1DIRMNGR(8) GNU Privacy Guard 2.2 DIRMNGR(8)
2
6 dirmngr - CRL and OCSP daemon
7
9 dirmngr [options] command [args]
10
13 Since version 2.1 of GnuPG, dirmngr takes care of accessing the OpenPGP
14 keyservers. As with previous versions it is also used as a server for
15 managing and downloading certificate revocation lists (CRLs) for X.509
16 certificates, downloading X.509 certificates, and providing access to
17 OCSP providers. Dirmngr is invoked internally by gpg, gpgsm, or via
18 the gpg-connect-agent tool.
19
26 Commands are not distinguished from options except for the fact that
27 only one command is allowed.
28 --version
31 Print the program version and licensing information. Note that
32 you cannot abbreviate this command.
33 --help, -h
36 Print a usage message summarizing the most useful command-line
37 options. Note that you cannot abbreviate this command.
38 --dump-options
41 Print a list of all available options and commands. Note that
42 you cannot abbreviate this command.
43 --server
46 Run in server mode and wait for commands on the stdin. The de‐
47 fault mode is to create a socket and listen for commands there.
48 This is only used for testing.
49 --daemon
52 Run in background daemon mode and listen for commands on a
53 socket. This is the way dirmngr is started on demand by the
54 other GnuPG components. To force starting dirmngr it is in gen‐
55 eral best to use gpgconf --launch dirmngr.
56 --supervised
59 Run in the foreground, sending logs to stderr, and listening on
60 file descriptor 3, which must already be bound to a listening
61 socket. This is useful when running under systemd or other sim‐
62 ilar process supervision schemes. This option is not supported
63 on Windows.
64 --list-crls
67 List the contents of the CRL cache on stdout. This is probably
68 only useful for debugging purposes.
69 --load-crl file
72 This command requires a filename as additional argument, and it
73 will make Dirmngr try to import the CRL in file into it's cache.
74 Note, that this is only possible if Dirmngr is able to retrieve
75 the CA's certificate directly by its own means. In general it
76 is better to use gpgsm's --call-dirmngr loadcrl filename command
77 so that gpgsm can help dirmngr.
78 --fetch-crl url
81 This command requires an URL as additional argument, and it will
82 make dirmngr try to retrieve and import the CRL from that url
83 into it's cache. This is mainly useful for debugging purposes.
84 The dirmngr-client provides the same feature for a running dirm‐
85 ngr.
86 --shutdown
89 This commands shuts down an running instance of Dirmngr. This
90 command has currently no effect.
91 --flush
94 This command removes all CRLs from Dirmngr's cache. Client re‐
95 quests will thus trigger reading of fresh CRLs.
96
99 Note that all long options with the exception of --options and --home‐
100 dir may also be given in the configuration file after stripping off the
101 two leading dashes.
102 --options file
106 Reads configuration from file instead of from the default per-
107 user configuration file. The default configuration file is
108 named ‘dirmngr.conf’ and expected in the home directory.
109 --homedir dir
112 Set the name of the home directory to dir. This option is only
113 effective when used on the command line. The default is the di‐
114 rectory named ‘.gnupg’ directly below the home directory of the
115 user unless the environment variable GNUPGHOME has been set in
116 which case its value will be used. Many kinds of data are
117 stored within this directory.
118 -v
122 --verbose
124 Outputs additional information while running. You can increase
125 the verbosity by giving several verbose commands to dirmngr,
126 such as -vv.
127 --log-file file
131 Append all logging output to file. This is very helpful in see‐
132 ing what the agent actually does. Use ‘socket://’ to log to
133 socket.
134 --debug-level level
137 Select the debug level for investigating problems. level may be
138 a numeric value or by a keyword:
139 none No debugging at all. A value of less than 1 may be used
142 instead of the keyword.
143 basic Some basic debug messages. A value between 1 and 2 may
145 be used instead of the keyword.
146 advanced
148 More verbose debug messages. A value between 3 and 5 may
149 be used instead of the keyword.
