GnuPG
GnuPG is an open source OpenPGP implementation.
Concepts
- Armoured keys are base64-encoded and wrapped at 76 characters to make them easier to copy and paste.
- Dearmoured keys are in a binary format and are not wrapped.
Generating keys
The following will prompt for a full name and email address. The resulting key will be stored in the trust DB.
gpg --gen-key
Exporting keys
Public keys can be shared to verify signatures and allow encrypting files for only your consumption:
gpg --output public.key --armor --export some@email
Private keys should be exported only if the key was generated for the purpose of authentication on another system, or for backup:
gpg --output private.key --armor --export-secret-key some@email
Importing keys
Regardless of public/private, it's always just --import
:
gpg --import public.key
gpg --import --allow-secret-key-import private.key
Children
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