2.1 Commands

Commands are not distinguished from options except for the fact that only one command is allowed.

--version

Print the program version and licensing information. Note that you cannot abbreviate this command.

--help

-h

Print a usage message summarizing the most useful command-line options. Note that you cannot abbreviate this command.

--dump-options

Print a list of all available options and commands. Note that you cannot abbreviate this command.

--server

Run in server mode and wait for commands on the stdin. The default mode is to create a socket and listen for commands there.

--daemon [command line]

Start the gpg-agent as a daemon; that is, detach it from the console and run it in the background. Because gpg-agent prints out important information required for further use, a common way of invoking gpg-agent is: eval $(gpg-agent --daemon) to setup the environment variables. The option --write-env-file is another way commonly used to do this. Yet another way is creating a new process as a child of gpg-agent: gpg-agent --daemon /bin/sh. This way you get a new shell with the environment setup properly; if you exit from this shell, gpg-agent terminates as well.