.gnupg directory contents re-appear after deletion ; Ubuntu 9.10

YetAnotherDave · 03-06-2010, 10:43 AM

I want to delete my .gnupg directory and everything in it. As soon as I delete the files in this directory, they come back. What could doing this and how do I make it stop?

This is a pretty clean and vanilla "fresh out of the box" 9.10 install.

dave@gobot:~/.gnupg$ ls
pubring.gpg secring.gpg trustdb.gpg
dave@gobot:~/.gnupg$ rm *
dave@gobot:~/.gnupg$ ls
dave@gobot:~/.gnupg$ ls
dave@gobot:~/.gnupg$ ls
pubring.gpg secring.gpg trustdb.gpg
dave@gobot:~/.gnupg$

Thanks to anyone who can shed light on what's going on here.

vitorsgoncalves · 03-06-2010, 11:47 AM

If you want to remove the entire directory, use "rm .gnupg -rf" .

YetAnotherDave · 03-06-2010, 02:07 PM

I know how to remove a directory. The problem is that the directory keeps re-appearing after I remove it. What I have been trying to figure out ( so far unsuccessfully ) is: What is recreating these files and how do I disable it?"

vitorsgoncalves · 03-07-2010, 04:08 AM

This is created by the gnupg package (http://www.gnupg.org/)

it is used by various packages like the update-manager, and if you really want to remove it, just uninstall gnupg with synaptic or running sudo apt-get uninstall gnupg in a shell.

YetAnotherDave · 03-07-2010, 06:59 PM

By trial and error I found out that turning off the "Seahorse Daemon" in the System/Preferences/StartupApplications menu makes this behavior go away.