[pkg-gnupg-maint] Bug#874721: gnupg: the option --debug-quick-random seems to be ignored

[Elena ``of Valhalla'']

Package: gnupg
Version: 2.1.18-6
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,

When running tests for python-gnupg (e.g. at build time) I use the
option --debug-quick-random to use /dev/urandom instead of /dev/random
to be able to complete the tests in a reasonable time (as it is
generating keys that will be dropped later).

With gnupg 1.4 the corresponding option --quick-random had the desidered
effect, but since the move gnupg 2.1 this seems to be ignored, to the
serious detriment of build times (see
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=874720 )

This can be reproduced by monitoring
/proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail while generating keys, especially
on a machine without entropy generating tokens or the like.

Please let me know if I'm using the option in the wrong way, in which
case this would become a whishlist bug asking for better documentation.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 9.1
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 4.9.0-3-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_GB:en (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages gnupg depends on:
ii  gnupg-agent    2.1.18-6
ii  libassuan0     2.4.3-2
ii  libbz2-1.0     1.0.6-8.1
ii  libc6          2.24-11+deb9u1
ii  libgcrypt20    1.7.6-2+deb9u1
ii  libgpg-error0  1.26-2
ii  libksba8       1.3.5-2
ii  libreadline7   7.0-3
ii  libsqlite3-0   3.16.2-5
ii  zlib1g         1:1.2.8.dfsg-5

Versions of packages gnupg recommends:
ii  dirmngr     2.1.18-6
ii  gnupg-l10n  2.1.18-6

Versions of packages gnupg suggests:
ii  parcimonie  0.10.2-4
pn  xloadimage  <none>

-- no debconf information