[Deutsche Version]

Often used commands with PGP and GnuPG

Links to the commands listed on this page

• Extract a public key from a keyring
• Import a key into the keyring
• Sign a public key

Extract a public key from a keyring

To extract a public key from the own keyring (which is in the file pubring.pgp or pubring.pkr) in ASCII-armoured version:

with PGP 2.x.x	pgp -kxa pafei qq
with PGP 5.x (Unix)	pgpk -xa pafei >qq.asc
with GnuPG (Unix)	gpg --export --armor pafei >qq.asc

The above command extracts the public key of pafei into the file qq.asc.

To extract an ASCII-armoured key from a special keyring (the file spezring.pgp):

with PGP 2.x.x	pgp -kxa pafei qq spezring.pgp
with PGP 5.x (Unix)	pgpk -xa pafei -K spezring.pgp >qq.asc
with GnuPG (Unix)	gpg --export --armor --keyring spezring.pgp pafei >qq.asc

The above command extracts the public key of pafei into the file qq.asc.

Import a key into the keyring

A public key can be taken from a keyserver, or perhaps you got the key by email.
You have stored the key which should be added to the keyring in the file newkey.asc.

To add a key into a special keyring, for example the keyring spezring.pgp, the commands are:

Sign a public key

To sign a public key, you must first add it to your keyring.

Hint: The meaning of a key certificate

If the key has only one UserID

The key you want to sign has the following key properties:

Type Bits/KeyID    Date       User ID
pub  1024/52D1CAB1 1997/02/24 Nathalie Weiler <weiler@tik.ee.ethz.ch>
            Key fingerprint = DA 74 5B 16 25 FF 02 2B  5A 82 07 86 A0 D5 ED 3C

To sign the key you execute:

PGP 2.x.x an d GnuPGP show the key properties before you confirm signing the key.

If the key has multiple UserIDs

A signature is always for one UserID. So you have to specify which UserID you want to sign. The key

Type Bits/KeyID    Date       User ID
pub  1024/52D1CAB1 1997/02/24 Nathalie Weiler <weiler@tik.ee.ethz.ch>
            Key fingerprint = DA 74 5B 16 25 FF 02 2B  5A 82 07 86 A0 D5 ED 3C
                              Nathalie Weiler <nathalie@nice.ch>
                              Nathalie Weiler <nathalie@vis.inf.ethz.ch>

has three UserIDs. To sign the UserID Nathalie Weiler <nathalie@nice.ch>, you execute the commands:

There is no difference in the commands with PGP 5.x and GnuPG to sign a key with one UserID or with multiple UserIDs. They both list all possible UserIDs and asks which one you want to sign.