GPG-PRESET-PASSPHRASE

Section: GNU Privacy Guard (1)
Updated: 2009-09-04
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NAME

gpg-preset-passphrase - Put a passphrase into gpg-agent's cache  

SYNOPSIS

gpg-preset-passphrase [options] [command] cache-id

 

DESCRIPTION

The gpg-preset-passphrase is a utility to seed the internal cache of a running gpg-agent with passphrases. It is mainly useful for unattended machines, where the usual pinentry tool may not be used and the passphrases for the to be used keys are given at machine startup.

Passphrases set with this utility don't expire unless the --forget option is used to explicitly clear them from the cache --- or gpg-agent is either restarted or reloaded (by sending a SIGHUP to it). It is necessary to allow this passphrase presetting by starting gpg-agent with the --allow-preset-passphrase.

gpg-preset-passphrase is invoked this way: 

gpg-preset-passphrase [options] [command] cacheid

cacheid is either a 40 character keygrip of hexadecimal characters identifying the key for which the passphrase should be set or cleared. The keygrip is listed along with the key when running the command: gpgsm --dump-secret-keys. Alternatively an arbitrary string may be used to identify a passphrase; it is suggested that such a string is prefixed with the name of the application (e.g foo:12346).

One of the following command options must be given:

--preset
Preset a passphrase. This is what you usually will use. gpg-preset-passphrase will then read the passphrase from stdin.

--forget
Flush the passphrase for the given cache ID from the cache.

The following additional options may be used:

-v
--verbose
Output additional information while running.

-P string
--passphrase string
Instead of reading the passphrase from stdin, use the supplied string as passphrase. Note that this makes the passphrase visible for other users.

 

SEE ALSO

gpg(1), gpgsm(1), gpg-agent(1), scdaemon(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 structure and an index.