GNU bug report logs - #24076
gnupg [-agent]: when signing [commits], it claims that there is no pinentry - but there is

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From: help-debbugs <at> gnu.org (GNU bug Tracking System)
To: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
Cc: tracker <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#36784: closed (GnuPG lacks a default pinentry program)
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2020 12:10:01 +0000

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Your message dated Thu, 26 Mar 2020 13:09:40 +0100
with message-id <87pncz9v23.fsf <at> gnu.org>
and subject line Re: bug#24076: gnupg [-agent]: when signing [commits], it claims that there is no pinentry - but there is
has caused the debbugs.gnu.org bug report #24076,
regarding GnuPG lacks a default pinentry program
to be marked as done.

(If you believe you have received this mail in error, please contact
help-debbugs <at> gnu.org.)


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From: Raghav Gururajan <raghavgururajan <at> disroot.org>
To: bug-guix <at> gnu.org
Subject: Cannot generate key pair with GnuPG
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2019 06:00:44 -0400

Hello Guix!

The current gnupg package in guix has "pinentry" as a missing
dependency.

Because of this, GnuPG throws the following error upon attempting to
generate key pairs:

gpg: agent_genkey failed: No pinentry
gpg: key generation failed: No pinentry

So it appears, unless the above mentioned dependency issue is fixed,
one cannot create gpg key pairs. :(

Regards,
RG.

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From: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
To: Alex Kost <alezost <at> gmail.com>
Cc: Danny Milosavljevic <dannym <at> scratchpost.org>, 24076-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#24076: gnupg [-agent]: when signing [commits],
 it claims that there is no pinentry - but there is
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2020 13:09:40 +0100

Hi!

ludo <at> gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès) skribis:

> What about having GnuPG depend on pinentry-tty, and configuring it with:
>
>   --with-pinentry-pgm=/path/to/pinentry-tty
>
> ?  That would at least provide a reasonable default.  The closure size
> of GnuPG would increase from 220 to 243 MiB (+10%).
>
> Most of the time, people will want to use pinentry-gtk though.
>
> Another option would be to change ‘gnupg_module_name’, in homedir.c, from:
>
>     case GNUPG_MODULE_NAME_PINENTRY:
> #ifdef GNUPG_DEFAULT_PINENTRY
>       return GNUPG_DEFAULT_PINENTRY;
> #else
>       X(bindir, "pinentry");
> #endif
>
>
> to something like:
>
>     case GNUPG_MODULE_NAME_PINENTRY:
>       X(homedir, ".guix-profile/bin/pinentry);
>
> … in which case GnuPG would default to the user-installed pinentry, if
> available.  Not perfect either, but closer to what other distros do.

I (finally!) implemented this second option in commit
c7af9d0b5ebaa1fdb08ff5d8a56004998bcd8103.

I confirmed that it has the indented effect like this:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
ludo <at> ribbon ~/src/guix$ ./pre-inst-env guix environment --ad-hoc gnupg strace coreutils sed grep -C
ludo <at> ribbon ~/src/guix [env]$ strace -f -o ,,s -s 500 gpg --generate-key
gpg (GnuPG) 2.2.20; Copyright (C) 2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

gpg: directory '/home/ludo/.gnupg' created
gpg: keybox '/home/ludo/.gnupg/pubring.kbx' created
Note: Use "gpg --full-generate-key" for a full featured key generation dialog.

GnuPG needs to construct a user ID to identify your key.

Real name: Foo Bar
Email address: foo <at> example.org
You selected this USER-ID:
    "Foo Bar <foo <at> example.org>"

Change (N)ame, (E)mail, or (O)kay/(Q)uit? o
We need to generate a lot of random bytes. It is a good idea to perform
some other action (type on the keyboard, move the mouse, utilize the
disks) during the prime generation; this gives the random number
generator a better chance to gain enough entropy.
gpg: agent_genkey failed: No pinentry
Key generation failed: No pinentry

--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

where the strace log shows:

  10    execve("/home/ludo/.gnupg/.guix-profile/bin/pinentry", ["pinentry"], 0x7f7aa80035e0 /* 14 vars */) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)

So now one just needs to install one of the pinentry packages.

Thanks,
Ludo’.

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