150 expert Even more detailed messages. A value between 6 and 8 may
152 be used instead of the keyword.
153 guru All of the debug messages you can get. A value greater
155 than 8 may be used instead of the keyword. The creation
156 of hash tracing files is only enabled if the keyword is
157 used.
158 How these messages are mapped to the actual debugging flags is not
160 specified and may change with newer releases of this program. They are
161 however carefully selected to best aid in debugging.
162 --debug flags
165 Set debugging flags. This option is only useful for debugging
166 and its behavior may change with a new release. All flags are
167 or-ed and may be given in C syntax (e.g. 0x0042) or as a comma
168 separated list of flag names. To get a list of all supported
169 flags the single word "help" can be used.
170 --debug-all
173 Same as --debug=0xffffffff
174 --tls-debug level
177 Enable debugging of the TLS layer at level. The details of the
178 debug level depend on the used TLS library and are not set in
179 stone.
180 --debug-wait n
183 When running in server mode, wait n seconds before entering the
184 actual processing loop and print the pid. This gives time to
185 attach a debugger.
186 --disable-check-own-socket
189 On some platforms dirmngr is able to detect the removal of its
190 socket file and shutdown itself. This option disable this self-
191 test for debugging purposes.
192 -s
195 --sh
196 -c
197 --csh Format the info output in daemon mode for use with the standard
198 Bourne shell respective the C-shell. The default is to guess it
199 based on the environment variable SHELL which is in almost all
200 cases sufficient.
201 --force
204 Enabling this option forces loading of expired CRLs; this is
205 only useful for debugging.
206 --use-tor
209 --no-use-tor
210 The option --use-tor switches Dirmngr and thus GnuPG into ``Tor
211 mode'' to route all network access via Tor (an anonymity net‐
212 work). Certain other features are disabled in this mode. The
213 effect of --use-tor cannot be overridden by any other command or
214 even by reloading dirmngr. The use of --no-use-tor disables the
215 use of Tor. The default is to use Tor if it is available on
216 startup or after reloading dirmngr.
217 --standard-resolver
220 This option forces the use of the system's standard DNS resolver
221 code. This is mainly used for debugging. Note that on Windows
222 a standard resolver is not used and all DNS access will return
223 the error ``Not Implemented'' if this option is used. Using
224 this together with enabled Tor mode returns the error ``Not En‐
225 abled''.
226 --recursive-resolver
229 When possible use a recursive resolver instead of a stub re‐
230 solver.
231 --resolver-timeout n
234 Set the timeout for the DNS resolver to N seconds. The default
235 are 30 seconds.
236 --connect-timeout n
239 --connect-quick-timeout n
241 Set the timeout for HTTP and generic TCP connection attempts to
242 N seconds. The value set with the quick variant is used when
243 the --quick option has been given to certain Assuan commands.
244 The quick value is capped at the value of the regular connect
245 timeout. The default values are 15 and 2 seconds. Note that
246 the timeout values are for each connection attempt; the connec‐
247 tion code will attempt to connect all addresses listed for a
248 server.
249 --listen-backlog n
252 Set the size of the queue for pending connections. The default
253 is 64.
254 --allow-version-check
257 Allow Dirmngr to connect to https://versions.gnupg.org to get
258 the list of current software versions. If this option is en‐
259 abled the list is retrieved in case the local copy does not ex‐
260 ist or is older than 5 to 7 days. See the option --query-swdb
261 of the command gpgconf for more details. Note, that regardless
262 of this option a version check can always be triggered using
263 this command:
264 gpg-connect-agent --dirmngr 'loadswdb --force' /bye
266 --keyserver name
270 Use name as your keyserver. This is the server that gpg commu‐
271 nicates with to receive keys, send keys, and search for keys.
272 The format of the name is a URI: `scheme:[//]keyserver‐
273 name[:port]' The scheme is the type of keyserver: "hkp" for the
274 HTTP (or compatible) keyservers, "ldap" for the LDAP keyservers,
275 or "mailto" for the Graff email keyserver. Note that your par‐
276 ticular installation of GnuPG may have other keyserver types
277 available as well. Keyserver schemes are case-insensitive. After
278 the keyserver name, optional keyserver configuration options may
279 be provided. These are the same as the --keyserver-options of
280 gpg, but apply only to this particular keyserver.
