Moving PGP Keys

Question

I am using gpg and generated, imported and signed keys.

How can I take all of the work that I have done and export all of my keys then import them into another machine?

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 12 '09 at 21:39

5

Easy:

  gpg --export my_key -o my_public_key.gpg
  gpg --export-secret-key my_key -o my_secret_key.gpg

Then:

  gpg --import my_public_key.gpg
  gpg --allow-secret-key-import --import my_secret_key.gpg

answered Oct 12 '09 at 21:39

Satanicpuppy

7,027

I am going to try this sometime this week! Thanks satanicpuppy! – Daniel Oct 19 '09 at 22:05
The options used: -o, --output use as output file – Daniel Oct 28 '09 at 23:28

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 12 '09 at 21:36

Traditional PGP let you just copy the keyring files around, or just merge them by invoking it on the keyring to import. I've not kept up with GPG, but I'd be surprised if it differed significantly.

Actually, if you were being properly paranoid, the private keyring should live on a thumbdrive or similar removable device, with perhaps a securely stored CD-R or similar for backup), so that part would be moot.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 26 '14 at 14:32

You can just copy pubring.gpg, secring.gpg and trust.db from the old machine to the new one.

secring.gpg contains all your private keys
pubring.gpg contains all your public keys (imported, signed keys)
trust.db contains yout user trust settings (if used)

HTH, Jan

Moving PGP Keys

3 Answers3