NAME¶
gpgv - Verify OpenPGP signatures
SYNOPSIS¶
gpgv [
options]
signed_files
DESCRIPTION¶
gpgv is an OpenPGP signature verification tool.
This program is actually a stripped-down version of
gpg which is only
able to check signatures. It is somewhat smaller than the fully-blown
gpg and uses a different (and simpler) way to check that the public
keys used to make the signature are valid. There are no configuration files
and only a few options are implemented.
gpgv assumes that all keys in the keyring are trustworthy. That does also
mean that it does not check for expired or revoked keys.
By default a keyring named ‘
trustedkeys.gpg’ is used. This
default keyring is assumed to be in the home directory of GnuPG, either the
default home directory or the one set by an option or an environment variable.
The option
--keyring may be used to specify a different keyring or even
multiple keyrings.
RETURN VALUE¶
The program returns 0 if everything is fine, 1 if at least one signature was
bad, and other error codes for fatal errors.
OPTIONS¶
gpgv recognizes these options:
- --verbose
- -v
- Gives more information during processing. If used twice, the input data is
listed in detail.
- --quiet
- -q
- Try to be as quiet as possible.
- --keyring file
- Add file to the list of keyrings. If file begins with a
tilde and a slash, these are replaced by the HOME directory. If the
filename does not contain a slash, it is assumed to be in the
home-directory ("~/.gnupg" if --homedir is not used).
- --status-fd n
- Write special status strings to the file descriptor n. See the file
DETAILS in the documentation for a listing of them.
- --logger-fd n
- Write log output to file descriptor n and not to stderr.
- --ignore-time-conflict
- GnuPG normally checks that the timestamps associated with keys and
signatures have plausible values. However, sometimes a signature seems to
be older than the key due to clock problems. This option turns these
checks into warnings.
- --homedir dir
- Set the name of the home directory to dir. If this option is not
used, the home 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.
To install GnuPG as a portable application under Windows, create an empty
file name ‘ gpgconf.ctl’ in the same directory as the
tool ‘ gpgconf.exe’. The root of the installation is
than that directory; or, if ‘ gpgconf.exe’ has been
installed directly below a directory named ‘ bin’,
its parent directory. You also need to make sure that the following
directories exist and are writable: ‘ ROOT/home’ for
the GnuPG home and ‘ ROOT/var/cache/gnupg’ for
internal cache files.
EXAMPLES¶
- gpgv pgpfile
- gpgv sigfile [datafile]
- Verify the signature of the file. The second form is used for detached
signatures, where sigfile is the detached signature (either
ASCII-armored or binary) and datafile contains the signed data; if
datafile is "-" the signed data is expected on
stdin; if datafile is not given the name of the file holding
the signed data is constructed by cutting off the extension
(".asc", ".sig" or ".sign") from
sigfile.
FILES¶
- ~/.gnupg/trustedkeys.gpg
- The default keyring with the allowed keys.
ENVIRONMENT¶
- HOME
- Used to locate the default home directory.
- GNUPGHOME
- If set directory used instead of "~/.gnupg".
SEE ALSO¶
gpg2(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
should give you access to the complete manual including a menu structure and an
index.