281 Most keyservers synchronize with each other, so there is gener‐
283 ally no need to send keys to more than one server. The keyserver
284 hkp://keys.gnupg.net uses round robin DNS to give a different
285 keyserver each time you use it.
286 If exactly two keyservers are configured and only one is a Tor
288 hidden service (.onion), Dirmngr selects the keyserver to use
289 depending on whether Tor is locally running or not. The check
290 for a running Tor is done for each new connection.
291 If no keyserver is explicitly configured, dirmngr will use the
293 built-in default of hkps://hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net.
294 Windows users with a keyserver running on their Active Directory
296 should use ldap:/// for name to access this directory.
297 For accessing anonymous LDAP keyservers name is in general just
299 a ldaps://ldap.example.com. A BaseDN parameter should never be
300 specified. If authentication is required the value of name is
301 for example:
302 keyserver ldaps://ldap.example.com/????bindname=uid=USERNAME
304 %2Cou=GnuPG%20Users%2Cdc=example%2Cdc=com,password=PASSWORD
305 Put this all on one line without any spaces and keep the '%2C'
307 as given.
308 Replace USERNAME, PASSWORD, and the 'dc' parts according to the
309 instructions received from the LDAP administrator. Note that
310 only
311 simple authentication (i.e. cleartext passwords) is supported
312 and thus
313 using ldaps is strongly suggested.
314 --nameserver ipaddr
317 In ``Tor mode'' Dirmngr uses a public resolver via Tor to re‐
318 solve DNS names. If the default public resolver, which is
319 8.8.8.8, shall not be used a different one can be given using
320 this option. Note that a numerical IP address must be given
321 (IPv6 or IPv4) and that no error checking is done for ipaddr.
322 --disable-ipv4
325 --disable-ipv6
327 Disable the use of all IPv4 or IPv6 addresses.
328 --disable-ldap
331 Entirely disables the use of LDAP.
332 --disable-http
335 Entirely disables the use of HTTP.
336 --ignore-http-dp
339 When looking for the location of a CRL, the to be tested cer‐
340 tificate usually contains so called CRL Distribution Point (DP)
341 entries which are URLs describing the way to access the CRL.
342 The first found DP entry is used. With this option all entries
343 using the HTTP scheme are ignored when looking for a suitable
344 DP.
345 --ignore-ldap-dp
348 This is similar to --ignore-http-dp but ignores entries using
349 the LDAP scheme. Both options may be combined resulting in ig‐
350 noring DPs entirely.
351 --ignore-ocsp-service-url
354 Ignore all OCSP URLs contained in the certificate. The effect
355 is to force the use of the default responder.
356 --honor-http-proxy
359 If the environment variable ‘http_proxy’ has been set, use its
360 value to access HTTP servers.
361 --http-proxy host[:port]
364 Use host and port to access HTTP servers. The use of this op‐
365 tion overrides the environment variable ‘http_proxy’ regardless
366 whether --honor-http-proxy has been set.
367 --ldap-proxy host[:port]
371 Use host and port to connect to LDAP servers. If port is omit‐
372 ted, port 389 (standard LDAP port) is used. This overrides any
373 specified host and port part in a LDAP URL and will also be used
374 if host and port have been omitted from the URL.
375 --only-ldap-proxy
378 Never use anything else but the LDAP "proxy" as configured with
379 --ldap-proxy. Usually dirmngr tries to use other configured
380 LDAP server if the connection using the "proxy" failed.
381 --ldapserverlist-file file
385 Read the list of LDAP servers to consult for CRLs and certifi‐
386 cates from file instead of the default per-user ldap server list
387 file. The default value for file is ‘dirmngr_ldapservers.conf’.
