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Recipe 7.16 Printing Public Keys

7.16.1 Problem

You want to display your default public key in ASCII to share with other users.

7.16.2 Solution

Display in ASCII on standard output:

$ gpg -a --export keyname [keyname...]

7.16.3 Discussion

Try finding this combination in gpg's massive manpage. Whew!

Now you can distribute your public key to others [Recipe 7.9], and they can check its fingerprint and add it to their keyrings. [Recipe 7.10] An ASCII public key looks like:

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org

mQGiBDqTFZ8RBACuT1xDXPK0RUFBgcGKx7gk85v4r3tt98qWq+kCyWA1XuRqROyq
aj4OufqiabWm2QYjYrLSBx+BrAE5t84Fi4AR23M1dNOy2gUm2R6IvjwneL4erppk
...more...
2WEACgkQ5U0ZSgD1tx9A3XYbBLbpbNBV0w25TnqiUy/vOWZcxJEAoMz4ertAFAAO
=j962
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

To write the results to a file, add the option ?output pubkeyfile. You can also create binary output by omitting the -a option.

7.16.4 See Also

gpg(1).



    		Preface
    		Chapter 1. System Snapshots with Tripwire
    		Chapter 2. Firewalls with iptables and ipchains
    		Chapter 3. Network Access Control
    		Chapter 4. Authentication Techniques and Infrastructures
    		Chapter 5. Authorization Controls
    		Chapter 6. Protecting Outgoing Network Connections
    		Chapter 7. Protecting Files
    		Recipe 7.1 Using File Permissions
    		Recipe 7.2 Securing a Shared Directory
    		Recipe 7.3 Prohibiting Directory Listings
    		Recipe 7.4 Encrypting Files with a Password
    		Recipe 7.5 Decrypting Files
    		Recipe 7.6 Setting Up GnuPG for Public-Key Encryption
    		Recipe 7.7 Listing Your Keyring
    		Recipe 7.8 Setting a Default Key
    		Recipe 7.9 Sharing Public Keys
    		Recipe 7.10 Adding Keys to Your Keyring
    		Recipe 7.11 Encrypting Files for Others
    		Recipe 7.12 Signing a Text File
    		Recipe 7.13 Signing and Encrypting Files
    		Recipe 7.14 Creating a Detached Signature File
    		Recipe 7.15 Checking a Signature
    		Recipe 7.16 Printing Public Keys
    		Recipe 7.17 Backing Up a Private Key
    		Recipe 7.18 Encrypting Directories
    		Recipe 7.19 Adding Your Key to a Keyserver
    		Recipe 7.20 Uploading New Signatures to a Keyserver
    		Recipe 7.21 Obtaining Keys from a Keyserver
    		Recipe 7.22 Revoking a Key
    		Recipe 7.23 Maintaining Encrypted Files with Emacs
    		Recipe 7.24 Maintaining Encrypted Files with vim
    		Recipe 7.25 Encrypting Backups
    		Recipe 7.26 Using PGP Keys with GnuPG
    		Chapter 8. Protecting Email
    		Chapter 9. Testing and Monitoring
    		Colophon