gpgsm(1)



GPGSM(1)                     GNU Privacy Guard 2.2                    GPGSM(1)

NAME
       gpgsm - CMS encryption and signing tool

SYNOPSIS
       gpgsm [--homedir dir] [--options file] [options] command [args]

DESCRIPTION
       gpgsm  is a tool similar to gpg to provide digital encryption and sign-
       ing services on X.509 certificates and the CMS protocol.  It is  mainly
       used  as  a  backend for S/MIME mail processing.  gpgsm includes a full
       featured certificate management and complies with all rules defined for
       the German Sphinx project.

COMMANDS
       Commands  are  not  distinguished from options except for the fact that
       only one command is allowed.

   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 deter-
              mined.  It may either be in binary form or  PEM  encoded;  auto-
              matic 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 Dirm-
              ngr.  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 direc-
              tory listed in the PATH variable.  This command provides a  sim-
              ple  wrapper to access this tool.  arguments are passed verbatim
              to this command; use '--help' to get a list of supported  opera-
              tions.

   How to manage the certificates and keys

       --generate-key
       --gen-key
              This  command  allows  the creation of a certificate signing re-
              quest 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  data-
              base.   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 se-
              cret 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  se-
              cret  key  is  available using a format useful mainly for debug-
              ging.

       --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.

       --keydb-clear-some-cert-flags
              This is a debugging aid to reset certain flags in the key  data-
              base  which  are used to cache certain certificate stati.  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 valid-
              ity 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'  di-
              rectory 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 secu-
              rity  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 cer-
              tificate  specified  as  user_id.   Note,  that   changing   the
              passphrase/PIN of a smartcard is not yet supported.

OPTIONS
       GPGSM features a bunch of options to control the exact behaviour and to
       change the default configuration.

   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 di-
              rectly 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 en-
              try 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 con-
              sidered, all other ways to set a home directory are ignored.

              To install GnuPG as a portable application under Windows, create
              an empty file named 'gpgconf.ctl' in the same directory  as  the
              tool  'gpgconf.exe'.   The root of the installation is then that
              directory; or, if 'gpgconf.exe' has been installed directly  be-
              low  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.

       -v

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

       --policy-file filename
              Change the default name of the policy file to filename.

       --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 de-
              fault 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 use-
              ful on machines where the connection to gpg-agent has been redi-
              rected  to  another machines.  If dirmngr is required on the re-
              mote 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.

   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 use-
              ful with an off-line network connection to suppress this check.

       --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  sup-
              pressing 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 con-
              figuration file.

       --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  key-
              box),  the  operator  can tell both your IP address and the time
              when you verified the signature.

       --validation-model name
              This option changes the default validation model.  The only pos-
              sible  values  are "shell" (which is the default), "chain" which
              forces the use of the chain model and "steed" for a new  simpli-
              fied  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 op-
              tion with care because extensions are usually flagged as  criti-
              cal 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.

       --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.  Espe-
              cially 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 be-
              cause 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.

   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  algo-
              rithm  is deduced from the respective signing certificate.  This
              option forces the use of the given algorithm and may lead to se-
              vere interoperability problems.

   Doing things one usually do not want to do

       --extra-digest-algo name
              Sometimes  signatures are broken in that they announce a differ-
              ent 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 us-
              ing 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.

       --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.

       --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 keyword.

              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 instead 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 debugging.

       --debug flags
              This option is only useful for debugging and the  behaviour  may
              change  at  any time without notice; using --debug-levels is the
              preferred method to select the debug verbosity.  FLAGS  are  bit
              encoded  and  may  be given in usual C-Syntax. The currently de-
              fined bits are:

              0 (1)  X.509 or OpenPGP protocol related data

              1 (2)  values of big number integers

              2 (4)  low level crypto operations

              5 (32) memory allocation

              6 (64) caching

              7 (128)
                     show memory statistics

              9 (512)
                     write hashed data to files named dbgmd-000*

              10 (1024)
                     trace Assuan protocol

       Note, that all flags set using this option may get overridden by  --de-
       bug-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  un-
              less 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 re-
              gression 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:

              default
                     Use the default of the agent, which is ask.

              ask    Force the use of the Pinentry.

              cancel Emulate use of Pinentry's cancel button.

              error  Return a Pinentry error (``No Pinentry'').

              loopback
                     Redirect Pinentry queries to the caller.   Note  that  in
                     contrast to Pinentry the user is not prompted again if he
                     enters a bad password.

       --request-origin origin
              Tell gpgsm to assume that the operation ultimately originated at
              origin.   Depending  on  the origin certain restrictions are ap-
              plied and the Pinentry may include an extra note on the  origin.
              Supported values for origin are: local which is the default, re-
              mote to indicate a remote origin or browser for an operation re-
              quested 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.

