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Name

gpgv -- signature verification tool

Synopsis

gpgv [options] [signed files]

Description

gpgv is the OpenPGP signature checking tool.

This program is a stripped down version of gpg which is able only 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 trustworthy. There are no options files and only very few options are implemented.

gpgv assumes that all keys in the keyring are trustworthy. By default it uses a keyring named trustedkeys.gpg which is assumed to be in the home directory as defined by GnuPG or set by an option or an environment variable. An option may be used to specify another keyring or even multiple keyrings.

Options

gpgv recognizes these options:

-v, --verbose
Gives more information during processing. If used twice, the input data is listed in detail.

-q, --quiet
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). The filename may be prefixed with a scheme:

“gnupg-ring:” is the default one.

--homedir directory
Set the name of the home directory to directory If this option is not used, it defaults to “~/.gnupg". It does not make sense to use this in an options file. This also overrides the environment variable “GNUPGHOME".

--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 makes these checks just warnings.

Return Value

The program returns 0 if everything was fine, 1 if at least one signature was bad, and other error codes for fatal errors.

Examples

gpgv pgpfile

gpgv sigfile [files]
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 [files] are the signed data; if this 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.

Environment

HOME
Used to locate the default home directory.

GNUPGHOME If set directory used instead of “~/.gnupg".

Files

~/.gnupg/trustedkeys.gpg
The default keyring with the allowed keys

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