[SOLVED] How to copy an gpg-Key from another machine?

thomas2004ch · 03-18-2014, 06:11 AM

as titled.

Habitual · 03-18-2014, 08:23 AM

copy /path/to/.gnupg/ to it.

colucix · 03-18-2014, 08:33 AM

If you want to copy only a single GPG key, at first you have to export it from the source machine and then import into the destination. This is what --export and --import options are intended for. Here is a quick howto:

Code:

# In the source machine:
gpg --output <name_of_file_with_public_key>.gpg --armor --export <name_of_key_to_export>
gpg --output <name_of_file_with_secret_key>.gpg --armor --export-secret-key <name_of_key_to_export>
# In the destination machine:
gpg --import <name_of_file_with_public_key>.gpg
gpg --allow-secret-key-import --import <name_of_file_with_secret_key>.gpg

where the parts highlighted in grey are the custom parts. Moreover, you can easily find the name of the current GPG keys using

Code:

gpg --list-keys

Hope this helps.

thomas2004ch · 03-18-2014, 09:08 AM

Hi,

I find by the source machine folowing .gpg files:

Code:

# find / -name "*.gpg"
/root/.gnupg/secring.gpg
/root/.gnupg/trustdb.gpg
/root/.gnupg/pubring.gpg

And I find these files are created at the same time. Which one should export?

colucix · 03-18-2014, 09:36 AM

These are generic GPG keys as shown here: http://www.gnupg.org/documentation/m...iguration.html. Maybe you want to export them all and in this case the advice from Habitual is best suited and quick, but I am in doubt about the usefulness of such transfer since all the keys listed are there for gpg2 internal purposes and maybe they should be automatically created from the local installation of GPG and left alone.

thomas2004ch · 03-18-2014, 09:55 AM

Hi,

In fact the solution from Habitual works.

Habitual · 03-19-2014, 08:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thomas2004ch

Hi,

In fact the solution from Habitual works.

Great, but you should be familiar with gnupg export|import as colucix has hinted at

Quote:

Originally Posted by colucix

If you want to copy only a single GPG key, at first you have to export it from the source machine and then import into the destination.