HOW TO SPECIFY A USER ID
       There are different ways to specify a user ID to GnuPG.  Some  of  them
       are only valid for gpg others are only good for gpgsm.  Here is the en-
       tire list of ways to specify a key:

       By key Id.
              This format is deduced from the length of  the  string  and  its
              content or 0x prefix. The key Id of an X.509 certificate are the
              low 64 bits of its SHA-1 fingerprint.  The use  of  key  Ids  is
              just  a  shortcut,  for all automated processing the fingerprint
              should be used.

              When using gpg an exclamation mark (!) may be appended to  force
              using  the specified primary or secondary key and not to try and
              calculate which primary or secondary key to use.

              The last four lines of the example give the key ID in their long
              form as internally used by the OpenPGP protocol. You can see the
              long key ID using the option --with-colons.

         234567C4
         0F34E556E
         01347A56A
         0xAB123456

         234AABBCC34567C4
         0F323456784E56EAB
         01AB3FED1347A5612
         0x234AABBCC34567C4

       By fingerprint.
              This format is deduced from the length of  the  string  and  its
              content  or  the 0x prefix.  Note, that only the 20 byte version
              fingerprint is available with gpgsm (i.e. the SHA-1 hash of  the
              certificate).

              When  using gpg an exclamation mark (!) may be appended to force
              using the specified primary or secondary key and not to try  and
              calculate which primary or secondary key to use.

              The  best  way  to specify a key Id is by using the fingerprint.
              This avoids any ambiguities in case that  there  are  duplicated
              key IDs.

         1234343434343434C434343434343434
         123434343434343C3434343434343734349A3434
         0E12343434343434343434EAB3484343434343434
         0xE12343434343434343434EAB3484343434343434

       gpgsm  also  accepts colons between each pair of hexadecimal digits be-
       cause this is the de-facto standard on how  to  present  X.509  finger-
       prints.   gpg  also allows the use of the space separated SHA-1 finger-
       print as printed by the key listing commands.

       By exact match on OpenPGP user ID.
              This is denoted by a leading equal sign. It does not make  sense
              for X.509 certificates.

         =Heinrich Heine <heinrichh@uni-duesseldorf.de>

       By exact match on an email address.
              This  is  indicated  by enclosing the email address in the usual
              way with left and right angles.

         <heinrichh@uni-duesseldorf.de>

       By partial match on an email address.
              This is indicated by prefixing the  search  string  with  an  @.
              This uses a substring search but considers only the mail address
              (i.e. inside the angle brackets).

         @heinrichh

       By exact match on the subject's DN.
              This is indicated by a leading slash, directly followed  by  the
              RFC-2253 encoded DN of the subject.  Note that you can't use the
              string printed by gpgsm --list-keys because that  one  has  been
              reordered and modified for better readability; use --with-colons
              to print the raw (but standard escaped) RFC-2253 string.

         /CN=Heinrich Heine,O=Poets,L=Paris,C=FR

       By exact match on the issuer's DN.
              This is indicated by a leading hash mark, directly followed by a
              slash  and  then directly followed by the RFC-2253 encoded DN of
              the issuer.  This should return the Root  cert  of  the  issuer.
              See note above.

         #/CN=Root Cert,O=Poets,L=Paris,C=FR

       By exact match on serial number and issuer's DN.
              This  is  indicated  by a hash mark, followed by the hexadecimal
              representation of the serial number, then followed  by  a  slash
              and the RFC-2253 encoded DN of the issuer. See note above.

         #4F03/CN=Root Cert,O=Poets,L=Paris,C=FR

       By keygrip.
              This  is indicated by an ampersand followed by the 40 hex digits
              of a keygrip.  gpgsm prints the keygrip when using  the  command
              --dump-cert.

         &D75F22C3F86E355877348498CDC92BD21010A480

       By substring match.
              This is the default mode but applications may want to explicitly
              indicate this by putting the asterisk in front.   Match  is  not
              case sensitive.

         Heine
         *Heine

       . and + prefixes
              These prefixes are reserved for looking up mails anchored at the
              end and for a word search mode.  They are  not  yet  implemented
              and using them is undefined.

              Please  note  that we have reused the hash mark identifier which
              was used in old GnuPG versions to indicate the so called  local-
              id.  It is not anymore used and there should be no conflict when
              used with X.509 stuff.

              Using the RFC-2253 format of DNs has the drawback that it is not
              possible  to  map them back to the original encoding, however we
              don't have to do this because our key database stores  this  en-
              coding as meta data.

