10.4.3 Listing components

The command --list-components will list all components that can be configured with gpgconf. Usually, one component will correspond to one GnuPG-related program and contain the options of that program’s configuration file that can be modified using gpgconf. However, this is not necessarily the case. A component might also be a group of selected options from several programs, or contain entirely virtual options that have a special effect rather than changing exactly one option in one configuration file.

A component is a set of configuration options that semantically belong together. Furthermore, several changes to a component can be made in an atomic way with a single operation. The GUI could for example provide a menu with one entry for each component, or a window with one tabulator sheet per component.

The command --list-components lists all available components, one per line. The format of each line is:

name:description:pgmname:

name

This field contains a name tag of the component. The name tag is used to specify the component in all communication with gpgconf. The name tag is to be used verbatim. It is thus not in any escaped format.

description

The string in this field contains a human-readable description of the component. It can be displayed to the user of the GUI for informational purposes. It is percent-escaped and localized.

pgmname

The string in this field contains the absolute name of the program’s file. It can be used to unambiguously invoke that program. It is percent-escaped.

Example:

$ gpgconf --list-components
gpg:GPG for OpenPGP:/usr/local/bin/gpg2:
gpg-agent:GPG Agent:/usr/local/bin/gpg-agent:
scdaemon:Smartcard Daemon:/usr/local/bin/scdaemon:
gpgsm:GPG for S/MIME:/usr/local/bin/gpgsm:
dirmngr:Directory Manager:/usr/local/bin/dirmngr: