gpg: fatal: can't create directory `~/.gnupg': A file or directory in the path name does not exist

[David Shaw]

On Fri, Sep 19, 2008 at 10:01:09AM -0700, Shamim Shamimuddin wrote:
> 
> Gpg Gurus,
> 
> We are currently experiencing some problems when importing a public key.
> 
> 
> We are running gpg import as root on an AIX-5.3 Technology Level 8 Unix
> server. Any inputs would really be appreciated.
> 
> Are there any environment variables that gpg import need for it to work?
> 
> Here is the error we get during the import process.
> 
> # gpg --import /var/temp/keysname
> gpg: using character set `iso-8859-1'
> gpg: WARNING: using insecure memory!
> gpg: please see http://www.gnupg.org/faq.html for more information
> gpg: fatal: can't create directory `~/.gnupg': A file or directory in
> the path name does not exist.
> secmem usage: 0/0 bytes in 0/0 blocks of pool 0/32768
> 
> After executing the command we get a return code of 2.

This sounds like a very confused setup on your AIX box.  Does the user
you are running GPG as have a home directory?

David