It seems it needs the SRV record and fails wrong without it. Checking on the same system looking up that SRV record I get the expected NXDOMAIN error.
$ host -t srv _pgpkey-http._tcp.keyring.debian.org Host _pgpkey-http._tcp.keyring.debian.org not found: 3(NXDOMAIN) dirmngr log file: 2018-11-26 08:16:13 dirmngr[15805.0] certificate '/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt' already cached 2018-11-26 08:16:13 dirmngr[15805.0] permanently loaded certificates: 136 2018-11-26 08:16:13 dirmngr[15805.0] runtime cached certificates: 0 2018-11-26 08:16:13 dirmngr[15805.0] trusted certificates: 136 (135,0,0,1) 2018-11-26 08:16:13 dirmngr[15805.6] handler for fd 6 started 2018-11-26 08:16:13 dirmngr[15805.6] DBG: chan_6 -> # Home: /home/csmall/.gnupg 2018-11-26 08:16:13 dirmngr[15805.6] DBG: chan_6 -> # Config: /home/csmall/.gnupg/dirmngr.conf 2018-11-26 08:16:13 dirmngr[15805.6] DBG: chan_6 -> OK Dirmngr 2.2.11 at your service 2018-11-26 08:16:13 dirmngr[15805.6] connection from process 15804 (1000:1000) 2018-11-26 08:16:13 dirmngr[15805.6] DBG: chan_6 <- GETINFO version 2018-11-26 08:16:13 dirmngr[15805.6] DBG: chan_6 -> D 2.2.11 2018-11-26 08:16:13 dirmngr[15805.6] DBG: chan_6 -> OK 2018-11-26 08:16:13 dirmngr[15805.6] DBG: chan_6 <- KEYSERVER --clear hkp://keyring.debian.org 2018-11-26 08:16:13 dirmngr[15805.6] DBG: chan_6 -> OK 2018-11-26 08:16:13 dirmngr[15805.6] DBG: chan_6 <- KS_GET -- 0xDF50FEA5 2018-11-26 08:16:13 dirmngr[15805.6] DBG: dns: libdns initialized 2018-11-26 08:16:13 dirmngr[15805.6] DBG: dns: getsrv(_pgpkey-http._tcp.keyring.debian.org): No route to host 2018-11-26 08:16:13 dirmngr[15805.6] command 'KS_GET' failed: No route to host 2018-11-26 08:16:13 dirmngr[15805.6] DBG: chan_6 -> ERR 167804970 No route to host <Dirmngr> 2018-11-26 08:16:13 dirmngr[15805.6] DBG: chan_6 <- BYE 2018-11-26 08:16:13 dirmngr[15805.6] DBG: chan_6 -> OK closing connection 2018-11-26 08:16:13 dirmngr[15805.6] handler for fd 6 terminated -- Craig Small https://dropbear.xyz/ csmall at : enc.com.au Debian GNU/Linux https://www.debian.org/ csmall at : debian.org Mastodon: @smalls...@social.dropbear.xyz Twitter: @smallsees GPG fingerprint: 5D2F B320 B825 D939 04D2 0519 3938 F96B DF50 FEA5
