Re: [PATCH] git-tag: don't use gpg's stdin, stdout when signing tags

From: Todd Zullinger <tmz@pobox.com>
Date: Feb 20, 2009, 13:46 UTC
Message-ID: <20090220134634.GJ4505@inocybe.teonanacatl.org>
In-Reply-To: <20090220113856.6612.qmail@0bbdb5719a4668.315fe32.mid.smarden.org>

Gerrit Pape wrote:

Show 8 quoted lines

> When using gpg with some console based gpg-agent, acquiring the
> passphrase through the agent fails if stdin and stdout of gpg are
> redirected.  With this commit, git-tag uses temporary files instead
> of standard input/output when signing a tag to support such
> gpg-agent usage.
>
> The problem was reported by Loïc Minier through
> http://bugs.debian.org/507642

I sign tags using gpg-agent with the curse pinentry often and it works here. Perhaps Loïc has not set GPG_TTY as the gpg-agent documentation suggests? If I unset GPG_TTY, I get the sort of failure indicated in the bug report. With it set tag signing works as expected.

Quoting the gpg-agent docs:

  You should always add the following lines to your `.bashrc' or
  whatever initialization file is used for all shell invocations:

     GPG_TTY=`tty`
     export GPG_TTY

  It is important that this environment variable always reflects the
  output of the `tty' command.  For W32 systems this option is not
  required.

Now, I'm not sure if that's a reason not to include this patch.  :)

I just wanted to mention that it can and does work if you have GPG_TTY set. This is often needed for other tools as well, e.g. with mutt, so users of the curses pinentry are best off setting it rather than hoping individual apps work around it.

-- 
Todd        OpenPGP -> KeyID: 0xBEAF0CE3 | URL: www.pobox.com/~tmz/pgp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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