I just installed GPG4Win v 3. Apparently, this is the first time I’ve upgraded above GnuPG v 2.0. I noticed this strange behavior while checking the functionality of my setup with the new versions:
I store my keys on a separate drive and had been using the “–no-default-keyring”, “–keyring” and “–secret-keyring” options in my “gpg.conf” file. Of course, the “–secret-keyring” option no longer works above GnuPG 2.0. So, I tried using the “–homedir” option on the command line. This worked fine for my public keyring, but the secret keyring kept coming up empty, even after a successful migration of my private keys to the “private-keys-v1.d” folder. After several attempts to make it work, I found that the only solution was to remove the “gnupg” folder entirely from my “AppData” folder. A new, empty “gnupg” folder was then created the next time I invoked GnuPG from the command line, but the “–homedir” option now read my private keys from the other drive. This is using Windows 10 64 bit Home edition with all updates except “Creators”.
I read and understand the reasoning behind moving away from using the “secring.gpg” file, and I’m fine with that. But, I would like to know if there is any way a new option can be introduced which duplicates the function of the “–secret-keyring” option, except with the “private-keys-v1.d” folder. (Or is there some other existing solution of which I am not aware?) It’s a bit bothersome to have to type the “–homedir” option every time I want to invoke GnuPG, not to mention the fact that I cannot use Kleopatra or GPA without first copying my private keys back to the “AppData” folder since the option does not work in the config file. Thank you.
Regards,
Sean C.