(gnupg.info)Invoking GPG-AGENT

---

Next: Invoking DIRMNGR Prev: Installation Up: Top

---

Enter node , (file) or (file)node

2 Invoking GPG-AGENT
********************

'gpg-agent' is a daemon to manage secret (private) keys independently
from any protocol.  It is used as a backend for 'gpg' and 'gpgsm' as
well as for a couple of other utilities.

   The agent is automatically started on demand by 'gpg', 'gpgsm',
'gpgconf', or 'gpg-connect-agent'.  Thus there is no reason to start it
manually.  In case you want to use the included Secure Shell Agent you
may start the agent using:

     gpg-connect-agent /bye

If you want to manually terminate the currently-running agent, you can
safely do so with:

     gpgconf --kill gpg-agent

You should always add the following lines to your '.bashrc' or whatever
initialization file is used for all shell invocations:

     GPG_TTY=$(tty)
     export GPG_TTY

It is important that this environment variable always reflects the
output of the 'tty' command.  For W32 systems this option is not
required.

   Please make sure that a proper pinentry program has been installed
under the default filename (which is system dependent) or use the option
'pinentry-program' to specify the full name of that program.  It is
often useful to install a symbolic link from the actual used pinentry
(e.g.  '/usr/bin/pinentry-gtk') to the expected one (e.g.
'/usr/bin/pinentry').

Note: Option Index, for an index to 'GPG-AGENT''s commands and
options.

Agent Commands

List of all commands.

Agent Options

List of all options.

Agent Configuration

Configuration files.

Agent Signals

Use of some signals.

Agent Examples

Some usage examples.

Agent Protocol

The protocol the agent uses.