The GNU Privacy Guard!
Diffusion GnuPG (master)
README
README
The GNU Privacy Guard
=======================
Version 2.5 (devel)
Copyright 1997-2019 Werner Koch
Copyright 1998-2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Copyright 2003-2024 g10 Code GmbH- INTRODUCTION
GnuPG is a complete and free implementation of the OpenPGP standard as defined by RFC4880 (also known as PGP). GnuPG enables encryption and signing of data and communication, and features a versatile key management system as well as access modules for public key directories.
GnuPG, also known as GPG, is a command line tool with features for easy integration with other applications. A wealth of frontend applications and libraries are available that make use of GnuPG. Starting with version 2 GnuPG provides support for S/MIME and Secure Shell in addition to OpenPGP.
GnuPG is Free Software (meaning that it respects your freedom). It can be freely used, modified and distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
Note that versions 2.5.x are maintained development versions leading to the forthcoming new stable version 2.6.x.
- BUILD INSTRUCTIONS
GnuPG 2.6 depends on the following GnuPG related packages:
npth (https://gnupg.org/ftp/gcrypt/npth/) libgpg-error (https://gnupg.org/ftp/gcrypt/libgpg-error/) libgcrypt (https://gnupg.org/ftp/gcrypt/libgcrypt/) libksba (https://gnupg.org/ftp/gcrypt/libksba/) libassuan (https://gnupg.org/ftp/gcrypt/libassuan/)
You should get the latest versions of course, the GnuPG configure script complains if a version is not sufficient.
Several other standard libraries are also required. The configure script prints diagnostic messages if one of these libraries is not available and a feature will not be available.
You also need the Pinentry package for most functions of GnuPG; however it is not a build requirement. Pinentry is available at https://gnupg.org/ftp/gcrypt/pinentry/ .
After building and installing the above packages in the order as given above, you may continue with GnuPG installation (you may also just try to build GnuPG to see whether your already installed versions are sufficient).
As with all packages, you just have to do
mkdir build cd build ../configure make make check make install
The "make check" is optional but highly recommended. To run even more tests you may add "--enable-all-tests" to the configure run. Before running the "make install" you might need to become root.
If everything succeeds, you have a working GnuPG with support for OpenPGP, S/MIME, ssh-agent, and smartcards.
In case of problem please ask on the gnupg-users@gnupg.org mailing list for advise.
Instruction on how to build for Windows can be found in the file doc/HACKING in the section "How to build an installer for Windows". This requires some experience as developer.
You may run
gpgconf -L
to view the directories used by GnuPG.
- Quick build method on Unix
To quickly build all required software without installing it, the Speedo target may be used:
make -f build-aux/speedo.mk native
This target downloads all required libraries and does a native build of GnuPG to PLAY/inst/. GNU make and the patchelf tool are required. After the build the entire software including all libraries can be installed into an arbitrary location using for example:
make -f build-aux/speedo.mk install SYSROOT=/usr/local/gnupg26
and run the binaries like
/usr/local/gnupg26/bin/gpg
which will also start any daemon from the same directory. Make sure to stop already running daemons or use a different GNUPGHOME.
- Specific build problems on some machines:
- Apple OSX 10.x using XCode
On some versions the correct location of a header file can't be detected by configure. To fix that you should run configure like this
./configure gl_cv_absolute_stdint_h=/usr/include/stdint.h
Add other options as needed.
- Systems without a full C99 compiler
If you run into problems with your compiler complaining about dns.c you may use
./configure --disable-libdns
Add other options as needed.
- RECOMMENDATIONS
- Key database daemon
Since version 2.3.0 it is possible to store the keys in an SQLite database instead of the keyring.kbx file. This is in particular useful for large keyrings or if many instances of gpg and gpgsm may run concurrently. This is implemented using another daemon process, the "keyboxd". To enable the use of the keyboxd put the option "use-keyboxd" into the configuration file ~/.gnupg/common.conf or the global /etc/gnupg/common.conf. See also doc/examples/common.conf. Only public keys and X.509 certificates are managed by the keyboxd; private keys are still stored as separate files.
Since version 2.4.1 the keyboxd will be used by default for a fresh install; i.e. if a ~/.gnupg directory did not yet exist.
Note that there is no automatic migration; if the use-keyboxd option is enabled keys are not taken from pubring.kbx. To migrate existing keys to the keyboxd do this:- Disable the keyboxd (remove use-keyboxd from common.conf)
- Export all public keys gpg --export --export-options backup > allkeys.gpg gpgsm --export --armor > allcerts.gpg
- Enable the keyboxd (add use-keyboxd to common.conf)
- Import all public keys gpg --import --import-options restore < allkeys.gpg gpgsm --import < allcerts.crt
In case the keyboxd is not able to startup due to a stale lockfile created by another host, the command
gpgconf --unlock pubring.db
can be used to remove the lock file.
