File: gnupg.info,  Node: Controlling gpg-connect-agent,  Prev: gpg-connect-agent.php">Invoking gpg-connect-agent,  Up: gpg-connect-agent

10.7.2 Control commands
-----------------------

While reading Assuan commands, gpg-agent also allows a few special
commands to control its operation.  These control commands all start
with a slash ('/').

'/echo ARGS'
     Just print ARGS.

'/let NAME VALUE'
     Set the variable NAME to VALUE.  Variables are only substituted on
     the input if the '/subst' has been used.  Variables are referenced
     by prefixing the name with a dollar sign and optionally include the
     name in curly braces.  The rules for a valid name are identically
     to those of the standard bourne shell.  This is not yet enforced
     but may be in the future.  When used with curly braces no leading
     or trailing white space is allowed.

     If a variable is not found, it is searched in the environment and
     if found copied to the table of variables.

     Variable functions are available: The name of the function must be
     followed by at least one space and the at least one argument.  The
     following functions are available:

     'get'
          Return a value described by the argument.  Available arguments
          are:

          'cwd'
               The current working directory.
          'homedir'
               The gnupg homedir.
          'sysconfdir'
               GnuPG's system configuration directory.
          'bindir'
               GnuPG's binary directory.
          'libdir'
               GnuPG's library directory.
          'libexecdir'
               GnuPG's library directory for executable files.
          'datadir'
               GnuPG's data directory.
          'serverpid'
               The PID of the current server.  Command '/serverpid' must
               have been given to return a useful value.

     'unescape ARGS'
          Remove C-style escapes from ARGS.  Note that '\0' and '\x00'
          terminate the returned string implicitly.  The string to be
          converted are the entire arguments right behind the delimiting
          space of the function name.

     'unpercent ARGS'
     'unpercent+ ARGS'
          Remove percent style escaping from ARGS.  Note that '%00'
          terminates the string implicitly.  The string to be converted
          are the entire arguments right behind the delimiting space of
          the function name.  'unpercent+' also maps plus signs to a
          spaces.

     'percent ARGS'
     'percent+ ARGS'
          Escape the ARGS using percent style escaping.  Tabs,
          formfeeds, linefeeds, carriage returns and colons are escaped.
          'percent+' also maps spaces to plus signs.

     'errcode ARG'
     'errsource ARG'
     'errstring ARG'
          Assume ARG is an integer and evaluate it using 'strtol'.
          Return the gpg-error error code, error source or a formatted
          string with the error code and error source.

     '+'
     '-'
     '*'
     '/'
     '%'
          Evaluate all arguments as long integers using 'strtol' and
          apply this operator.  A division by zero yields an empty
          string.

     '!'
     '|'
     '&'
          Evaluate all arguments as long integers using 'strtol' and
          apply the logical operators NOT, OR or AND. The NOT operator
          works on the last argument only.

'/definq NAME VAR'
     Use content of the variable VAR for inquiries with NAME.  NAME may
     be an asterisk ('*') to match any inquiry.

'/definqfile NAME FILE'
     Use content of FILE for inquiries with NAME.  NAME may be an
     asterisk ('*') to match any inquiry.

'/definqprog NAME PROG'
     Run PROG for inquiries matching NAME and pass the entire line to it
     as command line arguments.

'/datafile NAME'
     Write all data lines from the server to the file NAME.  The file is
     opened for writing and created if it does not exists.  An existing
     file is first truncated to 0.  The data written to the file fully
     decoded.  Using a single dash for NAME writes to stdout.  The file
     is kept open until a new file is set using this command or this
     command is used without an argument.

'/showdef'
     Print all definitions

'/cleardef'
     Delete all definitions

'/sendfd FILE MODE'
     Open FILE in MODE (which needs to be a valid 'fopen' mode string)
     and send the file descriptor to the server.  This is usually
     followed by a command like 'INPUT FD' to set the input source for
     other commands.

'/recvfd'
     Not yet implemented.

'/open VAR FILE [MODE]'
     Open FILE and assign the file descriptor to VAR.  Warning: This
     command is experimental and might change in future versions.

'/close FD'
     Close the file descriptor FD.  Warning: This command is
     experimental and might change in future versions.

'/showopen'
     Show a list of open files.

'/serverpid'
     Send the Assuan command 'GETINFO pid' to the server and store the
     returned PID for internal purposes.

'/sleep'
     Sleep for a second.

'/hex'
'/nohex'
     Same as the command line option '--hex'.

'/decode'
'/nodecode'
     Same as the command line option '--decode'.

'/subst'
'/nosubst'
     Enable and disable variable substitution.  It defaults to disabled
     unless the command line option '--subst' has been used.  If /subst
     as been enabled once, leading whitespace is removed from input
     lines which makes scripts easier to read.

'/while CONDITION'
'/end'
     These commands provide a way for executing loops.  All lines
     between the 'while' and the corresponding 'end' are executed as
     long as the evaluation of CONDITION yields a non-zero value or is
     the string 'true' or 'yes'.  The evaluation is done by passing
     CONDITION to the 'strtol' function.  Example:

            /subst
            /let i 3
            /while $i
              /echo loop counter is $i
              /let i ${- $i 1}
            /end

'/if CONDITION'
'/end'
     These commands provide a way for conditional execution.  All lines
     between the 'if' and the corresponding 'end' are executed only if
     the evaluation of CONDITION yields a non-zero value or is the
     string 'true' or 'yes'.  The evaluation is done by passing
     CONDITION to the 'strtol' function.

'/run FILE'
     Run commands from FILE.

'/history --clear'
     Clear the command history.

'/bye'
     Terminate the connection and the program.

'/help'
     Print a list of available control commands.