diff --git a/doc/debugging.texi b/doc/debugging.texi new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e5e3e43fd --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/debugging.texi @@ -0,0 +1,82 @@ +@c Copyright (C) 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc. +@c This is part of the GnuPG manual. +@c For copying conditions, see the file gnupg.texi. + +@node Debugging +@chapter How to solve problems + +Everone knows that software often does not do what it should do and thus +there is a need to track down problems. We call this debugging in a +reminiscent to the moth jamming a relay in a Mark II box back in 1947. + +Most of the probelsm a merely configuration and user problems but +nevertheless there are the most annoying ones and reposnible for may +gray hairs. We try to give some guidelines here on how to identify and +solve the problem at hand. + + +@menu +* Debugging Tools:: Description of some useful tools + +@end menu + + +@node Debugging Tools +@section Debugging Tools + +The GnuPG distribution comes with a couple of tools, useful to help find +and solving problems. + +@menu +* kbxutil:: Scrutinizing a keybox file. +@end menu + +@node kbxutil +@subsection Scrutinizing a keybox file + +A keybox is a file fomat used to store public keys along with meta +information and indices. The commonly used one is the file +@file{pubring.kbx} in the @file{.gnupg} directory. It contains all +X.509 certificates as well as OpenPGP keys@footnote{Well, OpenPGP keys +are not implemented, @command{gpg} still used the keyring file +@file{pubring.gpg}} . + +@noindent +When called the standard way, e.g.: + +@samp{kbxutil ~/.gnupg/pubring.kbx} + +@noindent +it lists all records (called @acronym{blobs}) with there meta-information +in a human readable format. + +@noindent +To see statistics on the keybox in question, run it using + +@samp{kbxutil --stats ~/.gnupg/pubring.kbx} + +@noindent +and you get an output like: + +@example +Total number of blobs: 99 + header: 1 + empty: 0 + openpgp: 0 + x509: 98 + non flagged: 81 + secret flagged: 0 + ephemeral flagged: 17 +@end example + +In this example you see that the keybox does not have any OpenPGP keys +but contains 98 X.509 cerificates and a total of 17 keys or certificates +are flagges as ephemeral, meaning that they are only temporary stored +(cached) in the keybox and won't get listed using the usual commands +provided by @command{gpgsm} or @command{gpg}. 81 certifcates are stored +in a standard way and directly available from @command{gpgsm}. + + + + +