B.5. Exporting your Public Key

Before you can use public key cryptography, other people must have a copy of your public key. To send your key to correspondents or to a keyserver, you must export the key.

To export your key, so you can display it on a webpage or paste it in email, type the following command:

gpg --armor --export <you@example.com> > mykey.asc

You will not see any output, because not only did you export your public key, you redirected the output to a file called, for example, mykey.asc. (Without the addition of > mykey.asc, the key would have been displayed as the standard output on the monitor screen.)

Now, the file mykey.asc can be inserted into email or exported to a keyserver. To see the key, type less mykey.asc to open the file in a pager (type [q] to quit the pager). It should look like the following:

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.1 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org
	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=BMEc
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

B.5.1. Exporting to a Keyserver

If you are only writing to a few correspondents, you can export your public key and send it to them personally. If you correspond with many people, however, distribution of your key can be time consuming. Instead, you can use a keyserver.

A keyserver is a repository on the Internet which can store and distribute your public key to anyone who requests it. Many keyservers are available, and most try to remain synchronized with each other; sending your key to one keyserver is like distributing it to them all. A correspondent can request your public key from a from a keyserver, import that key to their keyring, and they are ready for secure correspondence with you.

TipTip
 

Because most keyservers are synchronized, sending your public key to one keyserver is usually as good as sending it to them all. You can, however, locate different keyservers. One place to begin your search for keyservers and more information is Keyserver.Net available at http://www.keyserver.net.

You can send your public key from either the shell prompt or from a browser; of course, you must be online to send or receive keys from a keyserver.

Figure B-1. Copying Your Public Key

Note that if you are submitting your key to another Web-based keyserver, the above transaction will be essentially the same.

That is all you need to do. Regardless of whether you use the shell prompt or the Web, you will see a message that your key was successfully submitted — either at the shell prompt or at the keyserver's website. From now on, users who want to communicate securely with you can import your public key and add it to their keyring.