Johannes Schauer writes ("Beware of leftover gpg-agent processes (was: Re: Changes for GnuPG in debian)"):
> Quoting Daniel Kahn Gillmor (2016-08-04 18:29:03) > > One of the main differences is that all access to your secret key > > will be handled through gpg-agent, which should be automatically > > launched as needed. > > it might be important to note that gpg launching this gpg-agent > process is not optional and that it will automatically be launched > and continue running in the background for many gpg operations. This is rather alarming. As a longtime gpg1 user I hadn't appreciated this. Could we not have gpg2 not only automatically launch the agent, but also automatically terminate it. This would provide the same UI and same persistence properties as gpg1. I don't think a general change to a timeout-based persistence model is a good idea in itself; and of course there are the practical problems Johannes mentions. Ian.