PIN entry for Debian
--------------------
This package and its sibling packages are intended to be used as a
pass-phrase entry dialog for the program gpg-agent (Debian package
gnupg-agent). To configure gpg-agent to use one of the provided
pinentry programs, put something like this into your
~/.gnupg/gpg-agent.conf:
pinentry-program /usr/bin/pinentry-FLAVOR
You have the following pinentry variants to choose from:
/usr/bin/pinentry
Generic name that points, via the Debian alternatives system, to
the "best" installed PIN entry program. gpg-agent uses this by
default.
/usr/bin/pinentry-x11
Generic name that points, via the Debian alternatives system, to
the "best" installed PIN entry program with X11 support (that is,
one of the GTK+ or Qt flavors).
/usr/bin/pinentry-curses
Text-mode PIN entry program that uses the curses tool kit (package
pinentry-curses).
/usr/bin/pinentry-gtk-2
Graphical PIN entry program that uses the GTK+ tool kit version 2
(package pinentry-gtk2).
/usr/bin/pinentry-qt4
Graphical PIN entry program that uses the Qt tool kit version 4
(package pinentry-qt4).
The programs pinentry-gtk-2 and pinentry-qt4 automatically fall back
to the curses interface if no X Window System is available. So for
example, if you frequently switch between text mode and KDE, and you
want to use both Mutt and KMail with GnuPG pass-phrase agent support,
then configuring /usr/bin/pinentry-qt4 would work. (In this case,
leaving it at /usr/bin/pinentry would also work, since pinentry-qt4 is
the preferred alternative overall, but if you prefer to use, say,
pinentry-gtk-2, then you need to set it up explicitly (or manually
alter the alternatives system; the possibilities abound).)
Note that while pinentry-curses will work in some cases in a
non-graphical environment, it is likely to fail when used while
sharing a tty with a terminal-intensive program like emacs. If a
graphical pinentry isn't possible, the recommended workaround is to
have a curses-based pinentry attached to a separate pseudoterminal.
(see https://dev.gnupg.org/T3217 for more details)
Note that for the complete system to work, you also need to configure
GnuPG to use the gpg-agent to get the pass phrases, and you need to
configure your e-mail client to use GnuPG. These issues are not
covered here.
-- Daniel Kahn Gillmor <dkg@fifthhorseman.net>, Sun, 6 Aug 2017 23:52:43 -0400