5.2 Error Sources

The library libgpg-error defines an error source for every component of the GnuPG system. The error source part of an error value is not well defined. As such it is mainly useful to improve the diagnostic error message for the user.

If the error code part of an error value is 0, the whole error value will be 0. In this case the error source part is of course GPG_ERR_SOURCE_UNKNOWN.

The list of error sources that might occur in applications using GPGME is:

GPG_ERR_SOURCE_UNKNOWN

The error source is not known. The value of this error source is 0.

GPG_ERR_SOURCE_GPGME

The error source is GPGME itself. This is the default for errors that occur in the GPGME library.

GPG_ERR_SOURCE_GPG

The error source is GnuPG, which is the crypto engine used for the OpenPGP protocol.

GPG_ERR_SOURCE_GPGSM

The error source is GPGSM, which is the crypto engine used for the CMS protocol.

GPG_ERR_SOURCE_GCRYPT

The error source is libgcrypt, which is used by crypto engines to perform cryptographic operations.

GPG_ERR_SOURCE_GPGAGENT

The error source is gpg-agent, which is used by crypto engines to perform operations with the secret key.

GPG_ERR_SOURCE_PINENTRY

The error source is pinentry, which is used by gpg-agent to query the passphrase to unlock a secret key.

GPG_ERR_SOURCE_SCD

The error source is the SmartCard Daemon, which is used by gpg-agent to delegate operations with the secret key to a SmartCard.

GPG_ERR_SOURCE_KEYBOX

The error source is libkbx, a library used by the crypto engines to manage local keyrings.

GPG_ERR_SOURCE_USER_1

GPG_ERR_SOURCE_USER_2

GPG_ERR_SOURCE_USER_3

GPG_ERR_SOURCE_USER_4

These error sources are not used by any GnuPG component and can be used by other software. For example, applications using GPGME can use them to mark error values coming from callback handlers. Thus GPG_ERR_SOURCE_USER_1 is the default for errors created with gpgme_error and gpgme_error_from_errno, unless you define GPGME_ERR_SOURCE_DEFAULT before including gpgme.h.