GPG in 10 minutes ================= Shakthi Kannan (author at shakthimaan dot com) v1.3, January 24, 2016 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License". ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Abstract -------- This documentation provides the basic usage of GPG: creating, importing, exporting, and submitting keys to keyservers. Use your distro package manager to install GNU Privacy Guard (GPG). It will be installed by default in most recent distributions. GPG Basic Usage --------------- Creating keys ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------------------------------- gpg --gen-key ------------------------------- It will ask lot of questions to create the key. You can use the default values. Remember your passphrase. Exporting keys ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ gpg --armour --export "Tom Cruise " > \ pubkey.asc ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Your public key is pubkey.asc. You can check the current keys present using: -------------------------------------------------------------- gpg --list-keys -------------------------------------------------------------- A sample output: ---------------------------------------------------------------- ~/.gnupg/pubring.gpg ------------------------------ pub 1024D/1644B902 2007-01-02 uid Tom Cruise sub 2048g/4A7258D9 2007-01-02 ---------------------------------------------------------------- The keyID is 1644B902. Submitting keys to keyserver ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To submit keys to a keyserver, say, pgp.mit.edu, do: ---------------------------------------------------------------- gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --send-key 1644B902 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Searching for keys ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can search for keys using: ---------------------------------------------------------------- gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --search-keys "Tom Cruise" ---------------------------------------------------------------- Importing keys ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To import keys to your pubring, you can do: ---------------------------------------------------------------- gpg --import whoispubkey.asc ---------------------------------------------------------------- Signing documents ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To sign a document to send it to say, katie.holmes@e-mail.com, use the --encrypt option. You must have Katie Holmes' public key in your pubring. ---------------------------------------------------------------- gpg --output doc.gpg --encrypt --recipient \ katie.holmes@e-mail.com document ---------------------------------------------------------------- As Katie Holmes, if you want to decrypt the above message, you can do: ---------------------------------------------------------------- gpg --output document --decrypt doc.gpg ---------------------------------------------------------------- It will ask for your passphrase. Clearsign ~~~~~~~~~ You can also clearsign the document to be sent, via e-mail, for example, use: ---------------------------------------------------------------- gpg --clearsign document ---------------------------------------------------------------- The document contents will be embedded between the PGP signed message, as shown below: -------------------------------------------------------------- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 [----document-content-----] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v0.9.7 (GNU/Linux) Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org iaYEA3ECAbYFA2dY3Qo4Cgk2J916UL31dqz4IwC5Q7wP6j/i8lhbcwSK4rLyQB1 oCoAoOwqpaqEfr4eOksqHeLE/r8/Ra2k =y3k2 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -------------------------------------------------------------- Bibliography ------------ - [[[Brenno]]]. Brenno J.S.A.A.F. de Winter. August 10, 2004. Gnu Privacy Guard (GnuPG) Mini Howto (English). http://www.dewinter.com/gnupg_howto/english/GPGMiniHowto.html. - [[[David]]]. David R. Aspinall. Instant GPG HOWTO. http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/da/id/gpg-howto.shtml. ifdef::backend-docbook[] Index ----- //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// The index is normally left completely empty, it's contents being generated automatically by the DocBook toolchain. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// endif::backend-docbook[]