DIRMNGR-CLIENT(1) GNU Privacy Guard 2.4 DIRMNGR-CLIENT(1)

# [NAME](#NAME)

**dirmngr-client** - Tool to access the Dirmngr services

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

**dirmngr-client** \[*options*] \[*certfile*|*pattern*]

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

The **dirmngr-client** is a simple tool to contact a running dirmngr and test whether a certificate has been revoked — either by being listed in the corresponding CRL or by running the OCSP protocol. If no dirmngr is running, a new instances will be started but this is in general not a good idea due to the huge performance overhead.

The usual way to run this tool is either:

```
dirmngr-client acert
```

or

```
dirmngr-client <acert
```

Where *acert* is one DER encoded (binary) X.509 certificates to be tested.

# [RETURN VALUE](#RETURN_VALUE)

**dirmngr-client** returns these values:

**0**

The certificate under question is valid; i.e. there is a valid CRL available and it is not listed there or the OCSP request returned that that certificate is valid.

**1**

The certificate has been revoked

**2 (and other values)**

There was a problem checking the revocation state of the certificate. A message to stderr has given more detailed information. Most likely this is due to a missing or expired CRL or due to a network problem.

# [OPTIONS](#OPTIONS)

**dirmngr-client** may be called with the following options:

[**--version**](#version)

Print the program version and licensing information. Note that you cannot abbreviate this command.

[**--help, -h**](#help,)

Print a usage message summarizing the most useful command-line options. Note that you cannot abbreviate this command.

[**--quiet, -q**](#quiet,)

Make the output extra brief by suppressing any informational messages.

[**-v**](#v)

[**--verbose**](#verbose)

Outputs additional information while running. You can increase the verbosity by giving several verbose commands to **dirmngr**, such as ‘-vv’.

[**--pem**](#pem)

Assume that the given certificate is in PEM (armored) format.

[**--ocsp**](#ocsp)

Do the check using the OCSP protocol and ignore any CRLs.

[**--force-default-responder**](#force)

When checking using the OCSP protocol, force the use of the default OCSP responder. That is not to use the Reponder as given by the certificate.

[**--ping**](#ping)

Check whether the dirmngr daemon is up and running.

[**--cache-cert**](#cache)

Put the given certificate into the cache of a running dirmngr. This is mainly useful for debugging.

[**--validate**](#validate)

Validate the given certificate using dirmngr's internal validation code. This is mainly useful for debugging.

[**--load-crl**](#load)

This command expects a list of filenames with DER encoded CRL files. With the option **--url** URLs are expected in place of filenames and they are loaded directly from the given location. All CRLs will be validated and then loaded into dirmngr's cache.

[**--lookup**](#lookup)

Take the remaining arguments and run a lookup command on each of them. The results are Base-64 encoded outputs (without header lines). This may be used to retrieve certificates from a server. However the output format is not very well suited if more than one certificate is returned.

[**--url**](#url)

[**-u**](#u)

Modify the **lookup** and **load-crl** commands to take an URL.

[**--local**](#local)

[**-l**](#l)

Let the **lookup** command only search the local cache.

[**--squid-mode**](#squid)

Run **dirmngr-client** in a mode suitable as a helper program for Squid's **external\_acl\_type** option.

# [SEE ALSO](#SEE_ALSO)

[**dirmngr**(8)](/man/os/gnupg/dirmngr.8), [**gpgsm**(1)](/man/os/gnupg/gpgsm.1)

The full documentation for this tool is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If GnuPG and the info program are properly installed at your site, the command

```
info gnupg
```

should give you access to the complete manual including a menu structure and an index.

2025-12-30 GnuPG 2.4.9

---

Document: dirmngr-client(1) from gnupg 2.4.9-r12 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/gpg/gnupg