message signed by a brand new key (whichyou naturally will not have on your local keyring), the operator cantell both your IP address and the time when you verified thesignature.

Select how to display key IDs. "none" does not show the key ID at allbut shows the fingerprint in a separate line. "short" is thetraditional 8-character key ID. "long" is the more accurate (but lessconvenient) 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 thisoption is ignored if the option --with-colons is used.

This option is deprecated - please use the --keyserver indirmngr.conf instead.

Use name as your keyserver. This is the server that--receive-keys, --send-keys, and --search-keyswill communicate with to receive keys from, send keys to, and search forkeys on. The format of the name is a URI:‘scheme:[//]keyservername[:port]’ The scheme is the type of keyserver:"hkp"/"hkps" for the HTTP (or compatible) keyservers or "ldap"/"ldaps"for the LDAP keyservers. Note that your particular installation ofGnuPG may have other keyserver types available as well. Keyserverschemes are case-insensitive.

Most keyservers synchronize with each other, so there is generally noneed to send keys to more than one server. The keyserverhkp://keys.gnupg.net uses round robin DNS to give a differentkeyserver each time you use it.

This is a space or comma delimited string that gives options for thekeyserver. Options can be prefixed with a ‘no-’ to give the oppositemeaning. Valid import-options or export-options may be used here aswell to apply to importing (--recv-key) or exporting(--send-key) a key from a keyserver. While not all optionsare 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 keyservers.

auto-key-retrieve

This is an obsolete alias for the option auto-key-retrieve. Please do not use it; it will be removed in future versions..

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 keyserver URL, then use that preferred keyserver to fetch the key from. Note that this option introduces a "web bug": The creator of the key can see when the keys is refreshed. Thus this option is not enabled by default.

include-subkeys

When receiving a key, include subkeys as potential targets. Note that this option is not used with HKP keyservers, as they do not support retrieving keys by subkey id.

timeout

http-proxy=value

verbose

debug

check-cert

ca-cert-file

These options have no more function since GnuPG 2.1. Use the dirmngr configuration options instead.

The default list of options is: "self-sigs-only, import-clean,repair-keys, repair-pks-subkey-bug, export-attributes". However, ifthe actual used source is an LDAP server "no-self-sigs-only" isassumed unless "self-sigs-only" has been explicitly configured.

Number of completely trusted users to introduce a newkey signer (defaults to 1).

Number of marginally trusted users to introduce a newkey signer (defaults to 3)

The default TOFU policy (defaults to auto). For moreinformation about the meaning of this option, see trust-model-tofu.

Maximum depth of a certification chain (default is 5).

Do not cache the verification status of key signatures.Caching gives a much better performance in key listings. However, ifyou suspect that your public keyring is not safe against writemodifications, you can use this option to disable the caching. Itprobably does not make sense to disable it because all kind of damagecan be done if someone else has write access to your public keyring.

If GnuPG feels that its information about the Web of Trust has to beupdated, it automatically runs the --check-trustdb commandinternally. This may be a time consumingprocess. --no-auto-check-trustdb disables this option.

This is dummy option. gpg always requires the agent.

This is dummy option. It has no effect when used with gpg.

Specify an agent program to be used for secret key operations. Thedefault value is determined by running gpgconf with theoption --list-dirs. Note that the pipe symbol (|) isused for a regression test suite hack and may thus not be used in thefile name.

Specify a dirmngr program to be used for keyserver access. Thedefault value is /usr/local/bin/dirmngr.

Entirely disable the use of the Dirmngr.

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

Lock the databases the first time a lock is requestedand do not release the lock until the processterminates.

Release the locks every time a lock is no longerneeded. Use this to override a previous --lock-oncefrom a config file.

Disable locking entirely. This option should be used only in veryspecial environments, where it can be assured that only one processis accessing those files. A bootable floppy with a stand-aloneencryption system will probably use this. Improper usage of thisoption may lead to data and key corruption.

This option will cause write errors on the status FD to immediatelyterminate the process. That should in fact be the default but it neverworked this way and thus we need an option to enable this, so that thechange won’t break applications which close their end of a status fdconnected pipe too early. Using this option along with--enable-progress-filter may be used to cleanly cancel longrunning gpg operations.

With n greater than 0 the number of prompts asking to insert asmartcard gets limited to N-1. Thus with a value of 1 gpg won’t atall ask to insert a card if none has been inserted at startup. Thisoption is useful in the configuration file in case an application doesnot know about the smartcard support and waits ad infinitum for aninserted card.

GnuPG uses a file to store its internal random pool over invocations.This makes random generation faster; however sometimes write operationsare not desired. This option can be used to achieve that with the cost ofslower random generation.

Suppress the initial copyright message.

Suppress the warning about "using insecure memory".

Suppress the warning about unsafe file and home directory (--homedir)permissions. Note that the permission checks that GnuPG performs arenot intended to be authoritative, but rather they simply warn aboutcertain common permission problems. Do not assume that the lack of awarning means that your system is secure.

Note that the warning for unsafe --homedir permissions cannot besuppressed in the gpg.conf file, as this would allow an attacker toplace an unsafe gpg.conf file in place, and use this file to suppresswarnings about itself. The --homedir permissions warning may only besuppressed on the command line.

Refuse to run if GnuPG cannot get secure memory. Defaults to no(i.e. run, but give a warning).

When verifying a signature made from a subkey, ensure that the crosscertification "back signature" on the subkey is present and valid. Thisprotects against a subtle attack against subkeys that can sign.Defaults to --require-cross-certification forgpg.

Allow the user to do certain nonsensical or "silly" things likesigning an expired or revoked key, or certain potentially incompatiblethings like generating unusual key types. This also disables certainwarning messages about potentially incompatible actions. As the nameimplies, this option is for experts only. If you don’t fullyunderstand the implications of what it allows you to do, leave thisoff. --no-expert disables this option.