- Socket directory
GnuPG uses Unix domain sockets to connect its components (on Windows an emulation of these sockets is used). Depending on the type of the file system, it is sometimes not possible to use the GnuPG home directory (i.e. ~/.gnupg) as the location for the sockets. To solve this problem GnuPG prefers the use of a per-user directory below the the /run (or /var/run) hierarchy for the sockets. It is thus suggested to create per-user directories on system or session startup. For example, the following snippet can be used in /etc/rc.local to create these directories:
[ ! -d /run/user ] && mkdir /run/user awk -F: </etc/passwd '$3 >= 1000 && $3 < 65000 {print $3}' \ | ( while read uid rest; do if [ ! -d "/run/user/$uid" ]; then mkdir /run/user/$uid chown $uid /run/user/$uid chmod 700 /run/user/$uid fi done )
- Conflicts with systemd socket activation
Some Linux distribution use the meanwhile deprecated --supervised option with gpg-agent, dirmngr, and keyboxd. The idea is that the systemd process launches the daemons as soon as gpg or gpgsm try to access them. However, this creates a race condition with GnuPG's own on-demand launching of these daemon. It also conflicts with the remote use gpg-agent because the no-autostart feature on the remote site will not work as expected.
Thus the recommendation is not to use the --supervised option. All GnuPG components handle the startup of their daemons on their own.
The only problem is that for using GnuPG's ssh-agent protocol support, the gpg-agent must have been started before ssh. This can either be done with an ssh wrapper running
gpg-connect-agent updatestartuptty /bye
for each new tty or by using that command directly after login when the anyway required SSH_AUTH_SOCK envvar is set (see the example in the gpg-agent man page).
- DOCUMENTATION
The complete documentation is in the texinfo manual named `gnupg.info'. Run "info gnupg" to read it. If you want a printable copy of the manual, change to the "doc" directory and enter "make pdf" For a HTML version enter "make html" and point your browser to gnupg.html/index.html. Standard man pages for all components are provided as well. An online version of the manual is available at https://gnupg.org/documentation/manuals/gnupg/ . A version of the manual pertaining to the current development snapshot is at https://gnupg.org/documentation/manuals/gnupg-devel/ .
- Using the legacy version GnuPG 1.4
The 1.4 version of GnuPG is only intended to allow decryption of old data material using legacy keys which are not anymore supported by GnuPG 2.x. To install both versions alongside, it is suggested to rename the 1.4 version of "gpg" to "gpg1" as well as the corresponding man page. Newer releases of the 1.4 branch will likely do this by default.
- HOW TO GET MORE INFORMATION
A description of new features and changes since version 2.1 can be found in the file "doc/whats-new-in-2.1.txt" and online at "https://gnupg.org/faq/whats-new-in-2.1.html" .
The primary WWW page is "https://gnupg.org" The primary FTP site is "https://gnupg.org/ftp/gcrypt/"
See https://gnupg.org/download/mirrors.html for a list of mirrors and use them if possible. You may also find GnuPG mirrored on some of the regular GNU mirrors.
We have some mailing lists dedicated to GnuPG:
gnupg-announce@gnupg.org For important announcements like new versions and such stuff. This is a moderated list and has very low traffic. Do not post to this list.
gnupg-users@gnupg.org For general user discussion and help.
gnupg-devel@gnupg.org GnuPG developers main forum.
You subscribe to one of the list by sending mail with a subject of "subscribe" to x-request@gnupg.org, where x is the name of the mailing list (gnupg-announce, gnupg-users, etc.). See https://gnupg.org/documentation/mailing-lists.html for archives of the mailing lists.
Please direct bug reports to https://bugs.gnupg.org or post them direct to the mailing list <gnupg-devel@gnupg.org>.
Please direct questions about GnuPG to the users mailing list or one of the PGP newsgroups; please do not direct questions to one of the authors directly as we are busy working on improvements and bug fixes. The mailing lists are watched by the authors and we try to answer questions as time allows us.
Commercial grade support for GnuPG is available; for a listing of offers see https://gnupg.org/service.html . Maintaining and improving GnuPG requires a lot of time. Since 2001, g10 Code GmbH, a German company owned and headed by GnuPG's principal author Werner Koch, is bearing the majority of these costs.
- This file is Free Software; as a special exception the authors gives
- unlimited permission to copy and/or distribute it, with or without
- modifications, as long as this notice is preserved. For conditions
- of the whole package, please see the file COPYING. This file is
- distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
- WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law; without even the implied
- warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. #
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