388 This server list file contains one LDAP server per line in the
390 format
391 hostname:port:username:password:base_dn
393 Lines starting with a ‘#’ are comments.
395 Note that as usual all strings entered are expected to be UTF-8
397 encoded. Obviously this will lead to problems if the password
398 has originally been encoded as Latin-1. There is no other solu‐
399 tion here than to put such a password in the binary encoding
400 into the file (i.e. non-ascii characters won't show up read‐
401 able). ([The gpgconf tool might be helpful for frontends as it
402 enables editing this configuration file using percent-escaped
403 strings.])
404 --ldaptimeout secs
408 Specify the number of seconds to wait for an LDAP query before
409 timing out. The default are 15 seconds. 0 will never timeout.
410 --add-servers
414 This option makes dirmngr add any servers it discovers when val‐
415 idating certificates against CRLs to the internal list of
416 servers to consult for certificates and CRLs.
417 This option is useful when trying to validate a certificate that
419 has a CRL distribution point that points to a server that is not
420 already listed in the ldapserverlist. Dirmngr will always go to
421 this server and try to download the CRL, but chances are high
422 that the certificate used to sign the CRL is located on the same
423 server. So if dirmngr doesn't add that new server to list, it
424 will often not be able to verify the signature of the CRL unless
425 the --add-servers option is used.
426 Note: The current version of dirmngr has this option disabled by
428 default.
429 --allow-ocsp
433 This option enables OCSP support if requested by the client.
434 OCSP requests are rejected by default because they may violate
436 the privacy of the user; for example it is possible to track the
437 time when a user is reading a mail.
438 --ocsp-responder url
442 Use url as the default OCSP Responder if the certificate does
443 not contain information about an assigned responder. Note, that
444 --ocsp-signer must also be set to a valid certificate.
445 --ocsp-signer fpr|file
448 Use the certificate with the fingerprint fpr to check the re‐
449 sponses of the default OCSP Responder. Alternatively a filename
450 can be given in which case the response is expected to be signed
451 by one of the certificates described in that file. Any argument
452 which contains a slash, dot or tilde is considered a filename.
453 Usual filename expansion takes place: A tilde at the start fol‐
454 lowed by a slash is replaced by the content of ‘HOME’, no slash
455 at start describes a relative filename which will be searched at
456 the home directory. To make sure that the file is searched in
457 the home directory, either prepend the name with "./" or use a
458 name which contains a dot.
459 If a response has been signed by a certificate described by
461 these fingerprints no further check upon the validity of this
462 certificate is done.
463 The format of the FILE is a list of SHA-1 fingerprint, one per
465 line with optional colons between the bytes. Empty lines and
466 lines prefix with a hash mark are ignored.
467 --ocsp-max-clock-skew n
471 The number of seconds a skew between the OCSP responder and them
472 local clock is accepted. Default is 600 (10 minutes).
473 --ocsp-max-period n
476 Seconds a response is at maximum considered valid after the time
477 given in the thisUpdate field. Default is 7776000 (90 days).
478 --ocsp-current-period n
481 The number of seconds an OCSP response is considered valid after
482 the time given in the NEXT_UPDATE datum. Default is 10800 (3
483 hours).
484 --max-replies n
488 Do not return more that n items in one query. The default is
489 10.
490 --ignore-cert-extension oid
493 Add oid to the list of ignored certificate extensions. The oid
494 is expected to be in dotted decimal form, like 2.5.29.3. This
495 option may be used more than once. Critical flagged certificate
496 extensions matching one of the OIDs in the list are treated as
497 if they are actually handled and thus the certificate won't be
498 rejected due to an unknown critical extension. Use this option
499 with care because extensions are usually flagged as critical for
500 a reason.
501 --hkp-cacert file
504 Use the root certificates in file for verification of the TLS
505 certificates used with hkps (keyserver access over TLS). If the
506 file is in PEM format a suffix of .pem is expected for file.
507 This option may be given multiple times to add more root cer‐
508 tificates. Tilde expansion is supported.
