3.3 Configuration files
There are a few configuration files to control certain aspects of
gpg2's operation. Unless noted, they are expected in the
current home directory (see option –homedir).
- gpg.conf
- This is the standard configuration file read by gpg2 on
startup. It may contain any valid long option; the leading two dashes
may not be entered and the option may not be abbreviated. This default
name may be changed on the command line (see option –options).
You should backup this file.
Note that on larger installations, it is useful to put predefined files
into the directory /etc/skel/.gnupg/ so that newly created users
start up with a working configuration.
For existing users the a small
helper script is provided to create these files (see addgnupghome).
For internal purposes gpg2 creates and maintains a few other
files; They all live in in the current home directory (see option –homedir). Only the gpg2 may modify these files.
- ~/.gnupg/secring.gpg
- The secret keyring. You should backup this file.
- ~/.gnupg/secring.gpg.lock
- The lock file for the secret keyring.
- ~/.gnupg/pubring.gpg
- The public keyring. You should backup this file.
- ~/.gnupg/pubring.gpg.lock
- The lock file for the public keyring.
- ~/.gnupg/trustdb.gpg
- The trust database. There is no need to backup this file; it is better
to backup the ownertrust values (see option –export-ownertrust).
- ~/.gnupg/trustdb.gpg.lock
- The lock file for the trust database.
- ~/.gnupg/random_seed
- A file used to preserve the state of the internal random pool.
- /usr[/local]/share/gnupg/options.skel
- The skeleton options file.
- /usr[/local]/lib/gnupg/
- Default location for extensions.
Operation is further controlled by a few environment variables:
- HOME
- Used to locate the default home directory.
- GNUPGHOME
- If set directory used instead of "~/.gnupg".
- GPG_AGENT_INFO
- Used to locate the gpg-agent.
The value consists of 3 colon delimited fields: The first is the path
to the Unix Domain Socket, the second the PID of the gpg-agent and the
protocol version which should be set to 1. When starting the gpg-agent
as described in its documentation, this variable is set to the correct
value. The option --gpg-agent-info can be used to override it.
- PINENTRY_USER_DATA
- This value is passed via gpg-agent to pinentry. It is useful to convey
extra information to a custom pinentry.
- COLUMNS
- LINES
- Used to size some displays to the full size of the screen.
- LANGUAGE
- Apart from its use by GNU, it is used in the W32 version to override the
language selection done through the Registry. If used and set to a
valid and available language name (langid), the file with the
translation is loaded from
gpgdir
/gnupg.nls/
langid.mo
. Here gpgdir is the
directory out of which the gpg binary has been loaded. If it can't be
loaded the Registry is tried and as last resort the native Windows
locale system is used.