Mailing List Archive: Getting started with GnuPG

I have recently (successfully?) installed gnupg-1.0.1. However, I have
ground to a halt when exploring the supplying of the required defaults
to be able to use the program.

The problem can almost certainly be resolved in two sentences.

In the GPG Manual, the creation of a key pair with the command `gpg
--gen-key' reportedly requests the information `Real name' which the
software then combines with the email address to construct the user id.

On the other hand, the documentation that came with the program (and
refers specifically to Version 1.0) includes `8 Ways to Specify a User
ID' (two of which include an email address).

My questions are:

a) what is the significance of the email address in the user id; and
b) how is the user id edited, if the email address `constructed by the
software" is unsatisfactory.

Felix Karpfen
--

Felix Karpfen
felkarp@pcug.org.au

Quoting Felix Karpfen <felkarp@pcug.org.au>, who wrote:
> I have recently (successfully?) installed gnupg-1.0.1. However, I have
> ground to a halt when exploring the supplying of the required defaults
> to be able to use the program.

Did you attempt to follow the step-by-step in the manual? It walks you
through this, at what point are you stuck?

> The problem can almost certainly be resolved in two sentences.
>
> In the GPG Manual, the creation of a key pair with the command `gpg
> --gen-key' reportedly requests the information `Real name' which the
> software then combines with the email address to construct the user id.

"reportedly"? Are you implying that you actually attempted to generate
a key pair, but that you weren't prompted for Real Name? What exactly is
the problem you encountered?

> On the other hand, the documentation that came with the program (and
> refers specifically to Version 1.0) includes `8 Ways to Specify a User
> ID' (two of which include an email address).

You aren't specifying a key, you're creating one. Once you've created
it you can use one of those 8 ways to refer to it.

> My questions are:
>
> a) what is the significance of the email address in the user id; and

It allows a key to be associated with an email address, which is assumed
to be associated with a person. Conversely, it allows an email address
to be associated with a key.

> b) how is the user id edited, if the email address `constructed by the
> software" is unsatisfactory.

Some software attempted to construct a user id for you? Don't you get
prompted for an email address when you generate a key pair?

Sam

--
Sam Roberts (sam@cogent.ca), Cogent Real-Time Systems (www.cogent.ca)