509 If no hkp-cacert directive is present, dirmngr will make a rea‐
511 sonable choice: if the keyserver in question is the special pool
512 hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net, it will use the bundled root cer‐
513 tificate for that pool. Otherwise, it will use the system CAs.
514
517 Here is an example on how to show dirmngr's internal table of OpenPGP
518 keyserver addresses. The output is intended for debugging purposes and
519 not part of a defined API.
520 gpg-connect-agent --dirmngr 'keyserver --hosttable' /bye
522 To inhibit the use of a particular host you have noticed in one of the
524 keyserver pools, you may use
525 gpg-connect-agent --dirmngr 'keyserver --dead pgpkeys.bnd.de' /bye
527 The description of the keyserver command can be printed using
529 gpg-connect-agent --dirmngr 'help keyserver' /bye
531
537 Dirmngr makes use of several directories when running in daemon mode:
538 There are a few configuration files whih control the operation of dirm‐
539 ngr. By default they may all be found in the current home directory
540 (see: [option --homedir]).
541 dirmngr.conf
545 This is the standard configuration file read by dirmngr on
546 startup. It may contain any valid long option; the leading two
547 dashes may not be entered and the option may not be abbreviated.
548 This file is also read after a SIGHUP however not all options
549 will actually have an effect. This default name may be changed
550 on the command line (see: [option --options]). You should
551 backup this file.
552 /etc/gnupg/trusted-certs
555 This directory should be filled with certificates of Root CAs
556 you are trusting in checking the CRLs and signing OCSP Re‐
557 sponses.
558 Usually these are the same certificates you use with the appli‐
560 cations making use of dirmngr. It is expected that each of
561 these certificate files contain exactly one DER encoded certifi‐
562 cate in a file with the suffix ‘.crt’ or ‘.der’. dirmngr reads
563 those certificates on startup and when given a SIGHUP. Certifi‐
564 cates which are not readable or do not make up a proper X.509
565 certificate are ignored; see the log file for details.
566 Applications using dirmngr (e.g. gpgsm) can request these cer‐
568 tificates to complete a trust chain in the same way as with the
569 extra-certs directory (see below).
570 Note that for OCSP responses the certificate specified using the
572 option --ocsp-signer is always considered valid to sign OCSP re‐
573 quests.
574 /etc/gnupg/extra-certs
577 This directory may contain extra certificates which are pre‐
578 loaded into the internal cache on startup. Applications using
579 dirmngr (e.g. gpgsm) can request cached certificates to complete
580 a trust chain. This is convenient in cases you have a couple
581 intermediate CA certificates or certificates usually used to
582 sign OCSP responses. These certificates are first tried before
583 going out to the net to look for them. These certificates must
584 also be DER encoded and suffixed with ‘.crt’ or ‘.der’.
585 ~/.gnupg/crls.d
588 This directory is used to store cached CRLs. The ‘crls.d’ part
589 will be created by dirmngr if it does not exists but you need to
590 make sure that the upper directory exists.
591
595 A running dirmngr may be controlled by signals, i.e. using the kill
596 command to send a signal to the process.
597 Here is a list of supported signals:
599 SIGHUP This signal flushes all internally cached CRLs as well as any
603 cached certificates. Then the certificate cache is reinitial‐
604 ized as on startup. Options are re-read from the configuration
605 file. Instead of sending this signal it is better to use
606 gpgconf --reload dirmngr
607 SIGTERM
610 Shuts down the process but waits until all current requests are
611 fulfilled. If the process has received 3 of these signals and
612 requests are still pending, a shutdown is forced. You may also
613 use
614 gpgconf --kill dirmngr
615 instead of this signal
616 SIGINT Shuts down the process immediately.
619 SIGUSR1
623 This prints some caching statistics to the log file.
624
627 gpgsm(1), dirmngr-client(1)
628 The full documentation for this tool is maintained as a Texinfo manual.
630 If GnuPG and the info program are properly installed at your site, the
631 command
632 info gnupg
634 should give you access to the complete manual including a menu struc‐
636 ture and an index.
637GnuPG 2.2.27 2020-12-21 DIRMNGR(8)