Manual - Section 1: scdaemon

NAME

scdaemon - Smartcard daemon for the GnuPG system

SYNOPSIS

scdaemon [--homedir dir] [--options file] [options] --server scdaemon [--homedir dir] [--options file] [options] --daemon [command_line]

DESCRIPTION

The scdaemon is a daemon to manage smartcards. It is usually invoked by gpg-agent and in general not used directly.

COMMANDS

Commands are not distinguished from options except for the fact that only one command is allowed.

--version

Print the program version and licensing information. Not that you can abbreviate this command.

--help, -h

Print a usage message summarizing the most usefule command-line options. Not that you can abbreviate this command.

--dump-options

Print a list of all available options and commands. Not that you can abbreviate this command.

--server

Run in server mode and wait for commands on the stdin. This is default mode is to create a socket and listen for commands there.

--multi-server

Run in server mode and wait for commands on the stdin as well as on an additional Unix Domain socket. The server command GETINFO may be used to get the name of that extra socket.

--daemon

Run the program in the background. This option is required to prevent it from being accidently running in the background.

OPTIONS

--options file

Reads configuration from file instead of from the default per-user configuration file. The default configuration file is named scdaemon.conf and expected in the .gnupg directory directly below the home directory of the user.

--homedir dir

Set the name of the home directory to dir. If this option is not used, the home directory defaults to ~/.gnupg. It is only recognized when given on the command line. It also overrides any home directory stated through the environment variable GNUPGHOME or (on W32 systems) by means of the Registry entry HKCU\Software\GNU\GnuPG:HomeDir.

-v
--verbose Outputs additional information while running. You can increase the verbosity by giving several verbose commands to gpgsm, such as '-vv'.

--debug-level level

Select the debug level for investigating problems. level may be one of:

none no debugging at all.

basic

some basic debug messages

advanced

more verbose debug messages

expert

even more detailed messages

guru all of the debug messages you can get

How these messages are mapped to the actual debugging flags is not specified and may change with newer releases of this program. They are however carefully selected to best aid in debugging.
All debugging options are subject to change and thus should not be used by any application program. As the name says, they are only used as helpers to debug problems.

--debug flags

This option is only useful for debugging and the behaviour may change at any time without notice. FLAGS are bit encoded and may be given in usual C-Syntax. The currently defined bits are:

0 (1) command I/O

1 (2) values of big number integers

2 (4) low level crypto operations

5 (32) memory allocation

6 (64) caching

7 (128)

show memory statistics.

9 (512)

write hashed data to files named dbgmd-000*

10 (1024)

trace Assuan protocol

11 (2048)

trace APDU I/O to the card. This may reveal sensitive data.

--debug-all

Same as --debug=0xffffffff

--debug-wait n

When running in server mode, wait n seconds before entering the actual processing loop and print the pid. This gives time to attach a debugger.

--debug-ccid-driver

Enable debug output from the included CCID driver for smartcards. Using this option twice will also enable some tracing of the T=1 protocol. Note that this option may reveal sensitive data.

--debug-disable-ticker

This option disables all ticker functions like checking for card insertions.

--debug-allow-core-dump

For security reasons we won’t create a core dump when the process aborts. For debugging purposes it is sometimes better to allow core dump. This options enables it and also changes the working directory to /tmp when running in --server mode.

--debug-log-tid

This option appends a thread ID to the PID in the log output.

--no-detach

Don’t detach the process from the console. This is mainly useful for debugging.

--log-file file

Append all logging output to file. This is very helpful in seeing what the agent actually does.

--pcsc-driver library

Use library to access the smartcard reader. The current default is libpcsclite.so. Instead of using this option you might also want to install a symbolic link to the default file name (e.g. from libpcsclite.so.1).

--ctapi-driver library

Use library to access the smartcard reader. The current default is libtowitoko.so. Note that the use of this interface is deprecated; it may be removed in future releases.

--disable-ccid

Disable the integrated support for CCID compliant readers. This allows to fall back to one of the other drivers even if the internal CCID driver can handle the reader. Note, that CCID support is only available if libusb was available at build time.

--reader-port number_or_string

This option may be used to specify the port of the card terminal. A value of 0 refers to the first serial device; add 32768 to access USB devices. The default is 32768 (first USB device). PC/SC or CCID readers might need a string here; run the program in verbose mode to get a list of available readers. The default is then the first reader found.
To get a list of available CCID readers you may use this command:

echo scd getinfo reader_list | gpg-connect-agent --decode | awk ’/^D/ {print $2}’

--card-timeout n

If n is not 0 and no client is actively using the card, the card will be powered down after n seconds. Powering down the card avoids a potential risk of damaging a card when used with certain cheap readers. This also allows non Scdaemon aware applications to access the card. The disadvantage of using a card timeout is that accessing the card takes longer and that the user needs to enter the PIN again after the next power up.
Note that with the current version of Scdaemon the card is powered down immediatley at the next timer tick for any value of n other than 0.

--disable-keypad

Even if a card reader features a keypad, do not try to use it.

--deny-admin

This option disables the use of admin class commands for card applications where this is supported. Currently we support it for the OpenPGP card. This commands is useful to inhibit accidental access to admin class command which could ultimately lock the card through wrong PIN numbers. Note that GnuPG versions older than 2.0.11 featured an --allow-admin command which was required to use such admin commands. This option has no more effect today because the default is now to allow admin commands.

--disable-application name

This option disables the use of the card application named name. This is mainly useful for debugging or if a application with lower priority should be used by default.
All the long options may also be given in the configuration file after stripping off the two leading dashes.

CARD APPLICATIONS

scdaemon supports the card applications as described below.

The OpenPGP card application ``openpgp''

This application is currently only used by gpg but may in future also be useful with gpgsm. Version 1 and version 2 of the card is supported.

The specifications for these cards are available at (http://g10code.com/docs/openpgp-card-1.0.pdf) and (http://g10code.com/docs/openpgp-card-2.0.pdf).

The Telesec NetKey card ``nks''

This is the main application of the Telesec cards as available in Germany. It is a superset of the German DINSIG card. The card is used by gpgsm.

The DINSIG card application ``dinsig''

This is an application as described in the German draft standard DIN V 66291-1. It is intended to be used by cards supporting the German signature law and its bylaws (SigG and SigV).

The PKCS#15 card application ``p15''

This is common fraqmework for smart card applications. It is used by gpgsm.

The Geldkarte card application ``geldkarte''

This is a simple application to display information of a German Geldkarte. The Geldkarte is a small amount debit card application which comes with almost all German banking cards.

EXAMPLES

$ scdaemon --server -v

FILES

There are a few configuration files to control certain aspects of scdaemons’s operation. Unless noted, they are expected in the current home directory (see: [option --homedir]).

scdaemon.conf

This is the standard configuration file read by scdaemon on startup. It may contain any valid long option; the leading two dashes may not be entered and the option may not be abbreviated. This default name may be changed on the command line (see: [option --options]).

scd-event

If this file is present and executable, it will be called on veyer card reader’s status changed. An example of this script is provided with the distribution

reader_n.status

This file is created by sdaemon to let other applications now about reader status changes. Its use is now deprecated in favor of scd-event.