Force loopback pinentry-mode

[websecnl]

Fixes an issue with GPG:

gpg: signing failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
gpg: [stdin]: clear-sign failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device

[oh2fih]

This is not a general issue with GnuPG that affects everyone. The error is probably caused by a gpg-agent misconfiguration. Furthermore, the suggested patch will override the default settings, disabling the user to choose the desired pinentry mode.

--pinentry-mode mode - -

• loopback
  Redirect Pinentry queries to the caller. Note that in contrast to Pinentry the user is not prompted again if he enters a bad password.

Not prompting the password again seems hardly a generally desired behavior.

[oh2fih]

The root cause for Inappropriate ioctl for device is that GnuPG doesn't know where to read the input from. Try:

export GPG_TTY=$(tty)

A proper solution for this with the behavior you suggest would be:

• In ~/.gnupg/gpg.conf, add:

  use-agent 
  pinentry-mode loopback
  

• in ~/.gnupg/gpg-agent.conf, add:

  allow-loopback-pinentry
  

Closing as non-issue, cannot reproduce & unwanted change.

[websecnl]

Alright :) Well, still good to have this in the history here so other users know.
I had to figure this out the hard way.

[oh2fih]

👍 I agree that this is good for documentation. Could have been opened as an issue, too.

😎 It is also always cool to see someone is using my work.