My Public Key
Dealing with gpg public and private keys has been a bit of a pain for me in the past. It’s not a complicated matter really, using them, it’s just that when the time comes for me to renew or create a key pair, I never remember any of the gpg commands! I just went through the process and decided to write a quick post about it.Assuming you’ve created your key pair, you can enumerate your key (and any others in your keyring).
chris-lewis-computer:~ chrislewis$ gpg --list-keys /Users/chrislewis/.gnupg/pubring.gpg ------------------------------------ pub 1024D/875E0AD6 2008-02-25 [expires: 2008-08-23] uid Chris Lewis (burningodzilla)[ removed ]
Now that you know about your keys, you have the names. Above you see my public key’s name: 875E0AD6. I can now dump it in a printable (ascii-armored) format:
chris-lewis-computer:~ chrislewis$ gpg --export -a 875E0AD6 -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (Darwin) mQGiBEfDIhIRBAC25JPhhfz6y86Jj5l6nwb5WQ6+4PDanuuF6fGPzSRLGlcnNF5m 4UUawqF1Ofvlo4RGFkNRfRo/xdiqh95oS75rFD8hZAAyoj4CJ+NTtaTunrW+X9K2 olhV2Mf4L4b1PTJWUAcErCZg9SM/BleSCQQjmnJpPZ7JWjSlPOZhwXP0nwCg5Vwt NHu+rD7mOGFDFNI81RHFhU8EAIveXe1MhSnB2pxF+r0IzHJIXC0a+buUpJB28Tef T5hRHYT5KS2Gcy7aGWeHqHnVQzDnIP1/sJ+vWrcjAHXFSBbgnXRqh/wBb+B8+IX9 qi30I1LIYdf8XMBpyMAl7XFf1Ee2N18dZgS7lI4Jz88Hzyn+aIIbZ6E1wyfCTcN2 uqnZA/9VDJ86n92Paa2AeyRQNsMK6xApZbndD+FjEOXb/WLPylgVQo22/46cpnW2 mqcPkOX5yHvFYJRH5K759NYG+ZAeLx5P7lXx8RZEHOjTvUpBL+OcVlfouFV8ozs7 DOLsBimTN/g/THiz6OWP0n6yahVpXTgbCIfDJRomQuss1MD4bbQzQ2hyaXMgTGV3 aXMgKGJ1cm5pbmdvZHppbGxhKSA8Y2hyaXNAdGhlZ29kY29kZS5uZXQ+iGYEExEC ACYFAkfDIhICGwMFCQDtTgAGCwkIBwMCBBUCCAMEFgIDAQIeAQIXgAAKCRAAZ67s h14K1itvAKDHO/Knhk2dKw/xhGUuVyM8A1su4ACeKxpWpx/Suf2aUNo+FT4cxeMv Dlu5Ag0ER8MiEhAIAPN7rqN+UZdvQDj1zmbYttWaQIHdHVdFzDWJZjC7KhxZuD/9 fmQGIItxECDnf4sObNxHckCIOP6WOENBq7iyUhZlImLOlPcxXUjPG1wz5q28iUAo wFXy9ftGVPYJWT84LOS0Ut9lhfG8irmYCR9I1Q0Z2G0mZ9Ftv398u/FbET43bpVh NJKcNN0kvsoEcQyTAvNmzfY8m79985W8AkuIAQMhoxYsMYv+ILI+vy49uJbWHpKN SIf39w/nAOhJIxbRLPR2ss58aHtLb4vA5wfMOiWSOvmiPbe3rEQFjk9/ORKbqc1I DGK4cx3EmOCDQ9WYpEbiv6/9ShdoY+gBSkD5h9MAAwUH/3qRxCGJ+NlVCFrkFNHu 0TV36B1UCLdPYiK4JLtaLBe+NNDf9YlPqYAZRuV9XH4LytwYqKtizS9AGDfidmhz rl5InYWjMqZkyG6FQI0E8y/RiqIo/DvButM21TsL5ciXTm/NOUecp7oNOL5pLwyJ 3JVOZQ74yqEXbV9hE0jc72CNQ2AeL0FnIHOPoD3onMF5zisdTFg71mOaXa4b+Urn Bt43dxU27psK+Cw+5OQxPIXBHl/aOrEght5qhu43oDB2BRu8N9M0a9hJ9ZWt7qD2 jjSj5e3039iOBP4xUNIuW30E1GcOG93q2B9QMenYbPKTZtDjOsmwZl3zGw8IENHX Ep6ITwQYEQIADwUCR8MiEgIbDAUJAO1OAAAKCRAAZ67sh14K1mnCAKCU6oWEEtKS GZDGU/JVmcYvT0K7zACgswx0Ng2uWc7dRPaVH52BM485GYA= =/cLY -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
And that’s it. FYI, that is my real public key.