PGP key management

List

List the keys in your secret (private) key ring:

gpg --list-secret-keys

List the keys in your public key ring:

gpg --list-keys

Create a new key:

gpg --gen-key

Delete a secret key from your key ring:

gpg --delete-secret-key "USER_NAME"

Delete a public key from your key ring:

gpg --delete-key "USER_NAME"

Import a secret key:

gpg --allow-secret-key-import --import private.key

Import a public key:

gpg --import public.key

Export a secret (private) key:

gpg --export-secret-key -a "USER_NAME" > private.key

Export a public key:

gpg --export -a "USER_NAME" > public.key

Send (upload) a key to public keyserver:

gpg --keyserver keys.openpgp.org --send-key "EMAIL"

Receive a public key:

gpg --keyserver keys.openpgp.org --recv-key "KEY_ID"

GnuPG prompts frequently for password by default. Here’s how to relax this a little bit.

Add ~/.gnupg/gpg-agent.conf:

default-cache-ttl 10000000

Restart gpgconf:

gpgconf --kill all

Restart gpg-connect-agent:

gpg-connect-agent reloadagent /bye

Restart gpg-agent daemon:

pkill -9 gpg-agent
source <(gpg-agent --daemon)