PINENTRY-GNOME3(1)

📦
version 1.3.3 · 2 versions
  • 1.3.3 · debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking (latest)
  • 1.1.1 · ubuntu jammy
, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💅 PINENTRY-GNOME3 💅

okay so bestie, welcome to the pinentry-gnome3(1) page — it lives in the General Commands Manual section, and it's literally the PIN-or-pass-phrase-entry-dialog-for-GnuPG situation. let's get into it 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

pinentry-gnome3 — a PIN or pass-phrase entry dialog for GnuPG. that's the whole vibe. 💖

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

pinentry-gnome3 [OPTION...]

like… that's it. options optional, drama mandatory. ✨

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so pinentry-gnome3 is a program that lets you securely type in PINs or pass phrases. and when we say securely, we mean it's out here trying to make sure the stuff you typed does not get swapped to disk or temporarily stored anywhere. no little copies of your secrets just chilling in random places, no cap. 🚫📝

this is especially iconic when you're entering pass phrases for encryption software like GnuPG, or for e-mail clients that use GnuPG too. and because it uses an open protocol, it's not tied to any particular software — it's for everybody, periodt. 👑

now, the specific flavor we're talking about: pinentry-gnome3 implements a PIN entry dialog based on GNOME 3, and it's trying its absolute hardest to follow the GNOME Human Interface Guidelines as closely as possible. main character energy, honestly. 💅

and here's a fun one — if the X Window System is not active, then an alternative text-mode dialog will be used instead. so it always shows up somehow. 🌈

also FYI there are other flavors that implement PIN entry dialogs using other tool kits. we love a diverse ecosystem. 🎀

the tea: pinentry-gnome3 is typically used internally by gpg-agent. so like… users don't normally have a reason to call it directly. it's giving backstage crew, not front-of-house. 🙈

💖 OPTIONS 💖

  • --version — prints the program version and licensing information. the receipts. 🧾
  • --help — prints a usage message summarizing the most useful command-line options. your little cheat sheet bestie. 📋
  • --debug, -d — turns on some debugging. mostly useful for the maintainers. ⚠️ note that this may reveal sensitive information like the entered pass phrase. so like… be careful, fr fr. 💀
  • --enhanced, -e — asks for timeouts and insurance, too. note that this is currently not fully supported. it's giving "coming soon" energy. 🚧
  • --no-global-grab, -g — grabs the keyboard only when the window is focused. use this option if you are debugging software using pinentry-gnome3; otherwise you may not be able to access your X session anymore (unless you have other means to connect to the machine to kill pinentry-gnome3). 😭 yeah, seriously — read that one twice.
  • --parent-wid N — use window ID N as the parent window for positioning the window. note that this is not fully supported by all flavors of pinentry. 🪟
  • --display STRING, --ttyname STRING, --ttytype STRING, --lc-ctype STRING, --lc-messages STRING — these options are used to pass localization information to pinentry-gnome3. they're required because pinentry-gnome3 is usually called by some background process which does not have any information on the locale and terminal to use. 🌍 Assuan protocol options are an alternative way to pass this information. 🫶

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

and bestie, the full documentation for pinentry-gnome3 is maintained as a Texinfo manual. if the pinentry-doc package is installed, this command:

info pinentry

should give you access to the complete manual. go read it, it's giving ✨scholarly✨. 📚

👑 AUTHOR 👑

this manual page was written by Daniel Kahn Gillmor for the Debian project, adapted from other pinentry manual pages written by Peter Eisentraut. absolute legends, both of them. 🫡💜

and that's the whole page bestie!! this was PINENTRY-GNOME3(1) from the General Commands Manual, dated 01 Jun 2015. mwah, slay, go forth and type your pass phrases securely 💅✨🎀

📦 where this page comes from