gpgv - signature verification tool

gpgv  [options]  [signed files]    

gpgv is the OpenPGP signature checking tool.

This program is a stripped down version of gpg which is only able to check signatures. It is somewhat smaller than the full blown gpg and uses a different (and more simple way) to check that the public keys used to made the signature are trustworth. There is no options files and only very few options are implemented.

gpgv assumes that all keys in the keyring are trustworty. It uses by default 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.

gpgv recognizes these options:

-v, --verbose

Give 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 a 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 a warning.

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

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.

HOME

Used to locate the default home directory.

GNUPGHOME

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

~/.gnupg/trustedkeys.gpg

The default keyring with the allowed keys