EXAMPLES
         $ gpgsm -er goo@bar.net <plaintext >ciphertext

FILES
       There  are  a  few  configuration  files  to control certain aspects of
       gpgsm's operation. Unless noted, they are expected in the current  home
       directory (see: [option --homedir]).

       gpgsm.conf
              This  is  the  standard  configuration  file  read  by  gpgsm on
              startup.  It may contain any valid long option; the leading  two
              dashes may not be entered and the option may not be abbreviated.
              This default name may be  changed  on  the  command  line  (see:
              [gpgsm-option --options]).  You should backup this file.

       policies.txt
              This  is  a  list of allowed CA policies.  This file should list
              the object identifiers of the  policies  line  by  line.   Empty
              lines and lines starting with a hash mark are ignored.  Policies
              missing in this file and not marked as critical in the  certifi-
              cate  will  print  only  a  warning;  certificates with policies
              marked as critical and not listed in this  file  will  fail  the
              signature verification.  You should backup this file.

              For example, to allow only the policy 2.289.9.9, the file should
              look like this:

                # Allowed policies
                2.289.9.9

       qualified.txt
              This is the list of root certificates used  for  qualified  cer-
              tificates.  They are defined as certificates capable of creating
              legally binding signatures in the same way as handwritten signa-
              tures  are.  Comments start with a hash mark and empty lines are
              ignored.  Lines do have a length limit but this is not a serious
              limitation  as the format of the entries is fixed and checked by
              gpgsm: A non-comment line starts with optional whitespace,  fol-
              lowed by exactly 40 hex characters, white space and a lowercased
              2 letter country code.  Additional  data  delimited  with  by  a
              white  space is current ignored but might late be used for other
              purposes.

              Note that even if a certificate is listed  in  this  file,  this
              does  not  mean  that the certificate is trusted; in general the
              certificates listed in this file  need  to  be  listed  also  in
              'trustlist.txt'.

              This  is  a global file an installed in the data directory (e.g.
              '/usr/share/gnupg/qualified.txt').  GnuPG  installs  a  suitable
              file  with root certificates as used in Germany.  As new Root-CA
              certificates may be issued over time, these entries may need  to
              be  updated; new distributions of this software should come with
              an updated list but it is still the responsibility of the Admin-
              istrator to check that this list is correct.

              Every  time gpgsm uses a certificate for signing or verification
              this file will be consulted to check whether the certificate un-
              der question has ultimately been issued by one of these CAs.  If
              this is the case the user will be  informed  that  the  verified
              signature  represents  a  legally binding (``qualified'') signa-
              ture.  When creating a signature using such a certificate an ex-
              tra  prompt  will  be issued to let the user confirm that such a
              legally binding signature shall really be created.

              Because this software has not yet been  approved  for  use  with
              such certificates, appropriate notices will be shown to indicate
              this fact.

       help.txt
              This is plain text file with a few help entries used with pinen-
              try  as  well  as  a large list of help items for gpg and gpgsm.
              The standard file has English help texts; to  install  localized
              versions  use  filenames like 'help.LL.txt' with LL denoting the
              locale.  GnuPG comes with a set of predefined help files in  the
              data  directory  (e.g. '/usr/share/gnupg/gnupg/help.de.txt') and
              allows overriding of any help item by help files stored  in  the
              system  configuration directory (e.g. '/etc/gnupg/help.de.txt').
              For a reference of the help file's syntax, please  see  the  in-
              stalled 'help.txt' file.

       com-certs.pem
              This  file  is a collection of common certificates used to popu-
              lated a newly created 'pubring.kbx'.  An administrator  may  re-
              place  this  file with a custom one.  The format is a concatena-
              tion of PEM encoded X.509 certificates.  This global file is in-
              stalled  in  the  data  directory  (e.g.  '/usr/share/gnupg/com-
              certs.pem').

       Note that on larger installations, it is useful to put predefined files
       into  the  directory  '/etc/skel/.gnupg/'  so  that newly created users
       start up with a working configuration.   For  existing  users  a  small
       helper script is provided to create these files (see: [addgnupghome]).

       For  internal  purposes  gpgsm creates and maintains a few other files;
       they all live in the current home directory (see: [option  --homedir]).
       Only gpgsm may modify these files.

       pubring.kbx
              This  a  database  file storing the certificates as well as meta
              information.  For debugging purposes the  tool  kbxutil  may  be
              used  to  show  the internal structure of this file.  You should
              backup this file.

       random_seed
              This content of this file is used to maintain the internal state
              of  the  random  number  generator across invocations.  The same
              file is used by other programs of this software too.

       S.gpg-agent
              If this file exists gpgsm will first  try  to  connect  to  this
              socket  for  accessing gpg-agent before starting a new gpg-agent
              instance.  Under Windows this socket  (which  in  reality  be  a
              plain file describing a regular TCP listening port) is the stan-
              dard way of connecting the gpg-agent.

SEE ALSO
       gpg2(1), gpg-agent(1)

       The full documentation for this tool is maintained as a Texinfo manual.
       If  GnuPG and the info program are properly installed at your site, the
       command

         info gnupg

       should give you access to the complete manual including a  menu  struc-
       ture and an index.

GnuPG 2.2.20                      2020-03-18                          GPGSM(1)

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