Does gpg ask for password even with gpg-agent

gpg-agent

I started gpg-agent as follows:

eval `gpg-agent --daemon --preset`

and in this terminal window, used the gpg-preset-passphrase command as recommended:

echo secretpassword | /usr/libexec/gpg-preset-passphrase --preset KEYGRIPID

I then used this answer to verify the password was indeed correctly cached:

echo 'GET_PASSPHRASE --no-ask KEYGRIPID Err Pmt Des'|gpg-connect-agent |
  perl -pe 's/([0-9a-fA-F]{2})/chr(hex $1)/eg'

When I now run gpg to sign or encrypt something, I get prompted for a password. This should not happen.

gpg -u KEYGRIPID --clearsign --batch somefile.txt

<curses-based prompt>

Once I enter the password correctly, and re-run the gpg-sign command, I do not get prompted. This indicates that the password is cached, albeit differently.

gpg version 2.0.14

Best Answer

It's not the keygripid but the fingerprint of the key. Here is the reference. Here's a fugly perl script to help you extract the needed values: 

gpg -K --fingerprint | 
perl -lne '$/="\n\n"' \
 -e if ( ($len,$grip,$fp)=/^sec\s+(\w+)\/([0-9A-Z]+).* fingerprint = (.*?)\s+uid\s/ms)' \
 -e { $fp =~ s/\s*//g; print "$grip $fp";}'

outputs:

EF2141BE 24C5202D6905CB0A5C94AB36134E3618EF6141B8
1BA3D65B 484EE4F3DC2595FAF91F51A9731342954BAFD753

Copy the 2nd column and pass that into the preset command

echo secretpassword | /usr/libexec/gpg-preset-passphrase --preset
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