[pkg-gnupg-maint] Bug#787781: Bug#787781: gnupg-agent: broken pipe error when a program using agent is invoked by stdbuf -oL

[Daniel Kahn Gillmor]

On Sat 2015-06-06 09:17:21 -0400, nfb wrote:

> stdbuf -oL gpg --use-agent --sign <file>
>
> works without errors retrieving the cached password from gpg-agent.
> I'd say the problem is not directly gpg-agent then...
>
> Anyways executing the command above, i noticed it asked me the
> passphrase via pinentry curses althogh it was already cached, because
> i used it few seconds before with pass, and i used it after just to be
> sure (obviously i have signed the test file with the same key pass
> uses to encrypt its password store).
> Now i don't know gpg-agent internals, but shouldn't it have used the
> already cached passphrase? 

depends on how gpg-agent is configured.  for example, do you have
ignore-cache-for-signing in ~/.gnupg/gpg-agent.conf ?

also, the subkey that is used for encryption should be a different key
than the one used for signing.  It's not clear that gpg-agent should try
to reuse its known passwords for a key that it does not associate with
those passwords.  Anyway, if you think it should, that's probably a
different feature enhancement request to pursue, and we shouldn't
distract #787781 with it.

Regards,

         --dkg