1GPGV(1) GNU Privacy Guard 2.3 GPGV(1)
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6 gpgv - Verify OpenPGP signatures
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9 gpgv [options] signed_files
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14 gpgv is an OpenPGP signature verification tool.
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16 This program is actually a stripped-down version of gpg which is only
17 able to check signatures. It is somewhat smaller than the fully-blown
18 gpg and uses a different (and simpler) way to check that the public
19 keys used to make the signature are valid. There are no configuration
20 files and only a few options are implemented.
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22 gpgv assumes that all keys in the keyring are trustworthy. That does
23 also mean that it does not check for expired or revoked keys.
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25 If no --keyring option is given, gpgv looks for a ``default'' keyring
26 named ‘trustedkeys.kbx’ (preferred) or ‘trustedkeys.gpg’ in the home
27 directory of GnuPG, either the default home directory or the one set by
28 the --homedir option or the GNUPGHOME environment variable. If any
29 --keyring option is used, gpgv will not look for the default keyring.
30 The --keyring option may be used multiple times and all specified
31 keyrings will be used together.
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36 The program returns 0 if everything is fine, 1 if at least one signa‐
37 ture was bad, and other error codes for fatal errors.
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41 gpgv recognizes these options:
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45 --verbose
46 -v Gives more information during processing. If used twice, the in‐
47 put data is listed in detail.
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50 --quiet
51 -q Try to be as quiet as possible.
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54 --keyring file
55 Add file to the list of keyrings. If file begins with a tilde
56 and a slash, these are replaced by the HOME directory. If the
57 filename does not contain a slash, it is assumed to be in the
58 home-directory ("~/.gnupg" if --homedir is not used).
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61 --output file
62 -o file
63 Write output to file; to write to stdout use -. This option can
64 be used to get the signed text from a cleartext or binary signa‐
65 ture; it also works for detached signatures, but in that case
66 this option is in general not useful. Note that an existing
67 file will be overwritten.
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71 --status-fd n
72 Write special status strings to the file descriptor n. See the
73 file DETAILS in the documentation for a listing of them.
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76 --logger-fd n
77 Write log output to file descriptor n and not to stderr.
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80 --log-file file
81 Same as --logger-fd, except the logger data is written to file
82 file. Use ‘socket://’ to log to socket.
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85 --ignore-time-conflict
86 GnuPG normally checks that the timestamps associated with keys
87 and signatures have plausible values. However, sometimes a sig‐
88 nature seems to be older than the key due to clock problems.
89 This option turns these checks into warnings.
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92 --homedir dir
93 Set the name of the home directory to dir. If this option is not
94 used, the home directory defaults to ‘~/.gnupg’. It is only
95 recognized when given on the command line. It also overrides
96 any home directory stated through the environment variable
97 ‘GNUPGHOME’ or (on Windows systems) by means of the Registry en‐
98 try HKCU\Software\GNU\GnuPG:HomeDir.
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100 On Windows systems it is possible to install GnuPG as a portable
101 application. In this case only this command line option is con‐
102 sidered, all other ways to set a home directory are ignored.
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104 To install GnuPG as a portable application under Windows, create
105 an empty file named ‘gpgconf.ctl’ in the same directory as the
106 tool ‘gpgconf.exe’. The root of the installation is then that
107 directory; or, if ‘gpgconf.exe’ has been installed directly be‐
108 low a directory named ‘bin’, its parent directory. You also
109 need to make sure that the following directories exist and are
110 writable: ‘ROOT/home’ for the GnuPG home and
111 ‘ROOT/var/cache/gnupg’ for internal cache files.
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114 --weak-digest name
115 Treat the specified digest algorithm as weak. Signatures made
116 over weak digests algorithms are normally rejected. This option
117 can be supplied multiple times if multiple algorithms should be
118 considered weak. MD5 is always considered weak, and does not
119 need to be listed explicitly.
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122 --enable-special-filenames
123 This option enables a mode in which filenames of the form ‘-&n’,
124 where n is a non-negative decimal number, refer to the file de‐
125 scriptor n and not to a file with that name.
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129 gpgv pgpfile
130 gpgv sigfile [datafile]
131 Verify the signature of the file. The second form is used for
132 detached signatures, where sigfile is the detached signature
133 (either ASCII-armored or binary) and datafile contains the
134 signed data; if datafile is "-" the signed data is expected on
135 stdin; if datafile is not given the name of the file holding the
136 signed data is constructed by cutting off the extension (".asc",
137 ".sig" or ".sign") from sigfile.
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141 ~/.gnupg/trustedkeys.gpg
142 The default keyring with the allowed keys.
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146 HOME Used to locate the default home directory.
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149 GNUPGHOME
150 If set directory used instead of "~/.gnupg".
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154 gpg(1)
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156 The full documentation for this tool is maintained as a Texinfo manual.
157 If GnuPG and the info program are properly installed at your site, the
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160 info gnupg
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162 should give you access to the complete manual including a menu struc‐
163 ture and an index.
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171GnuPG 2.3.8 2022-10-07 GPGV(1)