diff --git a/RelSign b/RelSign
index 66fd3fd05c..132413d7d2 100755
--- a/RelSign
+++ b/RelSign
@@ -3,10 +3,18 @@
 # Use agent
 GPG_TTY=$(tty) &&
 export GPG_TTY &&
-eval $(gpg-agent --daemon) &&
-GPG_AGENT_PID=$(expr "$GPG_AGENT_INFO" : ".*:\([1-9][0-9]*\):[1-9][0-9]*$") &&
-trap 'kill -0 2>/dev/null $GPG_AGENT_PID && kill $GPG_AGENT_PID' 0 1 2 3 15 &&
-kill -0 "$GPG_AGENT_PID" &&
+
+if AGENT=$(gpg-agent --daemon 2>/dev/null)
+then
+	eval "$AGENT" &&
+	GPG_AGENT_PID=$(expr "$GPG_AGENT_INFO" : ".*:\([1-9][0-9]*\):[1-9][0-9]*$") &&
+	trap 'kill -0 2>/dev/null $GPG_AGENT_PID && kill $GPG_AGENT_PID' 0 1 2 3 15 &&
+	kill -0 "$GPG_AGENT_PID"
+else
+	# agent is always on
+	gpgconf --kill gpg-agent
+	GPG_AGENT_PID=
+fi &&
 gpg="gpg --use-agent --local-user 96AFE6CB!" || exit
 
 formats='htmldocs manpages'
@@ -106,4 +114,9 @@ do
 	report "$version"
 done
 
-kill $GPG_AGENT_PID
+if test -n "$GPG_AGENT_PID"
+then
+	kill "$GPG_AGENT_PID"
+else
+	gpgconf --kill gpg-agent
+fi