Symmetric encryption in GnuPG2 exits with non-zero exit code (2) even though
ecryption itself proceeds correctly (text is encrypted well). Whenever one
tries to encrypt a text using a symmetric key in batchmode, the side effect is:
gpg: can't connect to the agent: Invalid value passed to IPC
gpg: problem with the agent: No agent running
And exit code is 2.
gpg2 --homedir ./.gnupg --batch --passphrase password --output encrypted.file
--cipher-algo 3DES --symmetric plaintext.file
Well actually it is a bug. :) The homedir specification should work.
There are actually two bugs:
path, not relative - this is very inconvenient
I can't replicate your problem. You need to make sure that gpg is able to
connect the agent. This either done by setting GPG_AGENT_INFO properly or by
starting the agent like
cd myhomedir
GNUPGHOME=$(pwd) gpg-agent --daemon /bin/sh
and then run gpg in that shell.
The issue is that when the gpg starts the agent by itself (that is there is no
agent currently running) it does not forward the --homedir option.
And another issue is that the homedir can not be specified as relative path.
(OK, that could be accepted as security feature).
Agreed: Homedir should be passed to the agent. Will be changed for 2.1 and
maybe backported to 2.0.
Fixed for 2.1. I don't think backporting makes much sense. Upgrading to 2.1 is
for sure the better solution if you have a real problem with that behaviour.