[pkg-gnupg-maint] Debian 9 brought unwanted process to my home!

[Daniel Kahn Gillmor]

On Tue 2017-06-27 12:50:00 +0000, !? wrote:
> Hey, I've upgraded to Debian 9 from 8, and I found that GPG is
> creating many lines in my log.
>
> systemd[x]: Listening on GnuPG cryptographic agent and passphrase cache (restricted).
> systemd[x]: Reached target Timers.
> systemd[x]: Listening on GnuPG network certificate management daemon.
> systemd[x]: Listening on GnuPG cryptographic agent (ssh-agent emulation).
> systemd[x]: Listening on GnuPG cryptographic agent (access for web browsers).
> systemd[x]: Listening on GnuPG cryptographic agent and passphrase cache.
>
> How can I kill|disable gpg-agent? I don't want this.
> Also, can I just apt-get remove this thing? I don't use GPG in this box.
> (I saw someone wrote GPG broke APT, so I'm not sure about removing.)

These log messages aren't even any extra processes.  they just indicate
your local systemd user manager listening on sockets, without launching
anything that isn't needed.  If any process tries to actually use the
socket (i.e., if gpg or a related process needs to use private key
material), then systemd will launch the agent as-needed.  It will also
terminate the agent safely and cleanly when it is no longer needed
(i.e. when you log out).

> I like GPG. I'm using it to encrypt emails on other PC.
> But I hate GPG's gpg-agent. It's a waste of resource. I always kill that process
> after encryption/decryption.

I'm curious to hear what specific resource you think gpg-agent is
consuming that are a problem for you.  please provide more details.  is
It the number of processes in use?  the amount of RAM?  the CPU cycles?
network activity?  disk I/O?  please let me know how you're profiling
it.  if there's a resource overconsumption issue, i'd be happy to help
you track it down.

> How can I kill|disable gpg-agent?

Please read /usr/share/doc/gpg-agent/README.Debian for more information
about how gpg-agent is integrated into debian systems, and what your
other options are.

If you still have questions, or have issues or concerns with the details
written there, i'd be happy to discuss them here.

Thanks for the discussion,

      --dkg
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